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SOCRAT.

15.

to be true. This ISIDORUS fucceeded MARINUS in the school, and his Life has been written by DAMASCIUS, one of THEO N's Schollars, who therfore had all imaginable opportu nities to know whatever regarded HY PATIA In cod.242. and ISIDOR US. His Life was abridg'd by PHOTIUS, but we have it not fo perfect as he left it: for befides the extreme confufion and incorrectness which appears thro the whole, the In Not. ad. learned VALESIUS gave the world. expectations, that he wou'd one time or other publish it lib. 7. cap twice larger than that we read now in PHoTIUS. However, in fuch as it still is, DAMASCIUS beftows fuch Elogies on ISIDORUS, as put him almoft above humanity: yet, no way concerning HY PATIA, I pafs them over in filence. I frankly confefs, that I more than suspect many of the things he reports; as knowing that DAMASCIUS was a great vifionary, and, like PHILOSTRATUS with refpect to APOLLO NIUS Tyaneus, defign'd to oppofe ISIDORUS to thofe Chriftian Saints, who were celebrated for their miraculous and fupernatural attainments. But this ought not to affect his credit in matters of an ordinary nature, and therfore I do not in the least hesitate to believe him, when he positively affirms that HY PATIA was wife to Is I

Apud

PHOT. ubi fupra.

DORUS.

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XIV. SUI

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XIV.

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PHOT.ubi

UIDAS likewife makes her the wife In Tr of the fame ISIDORUS, tho he be Ta. the very man who tells us fhe dy'da Virgin. That matter, confidering the great uncertainty in which we are left by the meditated deftruction or cafual decay of authentic writers, I conceive to stand thus. DAMASCIUS fays that ISIDORUS had another Apud wife, whofe name was DoMNA, by which he fupra. had a Son call'd PROCLUS. She dy'd the fifth day after her delivery, and, according to his Panegyrift, fhe rid the Philofopher of an evil beast and a bitter wedlock. Now fuppofing this to happen fome time before the tragical end of HYPATIA, and that the latter was betroth'd to ISIDORUS, it might very well be faid that fhe was his wife, and yet that the dy'd a maid. The In Antho Author of an Epigram, that was made upon her, log. lib. 1. feems to have been of the fame opinion.

The VIRGIN's farry Sign whene'er Ifee,
Adoring, on thy words I think and thee:
For all thy virtuous works celeftial are,
As are thy learned words beyond compare,
Divine HY PATIA, who doft farr and near
Virtue's and Learning's fpotlefs ftarr appear.

The allufion, I fay, to the Conftellation VIRGO,
and the epithet of Spotless, wou'd induce me to
bélieve that the writer reckon'd her a Virgin as
well as SUIDAS: but I fhall conclude nothing

from

pag. 108. Edit. STEPH.

Άχραντον

ας μονο

PHOT.ubi

fupra.

from fo flender a conjecture, befides that her character is no way concern'd in this particular, tho as a historian I wou'd oimt nothing that might illuftrate my fubject. For this reafon it is, that Apud I cannot pass over uncenfur'd a reflection of D AMASCIUS, who gravely fays, that ISIDORUS was farr fuperior to HYPATIA; not onely as a man to a woman, but as a Philofopher to a Geometrician. Good and egregious reafoning! as if her skill in Geometry or Aftronomy, had been any hindrance to her improvement in every part of Philofophy, wherin fhe's by fo many confeft to furpass thofe of her own, if not of former time: or as if we in England, for example, did reckon King JAMES fuperior to Queen ELIZABETH; because the firft, forfooth, was a man, and the laft a woman. But I obferv'd before that DAMASCIUS was a fad vifionary.

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XV.

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Lady of fuch uncommon merit and accomplishments as HYPATIA, daily. furrounded with a circle of young Gentlemen, many of 'em diftinguish'd by their fortune or quality; befides her frequently appearing in public affemblies, and receiving vifits from perfons of the firft rank, cou'd not poffibly fail being fomtimes importun'd with addreffes of gallantry. Such attemts the feverest virtue cannot avoid, tho it can deny incouragement, and make fuccefs to be despair'd. How many trials of this kind HAPATIA may have overcome, we are left to imagine rather than

to

1

to know, thro the filence of Hiftorians; who either thought it below their gravity to record fuch things, or that the works of those who defcended to particulars are loft. One inftance however has escap'd the common wrack of good books: nor can I doubt but several others might be contain'd in the Life of ISIDORUS, out of which there is reason to believe, that SUIDAS pick'd what I am going to relate. He acquaints us ther In Tzafore, that one of her own Schollars made warm 714. love to her, whom the endeavor'd to cure of his paffion by the precepts of Philofophy: and that fome reported the actually reclaim'd him by Mu fic, which he judiciously explodes; Mufic hav ing ever been deem'd rather an incentive to Love, than an antidote against it. But he says with much greater probability, that the fpark vehemently folliciting her (not to be fure without pleading the irrefiftible power of her beauty) at a time when the happen'd to be under an indifpofition ordinary to her fex: fhe took a handkerchef, of which the had been making fome ufe on that occafion, and throwing it in his face, faid; This is what you love, young fool, and not any thing that's beautiful. For the PLATONIC Philofophers held goodness, wifdom, virtue, and fuch other things, as by reafon of their intrinfic worth are defireable for their own fakes, to be the onely real Beauties of whofe divine fymmetry, charms, and perfection, the most fuperlative that appear in Bodies are but faint resemblances. This is the right notion of PLATONIC LOVE. Wherfore HYPATIA's procedure might very well put a student of Philofophy at Alexandria to the blush, and quite cure him too (which SUIDAS affures Ubi fupra, us was the effect) but wou'd never rebute a Beau in St. JAMES's park, nor perhaps fome Batchelors of Divinity at our modern Universities.

XVI. AT

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XVI.

T the time that HYPATIA thus reign'd the brighteft ornament of Alexandria, ORESTES was Governor of the fame place for the Emperor THEODOSIUS, and CYRIL Bi fhop or Patriarch. AS ORESTES was a perfon educated futeable to his rank, he cou'd not but take notice of thofe perfections in HYPATIA, which all the world admir'd befides; and, as he was a wife Governor, he wou'd not be fo farr wanting to his charge, as not to ask her advice in matters difficult or dangerous, when every bo dy else confulted her as an oracle. This created of course an intimacy between them that was highly difpleafing to CYRIL, who mortally hated ORESTES. But because this emulation prov'd fatal to HYPATIA, I fhall take the fubject a little higher. Tis obferv'd by SOCRATES, NICEPHORUS, and others, that CYRIL (who was elevated to the fee by fedition and force NICEPH. against one TIMOTHY an Archdeacon of no extraordinary reputation)intermedl'd more in temporal or civil matters, than his predeceffors took upon them to do, and that the example was SOCRAT. greedily follow'd by his fucceffors; who not keepHift. lib.7. ing within the bounds of their priestly ordination, cap. 13. took upon them an arbitrary kind of principality,

SOCRAT

Hift. 1. 7.

cap. 7

Hift. lib.

14.cap. 14.

and the abfolute difpofal of affairs. The first act of authority that CYRIL exercis'd was to fhut up the Churches of the Novatians, from which ftep he proceded to feize upon their facred veffels and

Church

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