cate Apprehension, in all that was
advantageous to her Sex, and whatever Excellency any one abounded in,
she was sure to communicate it to the young _Isabella_, if one could
Dance, another Sing, another play on this Instrument, and another on
that; if this spoke one Language, and that another; if she had Wit, and
she Discretion, and a third, the finest Fashion and Manners; all joyn'd
to compleat the Mind and Body of this beautiful young Girl; Who, being
undiverted with the less noble, and less solid, Vanities of the World,
took to these Virtues, and excell'd in all; and her Youth and Wit being
apt for all Impressions, she soon became a greater Mistress of their
Arts, than those who taught her; so that at the Age of eight or nine
Years, she was thought fit to receive and entertain all the great Men
and Ladies, and the Strangers of any Nation, at the _Grate_; and that
with so admirable a Grace, so quick and piercing a Wit, and so
delightful and sweet a Conversation, that she became the whole Discourse
of the Town, and Strangers spread her Fame, as prodigious, throughout
the Christian World; for Strangers came daily to hear her talk, and
sing, and play, and to admire her Beauty; and Ladies brought their
Children, to shame 'em into good Fashion and Manners, with looking on
the lovely young _Isabella_.

The Lady _Abbess_, her Aunt, you may believe, was not a little proud of
the Excellencies and Virtues of her fair _Niece_, and omitted nothing
that might adorn her Mind; because, not only of the vastness of her
Parts and Fame, and the Credit she would do her House, by residing there
for ever; but also, being very loth to part with her considerable
Fortune, which she must resign, if she returned into the World, she us'd
all her Arts and Stratagems to make her become a _Nun_, to which all the
fair Sisterhood contributed their Cunning, but it was altogether
needless; her Inclination, the strictness of her Devotion, her early
Prayers, and those continual, and innate Stedfastness, and Calm, she was
Mistress of; her Ignorance of the World's Vanities, and those that
uninclos'd young Ladies count Pleasures and Diversions, being all
unknown to her, she thought there was no Joy out of a _Nunnery_, and no
Satisfactions on the other side of a _Grate_.

The Lady _Abbess_, seeing, that of her self she yielded faster than she
could expect; to discharge her Conscience to her Brother, who came
frequently to visit his Darling _Isabella_, would