Consolations of Philosophy;" "Sallust's Jugorthian War;" and a part of "Horace's Art of Poetry." In the "Royal and Noble Authors of Lord Orford," may be found a catalogue of translations from the French, prayers, meditations, speeches in Parliament, and letters, which testify sufficiently to the learning and general capacity of Elizabeth. She was also skilled in the art of poetry. Being pressed by a Catholic priest, during the life of her sister Mary, while she was undergoing great persecution, to delare her opinion concerning the real presence of Christ in the wafer, she answered in the following impromptu:—
"Christ was the Word that spake it;
He took the bread and brake it:
And what that Word did make it,
That I believe, and take it."
When she was a prisoner at Woodstock, she composed the following verses, and wrote them with charcoal on a shutter:—
"Oh, Fortune! how thy restlesse wavering state
Hath fraught with cares my troubled with
Witness this present prisonn, whither fate
Could beare me, and the joys I quit.
Thou causedest the guiltie to be losed
From bandcs, wherein are innocents inclosed:
Causing the guiltles to be straite reserved,
And freeing those that death had well deserved
But by her envie can be nothing wroughte.
So God send to my foes all they have thoughte."
But more to be praised than her poetry, is the encouragement she gave to the design of printing in English the large folio edition of the Holy Scriptures, known as "The Bishop's Bible." This was the best translation of the sacred book which had then appeared. It was printed in 1568, and the version, made by order of King James the First, differs little from the Bible used by Elizabeth.
That she did not conform her own spirit to the Gospel requirements, but allowed pride, vanity, a violent temper, and selfishness, frequently to obscure her many great qualities, is to be regretted; but, compared with the kings her successors, she rises so high above their standard of character, that we almost forget to record her faults. To quote the remarks of a learned historian,—"The page of history has seldom to record a reign more honourable to the intellect and capacity of the person presiding over it, than that of Elizabeth of England."
ELLET, ELIZABETH, F.
Daughter of Dr. William A. Lummis, a man honourably distinguished in his profession, was born at Sodus, a small town on the shores of Lake Ontario, in the state of New York. Her mother was the daughter of General Maxwell, an officer in the American Revolutionary war; and thus the subject of this memoir war in childhood imbued with patriotic feelings, which, next to the religious, are sure to nourish in the female mind the seeds of genius. Miss Lummis was early distinguished for vivacity of intellect and a thirst for learning, which her subsequent life has shewn was no evanescent fancy, but the natural stamp of her earnest mind. She was married, before she was seventeen, to Dr. William H. Ellet, an
