Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/229

 ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ENGLAND 153 lated from Latin into English, Boethius's " De Consolatione Philosophy. " In 1598, when the disturbances in Ireland occupied a considerable share of her atten- tion, she translated Sallust's " De bello Jugurthino," also the greater part of Horace's " De Arte Poetica," and Plutarch's book, " De Curiositate," all of which were written in her own hand. But Elizabeth no longer took an interest in public concerns ; her sun was set- ting, overshadowed by a dark cloud. Prosperity and glory palled upon her sense ; an incurable melancholy had fixed itself on her heart. The anxiety of her mind made swift ravages upon her feeble frame ; the period of her life visibly ap- proached. The Archbishop of Canterbury advised her to fix her thoughts on God. She did so, she replied, nor did her mind in the least wander from Him. Her voice and her senses soon after failing, she fell into a lethargic slumber, which having continued some hours, she expired gently, without a struggle, March 24, 1603, in the seventieth year of her age and the forty-fifth of her reign. The character of Elizabeth appears to have been exalted by her friends and depreciated by her enemies, in nearly equal proportions. As a monarch, her ac- tivity and force of mind, her magnanimity, sagacity, prudence, vigilance, and ad- dress, have scarcely been surpassed in royal annals, and are worthy of the highest admiration. Pope Sixtus V. spoke of her on all occasions as " a woman with a strong head," and gave her a place among the three persons who only, in his opinion, deserved to reign ; the remaining two were himself and Henry IV. of France. " Your queen," said he once to an Englishman, " is born fortunate ; she governs her kingdom with great happiness ; she wants only to be married to me to give the world a second Alexander." Her temper and her talents equally fitted her for government. Capable of self-command, and of controlling her own passions, she acquired an unlimited ascendency over those of her people. She possessed courage without temerity ; spirit, resource, and activity in war, with the love of peace and tranquillity. Her frugality was exempt from avarice, it was the result rather of her love of inde- pendence than a passion for accumulation. She never amassed any treasures. Her friendships were uniform and steady, yet she was never governed by her favorites a criterion of a strong mind. Her choice in her ministers gave proof of her sagacity, as her constancy in supporting them did of her firmness. If a conduct less rigorous, less imperious, and more indulgent would have thrown greater lustre over her character, let it be remembered that some good qualities appear to be incompatible with others; nor let the seductive and corrupting nature of power be left out in the account. Her insincerity was perhaps the greatest blot in her character and the fruitful source of all the vexatious incidents of her reign. Though unacquainted with philosophical toleration, the only method of disarming the turbulence of religious factions, she yet preserved her people, by her prudence and good sense, from those theological disputes which desolated the neighboring nations. Beset with enemies, both at home and abroad, among the most powerful princes in Europe, the most enterprising and the least scrupulous, the vigor of