accepting only a small pension from the liberality of the empress, she retired to Vitry, near Paris, where she wished still to pass under the name of Madame Moldask: but it was impossible any longer to conceal her high birth and illustrious ancestry. Notwithstanding this, she never abandoned her accustomed simplicity and retirement of life, in which alone she had begun to find, and found to the last, true felicity.
SOPHONISBA,
Daughter of Asdrubal, the celebrated Carthaginian general, a lady of uncommon beauty and accomplishments, married Syphax, a Numidian prince, who was totally defeated by the combined forces of his rival, Massinissa, and the Romans. On this occasion, Sophonisba fell into the hands of Massinissa, who, captivated by her beauty, married her, on the death of Syphax, which occurred soon after at Rome. But this act displeased the Romans, because Sophonisba was a Carthaginian princess, and Massinissa had not asked their consent. The elder Scipio Africanus ordered the timid Numidian monarch to dismiss Sophonisba; and the cowardly king, instead of resenting the insult, and joining the Carthaginians against the Romans, sent his wife a cup of poison, advising her to die like the daughter of Asdrubal. She drank the poison with calmness and serenity, about B. C. 203.
SOUTHCOTT, JOANNA,
A fanatic, was born, in April, 1750, in the west of England. Her parents were poor, and she was for many years a servant early in life she indulged in visionary feelings; but when she was forty-two, she claimed the character of a prophetess. For more than twenty years from that time, she continued to pour forth unintelligible rhapsodies, by which she succeeded in making many dupes. At length, mistaking disease for pregnancy, she announced that she was to be the mother of the promised Shiloh; and great preparations were made for his reception by her deluded followers. She, however, died of the malady, December 27, 1814. Her sect is not even yet extinct.
SOUTHEY, CAROLINE ANNE,
Better known in the literary world as Caroline Bowles, an English poetess of fine genius and tender piety, was born about the close of the last century. Her father was of an eminent family in the county of Wilts., and vicar of a parish in Northamptonshire: he gave his daughter an excellent education. Her talent for poetry was cultivated by her elder brother, the Rev. William Lisle Bowles, himself a master of the Christian lyre. Miss Bowles profited by these advantages and encouragements, and in 1820 her first work, "Ellen Fitzarthur," was published. Her next was "The Winter's Tale, and other Poems," in 1822, which was well approved. In 1836, "The Birthday, and other Poems," "A Collection of Prose and Poetical Pieces," "Solitary Hours," &c.
In 1839, Miss Bowles became the second wife of Robert Southey, the poet whom she tended, during his declining and infirm age, with the tenderness and sweet sympathy which kindred taste, admiring affection, and Christian love inspired. He died in 1843. Mrs Southey has written little under her present name, but her
