Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/360

346 the same inclinations, and the same ardour, eminently appeared in both. Far from drawing him from his studies, she was sedulous to animate him, when he grew languid in them. In her all the accomplishments of the head and the heart were united. She had a fine taste in literature, particularly in poetry, and was a shining example of every virtue; so that she must have been a delightful companion to this eminent philosopher and statesman. Indeed, each are said to have thought their destinies equally enviable.

She had the happiness of seeing her two sons, Patritius and Hypatius, raised to the consular dignity, which their father had also several times enjoyed, but died before any of the latter's misfortunes had befallen him. After the death of this beloved wife, Boetius married again, and is said to have been equally fortunate in his second choice. . early in life discovered a great propensity to study. Her understanding appears to have been of that slow but steady progressive species, which often outstrips genius itself in the race of literature. Her mother dying when she was only eight years old, she was committed to the care of Dr. Charles Elstob, canon of Canterbury. She afterwards lived with her brother, who encouraged and assisted her in her Saxon studies; but, after his death, was obliged, for support, to keep a small day school at Evesham, with great