he aimed at
acquiring she knew how to detect; and from all nature. Propriety,
another word for nature, was (as I have hinted) her law, as it is the
foundation of all true judgment. But, nevertheless, she was always
uneasy, if what she said exposed those pretenders to knowledge, even in
their absence, to the ridicule of lively spirits.

Let the modern ladies, who have not any one of her excellent qualities;
whose whole time, in the short days they generally make, and in the
inverted night and day, where they make them longer, is wholly spent in
dress, visits, cards, plays, operas, and musical entertainments, wonder
at what I have written, and shall further write; and let them look upon
it as an incredible thing, that when, at a mature age, they cannot boast
one of her perfections, there should have been a lady so young, who had
so many.

These must be such as know not how she employed her time; and cannot form
the least idea of what may be done in those hours in which they lie
enveloped with the shades of death, as she used to call sleep.

But before I come to mention the distribution she usually made of her
time, let me say a few words upon another subject, in which she excelled
all the young ladies I ever knew.

This was her skill in almost all sorts of fine needleworks; of which,
however, I shall say the less, since possibly you will find it mentioned
in some of the letters.

That piece which she bequeaths to her cousin Morden is indeed a capital
piece; a performance so admirable, that that gentleman's father, who
resided chiefly abroad, (was, as is mentioned in her will,) very desirous
to obtain it, in order to carry it to Italy with him, to show the curious
of other countries, (as he used to say,) for the honour of his own, that
the cloistered confinement was not necessary to make English women excel
in any of those fine arts upon which nuns and recluses value themselves.

Her quickness at these sort of works was astonishing; and a great
encouragement to herself to prosecute them.

Mr. Morden's father would have been continually making her presents,
would she have permitted him to do so; and he used to call them, and so
did her grandfather, tributes due to a merit so sovereign, and not
presents.

As to her diversions, the accomplishments and acquirements she was
mistress of will show what they must have been. She was far from being
fond of cards, the fashionable foible of modern ladies; nor, as will be