530 
came fuddenly enlightened. The intro- 
duction ct printing, by multiplying books 
and facilitating the means of knowledge, 
produced a new epoch in the hittory of the 
world ; the graces of the mind began to 
be eftcemed as well as thofe of the body ; 
and the females of modern Europe, by cul- 
tivaung the former, produced anew, a 
more rational, and a more conttant fource 
of attraction. 
“But this tafte was not long confined to 
Italy; it foon croffed the Alpg ; and the 
Court of France, alieady conidered as one 
of the moft polite in the univerfe, became 
famous for ladies whofe pens, if we are to 
give credit to the tales of their lovers, aét- 
ed like fo many fpears, and, by inflicting 
wounds far more deadly than thofe pro- 
duced by their eyes, at once captivated 
the hearts and the underitandings of their 
admirers. 
England did not fail to follow the ex- 
ample fet by a neighbouring nation, which - 
fhe has always affected to condemn and to 
imitate; yet it mutt be allowed with pride, 
that the fiudies of our female ancettors, 
although tiné&tured with controverfial the- 
ology, were of a graver, as wellasa decp- 
er caft. ey 
Nickolas Udal, mafter of Eton fchool, 
who was patroniled by-a queen-author, * 
and appears to have enjoyed the favour of 
Henry VIII., mentions the * great num- 
ber of noble women-at that time in 
England: given to the ftudie of human 
fciences and of ftrange tongues ;*’ and he 
adds, ‘*it was a common thing to fee 
young virgins fo nouzzled and: trained in 
the ftudie of letters, chat they willingly fet 
other vain paflymes at naught for learn- 
s fake. It was now no news at all 
s he,) to fee queens anc ladies of molt 
gh eftate and progenie, inttede of court- 
Jy daliaunce, to embrace virtuous exer- 
ciles, readyng and wiityng, and with mott 
eernefie fudic, bo'h erlye and late, to ap- 
ply themieives to the acquiring of know- 
edge, as well in all other liberal arts and 
difciplines, as alfo mot {pecially of God 
and his moft holy word.” 
Not conten: with reading, fome of the 
mok ditinguifhed perfonages of that age 
attem ted to write alfo ; and entering of 
courte into the fpirit of the times, addiét- 
ed themfeives chiefly to polemical divinity. 
Ove ot the many cenforts of the firit 
6* Detencer of the Faith,’ and who gere- 
roufly iotere ded for and faved the Uni- 
verfity of Cambridge from bis barbarous 
{poliatiors, prouuced a work~ entitled 
* Cathaige Parr. 
Account of Mrs, Elizab.th Carter. 
(July. 
«« Queen Catherine Parr’s Lamentation of 
a blind Sinner, bewailing’ the Ignorance of 
her blind Lite, being a Meditation on 
the many Years fhe had paffed in the Fatls 
and Piigrimages of Popery.”” 
Queen Mary began a tranflation of 
¢¢ Erafmus’s Parapbrafe on. St. John,”” 
whith the permitted her chaplain to finith ; 
and we have the unfufpected teftimovy of 
a great man® to her knowledge of Latin, t 
in which tongue fhe appears to have writ- 
ten feveral letters. El'zabeth, under the 
tutorage of Roger Aicham, made great 
progrefs in feveral languages, and is faid, 
among other things, to have tranflated 
two of the orations of Ifocrates and a play 
of Euripides. But the lovely and unfor- 
tunate Lady Jane Grey appears to have 
been the moft accomplithed female of that 
age ; and the Latin epiftle written the 
night before her death in a Greek Tefta- 
ment in which fhe had been reading, fully 
confirms her preienfions to, as well zs her 
tafte for, erudition. . f 
To the catalogue of learned Englith 
women is now to be added the name of 
the fubjeét of, this memoir ; and if fhe be 
not fo slluftrious fr her birth as any of 
the diftinguifhed females ‘alluded toabave, 
it will be found that in refpect to. other 
pretenfions fhe fuared perhsps far above 
them. 
_ Elizabeth Carter was the eldeft daugh- 
ter of the Rrv. Nicholas Carter, D.D., by 
Margaret, fole daughter and heirefs of 
Richard Swayne, of Bere, in che county 
of Derfet, Efq., She was born at Deal, 
in Kent, on the 17th of December, 1717; 
enjoyed the fingular geod fortune of being 
refpected on account of her talents during 
the greater part of a century ; and alia of . 
keeping up, or rather increafing, her repu- 
tation from adolefcence until the verge of 
ninety. - Her father, who appears to have 
been in eafy circumitances,f is faid to 
- have 
* Erafmus. 
+ “Scripfit bené Latinas epiftolas,—Lib. 
19, ep. 31- 
+ In aadition to fome fortune with his wife, 
we have been told that he obtained the vicarage 
of Tilmanitone, in Eaft Kent, in 17303 the 
reCtory of Ham in 3734; and th:t of Wood- 
church in 1755. We allo underftand that, 
in 1733, he became curate of the chapel of 
Deal, where he refided until his death, OF. 
23, 1774.. He was author »f ** Seventegn Ser- 
mons on divers Subjedis,”” printed for E. Cave 
London, 1733 3 and is f2id to have entered 
into a theological controverfy with the Rev. 
Ficrbert Ranuolph, regtor of Upper Deal. 
