reformed her court, but her whole principality, to such a degree, that the golden age seemed to have returned under her; or rather, Christianity appeared again with the purity and lustre of its first beginnings. Nor is there one single abatement to be made her. Only her principality was narrow. Her dominion was so little extended, that though she had the rank and dignity of a queen, yet it looked rather like the shadow than the reality of sovereignty; or rather it was sovereignty in miniature; though the colours were bright, it was of the smallest form." But still may not Mr. Waller's lines, with a little alteration, be applied to this great and good queen in her small domains?

Circles are praised, not that abound
In largeness, but the' exactly round:
Such praise they merit, who excel,
Not in wide spheres, but acting well.

Mary, Countess of Warwick.

THIS lady was the daughter of Richard Boyle, the first Earl of Cork, who was born a private gentleman, and the younger brother of a younger brother, and to no other heritage than what is expressed in the words, God's Providence is my Inheritance, which motto he inscribed on the magnificent buildings he erected, and indeed ordered to be placed on his tomb. By that Providence succeeding his unremitting and wise industry, he raised himself to such honour and estate, and left behind him such a dignified family, as has very rarely if ever before been known; and all this with such an unspotted reputation for integrity, as that the most envious scrutiny could discover no blemish in it, and that only shone the brighter by the malignant attempts made to obscure and debase it.

The mother of our lady was Catharine, only daughter of Sir Geoffrey Fenton, principal secretary of state in Ireland. She was married to Mr. Boyle, July 25th, 1603, and obtained this most honourable testimony from her husband: "I never," says he, "demanded any marriage portion, neither promise of any, it not being in

my consideration; yet her father, after her marriage, gave me one thousand pounds in gold with her. But that gift of his daughter unto me, I must ever thankfully acknowledge, as the crown of all my blessings; for she was a most religious, virtuous, loving, and obedient wife unto me all the days of her life, and the happy mother of all my hopeful children, whom with their posterity I beseech God to bless."

By that excellent lady, the Earl of Cork had fifteen children. The Hon. Robert Boyle, famous as a philosopher, more famous as a Christian, was one of them. Mary, the seventh daughter, and who was married to Charles Rich, Earl of Warwick, is the subject of our memoirs. In opening her character to the public view, we shall begin with that which had the first place in her regard-piety towards God.

As to her entrance upon religion, or making it her business in good earnest, though she had received a good education, and had been instructed in the grounds of religion in her youth, yet she would confess that she understood nothing of the life and power of godliness upon her heart, and indeed had no spiritual sense of it till some years after she was married. Nay, she declared that she came into the family in which she lived and died with so much honour,

with prejudices and strange apprehensions as to matters of religion, and was almost affrighted with the disadvantageous accounts she had received concerning it: but when she came to see the regular performance of Divine worship, and hear the useful, edifying preaching of the most necessary, practical, and substantial truths, and observe the order and good government maintained in it, and met with the favour of her right honourable father-in-law, who had always an extraordinary esteem and affection for her, her groundless prepossessions dispersed like mists before the sun, and were succeeded by the most cordial approbation.

The providence of God made use of two more remote means of her conversion,-afflictions and retirement. Divine wisdom and grace may be very adorable in adapting suitable means to accomplish the good purposes of God towards men; and afflictions and retirement, in this lady's circumstances, appeared to be admirably chosen out by Providence for her. Her great impediment and difficulty lay in her love of the pleasures and vanities of the world, which she neither knew how to reconcile with the strictness of religion, nor yet could be content to part with for that whose nobler delights she at that time had never experienced. The Lord therefore gradually VOL. I.-6

drew off her mind from the pleasures and vanities of the world, by rendering insipid, through her afflictions, what had too much attached her regards; and by granting her a happy retirement, to acquaint herself more thoroughly with the things of God: by which she was enabled to set her seal to that testimony which God gives to spiritual wisdom, that "her ways are ways of pleasantness, and that all her paths are peace," (Prov. iii, 17;) which indeed she would frequently and freely do to her friends, by assuring them that she had no cause to repent the exchange of the shadowy and unsubstantial pleasures of this world, for the solid and satisfactory joys she found in religion, thereby inciting and encouraging them to make the experiment, not doubting but that upon the trial they would be of the same sentiments with herself. Two more immediate helps which God blessed to the good of her soul, were, the preaching of the word, and Christian conference. The pressing the necessity of speedy and true repentance, and showing the danger of procrastination, of putting off and stifling conviction, seemed to turn the wavering, trembling balance, and to fix the scale of her resolution.

This happy change took place about thirty years before her death; and from this time (for,