A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Astell, Mary
ASTELL, MARY,
An ornament of her sex and country, was the daughter of Mr. Astell, a merchant at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where she was born, about 1668. She was well educated, and amongst other accomplishments, was mistress of the French, and had some knowledge of the Latin tongue. Her uncle, a clergyman, observing her uncommon genius, took her under his tuition, and taught her mathematics, logic, and philosophy. She left the place of her nativity when she was about twenty years of age, and spent the remaining part of her life at London and Chelsea. Here she pursued her studies with assiduity, made great proficiency in the above sciences, and acquired a more complete knowledge of the classic authors. Among these, Seneca, Epictetus, Hierocles, Antoninus, Tully, Plato, and Xenophon, were her favourites.
Her life was spent in writing for the advancement of learning, religion, and virtue; and in the practice of those devotional duties which she so zealously and pathetically recommended to others, and in which, perhaps, no one was ever more" sincere and devout. Her sentiments of piety, charity, humility, friendship, and other Christian graces, were very refined and sublime; and she possessed them in such a distinguished degree, as would have done her honour even in primitive times. But religion sat very gracefully upon her, unattended with any forbidding airs of sourness and bigotry. Her mind was generally calm and serene; and her conversation was not only interesting, but highly entertaining. She would say, "The good Christian alone has reason, and he always ought to be cheerful;" and, "That dejected looks and melancholy airs were very unseemly in a Christian." But these subjects she has treated at large in her excellent writings. Some very great men bear testimony to the merit of her works; such as Atterbury, Hickes, Walker, Norris, Dodwell, and Evelyn.
She was remarkably abstemious, and seemed to enjoy an uninterrupted state of health, till a few years before her death; when, having a severe operation performed on her, for a cancer in the breast, it so much impaired her constitution, that she did not survive it. When she was confined to her bed by a gradual decay, and the time of her dissolution drew nearer, she ordered her shroud and coffin to be made, and brought to her bed-side, and there to remain in her view, as a constant memento of her approaching fate, and to keep her mind fixed on proper contemplations. She died in 1731, in the sixty-third year of her age, and was buried at Chelsea.
Her writings are as follow:—"Letters Concerning the Love of God," published 1695; "An Essay in Defence of the Female Sex, in a Letter to a Lady, written by a Lady," 1696; "A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of their true and greatest Interest," etc.; and a second part to the same, 1697; "An Impartial Enquiry into the Causes of Rebellion and Civil War in this kingdom, in an Examination of Dr. Rennet's Sermon," 1703-4; "Moderation Truly Stated; or, a Review of a late Pamphlet, intitled Moderation a Virtue, or the Occasional Conformist Justified from the Imputation of Hypocrisy," 1704. The prefatory discourse is addressed to Dr. Davenant, author of the pamphlet, and of essays on peace and war, etc. "A Fair Way with the Dissenters and their Patrons, not writ by Mr. Lindsay, or any other furious Jacobite, whether a Clergyman or Layman; but by a very moderate Person, and a dutiful subject of the Queen," 1704. While this treatise was in press. Dr. Davenant published a new edition of his "Moderation still a Virtue;" to which she immediately returned an answer, in a postscript in this book. Her next work was "Reflections upon Marriage," to which is added a preface in answer to some objections, 1705. She next published "The Christian Religion, as Professed by a Daughter of the Church of England," etc., 1705. This pamphlet was attributed to Bishop Atterbury. Her next work was "Six Familiar Essays on Marriage, Crosses in Love and Friendship, written by a Lady," 1706. "Bartlemy Fair; or, an Enquiry after it," was her last work, published in 1709, and occasioned by Colonel Hunter's celebrated Letter on Enthusiasm. It was republished in 1722, without the words "Bartlemy Fair." All these works display great power of argument.