248 HYPATIA. 



ESTHER. 



But, at any rate, she could work, and that was considered, 

 in those days, a most necessary branch of female education. 



MRS. F. 



The Anglo-Saxon women were famous for their needle- 

 work, and the English work was celebrated abroad for its 

 excellence. The Anglo-Saxon lady would portray in em- 

 broidery the achievements of her husband, and, surrounded 

 by her maids, would astonish even a modern female in the 

 various kinds which she could' execute. A lady of rank 

 would often work a whole set of hangings, &c.; and, indeed, 

 by an old custom, women were prohibited from marrying 

 until they had spun a regular set of bed-furniture; and, till 

 their marriage, they were termed spinsters, an appellation 

 which is preserved to this day, in the publication of the banns, 

 and in the courts of law. 



ESTHER. 



I was Beading the other day an account of the barbarous 

 murder o" the celebrated Hypatia, the most learned lady of 

 her age. 



FREDERICK. 



Who w r as she? 



ESTHER. 



She was the daughter of a mathematician of Alexandria, 

 and filled the office of professor of the Platonic philosophy in 

 that city, Her eloquence was most persuasive, and she 

 counted among her disciples many of the most learned men 

 of the age; but, though the friend of the Bishop of Ptolemais, 

 no persuasions could induce her to become a Christian. 

 Attired in the mantle of a philosopher, modest and humble in 

 her deportment, she soon became an object of jealousy to the 

 envious and the base, and being unjustly looked upon as a 

 bar to a reconciliation between St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alex- 

 andria, and the governor of the city, who protected her from 



