well, that he entered Bennet College, Cambridge, in 1756, and passed through the University with reputation. He had afterwards the living of Little Wittenham, in Berkshire.
In order to devote herself more exclusively to this occupation, she, for some years previous to the completion of his education, resisted all temptations to leave Deal, and refused all invitations to spend a portion of the winter with her friends in town, as had been her general practice. Part of this retirement was devoted to the translation of "Epictetus," her greatest work, by which her reputation was much increased, and her fame spread among the literati of the day. This work was commenced in the summer of 1749, at the desire of Miss Talbot, enforced by the Bishop of Oxford, to whom the sheets were transmitted for emendations as soon as finished. It was not originally intended for publication, and was therefore not completed till 1756, when it was published with notes and an introduction by herself, by subscription, in 1758. Mrs. Carter, besides fame and reputation, obtained for this performance more than one thousand pounds. A poem, by her friend Mrs. Chapone, was prefixed to it.
After the publication of "Epictetus," Mrs. Carter became, for one of her prudent habits, quite easy in her circumstances, and usually passed her winters in London. In 1767, Lady Pulteney settled an annuity of a hundred pounds on Mrs. Carter; and some years afterwards our authoress visited Paris for a few days.
In 1762, she purchased a house in her native town. Her father had always rented one there; but he removed to hers, and they resided together till his death in 1774. They had each a separate library and apartments, and met seldom but at meals, though living together with much comfort and affection. Her brothers and sisters were married, and gone from their father's house; Elizabeth, the studious daughter, only remained to watch over and supply all the wants of her aged parent. She attended assiduously to every household duty, and never complained of the trouble or confinement.
About nine years before her death, she experienced an alarming illness, of which she never recovered the effects in bodily strength; but the faculties of her mind remained unimpaired. In the summer of 1805, her weakness evidently increased. From that time until February, 1806, her strength gradually ebbed away; and on the morning of the 19th. she expired without a groan.
The portrait of Mrs. Carter, which her nephew and biographer, the Rev. Mr. Pennington, has drawn, is very captivating. The wisdom of age, without its coldness; the cool head, with the affectionate heart; a sobriety which chastened conversation without destroying it; a cheerfulness which enlivened piety without wounding it; a steady effort to maintain a conscience void of offence, and to let religion suffer nothing in her exhibition of it to the world. Nor is her religion to be searched for only in the humility with which she received, and the thankfulness with which she avowed, the doctrines of the Bible, but in the sincerity with which she followed out those principles to their practical consequences, and lived as she believed. Very wide, indeed, from the line which they have taken, will the cold, formal, and speculative professors of the present day, find the conduct of Mrs. Carter. We hear her in one place charging upon her friend Mrs. Montague, the necessity to enlist her
