Hypatia is esteemed and caressed by the Publick; is consulted by the Magistrates in all important Cases, and sometimes sat among them.

All this, some will say, we readily grant, that Hypatia was a Lady of most eminent Learning, and that Synesius, with probably not a few of her other Disciples, esteemed her to be a Miracle of Virtue and Prudence; but what did the rest of the World think of her Conduct, what Marks of Approbation or Favour did she receive from the Publick? To this Inquiry, which is very natural in this Place, we answer; that never Woman was more caressed by the Publick, and yet that never Woman had a more unspotted Character. She was held an Oracle for her Wisdom, which made her be consulted by the Magistrates in all important Cases; and this frequently drew her among the greatest Concourse of Men, without the least Censure of her Manners. The Proof of so rare a Felicity we chuse to give in the Words of the Historian Socrates. “By reason of the Confidence and Authority (says he) which she had acquired by her Learning, she sometimes came to the Judges with singular Modesty; nor was she any thing abashed, to appear thus among a Croud of Men; for all Persons, on the Score of her extraordinary Discretion, did at the same Time both reverence and admire her.” The same Things are confirmed by Niceforus Callistus, Suidas, Hesychius Illustris, and indeed by whom not? So far was she from that blameable Timidity, which is contracted from a wrong Education; or from that conscious Backwardness, which is inspired by Guilt. That the Governors and Magistrates of Alexandria regularly visited her, that all the City (as Damascius and Suidas relate) paid Court to her, is a Distinction with which no Women was ever honoured before. And to say all in a Word, when Nicephorus Gregoras, above quoted, intended to pass the highest Compliment, on the Princess Eudocia, he thought he could not better hit, than by calling her another Hypatia.