testify against me, and let my own words condemn me. ELIZABETH ROWE.

She had an inexpressible love and veneration for the Holy Scriptures, and was assiduous in reading them, particularly the New Testament, the Psalms, and those parts of the prophetical writings which relate to our blessed Saviour. For some time before her death, she scarce read anything beside these sacred books, and practical treatises on religious subjects. She was also used to assist her improvement in holiness and the Christian life, by frequent meditations on the blessedness of a future state, the perfections of God, particularly his infinite goodness and mercy in the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ, and on other important articles of religion, which appeared best suited to promote devout and holy dispositions. Besides these, her usual exercises of piety, she observed some stated seasons of abstinence and extraordinary devotion.

The fervor of her zeal in the cause of godliness was beyond the rate of common examples. As she could not command her tears of transport, when she was witness to any eminent instance of piety, so the state of religion rent her very soul; and as she saw with inexpressible

grief the fatal advances of infidelity in her nation, she spoke with the highest esteem and gratitude of those excellent persons who defended Christianity by their learned writings, and truly venerated them as public benefactors to mankind.

TO MRS. ELIZABETH SINGER, ON THE SIGHT OF HER DIVINE POEMS, NEVER PRINTED.

I.

July 19, 1706.

On the fair banks of gentle Thames
I tuned my harp; nor did celestial themes
Refuse to dance upon my strings.

There beneath the evening sky

I sung my cares asleep, and raised my wishes high
To everlasting things.

Sudden from Albion's western coast
Harmonious notes come gliding by:

The neighb'ring shepherds knew the silver sound; ""Tis Philomela's voice," the neighb'ring shepherds

cry.

At once my strings all silent lie,

At once my fainting muse was lost,
In the superior sweetness drown'd.
In vain I bid my tuneful powers unite;
My soul retired and left my tongue;
I was all ear, and Philomela's song
Was all Divine delight.

II.

Now be my harp forever dumb;

My muse, attempt no more. "Twas long ago

I bid adieu to mortal things

To Grecian tales, and wars of Rome;

'Twas long ago I broke all but the immortal strings. Now those immortal strings have no employ, Since a fair angel dwells below,

To tune the notes of heaven and propagate the joy. Let all my powers, with awe profound,

While Philomela sings,

Attend the rapture of the sound,

And my devotion rise on her seraphic wings.

ISAAC WATTS.

Lady Halket.

LADY HALKET, ANNA MURRAY, was born in London, the 4th of January, 1622. Mr. Robert Murray, her father, was a gentleman so well accomplished, that King James VI. made choice of him to be preceptor to his second son, afterwards King Charles I. King Charles made him provost of Eton College-a place which he enjoyed only a short time, being soon removed by death.

Mr. and Mrs. Murray had, by marriage, two sons and two daughters, on whom every pains was taken, to render them qualified for the highest places of trust in the nation, and the society of the most accomplished persons. The chief care of their mother was to instruct them in the principles and practice of religion, teaching them to begin and end every day with prayer, and reading a portion of Scripture in order, and duly to attend the church, backing all her instructions with her own pious example.

Anna, the subject of this memoir, early discovered a ready disposition to receive instruction, and extraordinary sagacity and seriousness of temper. When she became old enough to walk

alone, and play with other children, she did not follow the ill example she saw among some of them, but did then show an abhorrence of evil; for which afterwards she blessed God.

If, at any time, she was crossed by the woman that attended her, and began to cry, if the Bible was given her to read, she became instantly quiet. This she calls an early presage of the comfort and repose which her soul found in her after-troubles by meditating on the blessed word.

If her mother went abroad, where she was desirous to go with her, she never cried when not allowed to go, but quietly contented herself, by considering that, if she had been permitted, she might have said or done something or other, for which she might be chid at her return; thinking with herself, that, if she wanted the pleasure she desired, she was free also of the trouble she feared. She so used herself to this way of pondering things, that what she most earnestly desired, became indifferent to her; and she observed, that she more readily obtained her desire in anything about which she was thus indifferent, than in what she was most eager upon. She was most exact in her obedience to her mother, so that she could not remember that she had made one visit to the nearest neighbour, or gone anywhere abroad, without her allowance.