Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/347

Rh belief, and advantageous contemplation, of which this higher amuſement would recommend.

In the year 1736, the importunity of ſome of Mrs. Rowe’s acquaintance who had ſeen the Hiſtory of Joſeph in MS. prevailed on her to print it. The publication of this piece did not long precede the time of her death, to prepare for which had been the great buſineſs of her life; and it ſtole upon her according to her eaneſt wiſhes, in her beloved receſs. She was favoured with a very uncommon ſtrength of conſtitution, and had paſs’d a long ſeries of years with ſcarce any indiſpoſition, ſevere enough to confine her to bed.But about half a year before her deceaſe, ſhe was attacked with a diſtemper, which ſeemed to herſelf as well as others, attended with danger. Tho’ this diſorder found her mind not quite ſo ſerene and prepared to meet death as uſual; yet when by devout contemplation, ſhe had fortified herſelf againſt that fear and diffidence, from which the moſt exalted piety does not always ſecure us in ſuch an awful hour, ſhe experienced ſuch divine ſatisfaction and tranſport, that ſhe ſaid with tears of joy, ſhe knew not that ſhe ever felt the like in all her life, and ſhe repeated on this occaſion Pope’s beautiful ſoliloquy of the dying Chriſtian to his ſoul.


 * Quit, oh quit this mortal frame;
 * Trembling, hoping, lingr’ing, flying;
 * Oh the pain, the bliſs of dying!
 * Ceaſe, fond nature, ceaſe thy ſtrife,

And let me languiſh into life. II.