Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1820-01-28


grasp. If th,s panegyric seem inordinate,
should recollect that its subject is
. parsonage oE whom the world has gazed
for more than seven hundred years. There
is indeed no individual in female history
who can be fairly pronounced her equal.
The most distinguished Englishwoman is
perhaps Mrs. Hutchinson. Beautiful and
Intelligent, she enriched her mind with sci
enti6c requirements, and by habits of pa
tent reflection, strengthened judgmentna ma
turally accurate and prompt Married to an
eminent public character she sympathized
in his political principles, often brought to
his aid her own vigorous intellect, and by
judicious counsels sustained him in embar-
rassment and danger. But though the ad-
vantage of living in later age than that OF
Heloisa, afforded 10 her additional know
ledge !; though the prosecutions intervening
between the / lth and nth centuries formed
dreadful chronicle of crime and blood /;
Mrs. HutchiDson's religious opinions were
stained with all the intolerance OF monkish
barbarity. Bigoted TO the superstitions OF
Knox, she believed that no salvation lay
without the pale OF her own narrow and
gloomy creed ; learning her politics in the
same catechism, she regarded Charles |.
and Stafford as bypocritical tyrants, aud
found patriotism among the parliamentary
Clodii. Sounder in political judgment than
Heloisa, because colder in fancy, she had
no spark of her enthusiasm for the sublime
and beautiful of nature and of mind. To
the quainness and complication of Mrs.
Hutchinson's style no great objection should
be made, because these were the vices Of
her age, but the ieudal pedantrics oil the 10th
century, never injected the style OF Heloisa,
which is classicaily pure, and even in Mr..
Berington's meagre translation tervid and
e:nquent. If therefore Mrs. Hutchinson
should be pardoned for fault common to her
contemporaries, Heloisa must be praised tor
excellence rare among hers
Another subject of comparison is afforded
by France. But however philosophical and
brilliant was Madame de Stael-though her
Intellectual enterprise were various in cha
racter and uniform in successive willingly
forget their often oracular darkness and SYM
pathetic contrasts in the simplicity, The ease
which pegvade the writings OF HeIoisa. The
influence of The domestic politcks and alfec-
tatons OF a vicious society from which the
Baroness was not exempt, found no place in
The retired education of Hclcisa, who with
all her science retained the undisguising IN
nocence OF childhood. 1t may, indeed, be
doubted whether moral or mental eminence
forms the more prominent features Of her
portrait. Dlsdaining concealment or palia-
ton, she reciteS her errors wlth exaggerating
minuteness, and in heractons as we'll az VIII
tingS, If the contemporary authorities he
trusted, seemed igaoIant of the manifold ora
Ces they disclosed. Too gentle to inhict
pam even on an enemy" she bore her ia
cuitleS 50 meek that none ever heard from
her lips the eloquence OF repruach Though
perceptions keen and lively as hers must
certainly have contained tie elements Of sa-
tire, She never directed 20 il a mind which,
as Maturin says of bis Jerome, was too
great tor rldicule." Her love for Aheillard
proceeded tom the sympathy az their minds
ana the similarity OF their studies and she
liked Gil him her admiration Of intellectual
glory. FENDER and constant, she survived
the loss ii hm forty four years, yet never
varied IN her !ore, and once only in despite
Dt his cold ngra;itude, and then in the mild
Isl terms, dc she rebuke him. Curiosity
must regret that no particular description Of
Ileloisa's person remains. Ii has been in
erred that she was not singularly beautiful
rom the following re n A5eiIIapd's WORKS:
Cum per tacie.n non eSset inhtna, per a
: buuGantiam Eterarum erat suprema y
But as all the accounts contradict THIS remark,
i must be received as the opinion ct man,
who tfected 10 think personal beauty below
ais regard,
The extracts which have been made. will
not probably prepare he reader for very ele-
CANT writing in bIr, Berington's book. 1t al
ernales pompou> sedaleness and hyish vi
Sacity. accordingly as he affects 81, at phi
osophy or great sensibiity, His style is,