LETTER FROM QUEEN ELIZABETH, TO THE QUEEN OF SCOTLAND. MADAME, UR O we the occa : sions therof, that we cannot fynd the old waye, which we were accustomed to walk in by wrytyng to you with our own hand and yet therein we meane not, you shuld conceave on our part any lack of our old frendshipp, in my case that with our honor and reason we may express; wherfor we have sent this beror, our very trusty servant and consellor, Sr Nicholas Throkmorton, Knight, to understand truly your state; and theruppon to impart to yow our meening at full lenght, than we cold to your owne faythfull servant Robert Melvyn, who although he did, as we beleve accordyng to the chardg gyven hym, use much ernost speche to move us to thynk well and allow of your doyngs, yet such is both the generall report of yow to the contrary, and the evidency of sondry your acts sence the deth of your late husband, as we cold not be by hym satisfyed to our desyre, wherfor we require you to gyve to this berar, firm creditt in all thyngs as you wold gyve to ourselves, and so we end. From our howse of Rychmont the last day of June 1567, the IX yere of our reign. ELIZABETH, R. TRANSLATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH's LETTER TO MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, COUSIN TH As given in the MAGAZINE of February. HIS gentleman, Mr. Nevil, our ambassador, has particularly confirmed the testimony which several others have already made to us, of the good and kind affection you shew on all occasions towards us, when you have the means of doing so; on our part, not being able to express our gratitude, we have endeavoured to testify our acknowledgment by these few lines, till such time as we shall be able to convince you of it by effects. We beg to assure you of our sincere friendship, and the defire we have to remain at all times, My Cousin, *The transcriber has kept as close as possible to a literal translation, which comes near to the manner of the Queen's writing in English. CHARACTER OF RICHARD CUMBERLAND, LORD BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH. REIGN OF KING WILLIAM III. TIS disposition was easy, cheerful, humble, undesigning: His can dour towards all men was without example: He took every thing by the best side. It is no hyperbole to say, that in humility of mind, in sweetness and benevolence of temper, and in innocence of life, he was not exceeded by mortal man: He was without gallor guile, so perfectly free from any tincture of artifice, ambition, or ill-will, as though he had in these respects come into the world free from the corruptions of human nature: His composition had no alloy of vain glory: He never did any thing to court applause or gain the praise of men: He never acted a false part, or put on the mask of disguise: His heart and tongue always went together: If he ran to any extreme, it was the excess of humility, the safest side for every Christian to err on: He liv ed with the plainness and simplicity of a primitive Bishop, looked and conversed like a private man, hardly maintaining what the world calls the dignity of his station: He was not one that loved to have the preeminence, and he contended with nobody for prerogative and precedence: He was hospitable without a grudge: No man's house was more open to his friends, and the ease and freedom with which they were entertained was peculiar to it: The poor always found a substantial relief at his door, and his neighbours and acquaintance a hearty welcome to his table, after the plentiful and plain manner in which he lived: Every thing in his house served for friendly entertainment, nothing for luxury or pomp: His natural genius was not quick, but strong and retentive: He was a perfect master of every subject he studied; every thing he read remained with him. The ideas in many mens minds are too much like the impressions made in soft wax; they are never distinct and clear, and are soon defaced: In his mind they were like impressions cut in steel; they took some time to form, but were distinct and durable. The subjects he had chiefly studied were these; Researches of Ancient Times; Mathematics in all its parts, and the Scriptures in the Original Language: These were the great works of his life. He was thoroughly acquainted in all the branches of Philosophy: He had good judgement in Physic, knew every thing that was curious in Anatomy, had an intimacy with the Classics: In short, he was no stranger to learning in general; for every subject he had occasion to discourse on he appeared as much master of as though the direction of his mind had chiefly lain that way: He was thoroughly conversant in Scripture, and had laid up the treasures of it in his mind: No hard passage whatever occurred occasionally, or in reading, but he would readily give the meaning of it, and the several interpretations thereof without consulting his books. Learned men often love and affect to be silent; his Lordship was so humble, that he thought nobody too mean to be conversed with, and so benevolent that he was willing every body that came near him should partake of his knowledge: As he was the most learned, so he was the most communicative man alive: No conversation pleased him so well, as that which was directed to some part of learning. During the whole extent of a very long life his soul enjoyed a constant calm and serenity, never ruffled with any passion: Having a mind so friendly to his body, and being exactly regular and temperate in his way of living, he attained to a good old age, with perfect soundness of judgment: He was never afflicted, or subject to any disease or distemper; never complained that he was ill, or out of order; came constantly from his chamber in a morning with a smile on his countenance: His senses and bodily strength lasted better than could well be expected in a man whose course of life had been studious and sedentary. Yet I (saith my author) who conversed daily with him, thought that the faculties of his mind were less impaired than those of his body: He remained master of all the parts of learning he had studied when young: He ever loved the Classics, and to the last week of his life would quote them readily, and to the purpose. He lived to the 87th year of his age, with, I believe, fewer sins to afflict his mind than any man at that advanced period of life: Blest with a disposition from every evil passion, he died in the year 1719. This account of his life is taken from the private papers of Mr. Payne, many years his domestic Chaplain. A ÉDITOR OF SIR, TO THE THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE. CORRESPONDENT takes the liberty to hint to his Brethren, the propriety of an attention to the political character of those persons who shall offer themselves candidates for our Order in their respective Lodges. Though, as MASONS, we are citizens of the world, yet, sheltered as we are under an impenetrable veil of secrecy, it behoves us to give a mild and generous legislature no room to suspect that any of our meetings are coverts for disloyalty. This suspi-cion may, however, be naturally excited, if we are observed to admit to our society men whose fentiments are known to be adverse to the constitution by which we are protected. A Masonic Assembly is profaned and polluted by the presence of an infidel or a disloyalist. W. AN ACCOUNT OF DRUIDISM. [From Mr. PoLWHELE'S "Hiftorical Views of Devonshire," Vol. I. just published.] I T appears, that the British Druids, like the Indian Gymnosophists, or the Persian Magi, had two sets of doctrines; the first, for the initiated; the second for the people. That there is one GOD, the creator of heaven and earth, was a secret doctrine of the Brachmans. And the nature and perfection of the deity were among the Druidical arcana. Pomponius Mela confirms this account of Cæsar: Druidas terra mundique magnitudinem et formam, motus cæli et siderum, et quid Dii velint scire se profiteri. And Lucan: Solis nosse Deos, et cæli numina vobis. That these ideas were derived from Noah †, I have scarcely a doubt they were brought into this island by the immediate descen dants of those holy men, to whom only the secrets of Noah were communicated; and who, as consecrated to religion, were thus entrusted with the secrets of Heaven. The imperishable nature of the soul was another doctrine of the Druids, which, in its genuine purity, perhaps, was incommunicable to the vulgar. But the soul's immortality, connected with many sensitive ideas, was generally preached to the people. It was with unvarying firmness that the Druids asserted the immortality of the soul. And the universal influence of this doctrine on their conduct, excited the surprise of the Greeks and Romans. It was this which inspired the soldier with courage in the day of battle; which animated the slave to die with his master, and the wife to share the fates of her husband; which urged the old and the feeble to precipitate themselves from rocks, and the victim to become a * Selden (on Drayton's Polyolbion) observes, “ Although you may truly say with Origen, that before our Saviour's time Britain acknowledged not one true God; yet it comes as near to what they should have done, or, rather, nearer than most of others, either Greek or Roman, as Cæsar, Strabo, Lucan, and other authors might convince For, although Apollo, Mars, and Mercury, were worshipped among the vulgar Gauls; yet it appears that the Druid's invocation was to one all-healing and all-saving us. Power! + A Chaldean inscription was discovered some centuries ago in Sicily, on a block of white marble. A bishop of Lucera, who wrote on the subject, asserts, that the city of Palermo was founded by the Chaldeans in the earliest ages of the world. The literal translation of this inscription is as follows: "During the time that Isaac, the son of Abraham, reigned in the valley of Damascus, and Esau, the son of Isaac, in Idumea, a great multitude of Hebrews, accompanied by many of the people of Damascus, and many Phenicians, coming into this triangular ifland, took up their habitation in this moit beautiful place, to which they gave the name of Panormus." The Bishop translates another Chaldean inscription, which is over one of the old gates of the city, This is extremely curious" There is no other God but one God. There is no other power but this same God. There is no other conqueror but this same God, whom we adore. The commander of this tower is Saphu, the son of Eliphas, the son of Esau, brother of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. The name of the tower is Beyeh; and the name of the neighbouring tower is Pharat,” VOL. II. Z willing sacrifice; and, hence, the creditor postponed his debts till the next life, and the merchant threw letters for his correspondents into the funeral fires, to be thence remitted into the world of spirits! The Druids believed also, that the soul, having left one earthly habitation, entered into another; that from one body decayed and turned to clay, it passed into another fresh and lively, and fit to perform all the functions of animal life. This was the doctrine of transmigration, maintained in common by the Druids and the Brachmans *. Sir William Jones describes a great empire, the empire of Iran, the religion of which was Sabian, so called from the word Saba, that signifies a host, or, more properly, the host of Heaven, in the worship of which the Sabian ritual consisted. Mahabeli was the first monarch of Iran: his religion he was said to have received from the Creator, as well as the orders éstablished throughout his monarchy, religious, military, mercantile, and servile. These regulations were said to be written in the language of the gods t. The tenets of this religion were, that there is but one God, pure and good; that the soul was immortal, and an emanation from the Deity; that it was for a season separated from the Supreme Being, and confined to the earth to inhabit human bodies, but would return to the Divine Essence again. The purer sectaries of this religion maintained, that the worship of fire was merely popular, and that they appeared only to venerate that sun upon whose exalted orb they fixed their eyes, whilst they really humbled themselves before the Supreme God. They were assiduous observers of the motions of the heavenly luminaries, and established artificial cycles, with distinct names, to indicate the periods in which the fixed stars appeared to revolve. They are also said to have known the secret powers of nature, and thence to have acquired the reputation of magicians. Sects of these still remain in India, called Sufi, clad in woollen garments or mantles. In ancient times every priesthood among the eastern nations had several species of sacred characters, which they used in their hiero-grammatic writings to render their religion more mysterious, whilst they preserved its written doctrines and precepts in such characters as none but their own order could understand. These sacred characters have been often noticed by antiquarians under the denomination of Ogham t. The Ogham characters were used by the priests of India and Persia, the Egyptians and Phenicians, and the Druids of the British isles. Sir William Jones tells us, that the writings at Persepolis bear a strong resemblance to the Ogham; that the unknown inscriptions in the palace of Jemschid are in the same characters, and are, *That the Druids believed in the immortality of the soul, and in its transmigration from one body to another, is not only affirmed by Cæsar, but by many ancient writers. Aplagles Tas Tuxas Xeyessays Strabo: And Lucan: Vobis Autoribus, umbræ Non tacitas erebi sedes, ditisque profundi See alfo Val. Maximus, and Diodorus. All the sculptures of Persepolis are purely Sabian. |