Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/644

630 "I converse with pleasure on the subject of war; for I possess great personal courage, and have also much ambition.

"I feel so much indifference for some things in the world, so much contempt for others, and so good an opinion of myself, that I would rather chuse to pass the remainder of my life in solitude, than lay the least constraint upon my humour, even were it of the highest advantage to my fortune.'

"I love best to be alone.

"I have no great complaisance, though I expect a great deal. I love to irritate and provoke, though I sometimes can oblige.

"I did love dancing; I hate cards, love games of exercise, can work all kinds of needlework, and am very fond of riding on horseback.

"I am no comedian; yet I am so much mistress of my looks and actions, as not to discover any thing I do not chuse those about me should perceive.

"I am naturally suspicious and distrustful. I love order, even in the least article.

"I love pomp and magnificence, and give generously to men of merit, and those whom I love; but as I am entirely guided by my fancy, I do not know whether that is to be called liberality; however, when I do any thing of that kind, I love to do it in the handsomest manner I am able.

"I have no inclination for gallantry; for, I confess, I do not possess any great tenderness of soul: I am more sensible to friendship than love."

From these extracts we may suppose her greatest faults, pride and impatience, were partly owing to her situation in early life and to succeeding disappointment, there is much perhaps to blame, but nothing to