principal reason that brought her to, and kept her fixed in her resolution, of attempting, and persevering in this mortifying diet.  The conquest of herself, and subjecting her own heart more intirely to the command of her reason and principles, was the object she had in especial view in this change of her manner of living; as being firmly persuaded, that the perpetual free use of animal food, and rich wines, tends so to excite and inflame the passions, as scarce to leave any hope or chance, for that conquest of them which she thought not only religion requires, but the care of our own happiness, renders necessary.  And the effect of the trial, in her own case, was answerable to her wishes; and what she says of herself in her own humorous epitaph,

  That time and much thought had all passion extinguish’d,

was well known to be true, by those who were most nearly acquainted with her.  Those admirable lines on Temperance, in her Bath poem, she penned from a very feeling experience of what she found by her own regard to it, and can never be read too often, as the sense is equal to the goodness of the poetry.

  Fatal effects of luxury and ease! 
  We drink our poison, and we eat disease,
  Indulge our senses at our reason’s cost,
  Till sense is pain, and reason hurt, or lost. 
  Not so, O temperance bland! when rul’d by thee,
  The brute’s obedient, and the man is free. 
  Soft are his slumbers, balmy is his rest,
  His veins not boiling from the midnight feast. 
  Touch’d by Aurora’s rosy hand, he wakes
  Peaceful and calm, and with the world partakes
  The joyful dawnings of returning day,
  For which their grateful thanks the whole creation pay,
  All but the human brute.  ’Tis he alone,
  Whose works of darkness fly the rising sun. 
  ’Tis to thy rules, O temperance, that we owe
  All pleasures, which from health and strength can flow,
  Vigour of body, purity of mind,
  Unclouded reason, sentiments refin’d,
  Unmixt, untainted joys, without remorse,
  Th’ intemperate sinner’s never-failing curse.

She was observed, from her childhood, to have a fondness for poetry, often entertaining her companions, in a winter’s evening, with riddles in verse, and was extremely fond, at that time of life, of Herbert’s poems.  And this disposition grew up with her, and made her apply, in her riper years, to the study of the best of our English poets; and before she attempted any thing considerable, sent many small copies of verses, on particular characters and occasions, to her peculiar friends.  Her poem on the Bath had the full approbation of the publick; and what sets it above censure, had the commendation of Mr. Pope, and many others of the first rank, for good sense and politeness.  And indeed there are many lines in it admirably penn’d, and that the finest genius need not to be ashamed of.  It hath ran through several editions; and, when first published, procured her the personal acknowledgments of several of the brightest quality, and of many others, greatly distinguished as the best judges of poetical performances.