power, there is seldom any that become considerable, but discontents upon conceit of misgovernment: and in this case, the justness of discontent is not so dangerous, as the generality of it; and in that respect, designs grounded upon right reason, and with certainty of publick advantage, if effected, are yet well laid aside, when liable to a general misconstruction, in the way either of danger or oppression. "What shall we think of those, who in this our island, so troubled the waters at home (to fish out a greatness for themselves) as to sever the head from its body; and, by unsinewing the government, to batter down all the pillars that support it; and so bring an absolute anarchy and confusion upon the whole nation? Surely the depth of this offence is not to be fathomed! Yet thus much is ordinarily said in their defence; that they were so far from designing anarchy that they intended reformation, and the setting up of a much more accomplished government. It is easy to be believed, that confusion was not their ultimate end, and there needeth no other proof of it than the actings of their leviathan Cromwell, who made his own personal greatness the foundation of something in the way of new government. And the intent of reformation, or of a new model, can be no justification of any particular rebellion; since the same ends are pretended to by all persons, that at any time raise a power in opposition to the present governors, as those very persons found by experience during their short rule."] ANNE, VISCOUNTESS CONWAY. [THIS learned and philosophical lady was the daugh ter of sir Heneage Finch, knight, recorder of London, and wife to Edward, viscount Conway. She died at Ragland in Warwickshire, Feb. 23, 1678; and was, by the famous Van Helmont, preserved in her coffin in spirits of wine, with a glass over her face; that her lord, who was in Ireland when she died, might see her before her interment. 2 3 She has been pointed out as the author of a singular book, full of obscurities and paradoxes, printed at Amsterdam in 1690, 12mo. with this title: "Opuscula philosophica, quibus continentur Principia Philosophiæ, antiquissimæ et recentissimæ, de Deo, Christo, et Creaturâ: id est, de Spiritu et Materiâ in Genere, &c. Opusculum posthumum, e Linguâ Anglicanâ Latinitate donatum, cum Annotationibus ex antiquâ Hebræorum Philosophiâ desumtis." Leibnitz, in a Germanic literary journal, ascribed this production to the countess of Connaway, on the information of Mr. Helmont; and her ladyship is In Gent. Mag. for 1784. part ii. p. 972. thus plausively adumbrated in the editor's address to the reader. 66 Opusculum hoc in tui gratiam edimus, quod conscriptum fuit ante annos haud ita multos à comitissa quadam Anglicana, femina ultra sexum erudita, Latina, Græcæque literaturæ peritissima, inque omni philosophandi genere quam maxime versata. Illa cum primum Cartesii imbuta esset principiis, visisque istorum defectibus, postea ex lectione quorundam genuinæ antiquitatis philosophiæ scriptorum tam multa observavit, ut pauca hæc capitula in suum conscriberet usum, sed plumbagine saltem et charactere minutissimo. Quæ cum post mortem ejus invenirentur, ex parte descripta, (quia quæ restant vix legi potuerant hactenus) et Latinitate donata sunt, ut aliqua hinc toti orbi literato pronasceretur utilitas, eademque jam publici juris fiunt, ut quilibet autorem mirari, veram philosophiam agnoscere erroresque heu ! nimium jam communes facilius evitare queat." The close of the concluding section, which is directed against the materialists Descartes, Hobbes, and Spinosa, may perhaps be admissable: "Per hæc omnia facile responderi potest ad omnia argumenta, quibus aliqui probari volunt, corpus omnino incapax esse sensus vel perceptionis: modusque facile ostendi potest, quomodo corpus aliquod gradatim pervenire queat ad istam perfectionem, ut non solum capax sit talis perceptionis et cognitionis, qualem bruta habent, sed qualiscunque perfectionis, qua in ullum hominem vel angelum cadere potest, atque sic non refugiendo ad coactam aliquam metaphoram intelligere poterimus verba Christi, quod è lapidibus Deus excitare possit Abrahæ liberos. Et si quis negare velit istam Dei omnipotentiam, quod etiam ab externis lapidibus excitare possit filios Abrahæ, id sane præsumtio foret maxima."] MARY, COUNTESS OF WARWICK. "3 [THIS lady was the thirteenth child, says Granger 2, of the great earl of Cork, founder of the illustrious house of Boyle. She was married to Charles, earl of Warwick, whom she survived about five years; and was so eminent for her bounty to the poor, that the earl her husband was said "to have given all his estate to pious uses.' Such was the fame of her charity and hospitality, that it advanced the rent of houses in her neighbourhood, where she was the common arbitress of controversies, which she decided with great sagacity and judgment, and prevented many tedious and expensive law-suits. She died the 12th of April 1678, at the age of fifty-three. 4 Dr. Anthony Walker preached a sermon at her 2 Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 166. • Meaning thereby, says Dr. Walker, that he had given it to this noble lady, who would so convert it. Sermon, p.99. Entitled "ETPHKA ETPHKA, The virtuous Woman found, her Loss bewailed, and Character exemplified; in a Sermon preached at Felsted in Essex, Apr. 30, 1678, at the Funeral of that most excellent, and eminently religious and charitable Lady the right honourable Mary, Countess Dowager of Warwick, the most illustrious Pattern of sincere Piety and solid Goodness this Age hath produced; with so large Additions as may be stiled the Life of that noble Lady: by A. Walker, D. D. Rector of Fyfield in the said County." Lond. 1678. 8vo. Her ladyship's character was also epitomized by the same preacher, in a funeral discourse on her husband, 1675. |