It is scarcely possible to give the Biography of the Females of England who have been remarkable in their time, with any hope of accuracy, till the sixteenth century.

The accounts, before that period, respecting them, are so meagre and uncertain, that imagination must supply much of the void left by historians; and, though just enough is said to excite curiosity and interest, there is nothing to furnish a narrative of their proceedings such as might be depended on, and be really valuable as a record of their lives.

I have begun this collection at the reign of Elizabeth, because, with all her great qualities, she stands out, both in her own and in all succeeding ages, as one of the most prominent personages of England and of Europe; and because the existence of powerful talent and superior intellect in her seems to have raised her sex in esteem from the period at which she flourished.

It appears to have been thought worth while to bestow some attention on women, after the glory of her avatar had given them dignity and importance from henceforth in the scale of society; and the long duty of paying deference to a female grew at length into a habit, which her own merit, once properly acknowledged, did not allow to decline.

The position thus acquired could not be again lost, and woman no longer occupied a mean station in the social state.