XXXII. The late princess Elizabeth of the Rhine of right claimeth a memorial in this discourse, her virtue giving greater lustre to her name than her quality, which yet was of the greatest in the German empire. She chose a single life, as freest of care, and best suited to the study and meditation she was always inclined to; and the chief diversion she took, next to the air, was in some such plain and housewifely entertainments as knitting, &c. She had a small territory, which she governed so well, that she showed herself fit for a greater. She would constantly, every last day in the week, sit in judgment, and hear and determine causes herself; where her patience, justice, and mercy were admirable; frequently remitting her forfeitures, where the party was poor, or otherwise meritorious. And what was excellent, though unusual, she would temper her discourses with religion, and strangely draw concerned parties to submission and agreement; exercising not so much the rigour of her power, as the power of her persuasion. Her meekness and humility appeared to me extraordinary; she never considered the quality, but the merit of the people she entertained. Did she hear of a retired man, hid from the world, and seeking after the knowledge of a better, she was sure to set him down in the catalogue of her charity, if he wanted it; I have casually seen, I believe, fifty tokens sealed and superscribed to the several poor subjects of her bounty, whose distances would not suffer them to know one another, though they knew her, whom yet some of them had never seen. Thus, though she kept no sumptuous table in her own court, she spread the tables of the poor in their solitary cells; breaking bread to virtuous pilgrims, according to their want, and her ability. Abstemious in herself, and in apparel void of all vain ornaments.