A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Masham, (Damaris, Lady)
Soon perceiving the bent of her genius, he took such particular care of her education, that in the early part of her life she was distinguished for uncommon learning and piety.
She applied herself with great diligence to the study of divinity and philosophy, and had great assistance from Mr. Locke, who lived in the family many years, and at length died at her house at Oates, in Essex, in the year 1704. She was second wife to Sir Francis Masham, of that place, Bart. by whom she had an only son, for whom she had such a tender regard, that she applied all her natural and acquired endowments in the care of his education.
Soon after she was married, the celebrated Mr. Norris addressed to her, by way of letter, his Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life, with Reference to the Study of Learning and Knowledge: London, 1689, 12mo. This began a friendship between them; which seemed very likely to be lasting: but it appears to have been in a great measure dissolved by the incongruity of his religious sentiments with Mr. Locke. Not long after this, lady Masham, (probably under the inspection of Mr. Locke,) wrote and published without her name, A Discourse concerning the Love of God: 1691, 12mo. which was afterwards translated into French by Mr. Coste, 1705. She begins with observing, "that whatever reproaches have been made by the Romanists on the one hand, of the want of books of devotion in the church of England, or by the dissenters on the other, of a dead and lifeless way of preaching, it may be affirmed, that there cannot, any where, be found so good a collection of discourses upon moral subjects as might be made from English sermons, and other treatises of that nature. She then animadverts upon those who undervalue morality, or others who strain the duties of it to an unwarrantable pitch; and afterwards, examines Mr. Norris's scheme in his Practical Discourses, and other treatises; wherein he asserts, "that mankind are obliged, as their duty, to love with desire nothing but God; every degree of love of any creature whatsoever being sinful;" which assertion he defends upon this ground, borrowed from Malebranche, "that God, not the creature, is the immediate efficient cause of our sensations; for whatever gives us pleasure has a right to our love." This hypothesis is considered with accuracy and judgment by Lady Masham, and the bad consequences, as she thought, represented in a strong light.
Whether Mr. Norris ever attempted to support what he had advanced, is uncertain; but Mrs. Astell, who had written on the same subject, still continued to maintain the same opinion, and replied to Lady Masham and Mr. Locke, in her book of The Christian Religion, as professed by a Daughter of the Church of England, to which we refer our reader; from perusal of which, and Lady Masham's treatise, he will, probably, conceive a very high opinion of the understanding and piety of each.
About the year 1700, Lady Masham published "Occasional Thoughts in reference to a Virtuous or Christian Life. 12mo. She complains in it much of the great neglect of religious duties, for want of being better acquainted with the fundamentals of religion. She reprehends persons of quality for permitting their daughters to pass that part of their youth, in which the mind is most ductile and susceptible of good impressions, in a ridiculous circle of diversions, which is generally thought the proper business of young ladies; and which so engrosses them, that they can find no spare hours to improve themselves as reasonable creatures; or as is requisite to their discharging well their present or future duties; and they so little know why they should look upon the Scriptures as the word of God, that too often they are easily persuaded out of the reverence due to them as being so; insomuch, that the generality are so entirely ignorant of the articles of their faith, that they can give no other reason for believing them, than that they are commanded to do so!
She says further, there is not a commoner complaint in every county, than of the want of gentlemen qualified for the service of their country, viz. to b« executors of the law, and law-makers; both of which it belonging to this rank of Englishmen to be, some insight into the law which they are to see executed, and into that constitution which they are to support, cannot but be necessary to their well discharging their trusts: nor will this knowledge be sufficiently serviceable to the ends herein proposed, without some acquaintance likewise with history, politics, and morals.
"But, whether we farther look upon such men as having immortal souls, which shall be for ever happy or miserable as they comply with the terms which their Maker has proposed to them; or whether we regard them as protestants, whose birthright it is, not blindly to believe, but to examine their religion; or consider them only as men, whose ample fortunes allow them leisure for so important a study; they are, without doubt, obliged to understand the religion they profess.
"It is an undeniable truth, that a lady who is able to give an account of her faith, and to defend her religion against the attacks of the cavilling wits of the age, or the abuses of the obtruders of vain opinions; who is capable of instructing her children in the reasonableness of the Christian religion, and of laying in them the foundations of a solid virtue; that a lady, I say, no more knowing than this demands, can hardly escape being called learned by the men of our days; and, in consequence thereof, becoming a subject of ridicule to one part of them, and of aversion to the other; with but a few exceptions of some virtuous and rational persons. And is not the incurring the general dislike, one of the strongest discouragements that we can have to any thing?"
As Lady Masham herself owed much to the care of Mr. Locke for her acquired endowments, and skill in arithmetic, geography, chronology, history, philosophy, and divinity; as a testimony of her gratitude to his memory, she drew up the account of him printed in the Great Historical Dictionary, and there said to be written by a lady.
This appears to have been the last of her performances; and she survived the person who was the subject of it only three years, dying, 1708. She was buried in the middle aisle of the Abbey church, at Bath.