CHARACTER OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. Like meteors in the midnight sky, Let fools for riches strive and toil, O source of glory, life and love! I look with pity and disdain Thy beauties rising in my sight, With rapture fill my breast; But must be ever blest. 181 CHARACTER OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. THERE are few personages in history, who have been more exposed to the calumny of enemies, and the adulation of friends, than Queen Elizabeth; and yet there is scarcely any, whose reputation has been more certainly determined by the unanimous consent of posterity. The unusual length of her administration, and the strong features of her character, were able to overcome all prejudices; and, obliging her detractors to abate much of their invectives, and her admirers somewhat of their panegyrics, have, at last, in spite of political factions, and what is more, of religious animosities, produceda uniform judgment with regard to her 182 CHARACTER OF QUEEN ELIZABETH, conduct. Her vigour, her constancy, her magnanimity, her penetration, vigilance, and address, are allowed to merit the highest praises; and appear not to have been surpassed by any person who ever filled a throne. Conduct less rigorous, less imperious, more sincere, more indulgent to her people, would have been requisite to form a perfect character. By the force of her mind, she controlled all her more active and stronger qualities; and prevented them from running into excess. Her heroism was exempted from all temerity; her frugality from avarice; her friendship from partiality; her enterprise from turbulency and a vain ambition. She guarded not herself, with equal care, or equal success, from less infirmities,the rivalship of beauty, the desire of admiration, the jealousy of love, and the sallies of anger. Her singular talents for government, were founded equally on her temper, and on her capacity. Endowed with a great command over herself, she soon obtained an uncontrolled ascendant over the people. Few sovereigns of England succeeded to the throne in more difficult circumstances; and none ever conducted the government with so uniform success and felicity.-Though unacquainted with the practice of toleration, the true secret for managing religious factions, she preserved her people, by her superior prudence, from those confusions in which theological controversy had involved all the neighbouring nations; and though her enemies were the most powerful princes of Europe, the most active, the most enterprising, the least scrupulous, she was able, by her vigour, to make deep impressions on their state; her own greatness meanwhile remaining untouched and unimpaired. The wise ministers and brave men who flourished during her reign, share the praise of her success; but instead of lessening the applause due to her, they make great addition to it. They owed, all of them, their advancement to her choice; they were supported by her constancy; and, with all their abili ty, they were never able to acquire an undue ascendant over her. In her family, in her court, in her kingdom, she remained equally mistress. The force of the tender passions was great over her, but the force of CHRIST'S BIRTH ANNOUNCED. 183 her mind was still superior: and the combat which her victory visibly cost her, serves only to display the firmness of her resolution, and the loftiness of her ambitious sentiments. The fame of this princess, though it has surmounted the prejudices both of faction and of bigotry, yet lies still exposed to another prejudice, which is more durable, because more natural; and which, according to the different views in which we survey her, is capable either of exalting beyond measure, or diminishing, the lustre of her character. This prejudice is founded on the consideration of her sex. When we contemplate her as a woman, we are apt to be struck with the highest admiration of her qualities and extensive capacity; but we are also apt to require some more softness of disposition, some greater lenity of temper, some of those amiable weaknesses by which her sex is distinguished. But the true method of estimating her, merit is, to lay aside all these considerations; and to consider her merely as a rational being, placed in authority, and entrusted with the government of mankind. CHRIST'S BIRTH ANNOUnced. WHEN Jordan hush'd his waters still, When Bethel's shepherds thro' the night," Hark! from the midnight hills around, In distant hallelujahs stole, t Wild murm'ring o'er the raptur'd soul. Then swift to ev'ry startled eye, 184 APPEARANCES OF NATURE IN OCtober. On wheels of light, on wings of flame, «O Zion! lift thy raptur'd eye, See, mercy from her golden urn, Pours a rich stream to them that mourn He comes to cheer the trembling heart, O Zion! lift thy raptur'd eye, The Prince of Salem comes to reign." APPEARANCES OF NATURE IN OCTOBER. "Now dusky winter with her dusky train, And, led by nature, seek the southern sky," PLANTS having gone through the progressive stages of springing, flowering, and seeding, have at this season brought to maturity the rudiments of a future progeny, which are now to be committed to the fostering bosom of the earth. This being done, the parent vegetable, if of the herbaceous kind, either totally dies, or perishes as far as it rose above ground: if a tree or shrub, it loses all its tender parts which the spring and PARTICULAR TEMPTATIONS TO BE ATTENDED TO. 185 summer had put forth. Seeds are scattered by the hand of nature in various manners. The winds, which at this time arise, disperse far and wide many seeds which are curiously furnished with feathers or wings for this purpose. Other seeds, by the means of hooks, lay hold on passing animals, and are thus carried to distant places. Many are contained in berries, which, being eaten by birds, the seeds are discharged again uninjured, and grow where they happen to alight. Thus carefully has the Author of nature provided for the distribution and propagation of plants. The common martin, whose nests, hung under the eaves of our houses, afford so agreeable a spectacle of parental fondness and assiduity, usually disappears in October. As this, though one of the smallest of the swallow-kind, stays the latest, its emigration to distant climates is less probable than that of the others. In most of the wine countries of Europe, the vintage takes place in October. The grape is one of the latest fruits in ripening. When gathered, they are immediately pressed, and the juice is fermented like that of apples in making cider. This month is particularly chosen, on account of its mild temperature, for the brewing of malt liquor designed for long keeping, which is therefore commonly called Old October. The farmer continues to sow his winter-corn during this month; and wheat is frequently not all sown till the end of it. When the weather is too wet for this business, he ploughs up the stubble fields for winter-fallows. Acorns are sown for young plantations at this time; and forest and fruit trees are planted. At the very close of the month, a few flowers still cheer the eye; and there is a second blow of some kinds, particularly of the woodbine. But the scent of all these late flowers is comparatively faint. OUR PARTICULAR TEMPTATIONS TO BE ATTENDED TO. As men have their particular sins, which do most easily beset them, so they have their particular temptations which do most easily overcome them. That |