female, who appears to have been endued with a considerable portion of keen sensibility towards the afflictions and calamities of others: with this amiable disposition she united qualities, which persons of that laudable description do not always possess; good sense to direct, and consummate resolution for carrying into execution, the singular efforts she made to alleviate the sufferings of her fellow creatures: for in the path chosen by her, benevolence could not be exercised without difficulty and danger.

in Athens, that men only should study and practice this or any other branch of the medical art.

Agnodicè could not rest contented till she found a remedy for this evil, which struck at the root of population, laid a cruel tax on the first great law of nature, and overwhelmed with torture, agony, and death, the fairest, the most modest, and often the worthiest of women; whilst certain help was loudly called for and readily administered to vicious audacity and callous un

concern.

Inspired by the importance of her object and animated by the humanity of her purpose, she alledged a call from a sick friend at a considerable distance to account for her absence, and procuring the dress of a man, attended as a pupil at the schools where the knowledge she wished for was dispensed.

As

As improvement is generally rapid when the desire for it is ardent, Agnodicè soon acquired the requisite qualifications, and in the assumed character and dress of a man afforded substantial relief to many women, who had been deterred by modesty, by fear, and other motives, from applying to male professors; the secret of her being a woman having been previously imparted to those, whose situation rendered her assistance necessary.

But the gratitude of her patients or the selfishness of her opponents, who found they were losing business, led to a discovery of this meritorious impos

ture.

They circulated reports injurious to the character of the young practitioner, and ignorant of the truth, insisted that he was frequently called in when in fact no medical aid was necessary; and that a dangerous and illicit intercourse was carried on under the convenient plea of asking advice.

Agnodicè was tried before the Areopagus, a court so called from their assembling on a hill of that name near Athens; and by a party of jealous husbands and envious rivals this excellent and intrepid woman was condemned to die; an unjust and inhuman sentence, which would

have been carried into execution, if the prisoner had not convinced her judges, in a way I will not describe, that it was impossible she could be guilty of the crime alledged against her.

Disappointed in their purpose, her adversaries next endeavoured to destroy her, for having violated an express law, mentioned at the beginning of this article, which prohibited her sex from studying .any branch of the medical profession. On this charge, the law being positive, her judges paused, when the court was immediately filled with a crowd of women, many of whom had received comfort and many of them life from her well-timed aid.

They boldly and loudly appealed to the feelings, the reason, and the interest of the persons they addressed. After a short debate, Agnodicè was honourably acquitted and the obnoxious law revoked. Such was the salutary triumph of merit and good sense over selfishness and absurd prejudice.

Since the period at which the transaction I have related took place, the opinions of the world on this subject appear to have taken an opposite direction; the art, which Agnodicè took so generous and effectual a method of acquiring, is now almost universally practised by men.

Yet

- Yet it has been doubted, whether in nine cases out of tenso kind a guardian have we in the superintending providence of God-whether in nine cases out of ten, Nature, with trifling aid, does not conduct the business with safety; but the fear, perhaps a natural one in the breast of each woman, that she may be that unfortunate tenth, has secured, and still secures to the modern accoucheur a large and profitable proportion of patients.

This subject, at a certain time, laid the foundation of a long, a violent, but not a very edifying or delicate controversy; and when the passion for collecting, like all my passions, raged uncontrouled by prudence and common sense, I remember the table on which I am writing groaning under the load of virulence, invective, and misrepresentation, poured forth on the occasion; abuse supplied the place of reasoning, and declamation that of argument.

The point in dispute is now gone by; much that was written and much that was said has escaped my memory; the little that remains impressed on my mind is, that their adversaries accused professional men of a want of patience, of doing too much, and of sometimes taking improper advantage of their in

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tercourse with women. indiscriminate audacity of anonymous licentiousness, three of the most eminent men ofthat day were branded with the indecorous names of Doctor Pocus, Doctor Maulus, and Doctor Macgripus.

The enemies of the accoucheurs did not forget an instance, recorded I fear in Doctor's Commons and a court of justice, which had recently excited public notice and sympathy, in which an eminent man had seduced a gentleman's wife from the arms of her husband.

This and much more was alledged: it only proves that every confidential trust has been, and at fatal moments unpropitious to human resolution and integrity, will be again abused. This, as I have frequently had occasion to observe, is an argument, which may be advanced against every thing pleasant and every thing useful in life.

ALEXANDER DE ME

DICIS, first duke of Florence, descended from a wealthy commercial family long established in that city, whose history has been elaborately illustrated and ingeniously adorned in the present day by an English provincial attorney.

Alexander having been created a sovereign prince by the emperor

peror Charles the fifth, whose natural daughter he married, at the earnest request of his fellow citizens was accused of abusing the power and misapplying the wealth and influence he possessed.

Yet his crimes or his errors have been exaggerated by the malignity of those, who expected that the man, in whose elevation they had assisted, would become an humble instrument in the hands of ambitious and mercenary partizans.

Finding themselves mistaken, estranged friendship, as is not uncommon in other contentions, quickly verged to deadly hate; nocturnal meetings were held, a conspiracy was formed, and the malcontents found means to corrupt and detach from his interests part of the duke's family. One of the conspirators, Philip Strozzi, a native of Florence, rich and well born, is described as having acted on this occasion upon the purest principles of republican patriotism.

As God only can read the human heart, I will not pretend to decide on the nature of the motives by which he was impelled; but however ardent his zeal, firm his resolution, or disinterested his views, the bloody means he tried did not produce the wished for purpose; they

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only served to introduce a more unrelenting despotism, and ultimately overwhelmed his friends and himself in irrecoverable ruin and disgrace.

Indignant at seeing the place of his birth under the yoke of absolute power, he resolved to remove the duke.

Taking advantage of his inordinate passion for women, under the pretence of an assignation from a female, whom he had long and vainly attempted to seduce, he enticed the prince to a sequestered spot, and stabbed him to the heart.

The city immediately became a scene of confusion and warfare; but Alexander, with all his faults, having secured the attachment of a considerable number of adherents, the conspirators were driven forth, and collecting in force near the suburbs, an engagement took place, in which the friends of Strozzi were defeated.

This unhappy man was not so fortunate as to meet with death in battle, that last consolation of the wretched; he became the prisoner of a party exasperated by his recent assassination of their sovereign.

Perceiving the desperate circumstances of his situation, and fearing that secrets prejudicial to his party might be forced

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