fied herself
against that fear and diffidence, from which the most exalted piety
does not always secure us in such an awful hour, she experienced such
divine satisfaction and transport, that she said with tears of joy,
she knew not that she ever felt the like in all her life, and she
repeated on this occasion Pope's beautiful soliloquy of the dying
Christian to his soul.

An ELEGY, &c.
The dying CHRISTIAN to his Soul.

I.

Vital spark of heav'nly flame!
Quit, oh quit this mortal frame;
Trembling, hoping, lingr'ing, flying;
Oh the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.
II.

Hark! they whisper; Angels say,
Sister spirit, come away!
What is this absorbs me quite,
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

III.

The world recedes; it disappears!
Heav'n opens on my eyes! my ears
With sounds seraphic ring;
Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O grave! where is thy victory?
O death! where is thy sting?

She repeated the above, with an air of intense pleasure. She felt all
the elevated sentiments of pious extasy and triumph, which breath in
that exquisite piece of sacred poetry. After this threatening illness
she recovered her usual good state of health; and though at the time
of her decease she was pretty far advanced in years, yet her exact
temperance, and the calmness of her mind, undisturbed with uneasy
cares, and turbulent passions, encouraged her friends to hope a much
longer enjoyment of so valuable a life, than it pleased heaven to
allow them. On the day when she was seized with that distemper, which
in a few hours proved mortal, she seemed to those about her to be
in perfect health and vigour. In the evening about eight o'clock
she converted with a friend, with her usual vivacity, mixed with an
extraordinary chearfulness, and then retired to her chamber. About 10
her servant hearing some noise in her mistress's room, ran instantly
into it, and found her fallen off the chair on the floor, speechless,
and in the agonies of death. She had the immediate assistance of a
physician and surgeon, but all the means used were without success,
and having given one groan she expired a few minutes before two
o'clock, on Sunday morning, February the 20th, 1736-7: Her disease was
judged to be an apoplexy. A pious book was