E’en there my dear Hypatia I’ll remember!
“I, who am surrounded with the Miseries of my Country, and who am thoroughly weary of it, since I daily see hostile Arms, and Men slaughter’d like Beasts; that I breathe Air infected with the Corruption of dead Bodies, and that I hourly expect the like Fate myself; for who can hope well, where the very Face of the Sky is most lamentable, being darkened by the Shadow of carnivorous Birds? Yet, notwithstanding all this, I retain an Affection for the Country; nay, how can I do otherwise, being a Lybian by Nation, and born in this Place, where I behold no ignoble Sepulchres of my Ancestors. For your Sake alone I fancy I can set light by my Country, and, as soon as Leisure offers, will banish myself out of it.” In Clidophorus I shew’d the like Resolutions out of some of his Letters to others: but whether he ever executed them, or how long he lived, or where or in what Manner he died, is not recorded by any Author that I remember.
CHAP. XI.
Hypatia is esteemed and caressed by the Publick; is consulted by the Magistrates in all important Cases, and sometimes sat among them.
All this, some will say, we readily grant, that Hypatia was a Lady of most eminent Learning, and that Synesius, with probably not a few of her other Disciples, esteemed her to be a Miracle of Virtue and Prudence; but what did the rest of the World think of her Conduct, what Marks of Approbation or Favour did she receive from the Publick? To this Inquiry, which is very natural in this Place, we answer; that never Woman was more caressed by the Publick, and yet that never Woman had a more unspotted Character. She was held an Oracle for her Wisdom, which made her be consulted by the Magistrates in all important Cases; and this frequently drew her among the greatest Concourse of Men, without the least Censure of her Manners. The Proof of so rare a Felicity we chuse to give in the Words of the Historian Socrates. “By reason of the Confidence and Authority (says he) which she had acquired by her Learning, she sometimes came to the Judges with singular Modesty; nor was she any thing abashed, to appear thus among a Croud of Men; for all Persons, on the Score of her extraordinary Discretion, did at the same Time both reverence and admire her.” The same Things are confirmed by Niceforus Callistus, Suidas, Hesychius Illustris, and indeed by whom not? So far was she from that blameable Timidity, which is contracted from a wrong Education; or from that conscious Backwardness, which is inspired by Guilt. That the Governors and Magistrates of Alexandria regularly visited her, that all the City (as Damascius and Suidas relate) paid Court to her, is a Distinction with which no Women was ever honoured before. And to say all in a Word, when Nicephorus Gregoras, above quoted, intended to pass the highest Compliment, on the Princess Eudocia, he thought he could not better hit, than by calling her another Hypatia.
CHAP. XII.
Synesius’s recommendatory Letter to Hypatia, in Behalf of two young Gentlemen, on a Suit depending at Alexandria.
It was during this prosperous Gale of publick Favour, that Hypatia’s devoted Friend Synesius sent her this recommendatory Letter on the Behalf of two young Gentlemen, that had a Claim depending at Alexandria. “Although Fortune cannot take every thing from me, yet she has a mind to strip me of all she can; she that
“Of many Sons, and good, has me bereft.
“But to be ambitious of doing the best Things, and to assist the unjustly Oppressed, is what she shall never take from me; for far be it from me, that she should ever be able to conquer my Mind. Therefore I hate Injustice, since this I may do still; and am also desirous to repress it, but that is one of the Things taken out of my Power, and which I lost before my Children.