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MEMOIR 
 
 II A N N A H MORE; 
 
 WITH BRIEF NOTICES OF HER WORKS, CON- 
 TEMPORARIES, ETC. 
 
 By S: G. ARNOLD. 
 
 Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, 
 And ask them wtiat report they bore to heaven. 
 
 TOUNO. 
 
 H^txo llork: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER, 
 
 SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 200 MULBKRKY-8TRKET. 
 
c 
 
 
 " Entered accordiifg to Act of Congress, in the year 
 1839, by T. Mason and G. Lane, in the Clerk's Office 
 of the District Court of the Southern District of New 
 York." 
 
 G»ff from 
 
 y^rs, Etta F. Winter 
 Sept; 20 1932 
 
TO MRS. CATHARINE GARRETTSON, 
 
 OF RHINEBECK, N. Y. 
 
 Respected Madam : — The wisest of men 
 has enjoined it upon us to remember the obli- 
 gations of friendship. " Thine own friend," 
 says Solomon, " and thy father's friend forsake 
 not," It would be well for the author of this 
 small volume if his duty and his inclination 
 were always as ready to coalesce, as in this 
 instance. When he recollects the kindness 
 which it was your pleasure, and that of your 
 excellent husband, to extend to his aged parents 
 — when he calls to mind the sweet hours which 
 they were wont to spend with you in holy con- 
 templation of that world upon whose glories 
 they have at length entered — he would not 
 suppress the emotions of gratitude which swell 
 his heart, and cannot but seize this opportu- 
 nity to make them known. There are, how- 
 ever, other reasons why this little book should 
 be inscribed to you. Your long life has been 
 devoted to the same benevolent objects that oc- 
 cupied the chief attention of Miss More : like 
 
4 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 her, you have survived nearly all the compa 
 nions of your early years ; and, I may add, are 
 waiting, with humble reliance on the Saviour of 
 mankind, that rest which remains only for the 
 people of God. I therefore take the liberty to 
 dedicate to you this brief memoir, knowing well 
 that it will not be the less acceptable to the 
 young, for whose benefit it has been chiefly de- 
 signed, for having the sanction of your name. 
 
 I am, with great respect. 
 
 Your faithful and obedient servant, 
 
 Samuel G. Arnold 
 
 Brooklyn, May, 1839. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO 
 
 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE 
 
 The author, in givingithis little work to the 
 public, has only to say that it is designed chiefly 
 for the young, and has been written with an 
 especial reference to the readers of Sabbath 
 school libraries. In presenting it to. the pub- 
 lic, therefore, he hardly aspires to. the dignity 
 of authorship. His object has been merely 
 to imbody, in a concise form, such a sketch 
 of Miss More's life as might be safely put into 
 the hands of the young reader, without any re- 
 gard to particular tenets of religion. If he has 
 succeeded in doing this, he has accomplished 
 all that was intended. 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 OF 
 
 HANNAH MORE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Opening remarks — Birth — Parentage — Education — Re 
 moval to Bristol — Early literary taste — Matrimonial engage 
 ment with Mr. Turner. 
 
 Among barbarous nations, where courage and 
 strength are considered as the most prominent 
 virtues, the condition of woman is always de- 
 graded : but in proportion as light and know- 
 ledge extend — as civilization and Christianity- 
 advance — as the empire of mind rises above 
 mere physical excellence ; in the same propor- 
 tion does she emerge from obscurity and degra- 
 dation, and take her place in that society which 
 it is so eminently her province to polish, im- 
 prove, and beautify. 
 
 It becomes us, then, as members of civil 
 society, to cherish those illustrious examples of 
 female excellence and high intellectual endow- 
 ments which have so much contributed to 
 ennoble the female character, while, at the 
 same time, they have left their impress on the 
 age. Among these none are more deserving of 
 our attention than that gifted child of genius 
 
y MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 and of song, the celebrated Hannah More, who, 
 though comparatively obscure in her origin, has 
 left behind her a name which may justly be 
 quoted as an ornament to her sex, to the church, 
 and to the world. 
 
 Hannah More was born at Stapleton, in the 
 county of Gloucester, England, in 1745, and 
 \^as one of five daughters, being the fourth in 
 the order of time. Her father, Mr. Jacob 
 More, was respectably descended, and received 
 a liberal education with the view of fitting him 
 for a minister in the Church of England : but 
 by the unfortunate termination of a lawsuit in 
 which he was engaged, he was so much re- 
 duced in his circumstances, that he abandoned 
 his first intention, and, determining to devote 
 himself to the business of teaching, became the 
 master of a foundation-school near Stapleton. 
 He married the daughter of a respectable farmer 
 in the neighbourhood, who to a sound and 
 vigorous mind united the advantages of a good 
 education, and under whose forming hand her 
 daughters imbibed those principles which after- 
 ward rendered them so conspicuous for their 
 usefulness and virtue. Such being the circum- 
 stances of Mr. More, it was his design to edu- 
 cate his daughters accordingly, and knowing 
 that they could comfortably provide for them- 
 selves by conducting a respectable boarding- 
 school, the course of their studies was directed 
 only to this end. Such, however, were his 
 views of the required qualifications, that a know- 
 ledge of the mathematics, or the Greek and 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. [) 
 
 Roman classics, did not enter into the course 
 which he adopted, notwithstanding his own 
 intimate acquaintance with these branches. 
 
 It was for this reason that Hannah, who had 
 from her infancy manifested a wonderful facility 
 in th%acquirement of all kinds of learning, and 
 whose memory was so very retentive that she 
 had obtained a considerable knowledge of the 
 French merely by hearing her sisters recite 
 their lessons, found much difficulty in persuad- 
 ing her father to become her tutor in the study 
 of the Latin. She, however, finally succeeded, 
 and afterward took great delight in cultivating 
 an acquaintance with the Latin classics. 
 
 But the education of Mr. More's family was 
 not merely literary. It had been the earnest 
 desire of both parents to inculcate on the minds 
 of their daughters such a reverence for religion, 
 and such a deep and abiding love of virtue, as 
 would secure to them both the favour of God 
 and the respect of mankind. These endeavours 
 were not in vain, and their good effects were 
 abundantly evident in the subsequent lives of 
 these amiable sisters. When the eldest sister 
 was twenty years of age, a boarding-school was 
 opened at Bristol under her immediate superin- 
 tendence, which was conducted with that propri- 
 ety and discretion which secured to it a measure 
 of success beyond the brightest anticipations. 
 
 This was in 1757. Hannah was then in her 
 twelfth year, and removed to Bristol with her 
 sister, and under her care enjoyed much greater 
 facilities for acquiring information, which she 
 
10 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 seized and improved with avidity. Two years 
 after, the elder Mr. Sheridan delivered an able 
 and interesting course of lectures, at Bristol, on 
 eloquence, which was attended by the establish- 
 ment of Miss More, and with which Hannah 
 was so delighted that she made it the sjjjaject 
 of some poetic lines which found their way to 
 the lecturer, and induced him to seek hei 
 acquaintance. 
 
 It may be proper in this place to observe that 
 Hannah had early manifested a taste for poetry, 
 which she seems to have cultivated almost 
 from her cradle. Every scrap of paper which 
 she could lay hands on was put under contribu- 
 tion for recording her poetic effusions, and a 
 great portion of her leisure time, even from her 
 childhood, was occupied in writing sonnets, and 
 prose essays, which are represented as having 
 possessed much merit. 
 
 Such a mind could not long remain unnoticed or 
 unappreciated. Accordingly we find her, while 
 yet a mere girl, attracting the attention of the 
 learned and the great. A physician of eminence, 
 who attended her through one of her alarming 
 attacks of illness, to which she was occasionally 
 subject during her whole life, in one of his calls 
 during her convalescence, was so captivated 
 with her conversation that he entirely forgot 
 the object of his visit. A Mr. Peach, who had 
 been a particular friend of Hume, the celebrated 
 historian, and who possessed a highly cultivated 
 mind, was among her most intimate acquaint- 
 ance. In 1760, when she was fifteen years of 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. il 
 
 age, she was first introduced to Ferguson, the 
 astronomer, and a friendship was formed which 
 lasted through life. Soon after this she became 
 acquainted with the accomphshed Dr. Lang- 
 home,* and for many years maintained with him 
 an interesting correspondence. She was also 
 about this time on terms of intimacy with Dean 
 Tucker and Dr. Ford, besides many other indi- 
 viduals of eminence. 
 
 In 1762, when she was in her seventeenth 
 year, she first appeared as an author. Observ- 
 ing that a custom was prevailing among her 
 juvenile acquaintance, of committing to memory 
 parts of plays not always sound in principle or 
 pure in morals, she wrote her " Search after 
 Happiness," a pastoral drama, with the hope of 
 giving to this custom a safer direction. The 
 attempt succeeded remarkably, and in a few 
 months the work passed through three editions. 
 
 * Langhome was aft accomplished scholar and gentleman, 
 and the correspondence between him and Miss More is 
 marked by great sprightliness and wit. 
 
 In one of the summer vacations, Miss More was walking 
 with him on the sea-shore at Uphill, some miles from Bristol, 
 when he wrote with his cane in the sand as follows : — 
 " Along the shore 
 
 Walk'd Hannah More : 
 Waves, let the record last. 
 Sooner shall ye. 
 Proud earth and sea, 
 Than what she writes, be pass'd. 
 Miss More smiled at the compliment, and with her usual 
 readiness wrote underneath with her riding-whip : — 
 " Some firmer basis, polished Langhome, choose, 
 To write the dictates ->( thy charming muse ; 
 Her strains in solid characters rehearse. 
 And be thy tablet lasting as thy verse. 
 
12 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 In her twentieth year she formed an intimacy 
 with the excellent Dr. Stonehouse (afterward 
 Sir James Stonehouse) who was the founder of 
 the Northampton Infirmary, and had been for 
 twenty years its physician. He had now, how- 
 ever, relinquished his profession, and taken 
 orders in the Church of England. Miss More 
 entertained for him the highest regard, and 
 during his life seems to have trusted herself 
 much to his judgment and counsel. No friend 
 could have been better chosen. Besides his 
 high reputation as a scholar, Dr. Stonehouse 
 was a man of deep piety, cool discretion, an 
 even and sober temper, and a heart so tender as 
 to make his friendship almost paternal. Miss 
 More was particularly fortunate in her friends, 
 but in none more than in Dr. Stonehouse. She 
 lived to write both his own epitaph and that of 
 his lady. 
 
 Although we know little of Miss More's 
 acquaintance with the other sex, yet it would 
 be too much to suppose that a young female of 
 her accomplishments, both of mind and person, 
 should not have been the theme of admiration, 
 and the subject of attention. When she was in 
 her twenty-first year she had an offer of mar- 
 riage, which, though apparently not very well 
 suited to her taste and pursuits, she thought 
 proper to accept, though the marriage was 
 never consummated. The circumstances of 
 this connection are as follows : — 
 
 A gentleman of fortune residing on an estate 
 near Bristol, by the name of Turner, had two 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 13 
 
 nieces at the establishment of the Misses More, 
 who frequently spent their holydays at Belmont 
 House with their uncle, who had given them 
 permission to invite any young ladies they 
 might wish as companions. 
 
 Availing themselves of this permission, they 
 invited the two younger sisters of the Misses 
 More, Hannah and Patty, to accompany them 
 on a visit to Belmont House, and Mr. Turner 
 was so much pleased with the appearance of 
 Hannah, and so much delighted with her con- 
 versation, that he soon after offered her his 
 hand, which, on the part of Miss More, was 
 accepted. 
 
 The wedding-day was fixed, but when the 
 time approached, Mr. Turner deferred it. An- 
 other day was appointed, but on the eve of its 
 arrival Mr. Turner again put it off. The elder 
 sisters now interfered, regarding his conduct 
 as dishonourable. Mr. Turner, however, de- 
 clared that his attachment was unchanged, and 
 desired to fix another day. Hannah requested 
 time to consider the matter, and, having con- 
 sulted her friend Dr. Stonehouse, at his advice 
 she calmly, but firmly, refused the alliance. 
 
 The parties separated in friendship, and Mr. 
 Tiurner offered to settle an annuity- on Miss 
 More for life, which, however, she declined to 
 accept. Subsequently the annuity was settled 
 through her friend. Dr. Stonehouse, without her 
 knowledge, and at his death Mr. Turner left 
 her by will one thousand poimds, about four 
 thousand five hundred dollars. 
 
14 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 There can be little doubt that Miss More 
 took the wisest course in the settlement of this 
 affair. Mr. Turner was more than twenty- 
 years her senior, and besides fickleness and 
 irresolution, which he manifested in postponing 
 from time to time the celebration of the nuptials, 
 he is represented as having a temper little 
 suited to the promotion of domestic happiness. 
 That his intentions were entirely honourable 
 there can be no doubt ; but there is still little 
 excuse for the manner in which he trifled with 
 the delicate feelings of an amiable friend. 
 
 For a lady in the situation of Miss More the 
 match was eligible, and had she possessed 
 another cast of mind, might have presented 
 powerful attractions. Mr. Turner was a gen^ 
 tleman of great wealth and respectable literary 
 attainments : his estate was tastefully laid out 
 and delightfully situated : his house elegantly 
 furnished and surrounded with all the attrac- 
 tions which money could procure. 
 
 How far such considerations as these may have 
 influenced the decision of Miss More in accept- 
 ing Mr. Turner's offer, we have no other means 
 of knowing than what we glean from the gene- 
 ral character of her mind : but that it required 
 a struggle to yield up all these pleasurable anti- 
 cipations in connection with him who had won 
 her esteem, there can be no doubt. The sur- 
 render was, however, made with the same firm- 
 ness which marked the acts of her whole life, 
 and was coupled with a resolution never more 
 to form a similar engagement, a resolution to 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 15 
 
 which she most faithfully adhered. Her hand 
 was subsequently solicited by another person 
 worthy of her regard ; but in conformity with 
 her resolve, she at once refused. The refusal, 
 however, resulted in no breach between the 
 parties, but ended in a respectful friendship, 
 which continued through life. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Remarks — Studies — Love of the drama — "Visit to London 
 — Introduction to Garrick and Johnson — Fashionable so- 
 ciety — Publication of "Sir Eldred of the Bower" — Atten- 
 tions of the great. 
 
 Having attended Miss More to the threshold 
 of that society which she was so admirably fit- 
 ted to adorn and beautify, we are now to intro- 
 duce her to the young reader from the midst of 
 those gay scenes of wit and fashion which have 
 so often proved the grave of virtue, and which 
 were to try the strength of her character, and put 
 her principles to the severest test of experience. 
 
 There is a charm in the allurements of 
 fashion against which the uninitiated are sel- 
 dom proof. In these circumstances, next to 
 the direct influences of religion, a moral and 
 religious education is the surest safeguard ; and 
 this, fortunately for her and for the world. Miss 
 More possessed. One of our poets has well 
 observed, 
 
 "Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
 That to be hated needs but to be seen," 
 
16 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 but in the alluring circles of fashion, vice is so 
 disguised by the flowers and gems which genius 
 and wit have showered around it, that we re- 
 quire a vision enlightened by the word of God 
 to divest it of its guilty trappings and lay it open 
 to the view in all its naked deformities. Miss 
 More, though at this time not under the direct 
 influences of religion, seems to have been so 
 guided by the principles which she had imbibed 
 under the instructions of her pious parents, as 
 to see some of the false covering in which the 
 vices of fashionable life were enshrouded, and 
 thereby to pass through the ordeal with less 
 injury than has generally attended similar trials. 
 
 The affair with Mr. Turner being finally ter- 
 minated, Miss More resumed her literary labours 
 with new zeal. She cultivated with great assi- 
 duity a knowledge of the Italian, Spanish, and 
 Latin languages, exercising her genius and 
 polishing her style in making translations, which 
 she executed with great facility and with an 
 ease and spirit which were often the subject of 
 Just commendation. 
 
 She seems to have early imbibed a love for 
 the drama, and the transcendant genius of 
 Shakspeare always excited her warmest admira- 
 tion : as she became conversant with fashion- 
 able life, her curiosity was excited, by the fame 
 of Garrick, to attend the theatre* and witness 
 his extraordinary powers, as an actor, in repre- 
 
 * The theatre at this time, under the management of Mr. 
 Garrick, was a very different affair to what it soon became 
 after his death and continues to be, which perhaps may form 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 17 
 
 senting the prominent characters of this great 
 poet. Accordingly, in 1773 she visited London, 
 where she was introduced to many persons of 
 distinction, and where she appears to have 
 spent some time, mingling with the circles of 
 fashion and gayety. 
 
 She returned to Bristol to assist in the ma- 
 nagement of her sisters' flourishing school, in 
 which she now took an active part, and to con- 
 tinue her literary labours : but she soon made 
 another visit to London, accompanied by two of 
 her sisters. At this second visit she had the 
 gratification of being introduced to Garrick and 
 Johnson, two persons whom she regarded al- 
 most with veneration. 
 
 Garrick and Johnson were intimate friends, 
 and so pleased was the former with the wit and 
 sprightliness of his new acquaintance, that he 
 soon brought about a meeting between her and 
 the doctor, which was mutually pleasing. Dr. 
 Johnson was doubtless the greatest literary man 
 of the age in which he lived, and in the circles 
 which he frequented in London, was sometimes 
 as brilliant as the meteor which for a moment 
 excites our wonder, and then passes away: 
 while at other times he was moody, silent, and 
 abstracted. 
 
 The interview took place at the house of Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds, with whose family Miss More 
 had become quite intimate, and Sir Joshua had 
 
 some faint excuse for her attendance ; but whatever it has 
 been, or might be, it is now most unquestionably "the vesti- 
 bule of hell," and the direct road to everlasting ruin. — Ed. 
 2 
 
18 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE, 
 
 prepared her for the possibility of his being in 
 one of his moods of sadness and silence. It, 
 however, proved otherwise. The doctor met 
 her with the* greatest warmth, accosting her 
 with a verse from a morning hymn which she 
 had written at the request of Sir James Stone- 
 house. In the same pleasant humour he con- 
 tinued during the whole evening, and they 
 parted mutually gratified and mutually edified. 
 
 During this visit she was also introduced to 
 Barrett and Burke, and several other characters 
 of distinguished eminence. She was thus 
 brought into constant intercourse with persons 
 of the highest order of intellect, by which her 
 thirst after knowledge was increased, and her 
 taste and capabilities improved. No society 
 could have been more congenial to her feelings, 
 or better calculated to enlarge and strengthen 
 her mind. 
 
 After remaining about six weeks in towTi, 
 she returned to Bristol to pursue her unam- 
 bitious career in her sisters' school, and does 
 not appear to have visited London again until 
 1775. x\t this visit she spent most of her time 
 at Hampton, and at the house of Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds, where she frequently enjoyed the 
 company of Garrick, Johnson, and many other 
 literary characters, among whom were the cele- 
 bratef^ Mrs. Montague, Mrs. Carter, and Mrs. 
 Bobcawen. 
 
 She was now fairly introduced to the first 
 literary circles in the metropolis, and was every- 
 where received with cordiality and esteem. 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 19 
 
 Though not decidedly pious, yet the habits of 
 virtue in which she had been trained, the im- 
 portance which she attached to external reli- 
 gious worship, the regard which she had for 
 the word of God, and the correct principles 
 which she had early imbibed from her pious 
 parents, saved her, through the divine blessing, 
 from being dazzled and ensnared by the fascinat- 
 ing scenes in which she mingled. Her con- 
 science seems still to have proved a faithful 
 monitor, and prevented her from indulging in 
 many of the excesses of fashionable life. On 
 one occasion having been induced to attend the 
 opera, a theatrical representation in which the 
 different parts are rehearsed in music, she was 
 thoroughly disgusted, and on coming out ex- 
 claimed, 
 
 " Bear me, O God, O quickly bear me hence, 
 To wholesome solitude, the muse of sense," 
 
 and in a letter to a friend she declared it to be 
 the last opera which she should ever attend ; 
 a promise which she faithfully kept. 
 
 In this time of need her ever watchful friend 
 Sir James Stonehouse took every occasion to 
 guard her against imbibing the spirit and vices 
 of the fashionable society in which she was 
 mingling. Learning that she had attended 
 some Sunday parties, he wrote to her an affec- 
 tionate letter, in which he pointed out in kind 
 terms the error which she had committed, and 
 also dropped her a seasonable word of advice, 
 which seems to have produced its desired effect. 
 Writing to me of her sisters soon after, she 
 
20 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 says : — " Thank my deai Dr. S for his 
 
 kind, seasonable admonitions on my last Sun- 
 day's engagement. Conscience had done its 
 office before ; nay, was busy at the time ; and if 
 it did not dash the cup of pleasure to the ground, 
 infused at least a tincture of wormwood into it. 
 I did think of the alarming call, * What dost 
 thou here V " 
 
 In June, 1775, she composed and published 
 a legendary tale, " Sir Eldred of the Bower," 
 together with a small poem, written before, 
 entitled the " Bleeding Rock." She was about 
 two weeks in composing " Sir Eldred," and 
 having completed it sent it to Cadell, a London 
 publisher, asking him to give her what it was 
 worth. The sum which he offered far exceeded 
 her expectations ; but, in addition to this, he 
 assured her that if she would ascertain how 
 much Goldsmith had received for his " Deserted 
 Village," he would allow her the same. Miss 
 More at this time had no personal acquaintance 
 with Cadell, but the kindness which she re- 
 ceived at his hands was the beginning of a 
 friendly connection which continued until his 
 death. 
 
 This publication found a ready sale, and fully 
 sustained the author's reputation. It was for 
 some time the subject of conversation among 
 the literary circles of London, and was much 
 praised by Garrick, Johnson, Burke, and other of 
 her friends. It seemed to be the general opinion 
 that it was only the first fruits of an abundant 
 harvest, which happily proved to be the case. 
 
MEMOIR OF HAx\NAH MORE. 21 
 
 Early in 1776 Miss More again visited Lon- 
 don, and continued there until late in June. 
 The publication of her poem had spread her 
 reputation over the kingdom, and she found 
 new admirers wherever she went. One of her 
 sisters, writing from London, says : — " If Han- 
 nah's head stands proof against all the adulation 
 and kindness of the great folks here, why then 
 I will venture to say that nothing of this kind 
 will hurt her hereafter." But " Hannah's head" 
 was not made of materials to be turned by adula- 
 tion. She seems to have always had but a poor 
 opinion of her own abilities, and the flatteries 
 of her friends, however gratifying they might 
 have been for a time, made no impression upon 
 the solid bulwark of her well-balanced mind. 
 
 In a letter in which she describes a dinner 
 which she attended, and at which both Johnson 
 and Garrick were present, she narrates a little 
 anecdote respecting the reading of " Sir Eldred," 
 by Garrick, which is not only amusing, but 
 which shows alike the excellence of the poem 
 and the powers of Garrick. " I think," she says, 
 " I never was so ashamed in my life ; but he 
 read it so superlatively that I cried like a child. 
 Only think what a scandalous thing to cry at 
 the reading of one's own poetry ? I could have 
 beaten myself; for it looked as if I thought it 
 very moving, which I can truly say is far from 
 being the case. But the beauty of the thing lies 
 in this, Mrs. Garrick twinkled as well as I, and 
 made as many apologies for crying at her hus- 
 band's reading, as I did for crying at my own 
 
«' 
 
 22 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 verses. She got out of the scrape by pretend- 
 ing that she was touched at the story, and I by 
 saying the same thing of the reading-." 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Remarks — Visits Suffolk, Norfolk, London, Hampshire, 
 and Bristol — Visits London again — Illness and its effects — 
 Death of Garrick — Effect on the mind of Miss More — In- 
 creased seriousness. 
 
 Miss More's protracted stay in London, 
 amidst the flatteries and attentions of the wise 
 and great, neither inflated her pride nor excited 
 her vanity, and she returned to Bristol in June, 
 1776, after an absence of six months, quite 
 unchanged, and with all her original simplicity, 
 to renew her labours in the establishment of 
 her sister, where she continued during the re- 
 mainder of the year ; when she took a tour 
 through the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk to 
 visit some relatives. During her absence she 
 spent several days at the residence of the 
 talented Mrs. Barbauld. 
 
 From Norfolk she proceeded to London some- 
 time in July, where she spent several weeks 
 with Garrick, whom she accompanied in his 
 visits among the nobility and gentry about town. 
 She also made an excursion with him into 
 Hampshire, to the seat of Mr. Wilmot, with 
 whose family she was from that time intimate 
 Toward the end of August, after an absence ox 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 23 
 
 about five months, she returned to Bristol, and 
 in November again visited London. 
 
 Shortly after making these excursions she 
 was attacked with a severe turn of illness, and 
 as soon as she was able to be removed, ac- 
 cepted an invitation from the Garricks to pay 
 them a visit at Hampton Court, where she re- 
 mained until 1778, employing herself as her 
 health would permit in literary pursuits. Here 
 she seems to have devoted more of her time to 
 serious studies than she had formerly done, and 
 the Bible especially was her frequent compan- 
 ion. The death of several friends about this 
 time also made a deep impression upon her 
 mind. One of these was the wife of her excel- 
 lent friend Dr. Stonehouse, which called forth 
 from her pen some beautiful lines, ending 
 thus : — 
 
 " O ! if thy living excellence could teach. 
 Death has a loftier emphasis of speech ; 
 Let death thy strongest lesson thertlimpart, 
 And write prepare to die on every heart." 
 
 In the following winter she had another at- 
 tack of illness, and was scarcely recovered 
 when she was summoned to London by Mrs. 
 Garrick, to mourn with her the loss of her 
 gifted husband. 
 
 Poor Garrick had been suddenly called to 
 his account. He was only a little complaining 
 for some days previous to his death, and on 
 Sunday was in good spirits and free from pain. 
 On Monday his physician became alarmed, and 
 called in aid. On Tuesday he was worse. 
 
24 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Mrs. Garrick attended him through a part of 
 the night, and every time she administered his 
 medicine, he spoke to her with pecuHar tender- 
 ness and affection. Toward morning, imme- 
 diately after taking his medicine, he softly said, 
 " Oh ! dear," and yielded up his spirit without 
 a groan on the 20th of January, 1779. 
 
 The death of Mr. Garrick made a deep im- 
 pression on the mind of Miss More, and may 
 be said to have constituted a new era in her 
 life. Her admiration of him was very great. 
 He was her warm and fahhful friend, and had 
 probably done more to bring her into notice than 
 any other person. She had witnessed his ami- 
 able deportment in his family, his strict moral- 
 ity^ his wonderful graces of person and manner, 
 and above all, had deeply participated in his 
 literary tastes, studies, and friendships. He 
 formed the link which connected her with fash- 
 ionable life. This link was now severed, and 
 the genius anfl talents of this gifted lady were 
 henceforth to flow only in a channel for the be- 
 nefit of mankind. 
 
 It is quite probable that the reflections of 
 Miss More on this solemn occasion led her to 
 inquire into the probable condition of her friend 
 in 
 
 ** That undiscover'd country, from whose bourn 
 No traveller returns." 
 
 And if so, she must have felt that there was 
 little evidence of his preparation for that greai 
 change which must sooner or later come upon 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 25 
 
 all men ; that the life of gayety and fashion 
 which he led, and the round of pleasures in 
 which he was engaged from day to day, were 
 but a poor preparation for that place into which 
 nothing unholy can possibly enter. She must 
 have felt that his talents had been misemployed, 
 that his great powers had but little conduced 
 to the good of mankind, that the moral influ- 
 ence of his life, even allowing him to have 
 been strictly upright in his conduct, was op- 
 posed to virtue and religion. In the light of 
 the gospel he is an unprofitable servant, be his 
 moral conduct ever so jjonsistent, who employs 
 his time and talents to no useful purpose. 
 
 The remains of this gifted child of genius 
 were deposited in Westminster Abbey, among 
 the ashes of the great, with much pomp and 
 solemnity. Miss More attended. Sheridan 
 was chief mourner, and ten noblemen were pall 
 bearers. " The choir sung," as she says in one 
 of her letters, " in strains only less sublime 
 than will be the archangel's trump," — every eye 
 was suffused with tears. 
 
 Her time was now divided between her 
 friend Mrs. Garrick, at Hampton, and her sis- 
 ters, at Bristol ; her winters being spent with 
 the former, and her summers with the latter. 
 From the time of Garrick's death she manifested 
 an increasing dislike for the pleasures of fashion- 
 able society, among which she had so freely 
 mingled, and devoted herself more to serious 
 studies. She was impressed with a deep sense 
 of the value of time, and composed the follow 
 
/6 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 iHg lines on this subject, breathing the devout 
 wishes of a pious heart : — 
 
 "Soft slumbers now mine eyes forsake, 
 My powers are all renew'd ; 
 May my freed spirit, too, awake. 
 With heavenly strength endued ! 
 
 Thou silent murderer. Sloth, no more 
 
 My mind imprison'd keep ; 
 Nor let me waste another hour 
 
 With thee, thou felon, Sleep. 
 
 Hark, O my soul, could dying men 
 
 One lavished hour retrieve, 
 Though spent in tears, and pass'd in pain, 
 
 What treasures would they give ! 
 
 But seas of pearl, and mines of gold, 
 
 Were ofFer'd them in vain, 
 Their pearl of countless price is lost, 
 
 And where 's their promised gain ? 
 
 Lord, when thy day of dread account 
 
 For squander'd hours shall come, 
 O, let them not increase th' amount. 
 
 And swell ihe former sum ! 
 
 Teach me in health each good to prize, 
 
 I, dying, shall esteem ; 
 And every pleasure to despise, 
 
 I then shall worthless deem. 
 
 For all thy wond'rous mercies past, 
 
 My grateful voice I raise, 
 While thus 1 quit the bed of rest, 
 
 Creation's Lord to praise." 
 
 It was becoming evident to all her friends 
 that Miss More was desirous to withdraw her- 
 self from society merely worldly, and to devote 
 her talents to some useful purpose. In her 
 studies she preferred the Bible to all other 
 books : it was her daily companion, and the 
 
MEMOIR OF HAxXXAH MORE. 27 
 
 more she studied it the more it became endeared 
 to her. She now commenced her " Sacred 
 Dramas," the composition of which afforded 
 her much pleasure. In the winter of 1780, 
 while she was at Mrs. Garrick's, she assisted 
 in arranging and filing Garrick's letters ; and 
 the employment brought up the most serious 
 reflections. " Where now," she says, " are al- 
 most all the great men who wrote these letters? 
 Little did they think when they penned these 
 bright epistles that their heads were so soon 
 to be laid low." 
 
 Her friend Mrs. Boscawen sent her an excel- 
 lent work which had then just made its appear- 
 ance, entitled " Cardiphonia," which she read 
 with avidity. " I like it," she says, " prodi- 
 giously : it is full of vital, experimental reli- 
 gion." Her father, who was now in his 81st 
 year, was highly gratified to learn this change 
 in the pursuits and disposition of his amiable 
 daughter, and wrote her a poetic epistle express- 
 ive of the deep concern he had felt for her wel- 
 fare, and the pleasure he derived from her in- 
 creased seriousness, which afforded her much 
 satisfaction. 
 
 In 1782 Miss More published in one volume 
 her " Sacred Dramas," together with an episto- 
 lary poem, entitled " Sensibility." The work 
 was well received, and had an extensive sale. 
 It was designed chiefly for the young, whom it 
 was well calculated to interest and instruct : 
 but one of her biographers justly observes, that 
 *' it may be doubted whether dramatic compo- 
 
28 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 sitions can ever render the simple narratives ol 
 Scripture more interesting than they are in 
 themselves. There is something in them so 
 inimitably touching that they seem to suffer 
 from the most laboured attempts of human effort 
 to give them increasing interest." 
 
 While Miss More was writing this volume, 
 she became more deeply impressed with reli- 
 gious subjects. Her views of the great leading 
 doctrines of Christianity seem to have under- 
 gone a change. She now saw that salvation 
 by faith was the only method recognized in the 
 word of God, and her deep humility, and her 
 anxiety after religious instruction, are convincing 
 evidences that, in the language of the Saviour, 
 she " was not far from the kingdom of God." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Her religious state — Death of her father — Refuses to visit 
 the theatre — " Bas Bleu" — Elected a member of the French 
 Academy of Sciences — The poor milk-woman — Death of Dr. 
 Johnson. 
 
 We have intimated that Miss More was 
 turning her attention from things merely of a 
 worldly nature, and devoting it more to the 
 great interests of religion. Still the change 
 does not appear to have been thorough in its 
 commencement ; but, as is frequently the case, 
 was gradual and progressive. She did not ab- 
 stain entirely from mingling with fashionable 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 29 
 
 society, or from visiting places of public amuse- 
 ment ; but she always went reluctantly, and to 
 gratify her friends rather than herself She 
 was still on terms of close intimacy with nearly 
 all who made any pretensions to literary pur- 
 suitSj and the difficulty of severing the ties 
 which thus bound her to society she felt to be 
 very great. We find her, however, mingling 
 much more with persons of acknowledged piety, 
 in whose conversation and instructions she 
 seemed to take great delight. 
 
 In 1782 she spent some time with the excel- 
 lent and learned Dr. Kennicott, and also with 
 the bishop of Llandaff, where she again met 
 Dr. Johnson. She returned to Bristol in July, 
 and soon after received intelligence of the death 
 of her aged and pious father. This, though not 
 unexpected, was a heavy stroke, and affected 
 her most sensibly. For three weeks she could 
 not be persuaded to leave her room. Such an 
 affecting providence, at a time when her heart 
 was open to the divine teaching, was well cal- 
 culated to deepen her religious impressions. 
 Accordingly we find her afterward refusing to 
 mingle in many of those scenes of pleasure in 
 which she had hitherto thought it no harm to 
 indulge. " I refused," she says, " to accom- 
 pany Lady Spencer to hear Mrs. Siddons, though 
 her ladyship took the pains yesterday to come 
 and solicit me ;" and afterward, when strongly 
 urged to attend at the performance of " Percy," 
 one of her own tragedies, she exhibited the 
 same firmness. 
 
30 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Such singularity, in an age when the religious 
 world was much less strict in its outward con- 
 duct than at present, sometimes laid her open to 
 the censure of her friends, who upbraided her 
 with epithets not then considered as the most 
 respectful. " A visitor," she says in one of her 
 letters, " has just gone away quite chagrined 
 that I am such a rigid Methodist that I cannot 
 come to her assembly on Sunday, though she 
 protests, with great apparent piety, that she 
 never has cards, and that it is quite savage in 
 me to think there can be any harm in a little 
 agreeable music." 
 
 In the spring of 1784 she wrote an interest- 
 ing poem, entitled " Bas Bleu." The circum- 
 stances which gave rise to this poem are briefly 
 these. Mrs. Vesey, a lady of distinction resid- 
 ing in London, had established a literary society 
 composed of the lovers of letters of both sexes, 
 the meetings of which were held at her house. 
 Among the gentlemen who usually attended 
 was Mr. Stillingfleet, as remarkable for his 
 eccentricity as he was for his great learning, 
 and who always wore blue stockings^ a circum- 
 stance which caused the society to be called 
 " The Blue Stocking Club," a cognomen which 
 an intelligent foreigner translated literally "Bas 
 Bleu," (" blue stocking.") This circumstance 
 gave a name to her poem, the object of which 
 was to exculpate the society from some un- 
 merited aspersions which had been cast upon it 
 because the amusement of cards had been ex- 
 cluded. 
 
^ 
 
 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 31 
 
 The poem, thus originated, was sent to a 
 literary friend, W. W. Pepys, Esq., with the 
 request that he would make any corrections he 
 saw fit, and then forward the manuscript to 
 Mrs. Vesey, without intimating from whom it 
 came. It was the subject of much commend- 
 ation among her friends, many of whom urged 
 her to give it to the world. Dr. Johnson espe- 
 cially bestowed much praise upon it, declaring 
 that "there was no name in [the annals of] 
 poetry that might not be glad to own it.* The 
 poem was not however published until three 
 years after. 
 
 She continued to spend much time with Mrs. 
 Garrick, where she was necessarily brought 
 into fr^iquent contact with the fashionable world, 
 but she always used discrimination in accepting 
 the invitations which flowed in upon her from 
 all quarters. In one of her letters she says, " I 
 was present the other night at a great assembly, 
 which was so hot, so crowded, and so fine, that 
 I never passed a more dull, unpleasant evening. 
 
 * This approbation of the learned doctor is thus comnmni 
 cated to her sister in one of her letters: — " Did I tell yon I 
 went to see Dr. Johnson ? He received me with the great- 
 est kindness and affection ; and as to the ' Bas Bleu,' all the 
 flattery I ever received from every body together, would not 
 make up his sum. He said — but I seriously insist you do 
 not tell any body, for I am ashamed of writing it even to 
 you — he said there was no name in poetry that might not be 
 glad to own it. You cannot imagine how I stared. All this 
 from Johnson, that parsimonious praiser. I told him I was 
 delighted at his approbation ; he answered quite character 
 istically, 'And so you may, for I give you the opinion of a 
 man who does not rate his judgment in these things very low. 
 I can tell you.' " 
 
32 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 I am absolutely resolved to go no more to such 
 parties : how I grudged the waste of time." 
 
 In the same year Miss More received a letter 
 from the president of the French Academy of 
 Science, informing her that she had been elect- 
 ed a member of their society, as a testimony of 
 the high regard they had entertained for her 
 talents. The honor was gratefully received, 
 and acknowledged in a reply to the president's 
 letter. 
 
 The benevolence of her disposition was about 
 this time finely illustrated by an incident which 
 we shall relate. While residing at Bristol the 
 cook informed the family that a person who 
 called daily for kitchen stufT to feed her pig, 
 was, with her husband and several qj^ildren, 
 absolutely perishing with hunger. In taking 
 steps to rescue this wretched family, it was dis- 
 covered that the woman possessed extraordinary 
 talents which all her miseries had been unable 
 to repress. She produced several scraps of 
 verses which bore striking indications of genius, 
 and at once enlisted Miss More eflectually in 
 her behalf. She paid her a visit at her miser- 
 able hovel, inquired into her condition, educa- 
 tion, habits, morals, <fec. ; gave her lessons in 
 orthography, and instructed her in such other 
 knowledge as she most required ; corrected the 
 errors of her writings, and at her own risk and 
 expense published a volume of her poems. But 
 her benevolence did not stop here. She wrote 
 letters to all her friends, stating the interest she 
 had taken in the condition of the woman, and 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 33 
 
 desired their assistance. By these means she 
 raised the sum of £600 sterling, nearly three 
 thousand dollars, which was placed at the dis- 
 posal of a committee to be applied to her use in 
 the way they deemed most advisable. So ex • 
 traordinary were her exertions that she declares 
 she wrote more than a thousand letters to ad- 
 vance her benevolent object. 
 
 It is mortifying to know that her noble gene- 
 rosity was but poorly repaid. No sooner: was 
 Ann Yearsley, the poor milk-woman, informed 
 of the amount which had been raised for her 
 benefit than she began to be elated with pride, 
 and manifested the blackest ingratitude for all 
 the favours which had been heaped upon her. 
 She employed the bitterest expressions of re- 
 sentment against her benefactress for having 
 represented her, in the preface to the volume of 
 poems published for her benefit, as an object of 
 charity : and inasmuch as Miss More had caused 
 the money raised to be placed in the hands of 
 a committee, instead of making it an uncondi- 
 tional gift, she accused her of retaining it for 
 her own use : and even went so far as to assert 
 that the blemishes in her poems were occa- 
 sioned by the alterations which Miss More had 
 seen fit to make. 
 
 Under this base treatment Miss More's con- 
 duct was such as became the disciple of the 
 lowly Jesus. She did not revile in her turn, 
 did not even take the trouble to contradict her 
 calumnies, but left her vile assertions to refute 
 themselves. "I grieve most," she writes, "for 
 3 
 
34 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 poor fallen human nature. I am persuaded thai 
 Providence intends me good by it. Had the 
 woman turned out well, which I fondly hoped 
 would be the case, I should have had my re- 
 ward ; as it is I have my trial. Perhaps I was 
 too vain of my success, and in counting over 
 the money might be elated, and ready to say, 
 * Is not this great Babylon that I have builded V " 
 
 Nor did the unprincipled conduct of the milk- 
 woman prevent her benefactress from still ex- 
 erting herself in her behalf. In one of her let- 
 ters she says : — " I shall continue to take the 
 same care of her pecuniary interests, and am 
 even now engaged in bringing out a second 
 edition of her poems. My conscience tells me 
 that I ought not to give up my exertions for the 
 children on account of their mother's wicked- 
 ness." This noble magnanimity was worthy of 
 a follower of Him who, in his last hour, cried, 
 " Father, forgive them ; they know not what 
 they do." 
 
 About this time Miss More was called to 
 mourn the loss of ant)ther of her very intimate 
 friends, the great, the lamented Dr. Johnson. 
 The evening shadows had long been gathering 
 around his life, and the night of death was soon 
 to extinguish for ever one of the mightiest intel- 
 lects which had ever shed its genius on the 
 pages of literature. From their first acquaint- 
 ance the doctor had manifested a deep interest 
 in Miss More and her productions, and he had 
 marked with great satisfaction the tendency of 
 her later writings to advance the great interests 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 35 
 
 of morals and religion ; and she, equally alive to 
 the welfare of her valued and learned friend, 
 felt the deepest anxiety about his declining 
 health, " Poor, dear Johnson !" she writes, "is 
 past all hope. The dropsy has brought him 
 to the point of death. 1 hav-e,- however, the 
 comfort to hear that his dread of dying is in a 
 great measure subdued ; and now he says, ' the 
 bitterness of death is past.' " And again, " How- 
 delighted should I be to hear the conversation 
 of this great and good man, now that his faith 
 has subdued his fears." 
 
 Dr. Johnson had long been a powerful de- 
 fender of Christianity, but yet it may be doubted 
 whether he possessed that lively faith which 
 reaHzes to the Christian all the promises of the 
 gospel. The religion he had advocated con- 
 sisted almost solely in obedience to moral pre- 
 cepts. He seemed not to comprehend that true 
 piety could proceed only from a living faith in a 
 crucified and risen Saviour, procuring pardon 
 and peace for its possessor, and producing holi- 
 ness of heart and life. Death always seemed 
 to him as " the king of terrors," and the nearer 
 he approached, the more did he shrink from 
 meeting this last enemy. He had not yet 
 learned that the " sting of death is sin," and 
 that the " victory" is to be obtained through 
 faith in the Redeemer. 
 
 But on the near prospect of eternity, the doc- 
 tor began to perceive the sandy foundation on 
 which he stood, and became alarmed for his 
 insecurity and danger; and when it was inti- 
 
36 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 mated to him that he might dismiss his fears 
 because he had done so much in his writings 
 for the cause of moraUty and religion, he re- 
 marked, " I have indeed written piously, but I 
 have lived too much like other men." 
 
 In this state of mind he desired a pious cler- 
 gyman to be called, who unfortunately felt him- 
 self unable to comply. He however wrote him 
 a note, pointing him to "the Lamb of God that 
 taketh away the sin of the world." The doctor 
 was exceedingly pleased with the letter, and 
 very desirous to see the writer ; but in this 
 he was not gratified : he, however, received 
 from him another letter, which, with the conver- 
 sation of a pious friend, was sanctified to his 
 good, and he was brought to renounce self, to 
 place his sole reliance on Jesus as his Saviour, 
 and at last he overcame the fear of death and 
 died in peace. 
 
 The state of Miss More's mind cannot be 
 better shown than by quoting some of her in- 
 structive observations on the death of her la- 
 mented friend. She says : — " I cannot con- 
 clude without remarking what honour God has 
 hereby put upon the doctrine of faith in a cruci- 
 fied Saviour. The man whose intellectual 
 powers had awed all around him was, in his 
 turn, made to tremble, when the period arrived 
 at which all knowledge is useless, and vanishes 
 away, except the knowledge of the true God, 
 and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. Ef- 
 fectually to attain this knowledge, this giant in 
 literature must become a little child. The man 
 
MEMOIR OF HANXAH MORE. 37 
 
 looked up to as a prodigy of wisdom must be- 
 come a fool that he might be wise." Such 
 reflections indicate a mind deeply imbued with 
 the doctrines of the gospel, and show how they 
 influenced her thoughts, words, and actions. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Purchases Cowslip Green — Manner of spending her time 
 — Dispenses reproof — Publishes " Bas Bleu," and "Florio' 
 — Publishes " Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners 
 of the Great" — "Bonner's Ghost." 
 
 The very extensive acquaintance which Miss 
 More had formed subjected her to the greatest 
 inconveniences, and brought upon her such con- 
 stant interruptions, and made such frequent de- 
 mands upon her time, that she had long desired 
 some place of seclusion to which she could 
 retreat at her pleasure, and pursue her literary 
 labours free from the bustle and confusion of 
 city life. Accordingly, having accumulated a 
 sum suflicient to answer her purpose, by the 
 sale of her works, and from other sources, she 
 set about carrying this purpose into effect, and 
 purchased a small estate and cottage, not far 
 from Bristol, called " Cowslip Green," to which 
 she intended immediately to repair. The house 
 was accordingly fitted up for her use in the 
 summer of 1785, and she took possession of it 
 in the following autumn. For some years she 
 continued to occupy this delightful retreat dur- 
 
38 MEMOIR OF IIAXXAH MORE. 
 
 ing the warm months, and in the winter to join 
 her friend Mrs. Garrick, in London. 
 
 While in London she made it a rule to have 
 her mornings and her Sabbaths entirely to her- 
 self, which she employed in devotional exer- 
 cises, and in reading the Scriptures, or some 
 work on theology. She absented herself from 
 all those circles of gayety, much as she might 
 be urged to attend, when she had reason to 
 think the time would be employed lo no useful 
 purpose ; but delighted to mingle with those 
 little social or literary circles, where the mind 
 was strengthened and improved by rational con- 
 versation, or the heart mellowed and bettered 
 by the influences of religion. "I spent," she 
 says, " quite a rational, sober, country day, on 
 Thursday, with the wise and virtuous Langton, 
 and Lady Rothes ; so peaceful that I could 
 hardly persuade myself that I was in London : 
 dined at three ; sat and worked while he read 
 to us, or talked of books, till late at night. I 
 really begin to hope we are reforming, for on 
 Saturday we got such another sober day at Mrs. 
 Montague's, where we all agreed we had not 
 been so comfortable for a long time ; yet people 
 have seldom, the sense thus to meet, but must 
 assemble in herds or flocks." Again she says, 
 " I have kept my resolution to avoid these great 
 crowds, except when I have been snared into 
 them by the alluring name of a private party, a 
 trap into which I have sometimes fallen." 
 
 But Miss More not only felt it a duty to im 
 prove to the best advantage every moment of 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 39 
 
 her time, but she also took occas.ion to drop a 
 seasonable word of advice and reproof, vvhere- 
 ever she thought they would be received. 
 "Lady B. and .1," she says, "had a long dis- 
 course, yesterday ; she seems anxious for reli- 
 gious information. I told her much plain truth, 
 and she bore it so well that I ventured to give 
 her Doddridge. Should she not stumble at the 
 threshold, from the strong manner in which 
 the book opens, I trust she will read it with 
 good efTect. Miss M. has been with me seve- 
 ral times : she is beautiful, and accomplished, 
 and surrounded with flatterers, and sunk in dis- 
 sipation. I asked her why she continued to 
 live so much below not only her principles, but 
 her understanding ; what pleasure she derived 
 from crowds of persons so inferior to her ; did 
 it make her happy ? ' Happy,' she said, ' no ;' 
 she was miserable : she despised the society 
 she lived in, and had no eajoyment of the plea- 
 sure in which her life was consumed. But 
 what could she do ? she could not be singular : 
 she must do as her acquaintance did. I urged 
 the evil of such conduct home upon her con- 
 science with such force that she wept bitterly, 
 and embraced me. I conjured her to read her 
 Bible,, with which she is utterly unacquainted." 
 In 1787 Miss More published two poems, 
 both of which did credit ahke to her genius and 
 piety. " Bas Bleu," or " Conversation," we have 
 already remarked, had met with very warm 
 commendation among her friends, and the judg- 
 ment of the public was not less flattering, li 
 
40 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 this poem she exposes the folly of those who 
 dissipate their hours in a round of unmeaning 
 folly, and then draws a beautiful picture of ra- 
 tional social converse. Many excellent extracts 
 might be made, but our limits will not permit 
 more than the following : — 
 
 " Our intellectual ore must shine, 
 Not slumber idly in the mine. 
 Let education's moral mint 
 The noblest images imprint ; 
 Let taste her curious touchstone hold. 
 To try if standard be the gold ; 
 But 'tis thy commerce, conversation. 
 Must give it use by circulation ; 
 That noblest commerce of mankind. 
 Whose precious merchandize is mind.'* 
 
 The other poem was entitled " Florio, a Tale 
 for Fine Gentlemen and Fine Ladies." It was 
 dedicated to Horace Walpole, afterward ear} 
 of Orford, with whom she was on terms of inti- 
 macy. It exhibits the portraiture of a man of 
 fashion and dissipation, sketched from the man- 
 ners of the age, contrasted with the characte) 
 of an English gentleman of the old school ; and 
 ends in reforming Florio, by marrying him to a 
 pious and amiable woman, the daughter of this 
 country gentleman. The idle, vacant mind of 
 the mere fop is well drawn in the character of 
 Florio, as also the tendency of such an indolent, 
 superficial mind, to skepticism and infidelity. 
 The change in Florio after his marriage is thus 
 beautifully described : — 
 
 " Abroad with joy and grateful pride 
 He walks vviih Celia by his side ; 
 A thousand cheerful thoughts arise. 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 41 
 
 Each rural scene enchants his eyes. 
 With transport he begins to look 
 On nature's all-instructive book : 
 No objects now seem mean or low, 
 Which point to Him from whom they flow 
 A berry, or a bud excites 
 A chain of reasoning which delights ; 
 Which, spite of skeptic ebullitions, 
 Proves atheists not the best logicians ; 
 A tree, a book, a blade of grass 
 Suggests reflections as they pass ; 
 Till Florio with a sigh confest 
 The simplest pleasures are the best. 
 As pious Celia raised the theme 
 To holy faith and love supreme, 
 Enlighten'd Florio learn 'd to trace 
 In nature's God, the God of grace. 
 Florio, escaped from fashion's school, 
 His heart and conduct learns to rule ; 
 Conscience his youthful life approves. 
 He serves his God, his country loves. 
 Reveres her laws, protects her rights, 
 And for her interest pleads or fights ; 
 Reviews with scorn his former life. 
 And for his rescue thanks his wife." 
 
 The same desire of correcting some of the 
 follies of fashionable life which led her to the 
 composition of " Florio," induced her soon after 
 to write a tract which she entitled " Thoughts 
 on the Importance of the Manners of the Great 
 to General Society." It was written during the 
 summer in her retirement at Cowslip Green, 
 and was also published in 1787, but without 
 her name. The subject was handled" with 
 great ability, and the work was generally ac- 
 knowledged to be the production of one fa- 
 miliar with the foibles of rank and fashion. 
 "Never," says one well able to judge, "were 
 the evils of a mere life of inactivity and frivolity 
 
42 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 more correctly depicted, or more faithfully re^ 
 proved. The spirit of the world is shown to be 
 in every point directly hostile to that of Chris- 
 tianity, and all efforts to make the love of the 
 former, with the pursuit of its vanities, compat- 
 ible with the love of the latter, are exposed as 
 utterly delusive. The mask of piety is torn 
 from the mere formalist, his inconsistencies are 
 exposed, and he is exhibited in his native 
 deformity." 
 
 The work created considerable sensation at 
 the time, and was very useful : its author, how- 
 ever, did not long remain unknown, and con- 
 gratulations and acknowledgments were soon 
 poured in upon her from every quarter. Mr. 
 Newton, in a letter to her, thus does justice to 
 the high motives which influenced her in this 
 production. "I congratulate you," he says, "on 
 the performance, and especially on the choice 
 of a subject. You could easily write what 
 would procure you more general applause ; but 
 it is a singular privilege to have a consecrated 
 pen, and to be able and willing to devote our 
 talents to the cause of piety." The work, how- 
 ever, though on an unpopular subject, was well 
 received, and several successive editions printed 
 off and sold. 
 
 It would hardly be expected that writings 
 of the character which Miss More was now 
 engaged in putting before the world, would cir- 
 culate widely without occasionally giving of- 
 fence. This, however, she little regarded, and 
 in one of !ier letters relates an amusing attack 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 43 
 
 which was made upon her by a gentleman 
 whom she visited. " He took me to task," she 
 says, " for having exhibited such monstrously 
 absurd doctrines. He defended (and that was 
 the joke) religion against me, and said he would 
 do so against the whole bench of bishops, that 
 the fourth commandment [enjoining the sanctity 
 of the sabbath] was the most amiable and mer- 
 ciful law ever promulgated, as it entirely con- 
 siders the care and comfort of the hard-labor- 
 ing poor, and beasts of burden ; but that it was 
 never intended for persons of fashion who had 
 no occasion to rest, as they never do any thing 
 on other days ; and indeed at the time the law 
 was made there were no people of fashion. He 
 really pretended to be in earnest, and we parted 
 mutually unconvinced: he lamenting that I am 
 fallen into the heresy of puritanical strictness ; 
 and I lamenting that he is a person of fashion 
 for whom the ten commandments were not 
 made." 
 
 We find Miss More in 1789 spending some 
 time with different friends. In May she visited 
 Mr. Walpole ; in June she was with the bishop 
 of London at Fulham, and also with Mr. Bou- 
 verie in Kent. While at Fulham she wrote 
 another little poem, called " Bonner's Ghost," in 
 which she severely satirizes the superstitious 
 mummeries of the Romish Church. The circum- 
 stances which led to its composition she thus 
 relates : — " In the gardens of the palace at Ful- 
 ham is a dark recess ; at the end of this stands 
 a chair which once belonged to Bishop Bonner. 
 
44 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 The poem is founded on a legend connected 
 with the palace at Fulham. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Visits her friends — Begtns her schools — Publishes her 
 "Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World" — 
 Continues to devote much time to her schools — Her plans 
 of instruction — Annual festival — Goes to Bath. 
 
 In the summer of 1789, after a short stay at 
 Cowslip Green, we find Miss More travelling 
 with Mr. and Mrs. Wilberforce through some 
 of the northern counties of England. On her 
 return she spent some time with the dowager 
 duchess at Stoke. In the autumn she just 
 called on Mrs. Montague in Berkshire, and af- 
 terward paid a short visit to the bishop of Sa- 
 lisbury. Alluding to these visits she says : — 
 " With all rny fantastic dreams of hermitage 
 and retreat, and a place to retire to be melan- 
 choly in, any thing less like a hermit, or more 
 like a fine lady, cannot be easily conceived." 
 It would seem, however, that Miss More was 
 far from being idle, and that her head, prompt- 
 ed by her heart, was labouring with designs for 
 the benefit of her fellow creatures which would 
 require greater exertions than any which she 
 had hitherto undertaken. These labours are al- 
 luded to in a letter to Mrs. Carter, as follows: — 
 
 " I am engaged in a work in which I am 
 sure I shall have your hearty prayers and good 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 45 
 
 wishes. You will, I dare say, mistake the 
 word work, and think it some literary vanity ; 
 but no, this is it. A friend of mine and myself, 
 having with great concern discovered a very 
 large villaore at some miles distance from me, 
 containing incredible multitudes of poor, plung- 
 ed in an excess of vice, poverty, and ignorance, 
 beyond what one would suppose possible in a 
 civilized and Christian country, have under- 
 taken the task of seeing if we cannot become 
 humble instruments of usefulness to these poor 
 creatures, in the way of schools and a little 
 sort of manufactory. The difficulties are great, 
 and my hopes not sanguine ; but He who does 
 not despise the day of small things will, I trust, 
 bless this project." 
 
 This important work, thus suggested, com- 
 manded much of her attention during the re- 
 mainder of her life, and she was assisted in it 
 more or less by all her sisters. These pious 
 and indefatigable women, having accumulated 
 by their labors a handsome competence, dis- 
 posed of their establishment in Bristol, and in 
 the latter part of 1789 removed to Bath where 
 they built a house and resided, but frequently 
 spent a portion of the summer months with 
 their sister at Cowslip Green. But their retire- 
 ment was not marked by a course of self-in- 
 dulgence and inactivity. Having learned the 
 benevolent object of Hannah's labours, they 
 cheerfully and vigorously lent their aid, and 
 during a long life the gratuitous religious in- 
 .struction and improvement of the poor and their 
 
46 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 children in the surrounding country, occupied a 
 great share of their attention. 
 
 The spot on which Miss More' had deter- 
 mined to plant the standard of Christian edu- 
 cation was the village of Cheddan, about ten 
 miles distant from Cowslip Green ; a place 
 which was, at the time, much more remark- 
 able for its romantic scenery than for the intel- 
 ligence and morality of its inhabitants : so that, 
 notwithstanding the benevolence of her designs, 
 she found many difficulties to encounter before 
 she could even succeed in making a com- 
 mencement. Learning that it was necessary 
 to gain the good will of the principal man of 
 the village, she called on him and disclosed 
 her plan in the hope that it would meet his 
 apprcbation : but in this she was disappointed. 
 He desired that she would not bring any reli- 
 gion into the place, adding, '* it is the worst 
 thing in the world for the poor, making them 
 lazy and worthless." Finding that she had to 
 contend with great difficulties, and that friends 
 must be secured or her project would fail, she 
 was most assiduous in her attentions to the 
 people of the village, and made eleven more 
 calls of a similar kind, by which means she 
 finally overcame their prejudices so far that 
 she deemed it safe to proceed. In a letter to 
 Mr. Wilberforce she playfully describes the 
 success of her efforts as follows: — "Miss Wil- 
 berforce," she says, " would have been shocked 
 had she seen the petty tyrants whose insolence 
 I stroked and tamed, the ugly children I praised, 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 47 
 
 the pointers and spaniels I caressed, the ci- 
 der I commended and the wine I swallowed. 
 After these irresistible flatteries, I inquired of 
 each if he could recommend me to a house ; 
 and said that I had a little plan which I hoped 
 would secure their orchards from being robbed, 
 their rabbits from being shot, their game from 
 being stolen, and which might lower the poor 
 rates. If effect be the best proof of eloquence, 
 then mine was a good speech, for I gained at 
 length the hearty concurrence of the whole 
 people." 
 
 In another part of this letter she says : — " I 
 procured immediately a good house, which, 
 when a partition is taken down and a window 
 added, will receive a great number of children. 
 The house and an excellent garden of almost 
 an acre of ground, I have taken at once for six 
 guineas and a half per year. 1 have ventured 
 to take it for seven years, — there is courage for 
 you! it is to be put in order immediately; 'for 
 the night cometh :' and it is a comfort to think, 
 that though I may be dust and ashes in a iew 
 weeks, yet by that time this business will be 
 in actual motion." 
 
 The school thus commenced soon obtained 
 considerable popularity in the neighbourhood, 
 and from a small number gradually increased 
 to near three hundred scholars. Before long it 
 was evident that she was right, and that the 
 loose practices of the village were undergoing 
 reform. Many of the poor who had hitherto 
 been dissipated and idle became sober and or- 
 
48 MEMOIR OF ilANXAH MORE. 
 
 derly members of society, and the more wealthy 
 were soon glad to second her exertions. Grati- 
 fied at her uniooked-for success, she determined 
 to enlarge her field of labours, and in conjunc- 
 tion with one of her sisters she set about look- 
 ing up another place where she might repeat 
 her efforts with like success. She was not 
 long in finding another village equally destitute 
 of moral culture, and commenced with the same 
 zeal another establishment which was also soon 
 placed on a respectable footing, and " in the 
 full tide of successful experiment." These la- 
 bours had so much excited her interest that she 
 regretted her usual engagement to spend the 
 winter in London with Mrs. Garrick, whither, 
 however, she proceeded early in January, 1790. 
 While in London she published, without her 
 name, an essay, on which she had for some 
 time been engaged, entitled "An Estimate of 
 the Religion of the Fashionable World." No 
 sooner did it appear than it was bought up 
 with the greatest eagerness, and universally 
 considered as the production of her pen. Ca- 
 dell, her publisher, had been requested to for- 
 ward a copy to several of her friends, but not 
 to name the author. Mrs. Chapone, on receiv- 
 ing one of these, in a letter to Miss More thus 
 acknowledged its receipt : — " The same good 
 gentleman who some time ago gave his excel- 
 lent thoughts to the great has again made a 
 powerful effort for their reformation, which they 
 receive with as much avidity as if they meant 
 to be amended by it ; indeed he has wisely 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 49 
 
 recommended it to their taste by every charm 
 and ornament of eloquence. He has been so 
 obliging as to send me a copy of his admirable 
 book ; and as I do not know his name or ad- 
 dress, I take the liberty of applying to you who 
 are, I believe, pretty vi^ell acquainted with him, 
 though probably not aware of half his merits. 
 I beg you will convey to him my grateful ac- 
 knowledgments for his favour, assure him that 
 he continually rises in my esteem, and (gentle- 
 man though he be) I sincerely love and honour 
 him, and wish the most perfect success to all 
 his undertakings." 
 
 In a like letter from Bishop Porteus, to whom 
 Cadell had forwarded a copy, it was observed : 
 — " Indeed, my dear friend, it is in vain to think 
 of concealing yourself- Your style and manner 
 are so marked, and so confessedly superior to 
 any moral writer of the present age, that you 
 will be immediately detected by any one that 
 pretends to any taste and skill in discriminating 
 the characteristic excellencies of one author 
 from another." The bishop of Salisbury also 
 addressed her in a similar manner. " Neither 
 your wishes for concealment," says he, "nor 
 my silence, will avail : the internal evidence is 
 too powerful ; and no doubt can remain on the 
 mind of the reader of the * Thoughts on the 
 Manners of the Great,' whether ' The ReUgion 
 of the Fashionable World' proceeds from the 
 same excellent heart and eloquent pen." Mrs. 
 Boscawen in a letter to the same effect writes : — 
 " Indeed, my good friend, your plan of secrecy 
 4 
 
50 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 would have succeeded perfectly, if giants could 
 be concealed : but if, like Saul, you are higher 
 than any of the people from the shoulders and 
 upward, you must be conspicuous." Mr. New- 
 ton writes thus : — " I received, last week, ' An 
 Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable 
 World.' Somebody deserves thanks for the 
 pleasure its perusal has given me, and I con- 
 ceive that nobody has a better title to them 
 than yourself." 
 
 At the period when this excellent work made 
 its appearance, true religion was almost extinct 
 among the influential classes of England : the 
 form existed, but it was without life, and even 
 its authorized teachers advocated it more as a 
 fiction than as an emanation from the Deity, 
 The intercourse of Miss More with fashionable 
 society made her familiar with these facts, and 
 it was the design of her work to point out some 
 of the causes which had thus lowered the stan- 
 dard of Christian piety and presented religion 
 to the world as a dead and spiritless system 
 devoid of practical results. The work is writ- 
 ten in the best possible spirit, and was well 
 calculated to accomplish the ends which the 
 amiable author had in view. After showing 
 that Christianity, as it then existed, was alto- 
 gether different from that system of faith preach- 
 ed by the Saviour and his apostles, she goes on 
 to trace the decay of piety to the want of early 
 religious education — the omission of family de- 
 votion among professors — the want of harmony 
 between Christian faith and Christian practice. 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 51 
 
 &c., and closes the work by some pointed and 
 severe censures on those individuals who, while 
 they admire Christianity as a system of morals, 
 deny its divine authority. 
 
 Soon after the publication of this volume 
 Miss More returned to her cottage at Cowslip 
 Green, and renewed her labours in giving in- 
 struction to the poor of the neighbouring pa- 
 rishes. Her efforts had been successful far be- 
 yond her hopes ; and, aided by her sisters, she 
 was constantly extending them, and making 
 such improvements as her better experience 
 suggested. In 1791 she received a visit from 
 the Rev. John Newton, who went with her from 
 mountain to valley through her field of labor, 
 which then extended over a circuit of nearly 
 ten miles, and embraced no less than six dif- 
 ferent schools. His excellent counsels and pi- 
 ous instructions gave her much encouragement, 
 and stimulated her to increased exertions. 
 
 At no great distance from her residence was 
 a village, so abandoned to profligacy and igno- 
 rance, that she had hitherto been dissuaded 
 from attempting any reformation, on- account of 
 the rudeness and ferocity of the inhabitants. 
 She now, however, determined to make the at- 
 tempt, and, although her friends continued to 
 remonstrate, yet, acting on the principle that the 
 more they were degraded the more they stood 
 in need of instruction, she commenced the 
 work and was, happily, most successful. A 
 spot where all was misery, confusion, and vice, 
 in a few months, by the feeble efforts of two or 
 
52 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 three unprotected females, was transformed into 
 a peaceful and orderly community. 
 
 Such results were cheering indeed, and, to 
 a benevolent mind, brought with them a rich 
 reward. Religious instruction formed a promi- 
 nent part of her plan, and she coupled with the 
 literary exercises a Sunday evening service for 
 religious worship, which was made accessible 
 to all. These meetings were opened by read- 
 ing a portion of Scripture, then a suitable 
 prayer was offered up, and afterward a plain 
 short sermon, selected from some pious author, 
 was read, when the meeting closed. One of 
 the sisters usually conducted these exercises : 
 and, at first, they met with some opposition. 
 In a letter to Mr. Wilberforce Miss More says : 
 " It was, at first, thought very Methodistical, 
 and we got a few broken windows ; but quiet 
 perseverance carried us through. Many repro- 
 bates were, by the blessing of God, awakened, 
 and many swearers and sabbath breakers re- 
 claimed. The numbers, both of young and old 
 scholars, increased, and the daily life and con- 
 versation of many seemed to keep pace with 
 their religious profession on the Sunday. We 
 now begin to distribute Bibles and prayer- 
 books, with some other religious publications." 
 
 The ignorance that prevailed among the 
 lower classes in this part of England, at this 
 time, was most deplorable. Miss More tells 
 us, in one of her letters, that " not one out of 
 more than a hundred children, in one parish, 
 could tell who made them." Very few were 
 
MEMOIR OF IIAXXAH MORE. 53 
 
 able to read, and still fewer were acquainted 
 with the leading doctrines of the Christian reli- 
 gion. But, besides this degrading ignorance, 
 they were also very poor, and it was the de- 
 sign of these excellent ladies to better their 
 temporal as well as their spiritual condition. 
 To ac(;omplish this last purpose Miss More di- 
 vided them into societies, and introduced among 
 them several little arts, stimulated their indus- 
 try, and taught them economy. She also insti- 
 tuted a sort of annual feast, at which she or 
 some one or more of her sisters always attend- 
 ed, together with some clergymen and other 
 guests, who might be invited. These little 
 regulations had the happiest effect : " Among 
 their advantages," she says, " one is, that the 
 women, who used to plead that they could not 
 come to church because they had no clothes, 
 now are seldom absent. The necessity of at- 
 tending public worship with us in the proces- 
 sion, on the anniversary, raises an honest am- 
 bition to provide something decent to wear, 
 and the churches are now filled, on a Sunday, 
 with clean-looking women." 
 
 The expense of establishing and keeping up 
 all these schools must, of course, have been 
 very great, notwithstanding the rigid economy 
 used, and far exceeding the ftieans of either 
 Miss More or her sisters. They were, how- 
 ever, responsible for all the debts incurred, and, 
 besides their exertions, contributed largely of 
 the means they possessed, while liberal contri- 
 butions were made among their friends, from 
 
54 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 time to time, in order to supply the remainder. 
 But their exertions for these destitute, ignorant, 
 and neglected people were of that truly bene- 
 volent character, which looked not for their re- 
 ward in this world, and did not, therefore, 
 pause at trifling impediments. 
 
 In a letter to Mrs. Kennicott Miss More 
 amusingly describes one of her annual festivals ; 
 and, from her playful manner, one would almost 
 be led to the opinion that her undertaking cost 
 her neither anxiety nor self-denial. " I have," 
 she says, " kept this scrawl some days for want 
 of time to finish it, so busy have we been in pre- 
 paring for a grand celebration distinguished by 
 the pompous name of Mendip Feast. The 
 range of hills you remember, in this country, 
 on the top of which we yesterday gave a din- 
 ner of beef, and plum-pudding, and cider to our 
 schools. There were not quite six hundred 
 children ; for I would not admit the nevv 
 schools, telling them they must be good for a 
 a year or two to be entitled to so good a thing 
 as a dinner. We had two tents pitched on the 
 hill ; our cloth was spread around, and we were 
 enclosed in a fence, within which, in a circle, 
 the children sat. We all went in wagons and 
 carried a large company of our own to carve for 
 the children, \\ho sung psalms very prettily in 
 the intervals. Curiosity had drawn a great 
 multitude for a country so thinly populated ; 
 five thousand was the estimated number pre- 
 sent. Nearly all the clergy of the neighbour- 
 hood came, and I requested ^ separate minister 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 55 
 
 to say grace for each parish." She concludes 
 the descri])tion by saying, " We all parted with 
 the most perfect peace, having fed about nine 
 hundred people for less than a fine dinner for 
 twenty would cost." 
 
 The extraordinary exertions of Miss More, 
 in sustaining and improving these schools, du- 
 ring the summer and autumn, together with her 
 frequent exposure to night air and bad weather, 
 occasioned by her journeys, at length proved 
 too much for her health and she was compelled 
 to retire to Bath to recruit ; where, however, she 
 formed new designs of usefulness in the further 
 enlargement of her labours : " I am thankful," 
 she says, in one of her letters, " for the pros- 
 pect of laying in a little health for future ser- 
 vices, for I have partly pledged myself, in my 
 own mind, if I live and have health and money, 
 (o take up two new parishes, next spring, four 
 miles below Cheddar. These parishes are 
 large and populous, they are as dark as Africa, 
 and I do not like the thought that, at the day of 
 judgment, any people should 'be found to have 
 perished who were within my possible reach, 
 and only that I might have a little more ease." 
 These resolves were, through great difficulty 
 and much opposition, carried into full effect on 
 her returc. to Cowslip Green the next spring. 
 
56 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Death bed scenes — Attention to the afflicted — Visit t« 
 London — Publishes " Village Politics" — Publishes " Re- 
 marks on Dupont's Speech" — Attack on her writings-^ 
 Commences the " Monthly Repository." 
 
 It has been well said that 
 
 "The chamber where the good man meets his fate 
 Is privileged beyond the common walk 
 Of virtuous life." 
 
 The death of the Christian is his last triumph. 
 "The sting of death is sin,^ and sin having 
 been conquered through faith in the Redeemer, 
 the dying Christian is enabled to cry out, 
 " Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ." How such a 
 scene shames the senseless cavils of the skep- 
 tic, and puts to flight all the false reasonings of 
 vain philosophy ! 
 
 Eaily in the year 1792 Miss More, though 
 her own health was extremely feeble, was call- 
 ed to witness the last hours of some of her inti- 
 mate friends, and she was constrained to say 
 with the wise man — " that it is better to go to 
 the house of mourning than to the house of 
 feasting." The late Dr. Home, bishop of Nor- 
 wich, one of her most esteemed correspondents, 
 was lying ill at Bath, and during one of her 
 visits to that place breathed his last. She was 
 with him several times during her short stay, 
 and in one of her letters she says, " He was so 
 much better a few days ago that I was expect- 
 ing he would have sent for me to sit with him 
 
MEMOIR 01' HANNAH MORE. 57 
 
 in the evening ; but Patty called yesterday and 
 found him actually dying. He had just received 
 the sacrament with his family with extraordinary 
 devotion. Every word he uttered, every text he 
 repeated, consisted of praise and the mgst de- 
 vout thankfulness. He took leave of all sepa- 
 rately; exhorted and blessed them. He calmly 
 pronounced the words, " Blessed Jesus," stretch- 
 ed himself out and expired with the utmost tran- 
 quillity. We ought to rejoice that he is released 
 from a painful and burdensome body; and sure- 
 ly we do rejoice that his death was so consistent 
 with his life, and that he honoured his Christian 
 profession with his dying breath. How wise, 
 how pleasant, and how good he was, we shall 
 often remember." 
 
 On the death of the bishop, his widow came 
 and resided with Miss More for some time, and 
 her efforts to soothe the mind of her disconsolate 
 and bereaved friend were incessant. But while 
 thus endeavouring to dispense comfort to one of 
 her afflicted friends, she was called to share in 
 the toils and sorrows of another. In a letter to 
 Mrs. Kennicott she says : — " You heard me 
 speak, I think, of two young ladies of uncom- 
 mon parts and piety, cousins to Mrs. Wilber- 
 force, settled at Bath, quite alone in a Icdging, 
 of course wanting friendship and attention. One 
 of these has been dying eighteen days, to all 
 appearance ; but in a manner more truly heroic 
 and pious than any thing of the kind I ever wit- 
 nessed. She talks of her departure constantly, 
 and with pleasure ; and though when in health 
 
68 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 she was remarkably diffident and timid, she now 
 exhorts and instructs all who come near her ; 
 and tells them what a wretched state she would 
 now be in if she had nothing better in which to 
 trust than her own righteousness." 
 
 As this young lady had only her sister to 
 attend her, Miss More, though herself quite 
 unwell, offered her assistance, and was almost 
 constantly at the bed-side of the amiable and 
 dying girl, whose faith seemed to strengthen 
 just in proportion as she drew near to the gates 
 of death. " In the night on which she died," 
 •says Miss More, " she called us all about her, 
 and with an energy of spirit quite unlike her- 
 self she cried out in an animated tone, ' Be 
 witness, all of you, that I bear my dying testi- 
 mony to the truth of my Christian profession. 
 I am divinely supported, and have almost a 
 foretaste of heaven ! Oh ! this is not pain but 
 pleasure!'" Soon after she experienced great 
 anguish of body, during which she often cried 
 out, "let patience have its perfect work. Though 
 he slay me, yet will I trust in him : thy will, 
 not mine, be done." In this happy frame of 
 mind died one " who," says Miss More, •' was 
 so shy, reserved, cold, and hesitating in her 
 natural manner, that few ever discovered what 
 a close intimacy enabled me to discover — a 
 most accomplished mind hidden under a thick 
 veil of humility." 
 
 These instructive death-bed scenes were not 
 lost on such a tender sensitive mind as that 
 of Hannah More, and tended still further to 
 
MEMOIR OF HAXNAH MORE. 59 
 
 deepen that piety which now influenced every 
 act of her life. " I am not afraid," she says, 
 " that these scenes will affect me too much ; 
 my fear is that the impression may escape be- 
 fore it has wrought its full benefit upon the 
 soul." For some time her attention was occu- 
 pied in doing what she could to comfort the 
 bereaved, for vi^hich purpose the house of her 
 sisters, where she was staying, was opened for 
 their reception, and where they received every 
 attention which the most enlarged Christian 
 benevolence could bestow. 
 
 Sinae Miss More had become so actively 
 engaged in her schemes of benevolence at 
 home, her visits to London had been much less 
 frequent than before. We find her, however, 
 in the spring of this year, again among her 
 London frienjis, but still actively employed in 
 every work of charity and kindness. She had 
 scarcely arrived when she was engaged with 
 all her soul in rescuing a young heiress who 
 had been decoyed from school by an unprin- 
 cipled man at the age of only fourteen years. 
 Next we find her administering to the wants 
 of De Lolme, the author of a well known trea- 
 tise on the English Constitution, who by his 
 extravagance had fallen into prison. A day or 
 two after her sympathies were enlisted in be- 
 half of an unhappy girl who had attempted t(» 
 drown herself. 
 
 On her return she spent several days at Ful- 
 ham with the bishop of London, who urged her 
 to write some tracts calculated to counteract 
 
60 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 the influence of French infideUty, the infection 
 of which was spreading rapidly through the 
 united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 In accordance with the wishes of her friend 
 she immediately commenced a tract for this 
 purpose, which was written hastily in the form 
 of a dialogue, and entitled " Village Politics." 
 In order the more effectually to conceal the 
 authorship, she sent it to another publisher by 
 the vame of Rivington, with orders to print it 
 without her name. This work which she va- 
 lued but little, and which she says, " on one 
 sick day I scribbled, and the very next njorning 
 sent off to Rivington's" for publication, proved 
 to be an invaluable tract, and was read with 
 eagerness by all ranks of people, although it 
 was designed only for the lower classes. The 
 sale was rapid and extensive, and hundreds 
 were bought up and distributed by different 
 gentlemen in their own neighbourhood. Bishop 
 Porteus was delighted with it. " ' Village Poli- 
 tics,'" he writes, "is universally extolled: it has 
 been read and greatly admired at Windsor, and 
 its fame is spreading rapidly over all parts of 
 the kingdom. Mr. Cambridge. says that Swift 
 could not have done better. I am perfectly of 
 that opinion ; it is a master-piece of its kind. 
 I congratulate myself on having drawn out a 
 new talent in you, and on having thereby done 
 much good to my country." 
 
 This excellent prelate, having been thus suc- 
 cessful in bringing out Miss More on this im- 
 portant subject, urged her to continue her la- 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 61 
 
 hours in the same field, and, the more to stimu- 
 late her in the work, sent her a copy of M. 
 Dupont's speech before the French National 
 Convention, in which religion was openly tra- 
 duced and deism defended. The result of this 
 appeal was an excellent pamphlet, entitled, 
 " Remarks on the Speech of M. Dupont on the 
 Subject of Religion and Public Education," pre- 
 fixed to which was an address in behalf of the 
 French emigrant clergy, who had been driven, 
 destitute and friendless, from their homes and 
 firesides to seek an asylum on the more tole- 
 rant shores of Great Britain, and to whom the 
 profits of her work, amounting to nearly $1000, 
 were consecrated. 
 
 " In this spirited, well-vi^ritten pamphlet," 
 says Mr. Taylor, one of her biographers, " the 
 absurdity, wickedness, and pernicious tendency 
 of atheism are clearly depicted. Infidelity is 
 not openly attacked, but is exhibited as the 
 hideous parent of vices the most gigantic, ut- 
 terly barren of all that is good, richly produc- 
 tive of unmitigated, universal evil. It is a con- 
 cise, but noble defence of Christianity, well 
 worthy, at any time, of an attentive perusal ; but 
 more especially serviceable at the time of its 
 appearance, when it operated as a powerful — 
 perhaps the most powerful — check to that wild, 
 reckless spirit of atheistic freedom, misnamed 
 liberty, which threatened then to produce the 
 same frightful havoc in England as it had al- 
 ready produced in France." 
 
 But, although it was written in an amiable. 
 
62 MEMOIR OF HANNAH 3I0RE. 
 
 Christian spirit, without harshness, and without 
 any design to arouse opposition, it was severe- 
 ly attacked by three individuals : " The first 
 accused me," she says, " of openly opposing 
 God's vengeance against popery, by wickedly 
 wishing that the French priests should not be 
 starved when it was God's will that they should 
 be : the second undertakes the defence of Du- 
 pont and justifies his principles : the third de- 
 clares that I am a favourer of the old popish 
 massacres." 
 
 The reasons which, in her address, she as- 
 signs for desiring to alleviate the condition of 
 the exiled Catholic clergy, should have screen- 
 ed her from all attacks on that score. She 
 justly says : " Christian charity is of no party. 
 We plead not for their faith, but for their 
 wants ;" and adds, " if we wish for proselytes, 
 who knows but this may be the first step to- 
 ward their conversion, if we show them the 
 purity of our religion by the beneficence of our 
 actions ?" 
 
 But the attacks made upon Miss More's 
 works never gave her any uneasiness. In- 
 stead of returning railing for railing she always 
 endeavoured to extract from them something to 
 profit her and keep her humble. " All cen- 
 sure," she says, " is profitable ; for, if one does 
 not happen to deserve it for the thing in ques- 
 tion, it makes one look inio one's self; and my 
 mind is of such a make, that my chief danger 
 lies, not in abuse, but in flattery." If, how- 
 ever, she had needed the support of her friends, 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 63 
 
 they stood ready to give it. Lord Orford, (late 
 Horace Walpole,) says, in a letter to her, " Let 
 the vile abuse vented against you be balm to 
 your mind. Your writings must have done 
 great service when they have so much pro- 
 voked the enemy. All, who have any religion 
 or principle, must revere your name. Who 
 would not be hated by Duponts and Dantons ? 
 and, if abhorrence of atheism implies popery, 
 reckon it a compliment to be called papist ?" 
 
 Notwithstanding these occasional efforts of 
 her pen, the chief object of Miss More's atten- 
 tion was still the improvement of the lower 
 classes, by the means which she had already 
 employed with so much success ; and, during 
 the year 1793, she formed the project of pub- 
 lishing, as an immediate auxiliary to her la- 
 bours, a cheap " Monthly Repository," the ob- 
 ject of which was to diffuse useful and reli- 
 gious knowledge more generally among the 
 poor. Scarcely was the idea suggested to her 
 mind before she set about putting it into execu- 
 tion. It was printed, under her sole superintend- 
 ence, at Bath, and immediately acquired an im- 
 mense circulation ; so great, indeed, that the 
 press could scarcely supply the requisite num- 
 ber of copies,- the sale of which amounted, in 
 the first year, to no less than two millions. 
 
 She wrote to all her literary friends, desiring 
 contributions ; but most of the articles were the 
 production of her own pen. Among them were 
 " The Tale of the Shepherd of Salisbury 
 Plain," " The Two Wealthy Farmers," "The 
 
64 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Two Shoemakers," " Betty Brown, the Orange 
 Girl," " Black Giles, the Poacher," " Mr. Fan- 
 torn the Infidel, and his Servants," " Hester 
 Wilmot," together with all the allegories. In- 
 dustry and economy were constantly inculcated 
 in its pages, and it was enriched with sound 
 and wholesome information on all subjects like- 
 ly to be of advantage to the poor. 
 
 That this work was of immense importance 
 and did much toward counteracting the theo- 
 retical follies of the day, the natural offspring 
 of the French philosophy ; and that its influ- 
 ence was felt in bettering the condition of the 
 poor, by correcting their morals, stimulating 
 their industry, and teaching them economy, is 
 the universal testimony of those who best 
 know. In it we behold a mind fitted for the 
 higher walks of literature, endowed to shine in 
 the loftier flights of poetry or fiction, stooping 
 to be merely useful, bending its attention to the 
 noble effort of bettering the condition of the 
 poor, who could neither recompense her with 
 money nor crown her with honours. " My ca- 
 reer," she says, *' is not, indeed, a very brilliant 
 one ; but I feel that the value of a thing lies 
 much more in its usefulness than in its splen- 
 dour, that I have a notion I should derive moro 
 benefit from being able to lower the price of 
 bread,- than from having written the ' Iliad. " 
 " But," she adds, " let me not forget to do 
 homage to real talents, for which I still retain 
 something of my ancient kindness." 
 
 It was this noble principle that guided all 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 69 
 
 her actions ; and her readiness always to em^ 
 ploy her time or her talents in doing good, jnay be 
 further illustrated by a little incident which hap- 
 pened about this time. The colliers in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Bath, for some cause which we 
 do not know, had become greatly excited and 
 dissatisfied, and had formed a coalition for the 
 purpose of revolt, which must have been at- 
 tended with very unpleasant consequences. 
 Her benevolent genius immediately suggested 
 that a sprightly ballad, in which the evils of re- 
 volt were exposed, might meet the ear and pre- 
 vent the evil. Accordingly she set about the 
 work, and her poem, which was entitled " The 
 Revolt," contained such genuine touches of hu- 
 mour on the subject that its circulation among 
 the disaffected put a complete stop to their 
 plans. Such was the readiness with which 
 ihis excellent woman turned her gifted mind to 
 the advantage of her species. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Her religious activit)' — Visit to the duchess of Gloucester 
 — Meeting with Lord Orford — Present from Lord Orford — 
 Attention to her schools and " Repository Tracts" — Death of 
 Lord Orford — Increased attention to religion^ — Present of 
 Lord Orford's work — Dangerously injured by a fall — " Re- 
 pository Tracts" discontinued — Commences another school 
 — Opposition. * 
 
 The private journal of Miss More, du- 
 ring the year 1794, exhibits her indefatigable 
 exertions to promote every scheme of benevo- 
 5 
 
66 MEMOIR OF HANxNAH MORE. 
 
 lence which was likely to result in the 
 good of mankind ; and it also shows her deep 
 and growing piety. We find her feasting her 
 pupils, a thousand at a time, spending her Sun- 
 days among them, dispensing to them reli- 
 gious instruction, writing continually, in the in- 
 tervals of her more active labours, for her " Re- 
 pository Tracts," reproving the fashionable 
 follies of her friends in " high places," and 
 directing the broken-hearted to the word of life, 
 for the balm to heal all their sorrows. 
 
 Early in 1795 she visited London, where she 
 maintained her Christian firmness and dignity 
 among the great, and, on every proper occasion, 
 bore her testimony in favour of the doctrines of 
 vital piety, as taught by our Lord and his apos- 
 tles. Writing to her sister she says : " I paid 
 my visit to Gloucester house yesterday. Lady 
 Waldegrave presented me to the duchess. 
 We had two hours of solid, rational, religious 
 conversation. It would be too little to say, 
 that the behaviour of the duchess is gracious in 
 the extreme. She behaved to me with the af- 
 fectionate familiarity of an equal ; and, though 
 I took the opportunity of saying stronger things 
 of a religious kind than, perhaps, she had ever 
 heard, she bore it better than any person I ever 
 conversed with, and seemed not offended at the 
 «trictness of the gospel." 
 
 With her friend, Lord Orford, she was less 
 successful. " He ralUed me," she writes, " for 
 what he called the ill-natured strictness of my 
 tracts : and talked , foolishly enough, of the cru 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 67 
 
 elty of making the poor spend so much time in 
 reading books. 1 recommended him, and the 
 ladies present, to read ' Law's Serious Call :' 
 I told them that it was a book that their favour- 
 ite, Gibbon, had highly praised ; and, moreover, 
 that Law had been Gibbon's tutor in early 
 life." " Was there ever," she adds, " such a 
 contrast between tutor and pupil ?" 
 
 It seems likely that, notwithstanding the ap- 
 parent opposition of Lord Orford to the strict- 
 ness of her principles, at this time, he afterward 
 better appreciated them, and perhaps profited 
 by the book which she had thus recommended 
 to his attention ; for, during an attack of illness, 
 a short time after, he expressed a regret for 
 having reproached her for her piety, with the 
 hope that she would forgive him, and, on his re- 
 covery, transmitted her a copy of Bishop Wil- 
 son's Bible, elegantly bound, in three quarto 
 volumes. Upon it was this inscription : — 
 
 TO HIS EXCELLENT FRIEND, 
 
 MISS HANNAH MORE, 
 THIS BOOK, 
 
 WHICH HE KNOWS TO BE THE DEAREST OBJECT 
 
 .OF HER STUDY, 
 
 AND BY WHICH, 
 
 TO THE GREAT COMFORT AND RELIEF 
 
 OF NUMBERLESS AFFLICTED AND DISTRESSED 
 
 INDIVIDUALS, 
 
 SHE HAS PROFITED, 
 
 BEYOND ANY PERSON WITH WHOM HE IS 
 
 ACQUAINTED, 
 
68 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 IS OFFERED AS A MARK OF HIS ESTEEM AND 
 
 GRATITUDE, 
 BY HER SINCERE AND OBLIGED HUMBLE SERVANT, 
 
 HORACE, 
 
 EARL OF ORFORD, 
 1795. 
 
 This gratifying testimonial of the continued 
 kindness and good will of her friend, instead of 
 exciting her vanity, seems to have produced an 
 effect directly opposite. " O," said she, in a 
 letter to her sister, " O, that he would himself 
 study this blessed book, to which, in his most 
 flattering inscription, he attributes my having 
 done far more good than is true." " Alas !" she 
 adds, " when I receive these undue compli- 
 ments, I am ready to answer with my old friend 
 Johnson, ' Sir, 1 am a miserable sinner !' " 
 
 During the summer she added another school 
 to her charge, which was undertaken at the 
 earnest request of the resident clergyman and 
 magistrate. It was in a most benighted region, 
 and the opening prospects were not the most 
 flattering. " Several of the grown-up youths," 
 she says, " had been tried at the late assizes ; 
 three were the children of a person lately con- 
 demned : many thieves, all ignorant, profane, 
 vicious, beyond belief. Of this banditti we 
 have admitted nearly two hundred ; and, when 
 the clergyman saw these creatures kneeling 
 round us, whom he had seldom seen but in the 
 discharge of his magisterial duties, to commit, 
 or punish, he burst into tears. I can do them 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. G9 
 
 Init little good, I fear, but the grace of God can 
 do all." 
 
 The interest which she and her sisters took 
 in these labours of love is truly remarkable. In 
 a letter to Mr. Wilberforce, acknowledging a 
 sum of money which he had appropriated for 
 distribution among her poor, in consequence of 
 the severity of the winter, she says, " I joyfully 
 accept the honourable office of your almoner, on 
 condition that you will find fault with, and di- 
 i*ect me, with as little scruple as I shall have in 
 disposing of your money. Patty is very proud 
 of being admitted into the confederacy ; but I 
 like my dignity too well to allow her to be more 
 than vice-queen. What a comfort I feel in 
 looking round on these starving and half-naked 
 multitudes, to think that, by your liberality, 
 many of them may be fed and clothed ; and, O ! 
 U but one soul is rescued from eternal misery, 
 how may we rejoice over it in another state, 
 when, perhaps, it may make no small part of 
 our felicity that our frien*dship was turned to 
 some useful account, in advancing the good of 
 others ; and, as I humbly presume to hope, in 
 preparing ourselves for that life which shall 
 have no end." 
 
 In 1796 Miss More, the better to fit her la- 
 bours to the condition of the poor, brought out 
 two editions of her " Repository Tracts :" one, 
 on superior paper, for the rich ; and one, very 
 common, for distribution ; by which means she 
 hoped more effectually to counteract the sedi- 
 tious and skeptical publications with which the 
 
70 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 country was inundated. It was her object to 
 make it so exceeding!)^ cheap that it might be 
 read by all, and especially that it might find its 
 way wherever the infidel trash of the hawkers 
 (the pedlars) had penetrated. In this desigti 
 she seems, in a measure, to have been success- 
 ful. At least the enemies of Christianity felt 
 her power, and attacked her on all sides. vShe 
 was also attacked by different political factions. 
 This, however, she little regarded, and, accord- 
 ing to her settled practice, bore it all in silence. 
 Speaking of it, in one of her letters, she says : 
 " May you and I be tempted, neither by abuse 
 nor flattery, to depart from that candour and 
 that tolerating spirit, which make so necessary 
 a part of the Christian character, and which, I 
 trust, will stand us in stead when all petty 
 names of party shall be done away, and when 
 charity shall be all in all." 
 
 During the winter of 1796 Miss More again 
 visited London, calling, as usual, upon " her 
 royal highness," the*duchess of Gloucester, and 
 endeavouring to draw her mind toward the mild 
 precepts of the gospel. In the following spring- 
 she repeated her visit to the metropolis, and, 
 while there, heard of the death of Lord Orford, 
 for whom she had long cherished an ardeni 
 friendship. Writing to her sister she refers to 
 the event in language which exhibits the deep 
 concern which she ielt for his spiritual welfare. 
 " Poor Lord Orford !" she says, " I could not 
 help mourning for him. Twenty years' un- 
 clouded kindness and pleasant correspondence 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 7^ 
 
 cannot be given up without emotion. I am not 
 sorry, now, that I never flinched from any of 
 his ridicule, or attacks, or suffered them to pass 
 without rebuke. At our last meeting 1 made 
 him promise to buy ' Law's Serious Call.' His 
 playful wit, his various knowledge, his polished 
 manners, alas I what avail they now ? The 
 most serious thoughts are awakened. ' O, that 
 he had known and believed the things which 
 belonged to his peace.' " 
 
 Her visits to the duchess of Gloucester af- 
 forded her much satisfaction. " By far the 
 most interesting evening," she says, " that 1 
 have passed in town, was at Gloucester house, 
 where I have l^een twice. It would make 
 some folks smile to know that we read the 
 epistle to the Ephesians, commenting upon it 
 as we proceeded." The duchess was anxious 
 for religious knowledge, and Miss More de- 
 lighted in leading her to the " fountain opened 
 in the house of David." The correspondence 
 between them was long kept up, and abounded 
 in interest. 
 
 Her mind continued to be more and more 
 absorbed in the things of religion. On the first 
 day of the year 1798, while in London, she 
 made a new dedication of herself to God. 
 " Having," she says, in her journal, " obtained 
 help of God, I continue to this day. Let me 
 now dedicate myself to him with a more entire 
 surrender than I have ever made. I resolve, 
 by his grace, to be more watchful over my tem- 
 per and thoughts ; not to speak harshly ; to in- 
 
72 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 dulge in no vain, idle, resentful, impatient, 
 worldly imaginations ; to strive after closer 
 communion with God ; to let no hour pass 
 without lifting up my heart to him, through 
 Christ ; not to let a day pass without some 
 thoughts of death ; to ask myself, every night 
 when I lie down, am I fit to die ? to labour to 
 do and to suffer the whole will of God, and to 
 restrain all undue anxiety by casting myself on 
 God in Christ." Soon after she again writes, 
 " I indulge too frequently in the thought, how 
 much belter I might be had I fewer interrup- 
 tions, more opportunities of religious improve- 
 ment, more pious friends, less worldly compa- 
 ny. There is great self-dec^tion in all this. 
 The question ought rather to be, Do I make the 
 most of my time ? Lord assist me so to do, 
 and help me to bear patiently what I dislike." 
 
 This rigid self-inspection — this keen sense 
 of the value of time — this constant watchful- 
 ness over her thoughts, words, and actions — ex- 
 hibits the workings of a well-disciplined mind 
 — of a conscience " quick as the apple of an 
 eye" — and a heart burning with a deep and ar- 
 dent desire after higher spiritual attainments. 
 Her remarks on the pulpit efforts of some of the 
 London clergy, who laboured more after ele- 
 gance of diction, and a graceful, florid style, 
 than for the salvation of souls, are also evidence 
 to the same point. " Heard — '— preach," she 
 says, " elegant language — earnest and bold ; 
 but nothing to the heart ; no food for perishing 
 sinners. Lord, send more labourers into thy 
 
MEMOIR OF HANxVAH MORE. 73 
 
 vineyard ! Increase the number of those who 
 preach Jesus Christ, and salvation through him 
 only." 
 
 On receiving a present of Lord Orford's 
 work, which, much against her wish, had been 
 embellished with her portrait, accompanied with 
 many flattering remarks, she says, " Lord keep 
 me from self-sufficiency ; and humble mc under 
 a deep sense of the emptiness of earthly ho- 
 nours. Lord Orford had all this world could 
 give ; great, witty, briUiant ; of how little use 
 are these things to him now ! ' Blessed are 
 the pure in heart for they shall see God.' 
 Grant me this purity, and an utter indifference 
 to time, and deadness to the world." 
 ■ During the summer, while attending one of 
 her schools, she caught a severe cold by re- 
 maining too long in a damp, unfinished room, 
 and was soon after attacked severely with pain 
 in her head, which continued several days. In 
 this condition she met with an accident which 
 had nearly proved fatal. " On Monday," she 
 says, " being left alone, I fell from the place 
 where I was sitting in a fainting fit. I dashed 
 my face against the corner of a stone wall, and 
 lay a long time without any signs of life. My 
 sisters found me in a posture which must soon 
 have suffocated me, with ray face frightfully 
 disfigured, and the floor sprinkled with blood. 
 There was a strong contest between life and 
 death, but it pleased my merciful God to raise 
 me up. It was a good while before I had any 
 clear ideas, but felt a sort of stupid serenity ; 
 
74 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 no emotion, but a general feeling that I had not 
 done enough for God ; and a deep concern to 
 know what poor Patty would do." The effects 
 of this illness continued many weeks, and we 
 find in her journal and letters frequent allusions 
 to it, " Lord," she says, " sanctify pain to me ; 
 make me as willing to suffer thy will as to do it." 
 
 In the autumn of this year she discontinued 
 her " Repository Tracts," which had now occu- 
 pied a great share of her attention for about 
 three years, and which had a sale so extraordi- 
 nary that they had literally been distributed all 
 over the kingdom. Alluding to the completion 
 of this work in her journal, she says : — " Bless 
 the Lord, O my soul, that I have been spared 
 to accomplish this work. Do thou, Lord, 
 bless and prosper it to the good of many, and if 
 it do good, may I give thee the glory, and take 
 to myself the shame of its defects." 
 
 Her health continued so bad that, for a sea- 
 son, she was obliged to retire to Bath ; but 
 soon returned again to her village labours, 
 which she continued through much suffering 
 and pain. She had lately commenced a school 
 in a parish thirty miles from Cowslip Green, 
 where, in addition to the great distance, and 
 the ordinary difficulties of the undertaking, her 
 cares and anxieties were much heightened by 
 violent opposition. This she describes in one 
 of her letters with her accustomed spirit, appa- 
 rently not the least disheartened by a circum- 
 stance which would have put a fatal check to 
 the work in the hands of almost any other person. 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 75 
 
 " The principal adversary," she says, " is a 
 farmer of jGIOOO sterhng a year. He has la- 
 bored to ruin the poor curate, for favouring our 
 cause, and declares that he shall never more 
 have a workman that will obey him. But in 
 spite of this hostility, which far exceeded any 
 thing of the kind I ever met with, I am building 
 a house, and taking up things on a large scale ; 
 so that you must not be surprised if I get into 
 jail for debt. Providence, however, I trust, 
 will carry me through the difficulties of this 
 new undertaking. Already between three and 
 four hundred are under a course of instruction. 
 The worst part of the story is, that thirty miles 
 is too great a distance these short days ; and 
 when we get there our house has neither doors 
 nor windows ; but if we live till next summer 
 things will mend, and in so precarious a world 
 as the present a winter is not to be lost." 
 
 This opposition was carried on with great 
 rancour ; and the more effectually to bring her 
 into disrepute, and destroy her influence, her 
 enemies prepared and published a history of 
 her life, which was interspersed with false and 
 detracting statements, and silly incidents. All 
 this, .however, did not damp her ardour, and 
 she continued to go on successfully, regardless 
 of the persecution she had to endure, and with- 
 out comment or reply. This was undoubtedly 
 her wisest course, and enabled her to go through 
 a long life of public labours in the most respon- 
 sible undertakings with comparatively few ene- 
 mies, and without contention. 
 
76 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 'Strictures on Female Education" — Testimonials of its 
 worth — Clianicter of the work — Public commendation of 
 the bishop of London — Meets with great opposition fronc 
 the curate of Blagdon — Persecution — Abandons one of hei 
 schools — Vindication of her character — Final triuaiph. 
 
 NoTWiTHSTANDiiNG Miss More's frequent 
 turns of illness, and the arduous labours of su- 
 perintending her parish schools, which now 
 embodied nearly two thousand i^ersons of differ- 
 ent ages, and extended over an area of thirty or 
 forty miles, she did not entirely neglect her 
 pen. During the intervals of her ill health she 
 had employed herself in writing a work which 
 she sent to press early in the year 1799, under 
 the title of " Strictures on the Modern System 
 of Female Education," and which proved to be 
 one of the most powerful engines which she 
 ever employed against the fashionable foUies 
 of her time. 
 
 This admirable book met with the same kind 
 reception from the public which her former pro- 
 ductions had received. One of her correspond- 
 ents, soon after its publication, estimated that it 
 had been read by fifty thousand persons. She 
 received from all quarters the most flattering 
 testimonials of its worth, and had at least the 
 gratification to know that it was extensively 
 read among those classes for whose benefit in 
 parucular it had been written. One of her cor- 
 respondents well observes : — " The subjects of 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 77 
 
 your several chapters are admirabh^ chosen, 
 and treated with a force of sentiment and lan- 
 guage unequalled since the death of our great 
 and pious Johnson. The vices, follies, and 
 affectations of the times, how well described ! 
 Religion, how well understood and recom- 
 mended !" The bishop of Llandaff says : — 
 " Your publication is calculated to do much 
 good. I have put it with great satisfaction into 
 the hands of my daughters." The Rev. Mr. 
 Newton, in his meek manner, thus expresses 
 his approbation of it : — " I thank the Lord for 
 disposing and enabling you to write it ; and my 
 heart prays that it may be much read, and that 
 the blessing of the Lord may accompany the 
 perusal." Mr. Cecil declared it to be " one of 
 the most perfect works in all its parts that any 
 century or country has produced. 
 
 That this excellent volume was not, however, 
 valued above its deserts, we think all will 
 acknowledge who have paid any attention to its 
 instructive pages. She begins by describing 
 the influence of female manners on society, in 
 a way well calculated to stir up the attention of 
 the reader, and then goes on to the importance 
 of the subject of which she is about to treat. 
 " If," she says, " the great business of education 
 be to impart right ideas, to communicate useful 
 knowledge, to form a correct taste and a sound 
 judgment, to resist evil propensities, and, above 
 all, to seize the favourable season for infusing 
 principles and confirming habits ; if education 
 be a school to fit us for life, and life be a school 
 
78 MEMOIR OF HANx\AH MORE. 
 
 to fit US for eternity, it may then be worth in- 
 quiring how far these ends are hkely to be 
 effected by the prevailing system." 
 
 Well would it be if these great starting points 
 were always recognized in our systems of edu- 
 cation : if the efforts of the teacher, the guardi- 
 an, or the parent were directed to belter the 
 heart, and implant a store of virtuous principles, 
 to fortify it against the attacks of vice and the 
 allurements of fashion and folly. " But, forget- 
 ting this," as Miss More well remarks, " do we 
 not seem to educate our daughters exclusively 
 for the transient period of youth, when it is to 
 mature life that we ought to advert ? Do we 
 not educate them for a crowd, forgetting that 
 they are to live at home ? for the world and not 
 for themselves ? for time and not for eternity ? 
 Should we not reflect that it is our business to 
 form Christians, at least as far as we have the 
 power to do this, by the use of means ? that we 
 have to edu(?ate, not only rational, but account- 
 able beings ? Remembering this, should we 
 not be solicitous to let our daughters learn of 
 the well-taught, and associate with the well- 
 bred ? In training them should we not careful- 
 ly cultivate intellect, implant religion, and che- 
 rish modesty? Then, whatever is engaging in 
 manners would be the natural result of what- 
 ever is just in sentiment and correct in princi- 
 ple : softness would grow out of humility, and 
 external delicacy would spring out of purity of 
 heart ; then the decorums, the proprieties, the 
 elegancies, and even the graces, as far as they 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 79 
 
 are simple, pure, and honest, would follow as an 
 almost inevitable result," 
 
 Miss More treats with just severity the idea 
 of making mere accomplishments the chief ob- 
 ject of education. " Does it," she asks, " seem 
 to be the true end of education to make women 
 dancers, singers, players, painters, sculptors, 
 gilders, varnishers, engravers, embroiderers ?" 
 Such accomplishments, if so they may be 
 'called, have been forced upon the young by 
 their ;nisguided parents, with as much zeal as 
 though they were to be called into requisition 
 every day of their lives, while things really im- 
 portant are totally neglected. This abuse could 
 not escape the attention of a writer so observ- 
 ing as Miss More, and she enlarges on it with 
 peculiar force and clearness. 
 
 " The station of ladies," she says, " to which 
 the bent of their instruction should be turned, is 
 that of daughters, wives, mothers, and mis- 
 tresses of families : they should be, therefore, 
 trained with a view to these several conditions, 
 and be furnished with a stock of ideas and prin- 
 ciples, qualifications and habits, ready to be 
 applied and appropriated, as occasion may de- 
 mand, to each of these respective situations ; 
 for, though the arts which merely embellish 
 must claim admiration, yet, when a man of 
 sense comes to marry, it is a companion he 
 wants, not an artist. It is not merely a creature 
 who can paint, and play, and sing, and draw, and 
 dress, and dance ; it is a being who can comfort 
 and counsel him ; who can reason, and reflect, 
 
80 MEMOIR OF HAXXAH MORE. 
 
 and feel, and judge, and discourse, and discri- 
 minate ; one who can assist him in his affairs, 
 lighten his cares, soothe his sorrows, purify his 
 joys, strengthen his principles, and educate his 
 children." 
 
 The great duty, which Miss More so well 
 understood, of instructing the poor and allevi- 
 ating the hardships of their condition is not for- 
 gotten in her work. " The superintendence of 
 the poor," she justly observes, " is a noble em- 
 ployment for ladies, and one for which they are 
 peculiarly fitted ; from their own habits of life, 
 they are more intimately acquainted with do- 
 mestic wants than the other sex ; and, in cer- 
 tain instances of sickness and suffering, pecu- 
 liar to their sex, they may be expected to haA'-e 
 more s)mipathy. Let rich parents, then, be 
 careful to train up their children to supply, by 
 individual kindness, those cases of hardship 
 which laws cannot reach." 
 
 But, in the brief limits which are allotted to 
 us, we cannot give even the most summary view 
 of this interesting volume. Miss More every- 
 where evinces the most perfect knowledge of 
 her subject, and never overlooks, what no good 
 system of education ever can overlook, the reli- 
 gious culture of the young. She regards time 
 as a trust, which is not to be abused — as a ta- 
 lent, which is not to be lightly squandered — 
 and for the improvement of which, we shall all 
 be held accountable. She points out the vices 
 into which the youthful mind is apt to be en- 
 snared, and the errors of fond parents in allu- 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 81 
 
 ring their children into a love of worldly pride 
 and fashion. In short, it is a most useful trea- 
 tise, and one which can never be consulted by 
 parents or children without benefit. 
 
 Her book, however admirable as it was in 
 design and eloquent in execution, did not escape 
 without censure. Archdeacon Danbury, a 
 friend who had highly approved her former 
 works, was greatly dissatisfied with it, on the 
 ground of alleged puritanism, fanaticism, and 
 Galvanism, and came out with a reply. Miss 
 More might, with great ease, have refuted most 
 of his positions ; but she chose to remain si- 
 lent, thus withholding the fuel which would 
 have soon kindled up a glowing controversy. 
 The consequence was that his attack was soon 
 forgotten, while the strictures will long remain 
 to be read and prized. Bishop Porteus, not 
 long after, in a charge which he delivered to 
 his clergy, thus vindicated her work by his 
 sanction, and bore his testimony to the merits, 
 not only of this, but of her other productions. 
 
 " The spirit of piety," he says, " excited by 
 the productions of many able and excellent wri- 
 ters, is certainly very considerable ; but by 
 none more than by those of the highly approved 
 Miss Hannah More, whose extraordinary and 
 versatile talents can equally accommodate them- 
 selves to the cottage and the palace ; who, 
 while she is diffusing among the lower orders of 
 the people an infinity of little religious tracts, cal- 
 culated to reform and comfort them in this world 
 and to save them in the next, is, at the same 
 6 
 
82 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 time, applying all the powers of a vigorous and 
 highly cultivated mind to the instruction, im- 
 provement, and delight of the most exalted of 
 her own sex, I allude, more particularly, to her 
 last work on female education, which contains 
 such a fund of good sense, of wholesome coun- 
 sel, of sagacious observation, of a knowledge of 
 the world and the female heart, of high-toned mo- 
 rality and genuine Christian piety — and all this en- 
 livened bysuchbrilliancy of wit, such richness of 
 imagery, such variety and felicity of allusion — 
 such neatness and elegance of diction, as are 
 not, I conceive, easily to be found so combined 
 and blended together in any other work in the 
 English language." 
 
 Soon after the publication of this volume Miss 
 More was called to endure trials far mere se 
 vere than any which she had yet suffered. 
 The great prosperity of her schools, and the 
 sensible effect which they had produced, in re- 
 forming and taming the rude and refractory, by 
 bringing them under the mild and peaceful in- 
 fluences of the gospel, had induced the curate 
 of Blagdon (Mr. Bere) to ask the establishment 
 of a school in his parish. The request was, at 
 first, denied. Miss More assured the appli- 
 cant that neither her health, her time, nor her 
 purse, would allow her to think of further en- 
 larging her labours. The application was, how- 
 ever, renewed by a deputation from the church- 
 wardens and overseers of the parish, and was 
 pressed with such earnestness, that she was at 
 length induced to waive her objections ; and, 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 83 
 
 removing from one of her other schools an ap- 
 proved teacher, a rapid improvement soon re- 
 warded her efforts. The usual Sunday read- 
 ings were instituted — the poor adults as well as 
 children resorted to thcin in crowds — the pa- 
 rish officers expressed their delight at the im- 
 proved aspect of the place — and, for two or 
 three year?, things went on so well that the 
 courts, for some time, were left " without pro- 
 secutor or prisoners — plaintiff or defendant." 
 
 But, in the midst of these very pleasing re- 
 sults, while Miss More was absent, she received 
 from the curate, Mr. Bere, a letter, charging the 
 schoolmaster with irregularities and disaffection 
 to the Church, on account of some religious 
 meetings ^which he had held with his pupils, 
 and demanded his immediate dismission. She 
 assured him, by letter, that the subject should 
 have her early attention, immediately on her re- 
 turn ; but this assurance was not satisfactory, 
 and Mr. Bere wrote again, still more importu- 
 nately, to the same purpose. Miss More, hav- 
 ing great confidence in the master, did not 
 think it right to dismiss him without a hearing ; 
 but, that the curate might have no just cause of 
 complaint, she consented to have the affair set- 
 tled, in her absence, by referring it to a neigh- 
 bouring magistrate of Mr. Bere's acquaintance. 
 But, greatly to her surprise, the curate posi- 
 tively refused; reiterating his demand solely on 
 the grounds of his own representation. Under 
 these circumstances she did not see fit to comply 
 with his demand ; but gave orders that the of- 
 
84 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 • 
 
 fensive meetings, which the master had held, 
 should be immediately discontinued. 
 
 From this time Mr. Bere became her most 
 bitter and relentless foe. He charged her with 
 fanaticism, with Calvinism, with Methodism, 
 with disaffection to the Church, and stirred up 
 a violent opposition against her, not only in his 
 own neighbourhood, but throughout the coun- 
 try. It seemed to be his object to strike at and 
 destroy her influence and to break up all her 
 schools. Opposition from such a quarter was 
 no light affair : the curate soon formed around 
 him a party which, under the sanction of the 
 Church, carried its persecution to the pitch of 
 madness. Pamphlet after pamphlet was issued 
 against her, containing the most fals^ and mali- 
 cious accusations, and representing her as 
 guilty of all sorts of fanatical practices — from 
 which no one on earth was ever more free — of 
 teaching "heresy and sedition;" and, in one 
 of the principal ones, it is asserted that her 
 writings ought to he burned hy the common hang- 
 man. The worst of all was that the bishop of 
 the diocess (Dr. Bradon) had been so far influ- 
 enced by all these misrepresentations, as to 
 take part, in some measure, with the curate and 
 to desire that the master should be dismissed. 
 
 Under these circumstances Miss More thought 
 it prudent to break up the school ; which was 
 accordingly done, but without disarming the 
 opposition which was levelled against her. Af- 
 terward she addressed a long letter to the 
 bishop, taking a full view of the persecutions 
 
MEMOIR OF IIANXAII MORE. 85 
 
 which she had suffered, and explaining the mo- 
 tives which had influenced her throughout. 
 " It is with deep regret," she says, " that I find 
 myself compelled to trouble your lordship with 
 this letter, though your known liberality gives 
 me more courage in taking a step which, in 
 any case, I should feel it my duty to take. For, 
 however firm my resolution has been, never to 
 answer any of the calumnies under which I 
 have been so long suffering, yet, to your lord- 
 ship, as my diocesan, I feel myself accountable 
 for my conduct, attacked, as it has been, with a 
 wantonness of cruelty, which, in civilized 
 places, few persons, especially of my sex, have 
 been called to suffer." 
 
 These reasons for entering into an explana- 
 tion of her conduct to the bishop, are such as 
 will strike the reader with due weight. Her 
 admirable letter contains a clear exposition of 
 the conspiracy against her, and must have pro- 
 duced a powerful effect upon his mind. How 
 far she was from any thing like insubordination 
 or disaffection to the Church, may be learned by 
 the concluding paragraph of this very able let- 
 ter. " And now, my lord," she says, " I come 
 to what has been the ultimate object of this too 
 tedious letter — a request to know what is your 
 lordship's pleasure ? I have too high an 
 opinion of your wisdom and candour to suspect 
 the equity of your determination. I know too 
 well what I owe to the station you fill, to dispute 
 your authority or to oppose your commands. If 
 it be your will that my remaining schools shaU 
 
86 MEMOIR OF IIANNA-H MORE. 
 
 be abolished, I may lament your decision, but I 
 will obey it. If 1 be not permitted to employ 
 the short remnant of my life in being, in any 
 small measure or degree, actively useful, I will, 
 at least, set my accusers an example of obe- 
 dience to those superiors whom the providence 
 of God has set over me, and whom, next to 
 him, I am bound to obey." 
 
 The bishop could not resist the plain state- 
 ments and candid delineations of fact contained 
 in this convincing letter. His reply was kind 
 in the extreme ; her schools were continued, 
 and he became more decidedly her friend. But 
 so long buffeting this sea of troubles had greatly 
 worn upon her health and spirits, and it was 
 many months before she entirely recovered her 
 native elasticity of mind. In a letter to Mr, 
 Wilberforce she says : — " In Blagdon is still a 
 voice heard ; lamentation and mourning ; and 
 at Cowslip Green Rachel is still weeping for 
 her children, and refuses to be comforted, be- 
 cause they are not instructed. This heavy 
 blow has almost bowed me to the ground, 
 though I doubt not but that He who can bring 
 real good out of much seeming evil, will event- 
 ually turn this shocking business to his glory." 
 And again she writes, " My wounds are still 
 fresh, and want mjuch wine and oil ; this your 
 kind letters never fail to administer ; but I 
 strive to look for higher and better consolations, 
 and that these may be granted me, I am per- 
 suaded I have your prayers." 
 
 What a consolation is religion under such 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 87 
 
 severe trials ! To know that amidst all the 
 scoffs of the world we have a " friend that 
 sticketh closer than a brother," an advocate 
 who is touched with the feeling of our infirmi- 
 ties, robs calumny at once of half its stings. 
 This consolation Miss More enjoyed, and she 
 was not disappointed in putting her trust in him 
 " who knows our frame, who remembers that 
 we are but dust." A very short period served 
 to bring all her enemies into disgrace, and to 
 elevate her still higher in the affections of the 
 pubHc. Unanswered slander dies for want of 
 food; a life of virtue vindicates itself; and 
 purity of motive seldom fails to be finally appre- 
 ciated. At least it was so in the case of Miss 
 More. Her friends took up her cause with an 
 earnestness which abashed all opposition. The 
 neighbouring clergy made a public declara- 
 tion in her favour, and the great kindness and 
 attention which she soon received from all 
 quarters silenced the tongue of slander. " I 
 cannot," says Martha, writing to one of her sis- 
 ters from Fulham palace, " express to you the 
 very marked attentions which are paid to Han- 
 nah from all ranks and descriptions of people ; 
 they say such a persecution of such a woman 
 is unexampled. Sunday, as we were sitting at 
 breakfast, an old lady was announced ; many rose 
 to greet her, but she hobbled through them all to 
 Hannah, whom she fervently kissed ; I presently 
 found it was Lady Elgin." Thus was the malice 
 of her foes turned into blessings on her head. 
 
88 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Barley Wood — Publishes a complete edition of her 
 works — Sickness — State of her mind — Publishes "-HiBta 
 toward Forming the Character of a Young Princess" — Its 
 character — New attacks of ilbiess. 
 
 Miss More had been for some time desirous 
 of removing^ into a house the dimensions of 
 which should be better suited to that hospitality 
 which her large circle of friends now enjoined ; 
 and a piece of ground having been offered her 
 about 3 mile from Cowslip Green, which was 
 singularly picturesque and beautiful, and well 
 located for a dwelling, she concluded to pur- 
 chase it : and immediately set about erecting a 
 comfortable mansion, upon which she bestowed 
 much taste, and formed around it a delightful 
 territory, planted and disposed to suit thai love 
 of rural scenes which she always manifested 
 Miss More took possession of her new abode 
 in 1802, and her sisters being much delighted 
 with the spot, and finding the building suffi- 
 ciently ample for their accommodation, disposed 
 of their house at Bath, and took up their resi- 
 dence with Hannah, at Barley Wood. 
 
 Miss More had always longed for a retired 
 spot where her intercourse with the world 
 would be but limited, and where she could in 
 quiet enjoy her solitude ; such she had hoped 
 to find Cowslip Green. But retirement to one 
 of her talents and social disposition was utterly 
 impossible. The world flowed in upon her 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 89 
 
 from every quarter, in spite of the obscurity of 
 her situation ; and it is not in the nature of 
 woman, kind-hearted and gentle as she is, to 
 look coldly upon her admirers. But, besides, 
 most of her visiters resorted to her for improve- 
 ment and counsel, and under such circumstances 
 she could not certainly find it in her heart to 
 treat them coldly. In her letters she complains 
 much of the interruptions of society, of unprofit- 
 . able calls, of worldly company, interruptions to 
 which every person in her situation is necessa- 
 rily exposed, but to which she was more par- 
 ticularly liable on account of her numerous 
 friends; the sympathy felt on account of her 
 recent trials ; the high estimate placed upon her 
 judgment ; her social qualities ; and her pecu- 
 liar fitness to give religious instruction. Barley 
 V/ood, therefore, was seldom free from visiters. 
 All were sure of a kind, hospitable reception, 
 and to all was she accessible. 
 
 About the time of removing to Barley Wood, 
 Miss More prepared and published a complete 
 edition of all her works, accompanied by a pre- 
 face written with great ability ; in which she 
 sets forth her object, and the design she has in 
 view in coming before the public in this new 
 form. " These scattered pieces," she remarks, 
 " besides that they have been suffered to pass 
 through successive editions with little or no 
 correction, were, in their original appearance, 
 of all shapes and sizes, and utterly unreducible 
 to any companionable form ;" and with charac- 
 teristic modesty she adds : — "May I be permit- 
 
90 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 ted to declare that at no period of my life did I 
 ever feel such unfeigned diffidence at the ap- 
 pearance of even the smallest pamphlet, as I 
 now feel at sending this, perhaps too volumin- 
 ous collection, into the world." 
 
 The sense of responsibility under which she 
 now published is well set forth in another part 
 of this preface : — " I am not," she says, " in- 
 sensible to human estimation : to the approba- 
 tion of the wise and the good, I have been peE- 
 haps too sensible : but I check myself in the 
 indulgence of this dangerous pleasure, by recol- 
 lecting that the hour is fast approaching when 
 no human verdict, of whatever authority in 
 itself, and however favourable to its object, will 
 avail any thing, if not crowned with the acquit- 
 tal of that Judge in whose power is life eternal. 
 Every emotion of vanity dies away, every 
 swelling of ambition subsides, before the con- 
 sideration of this solemn responsibility : and 
 though I would ever pay all due deference to 
 the opinion of private critics, and of the public, 
 yet my anxiety with respect to the sentence of 
 both is considerably diminished by the reflec- 
 tion that, not the writings, but the writer, will 
 soon be called to another tribunal, to be judged 
 on far other grounds than those on which the 
 decisions of literary statutes are framed ; a tri- 
 bunal at which the sentence passed will depend 
 on far other causes than the neglect of the rules 
 of composition." 
 
 Miss More had scarcely entered her new 
 habitation when she was attacked with still 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 91 
 
 more serious indisposition, which confined her 
 for some weeks. Amidst all her sufferings, 
 however, she sought relief in Him who alone 
 was able to grant her comfort of body, or peace 
 of mind. At the commencement of 1803 she 
 says in her journal : — " I again resolve, O 
 Lord, to commence the year with a solemn 
 dedication of myself to thee : thine I am ; I am 
 not my own ; thou hast bought me with a price. 
 Let me henceforth live to him who loved me, 
 and gave himself for me. Sanctify to me. Lord, 
 my long and heavy trials ; remove them not 
 till they have answered those ends they were 
 sent to accomplish." 
 
 She was very much disposed to improve 
 every dispensation of Providence to her spirit- 
 ual good. In a letter to a friend about the same 
 time she thus seriously writes : — " My old 
 friend Lady Aylesbury is gone. Cadell, with 
 whom I set out twenty-eight years ago in a 
 literary connection, is also gone. He, very 
 healthy, taken ; I, very sickly, spared. Owen, 
 Cambridge, Bennett, Langton, all lately dead ; 
 besides numbers of others, less noted, but young- 
 er and more promising, who have been dropping 
 on the right hand and on the left. Yet," she 
 adds, " how hard is it to bring the mind seri- 
 ously, earnestly, and practically, to prepare for 
 one's own call !" In her journal a little while 
 after she writes : — " Heard to-day of new at- 
 tacks from the old quarter ; Lord grant that ^ 
 may bear this with holy resignation. May these 
 trials lead me to look to Him who, when he 
 
92 MEMOIR OF HAXNAH MORE 
 
 was reviled, reviled not again ; who endurcid 
 the contradiction of sinners against himself." 
 
 Such was her constant indisposition at this 
 time that she was seldom able to attend public 
 worship, which was a great grief to her. " For- 
 merly," she writes, " I was glad when they 
 said unto me, ' Let us go up into the house of 
 the Lord ;' now I endeavour to submit cheer- 
 fully to be detained by sickness ; yet it is a 
 great hindrance to spiritual improvement." ..And 
 after a long season of confinement to her room, 
 on being permitted once more to appear in the 
 courts of the Lord's house, she thus acknow- 
 ledges the privilege : — " By the great favour 
 and goodness of God I have been enabled this 
 day to go to church. Adored be thy holy 
 name." 
 
 Miss More frequently alludes in her letters 
 to meeting the P^j^incess Charlotte of Wales, 
 whom she represents as an interesting and 
 sprightly child. In one of these letters she 
 says she is " the prettiest, most sensible, and 
 genteel little creature you would wish to see." 
 This little princess was the heir presumptive 
 to the British crown, and having now arrived 
 at a suitable age, his late majesty, George 
 IIL, and his royal consort, [her grandparents] 
 were anxious to adopt for her the best course 
 of instruction that could h6 devised. The sub- 
 ject was one of national concern, and the king 
 and queen having expressed to the bishop of 
 London their high approbation of Miss More's 
 book on Female Education, the bishop lost no 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 93 
 
 time in suggesting to Miss More the propriety 
 of writing a work on the course of education 
 proper for the princess ; and strongly urged 
 her to the task. She at first objected ; but the 
 bishop having convinced her that it was a duty 
 she owed the nation, she reluctantly undertook 
 it. 
 
 The composition of this work kept her closely 
 employed until the spring of 1805, when it was 
 published in two volumes, bearing the modest 
 title of " Hints toward Forming the Character of 
 a Young Princess." , As no tutor was employed 
 at the time she commenced the work, it has 
 been supposed that she had some expectation 
 of being selected to that important trust. Whe- 
 ther this was so or not, it is known that she 
 suspended the work on the appointment being 
 made, thinking that it might be deemed imper- 
 tinent, or an interference to undertake to direct 
 one so learned as the bishSp of Exeter, who 
 was the person selected. After some scruples 
 the work was resumed with the design of meet- 
 ing these objections by publishing anonymously, 
 and inscribing the work to the bishop himself. 
 
 Accordingly the work appeared without her 
 name, and the dedication was so complimentary 
 a.« entirely to pacify the bishop for any undue 
 intrusion upon the duties of his office. She 
 transmitted him copies for himself, for the king 
 and queen, and for the prince and princess of 
 Wales, which were duly acknowledged ; the 
 bishop all the time supposing the author to have 
 been a gentleman. " Sir," he writes, " I return 
 
94 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 you my best thanks for the very high degree of 
 pleasure and satisfaction the perusal of your 
 excellent performance, ' Hints for a Young Prin- 
 cess,' has given me. The world will soon, I 
 am confident, be as anxious to know as I am, 
 to whom we are all indebted for so useful a 
 work." Soon after he added the following: — 
 " The bishop of Exeter has the pleasure to in- 
 form the author of ' Hints for a Young Prin- 
 cess,' that he has had the honor of presenting 
 copies of that excellent work to the king and 
 queen, and to the prince and princess of Wales. 
 The queen has read the work, and declared her 
 approbation of it." 
 
 The work had a rapid sale, and was so gene- 
 rally ascribed to the pen of Miss More that she 
 thought it affectation longer to attempt conceal- 
 ment : she therefore addressed a letter to the 
 bishop of Exete^icknowledging the author- 
 ship. The bishqr thanked her both for the 
 disclosure and for the work, though it seems he 
 had not been without his suspicions that the 
 book was hers ; for he says : — " At the time I 
 addressed my two notes to the author, I had a 
 very strong inclination to address them to the 
 authoress^ And again : — " When I had the 
 honour of seeing the queen a few days since, 
 her majesty, after saying many things in com- 
 mendation of the new work, asked me if I knew 
 who the author of it was. I replied that I cer- 
 tainly could not take upon me to say ; but from 
 strong internal evidence, I had great reason to 
 believe that Miss Hannah More was the person 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 95 
 
 to whom we were indebted for this excellent 
 book." 
 
 The work appears to have created some sen- 
 sation, and to have been generally read among 
 the higher classes. " It was," says one of her 
 biographers, " gratefully received as a seasonable 
 publication on a very important subject, and its 
 merits were highly and most deservedly appre- 
 ciated. Though designed principally for the 
 royal pupil, it abounds with useful lessons of 
 instruction for the young of all classes, but es- 
 pecially of those among the higher ranks. As 
 a complete system of education, it was liable to 
 exception. It would have been better had it 
 been less political and less voluminous. It was 
 hastily, though not negligently written, and 
 there are some instances of tautology which 
 would not probably have been allowed to remain 
 had she given it her careful revision. But," he 
 adds, " the distinguishing •cellence of these 
 volumes consists in their decided reference to 
 Christian principles. The author never allows 
 the reader to forget that of all subjects religion 
 is the most important ; and that Christianity is 
 the only basis of religion." 
 
 During the summer of 1805 we find Miss 
 More spending some time among her friends. 
 With the families of Bishop Porteus, Lord 
 Teignmouth, Mr. Thornton, and Mr. Wilber- 
 force, she passed several weeks. Her perse- 
 cutions had greatly multiplied her friends, and 
 enlarged her acquaintance ; many hitherto un- 
 known to her being desirous of giving her 
 
96 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 proofs of their high regard. In October she 
 suffered another severe indisposition, and on 
 her recovery took up with renewed energy the 
 improvement of her schools. By her constant 
 exposure in this work she again brought on an 
 alarming attack of illness which confined her 
 to a sick bed for several weeks, and from which 
 her friends despaired of her recovery. It pleased 
 God, however, again to raise her up and strength- 
 en her for renewed labours. Her health, never- 
 theless, continued very feeble for some tii^ie. 
 Writing to Sir W. W. Pepys, in December 
 1808, she says: — "I have not yet recovered 
 any thing like health. I am in almost constant 
 pain ; my nights are frequently bad ; and I am 
 almost totally confined to the house. Yet," 
 she says, " I have so many mercies, I have 
 such a pleasant prison, would you could see it ! 
 my fever is gone, my spirits are not bad." 
 
 And yet amidstHftU these sufferings, her great 
 correspondence, her annual visits to her most 
 intimate friends, her constant interruptions by 
 visits — it is astonishing how much this excel- 
 lent woman accomplished. Her mind seems 
 not to have lost its buoyancy for any length 
 of time, but was ever active in producing some- 
 thing to improve and better the condition of her 
 species. What a reproof to the thousands of 
 sluggish souls who, blessed with talents, time 
 health, and acquirements, spend their lives in 
 useless inactivity, and when at last death over- 
 takes them, first wake up to the appalling reflec- 
 tion that they have lived to no purpose. 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 97 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Death of the ])ishop of London — Writes " Cojlebs in Starch 
 of a Wife" — Publishes " Coelebs" — Great sale — Character 
 of the work— Plot of " Ca;lebs"— " Ccelcbs" attacked— Miss 
 More's feelings under these attacks. 
 
 Among the friends of Miss More none had 
 proved more ardent in attachment, more faithful 
 in prosperity and in adversity, in sickness and 
 in health, than that excellent prelate, the bishop 
 of London, Amidst all her sore trials he had 
 stood by her with the fidelity of a father. He 
 had encouraged her charitable and literary ef- 
 forts. He had called forth her talents in vindi- 
 cation of Christianity and practical piety. He 
 had publicly and privately recommended her 
 works. In short he had proved one of those 
 ready, judicious counsellors, and steady, untir- 
 ing, and devoted friendc, f^r whom we feel at 
 once the love and reverence we should feel to 
 a parent. 
 
 The days of this good man were now draw- 
 ing to a close. His decay was very gentle and 
 gradual, and he seems to have passed out of 
 time with the same peace and cheerfulness 
 which had accompanied him through it, A 
 few months before his death he visited Barley 
 Wood, where he spent several days in much 
 languor of body, but with that placid cheerfulness 
 of mind with which the Christian so often 
 awaits his last great change. As he approached 
 the termination of his career his mind yielded 
 in some measure to the infirmities of his body, 
 7 
 
98 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 but his thoughts were still bent on doing some- 
 thing for the glory of God. Having heard of 
 the institution of a club under the patronage of 
 the prince of Wales, which held its meetings on 
 the sabbath, he immediately determined, aged 
 and feeble as he was, to remonstrate with this 
 royal personage on the impropriety and sinful 
 ness of the course. In the enfeebled state of 
 his body and mind, the effort was a great one, 
 and he addressed a note to Miss More, without 
 stating his designs, asking her prayers. " I 
 am," he says, " in great difficulties and distress. 
 My great hope and resource is, what I have al- 
 ways had recourse to in such cases, prayer. 
 Give me then your frequent and fervent prayers, 
 and I shall hope for that most powerful protec- 
 tion of a gracious Providence which I am con- 
 vinced has never failed in similar cases." 
 
 With such feelings he reached the residence 
 of the prince, asked an audience, and. supported 
 by two faithful servants, he entered the apart- 
 ment, where, with agitated earnestness, he en- 
 treated him not thus to desecrate God's holy 
 day. The prince was much affected, and 
 promised that his request should be granted. 
 On which he again addressed Miss More with 
 this brief line, written May 5, 1 809 : — " My dear 
 Miss More, prayer has had its usual effect, and 
 all is now perfectly right." This was the last 
 line she received from him : in about two weeks 
 after he was called to his reward, being in the 
 78th year of his age. His last hours are thus 
 described by Mrs. Kennicott : — "On Friday he 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 99 
 
 was brought to Fulham. When he entered the 
 great hall he exclaimed, ' I thank God for per- 
 mitting me to come once more to this place !' 
 The next morning he said the air rel'reshed 
 him, and spoke of the beauty of the lawn. He 
 was carried down to dinner, and soon after was 
 seized with something like a convulsion, was 
 taken to the sofa, received a cordial, fell into a 
 quiet sleep for three hours, and only just opened 
 his eyes to close them again for ever." 
 
 Thus died this excellent prelate who, in his 
 private and public walks, presented an example 
 of zeal and urbanity, dignity and humility, deci- 
 sion and candour, seldom combined in one cha- 
 racter. To Miss More, who had so often been 
 the partaker of his kindness and hospitality, 
 and who had spent the month of May with him 
 for about twenty years, the stroke was very 
 heavy. 
 
 She had been for some time engaged in 
 writing a work entitled " Ccelebs in Search of 
 a Wife," but so affected was she by the death 
 of her friend, that she could not proceed. In 
 reply to Mrs Kennicott, who had announced 
 the melancholy news, she says : — " After read- 
 ing your most interesting letter once, I was 
 obliged to put it away for several days before I 
 could acquire fortitude to read it again." As a 
 token of his regard the bishop bequeathed to 
 Miss More one hundred pounds, which she ap- 
 propriated in erecting to his memory, at Barley 
 Wood, an urn, on which was inscribed the fol- 
 lowing brief memento : — 
 
100 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 " TO BEILBY PORTEUS, 
 
 LATE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON, 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 LONG AND FAITHFUL FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 1809." 
 
 As soon as Miss More sufficiently recovered 
 herself after the death of the bishop, she re- 
 sumed the composition of " Ccelebs," which 
 was brought out in two volumes octavo, in De- 
 cember, 1809, without her name, and indeed 
 without intrusting her secret even to those very- 
 few friends who had usually been in her confi- 
 dence on similar occasions. But notwithstand- 
 ing this disadvantage, it excited such imme- 
 diate and universal attention, that she received, 
 in a very few days, notice to prepare for a se- 
 cond edition ; and before this edition could be 
 put to press, and in less than a fortnight from 
 the first appearance of the work, it was out of 
 print. In nine months it passed through no 
 less than eleven successive editions, and the 
 last was soon followed by another, yielding her 
 a profit of about $10,000. In the United States 
 the sale was little less rapid, Miss More having 
 lived to see thirty editions published, of one 
 thousand copies each. 
 
 For some time she continued to maintain her 
 secresy with great success, receiving from time 
 to time letters from her intimate friends desiring 
 her by all means ta read " Ccelebs," and de- 
 scril)ing to her great amusement the different 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 101 
 
 characters which figured in the work, praising 
 its sentiments, and commending its tendency. 
 Others, however, more penetrating, fixed the 
 authorship on her at once, and without st^ruple. 
 But it was not till the work had passed through 
 several editions that she was constrained to ac- 
 knowledge herself its author. 
 
 " Ccelebs in Search of a Wife," is a book 
 which has been much read, which will long 
 continue to be read, and which well deserves to 
 be read. It was designed to show, through the 
 agreeable medium of an attractive story, that 
 rehgion might be brought into all the concerns 
 of ordinary life, without at all impairing its ac- 
 tivity, and without rendering its possessor less 
 cheerful or agreeable. This object was accom- 
 plished best in the mode adopted : and it can- 
 not be doubted that the true picture which Miss 
 More has drawn, of the beneficial and kindly 
 influences of religion in regulating the temper 
 and bettering the heart, has caused thousands 
 to fall in love with piety and virtue who other- 
 wise could have never felt their benign influ- 
 ence. Important lessons on domestic subjects, 
 intellectual attainments, social virtues, and es- 
 pecially on religion and morals, are here incul- 
 cated, or rather acted before the reader, in a 
 manner so agreeable that he cannot fail to fall 
 in love with them. 
 
 The incidents of the story are briefly these : 
 A young gentleman descended from an opulent 
 family, educated and intelligent, is, soon after 
 leaving the university, bereft of his excellent 
 
102 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 father, who had enjoined it upon him not to 
 form a matrimonial connection until he had 
 consulted Mr. Stanley, an intimate and pious 
 friend •residing in another part of the kingdom. 
 Soon after the death of his father he also loses 
 his pious mother, who had given him much ex- 
 cellent instruction, by which he could not fail 
 to profit. Feeling the want of a companion, 
 the young man begins to look around him for 
 that purpose, and makes a visit to London, 
 among the highly respectable families with 
 which his father was acquainted. As he sets 
 out he remarks : — " My motive for performing 
 this journey is, that I may select a deserving 
 companion for life. In such a companion, I 
 said to myself, as I drove along in my post- 
 chaise, I do not want a Helen, a Saint Cecilia, 
 or a Madame Doucier. Yet she must be ele- 
 gant, or I should not love her ; sensible, or 1 
 should not respect her ; prudent, or I could not 
 confide in her ; well informed, or she could not 
 educate my children ; well bred, or she could 
 not entertain my friends ; consistent, or I should 
 ofiend the shade of my mother ; pious, or I 
 should not be happy with her, because the 
 prime comfort in a companion for life, is the 
 delightful hope that she will be a companion 
 for eternity." 
 
 With his standard fixed thus high, Coelebs 
 passes a few days in different families, where 
 he observes all the follies and vices of society, 
 in a manner that evinces great knowledge of 
 mankind in the writer. He is struck with the 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 103 
 
 faults of education, the ignorance, the want of 
 principle, the want of religion, which he finds 
 in most of these families : and after passing 
 through a great variety of scenes, he visits the 
 residence of Mr. Stanley, the gentleman whom 
 his father had enjoined him to consult. He 
 found here a kind and affectionate family, the 
 parents pious, the children educated, the house 
 orderly, no attempt at display, no undue atten- 
 tion to fashion or vain accomplishments ; but 
 all wise, elegant, neat, social ; and finally forms 
 an attachment for the eldest daughter, and mar- 
 ries her, which turns out in the sequel to have 
 been the object and desire of his father. 
 
 The great popularity of this work did not ex- 
 empt it from attack. A Roman Catholic priest 
 assailed Miss More with great bitterness, on 
 account of a brief passage which he thought 
 levelled against the church to which he be- 
 longed. Miss More wrote him a short reply, 
 in which she says : — " Reverend sir, it has 
 been my lot to be frequently attacked. It has 
 been my practice never to defend myself. I 
 should not now have troubled you with an an- 
 swer did I not feel it necessary to correct the 
 misapprehension on which you ground your re- 
 sentment." She then goes on to explain her 
 meaning in the offensive passage, and adds, 
 " I have no motive in this brief answer but to 
 express my concern if I have offended against 
 Christian charity, and to ask your pardon if I 
 have unintentionally offended a man of piety 
 and learning. On cool reflection I think you 
 
104 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 will not be altogether satisfied with the harsh- 
 ness of your letter." She was mistaken ; the 
 priest persisted in his opinions, and she dropped 
 the matter. 
 
 But " Coelebs" was assailed in several other 
 quarters, especially in one of the reviews, where 
 the writer warns the bishop " that it was in- 
 tended to overturn the church, and that the 
 deepest mischief lurks in every page." These 
 attacks, however, caused Miss More little un- 
 easiness. " With what delight," she says, in a 
 letter to a friend, " do I turn from these petty 
 grievances to the information you give me of 
 the flourishing state of religion in your neigh- 
 bourhood : this is indeed a cause of thankful- 
 ness. Pray for me, my dear sir, that I may be 
 more detached from the world, more spiritually- 
 minded, less engrossed by the things of time 
 and sense, which my judgment despises, but 
 which absorb too much of those affections 
 which are due only to eternal things." 
 
 In such a frame of mind the censures oi 
 praises of the world were not likely to make a 
 very deep impression upon her. Indeed she 
 seems to have laboured so exclusively for the 
 promotion of virtue and piety that, although not 
 insensible to her literary reputation, yet she re- 
 garded it as of little importance compared with 
 the accomplishment of the one great object 
 which she had in view. It must, therefore, 
 have been a great satisfaction to Miss More to 
 receive, as she did, almost daily, testimonials 
 of the benefits which had resulted from her 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 105 
 
 literary labours, accompanied as tliey were 
 with pressing entreaties that she would, if health 
 and leisure permitted, favour the world with 
 some other productions of her pen. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 "Practical Piety" — Character of the work — Journey to 
 Staffordshire — " Christian Morals" — Remarks on the work 
 — Death of Miss Mary More — Visits Lady Sparrow and 
 other friends. 
 
 In the autumn of 1810 Miss More com- 
 menced writing another ethical work, which 
 was put to press early in the spring of 1811, 
 and soon after appeared in two volumes bearing 
 the title of " Practical Piety, or the Influence 
 of the Religion of the Heart on the Conduct of 
 the Life." This work was announced with her 
 name, and the first edition was all bespoken be- 
 fore it had passed through the press, and it soon 
 ran on to a tenth. Its objects and character 
 are well expressed in the title. It was an ef- 
 fort to divest religion of the abstractions with 
 which it had become incumbered, and connect 
 it with the practical duties of life. It is divided 
 into chapters, most of which are on difl^erent 
 subjects : all of which are, however, important, 
 and treated with that ability, and written in that 
 animated and spirited style which throws around 
 them the peculiar fascinations of the author's 
 gifted mind. Mr. Taylor, one of her biogra- 
 phers, justly observes that " although there are 
 
106 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 passages which might have been improved by a 
 careful revision, yet the figures are beautiful, 
 and happily chosen, the sentiments purely evan- 
 gelical, the appeals powerfully awakening, the 
 motives for persevering in a course of piety. 
 Scriptural, well selected, and forcibly applied. 
 " No one," he adds, " could read the work 
 without deriving from it much benefit ; and to 
 the Christian mourner, struggling with difficul- 
 ties which he feels unable to surmount, many 
 of the chapters are peculiarly adapted." 
 
 Miss More, with the humility which ever be- 
 longs to the truly pious, felt her own unworthi- 
 ness to such a degree that she was anxious to 
 have the reader understand that she did not set 
 herself up as an example of those high attain- 
 ments which she claimed in her book to be the 
 privilege of the Christian. In her preface she 
 says : — " An eminent professor of our own 
 time modestly declared that he taught chymistry 
 in order that he might learn it : the writer of 
 the following pages might offer with far more 
 justice a similar declaration, as an apology for 
 so frequently treating on the important topics of 
 religion and morals. Abashed by the equitable 
 precept, 
 
 ' Let those teach others who themselves excel,' 
 
 she is aware how fully she is putting it in the 
 power of the reader to ask, in the searching 
 words of an eminent prelate ' They that speak 
 thus, and advise thus, do they act thus V She 
 can defend herself in no other way than by 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 107 
 
 adopting for a reply the words of the same ve- 
 nerable divine, ' O that it were not too true !' " 
 
 This excellent work which aimed at nothing 
 less than raising the standard of Christianity 
 above the mere forms into which it had fallen, 
 especially in the Established Church, appears to 
 have been written under no very favourable cir- 
 cumstances. Miss More's health, never good, 
 had, as she advanced in life, become much en- 
 feebled, and her frequent attacks of illness left 
 her but short seasons of even comparatively 
 good health. In a letter to Sir W. Pepys, after 
 thanking him for his good opinion of her work, 
 she adds : — " It is nothing to the public that it 
 was written in constant pain, and in such a hur- 
 ry that it was very little longer in writing than 
 in printing. But life is short ; mine is particu- 
 larly uncertain, and I had persuaded myself that 
 it was better to bring it out in a defective state 
 than not at all." In the same letter she defends 
 herself against a charge of too great strictness 
 of principle, which some had urged as an ob- 
 jection to her writings : — " I am not," she says, 
 " aware of that excessive strictness, of which 
 your pious friends complain. The gospel is 
 strict. The cutting off a right hand, and pluck- 
 ing out a right eye, though only used as meta- 
 phors, are surely more strict than any thing I 
 hav^ said." 
 
 In the autumn of 1811 Miss More paid a vi- 
 sit to Mr Gisborne, in Staffordshire, where she 
 spent about a month very agreeably. She thus 
 describes the incidents of the visit in a letter to 
 
108 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Mrs. King : — " You will be surprised to hear 
 what a rambler I have been. I, who never 
 reckoned on going again out of my own little 
 circle, took courage the beginning of August to 
 set out with Patty on a long-promised visit, to 
 our excellent friend Mr. Gisborne, at his forest 
 in Staffordshire. The forest indeed is de- 
 stroyed, with which I was disposed to be dis- 
 satisfied. But when I saw near ten thousand 
 acres of yellow harvest, when I saw a beautiful 
 new church erected, and a handsome parsonage 
 built and endowed, and my admirable friend 
 preaching to a good congregation, in a place so 
 lately the shelter of thieves, and poachers, 
 [game-stealers,] and vagabonds, I gave up my 
 romance in favour of such solid improvements. 
 Mr. Gisborne and some other gentlemen still 
 possess a beautiful piece of forest about their 
 respective habitations. Mr. G. spends his large 
 fortune in a most liberal manner. His esta- 
 blishment is large, and his manner of living ele- 
 gantly hospitable. We had an excellent society 
 in the house, which is the abode of talents, 
 piety, and benevolence. We staid a month 
 with our friends at Yoxall, and then crossed the 
 country to visit some old acquaintances at 
 Shrewsbury, whence we took a peep into North 
 Wales, and visited the celebrated ladies of 
 Llangollen Vale. With the vale and the ladies 
 we were much delighted. We paid a visft in 
 our way home to your valuable friend the bishop 
 of Gloucester, who received us most kindly." 
 In the early part of 1813 " Practical Piety" 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 109 
 
 was followed by another work of the same class, 
 entitled " Christian Morals." Il was composed 
 dm'ing a season of great bodily infirmity, as she 
 informs us in one of her letters, and under the 
 impression that her day of labour was almost 
 spent. " Having been confined six months," 
 she says, " out of eight since Christmas, and 
 foreseeing, or rather knowing that I have not 
 many Christmases to expect, I was willing to 
 turn my imprisonment to some little account, 
 and have been writing some more last words. 
 The book is to be called " Christian Morals." 
 I do not talk of it, except to one or two particu- 
 lar friends, because I do not like to have it dis- 
 cussed, and to be questioned before hand. 
 Whether it is worth finishing I hardly know, 
 but Providence sometimes works by poor weak 
 instruments." In relation to another cause 
 which impeded the progress of the work, she 
 says :-~" If I had expected to be so over- 
 whelmed with company, I believe I should have 
 gone from home to write more at leisure ; but 
 it is now too late in the season. We had 
 nineteen persons here yesterday, of whom I did 
 not know six. I have, however, had much 
 pleasure in seeing some old friends, H. Bow- 
 dler last week, and on another day Mrs. Bar- 
 bauld, an acquaintance of forty years. I greatly 
 admire her talents and taste ; but our views, 
 both religious and political, run so very wide of 
 each other, that I lose the great pleasure that 
 might otherwise be found in her society, which 
 is very intellectual." 
 
MO MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Notwithstanding the disadvantage under which 
 she laboured in the composition of this work, it 
 was written in her best style, and was con- 
 sidered by her as superior to its predecessoi 
 " Its chief excellence, however," says one, 
 whose opinion we have elsewhere quoted, 
 " consists in the correct delineations of the hu- 
 man heart, with which it everywhere abounds. 
 In almost every -page proofs are given of the 
 writer's intimate acquaintance with this impor- 
 tant branch of knowledge. Her remarks were 
 evidently the result, not so much of the know- 
 ledge she had collected from books, though she 
 had read very extensively, and to excellent 
 purpose, as of the accurate observations she 
 had made of the workings of her own mind and 
 of the minds of others. She had evidently 
 studied human nature most closely; and so 
 truly does she describe its corrupt workings, 
 that one can hardly peruse any chapter of the 
 work without benefit. An impression rests on 
 the reader's mind of self-dissatisfaction, and yet 
 of cordial esteem for the writer, through whose 
 pen it has been produced ; because a full con- 
 viction forces itself upon him that the writer's 
 object in composing the work was to promote 
 the best interests of the human race. Literary- 
 reputation, it is easily discovered, was not 
 made the supreme, but the subordinate object. 
 To please the fancy it is clear was not her aim, 
 but to benefit the soul." 
 
 Soon after the publication of this work Miss 
 More was called to mourn the loss of her eldest 
 
^ MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE, 111 
 
 sister, Miss Mary More. ' She had been for 
 some time declining under the weight of years 
 and disease, and on Easter Sunday, the 18th of 
 April, 1813, crowned a most useful and active 
 life' by a peaceful and happy death. This was 
 the first breach which had been made in the 
 family circle of these pious sisters, who had 
 during many years been supported and encou- 
 raged by each other in all their acts of benevo- 
 lence and usefulness. The separation wa* 
 painful, but under such circumstances the Chris- 
 tian has consolations to which the world is a 
 stranger. His hope is indeed an anchor to the 
 soul. Confident of a glorious immortality, death 
 is swallowed up in victory ; the separation to 
 him is but temporary, and he looks forward to 
 the time when the social intercourse shall be 
 renewed, where neither pain, nor sorrow, nor 
 death shall ever come — "where the wicked 
 cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." 
 It was this well-assured hope, that death was 
 to the deceased eternal gain, which sustained 
 the survivors under their affliction. Miss More 
 thus alludes to the event in one of her letters 
 written a few days after : — " The solemn scene 
 is closed. My dear eldest sister is escaped 
 from this world of sin, and is I trust, through the 
 mercies of her God and the merits of her Sa- 
 viour, translated to a world of peace, where 
 there will be neither sin, sorrow, nor separation. 
 Her desire to be gone was great. We had all 
 of us the melancholy satisfaction to see her 
 breathe her last. I thought it something blessed 
 
112 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. • 
 
 to die on Easter Sunday, to descend to the 
 grave on the anniversary day when Jesus had 
 triumphed over it. It is pleasant to see death 
 vi^ithout its terrors. We visit the cold remajns 
 many times a day, and I am dividing my morn- 
 ing between the contemplation of her serene 
 countenance and reading my favourite book, 
 ' Baxter's Saint's Rest.' " This excellent woman 
 thus peacefully took her departure in the 76th 
 year of her age. 
 
 During the summer Miss More, notwitli- 
 standing the feeble state of her health, accepted 
 a pressing invitation from Lady Sparrow to visit 
 her at her seat in Huntingdonshire. But she 
 reached the residence of her friend only to keep 
 her apartment under a fresh attack of illness 
 which unfitted her for society during the greater 
 part of the month that she remained there. 
 Having partially recovered she proceeded into 
 Kent with the intention of paying a visit to 
 Lord Barham, an old and much-valued Chris- 
 tian friend. In her way, however, she stopped 
 to spend a few days with Mr. Henry Hoare, at 
 Mitcham, where she had been but a short time 
 when she heard of the death of Lord Barham. 
 She thus alludes to this journey and to the death 
 of her friend, in a letter to Mrs. King. " After 
 having spent thirty-five winters in London, I 
 have never ventured thither since my last great 
 illness ; and indeed I had entirely renounced 
 any idea of another long journey. I was, how- 
 ever, induced by my delightful friend. Lady 
 Olivia Sparrow, to make her a visit at her seat 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 113 
 
 in Huntingdonshire. Our enjoyment was a 
 good deal impaired by my being severely ill for 
 a fortnight. When I grew better I yielded to 
 the entreaties of my dear old friend Lord Bar- 
 ham, to extend my journey to Kent, to pay him 
 a last visit. Patty and I set out, and were 
 within twenty miles of Barham Court when the 
 news of his unexpected death stopped us short. 
 It was an awful and instructive lesson. We 
 spent a few days with Mr. Wilberforce, but I 
 did not venture to enter London. I had too 
 many friends there, and was afraid of the bustle, 
 late hours, &c." 
 
 In a letter to Lady Sparrow she describes 
 the remainder of the journey, alluding in very 
 pathetic language to the remembrance of former 
 days. " Though we were obliged," she says, 
 " to drive through Hyde Park, I kept my reso- 
 lution of not entering London. We took Straw- 
 berry Hill in our way, and spent one night 
 with Lady Waldegrave, who was as thankful 
 for our short visit as if we had conferred on her 
 some mighty obligation. She was more cheer- 
 ful than usual. That well-known spot recalled 
 to my mind a thousand recollections, partly 
 pleasing, but more painful. The same feelings 
 were excited in us as we called afterward at 
 Mrs. Garrick's, (we did not find her.) The li- 
 brary, the lawn, the temple of Shakspeare, all 
 of which I iDOidd see for the last time. What 
 wit, what talents, what vivacity, what friendship 
 have I enjoyed at both these places ! Where 
 are they now ? I have been mercifully spared 
 8 
 
114 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 lO see the vanity and emptiness of every thing 
 that is not connected with eternity ; and seeing 
 this, how heavy will my condemnation be if I 
 do not lay it to heart ! We had a good journey 
 home, and the comfort of finding all pretty well, 
 and our little spot blooming as Eden." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The parish schools — Other acls of benevolence— Observa- 
 tions — Writes her " Essay on the Character of St. Paul" — 
 Accident endangering her life — Publication of " St. Paul" — 
 Observations. 
 
 The reader must not suppose that Miss More, 
 although oppressed with sickness and enfeebledr 
 by age, had abandoned her care of the parish 
 schools, which had for so long a time occupied 
 a large share of her attention. On the contrary 
 they continued to be the object of her solicitude, 
 and w%re blessed with increasing success. 
 Many of the difficulties which she had to en- 
 counter in the outset on account of incompetent 
 teachers, had been obviated by supplying the 
 schools with instructers educated under her own 
 eye, and whose solid and useful qualities had 
 been tested for a series of years. The oppo- 
 sition, too, which she had met with in almost 
 every parish, had gradually yielded, as the 
 beneficial tendency of her efforts became obvi- 
 ous, and a large tract of country hitherto in- 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 115 
 
 rolved in great spiritual darkness, had been 
 redeemed from gross ignorance and superstition, 
 and taught the way of salvation. The schools 
 were always full, and the most unfavourable 
 weather seldom prevented an attendance at the 
 evening readings, which were still kept up with 
 great advantage. The benefit clubs had also 
 become an object of eager desire, the funds 
 having accumulated to a considerable amount. 
 But the attention bestowed upon these benevo- 
 lent objects did not prevent Miss More from 
 administering consolation to friends in difficult 
 or afflicting circumstances, counselling those 
 who resorted to her for advice and instruction, 
 aiding many benevolent objects, and cultivating 
 a closer and more intimate union with her 
 Saviour. 
 
 Among those who resorted to her for counsel 
 and aid, were many young clergymen, to whom 
 her house and her heart were always open. 
 Of this class many were in indigent circum- 
 stances, and unable to procure those books 
 which were so necessary in entering upon the 
 duties of the sacred profession, and their wants 
 were frequently supplied with a liberal hand 
 from her own library ; and in many instances 
 she furnished them with religious periodicals 
 for a series of years. She also made it a rule 
 never to delay answering applications for advice 
 or instruction made by letter, and this being 
 known caused a great increase to her corres- 
 pondence, already too burdensome, and laid her 
 open to incessant interruptions ; still she perse- 
 
116 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 vered, declaring that these continual crossings 
 taught her how great was the sacrifice of Him 
 who spared not his own life for the good of his 
 rebellious creatures. 
 
 It had been the anxious desire of Miss More, 
 during a great part of her life, so to exhibit re- 
 ligion, both in her life and by her writings, as 
 to cause it to be loved and admired by the 
 higher classes of society. She seems to have 
 imagined that much of the influence of Chris- 
 tianity had been lost by its professed adherents 
 keeping too much aloof from the people of the 
 world, and by too great an austerity of life, by 
 which they caused their good to be evil spoken 
 of. Miss More had used her utmost exertions 
 to correct these impressions, and to a certain 
 extent was successful. Most of her earlier 
 works, together with " Coelebs," were written 
 with this leading object, and certainly if any 
 person could be successful, she would have 
 been the one : but she found at last that the 
 world would love only its own, that the carnal 
 mind was enmity against God, and would not 
 be subject to his law. No one ever merited the 
 world's regard more than she did. With it she 
 had freely mingled ; to its improvement she had 
 devoted her days and her nights, the flower of 
 her youth, the vigour of meridian life, and the 
 maturity of age ; yet no sooner did she insist 
 on the strictness and purity enjoined by the 
 gospel, than she found that the antipathy of the 
 carnal mind to true piety was still unchanged ; 
 that there was the same deep and abiding ht^tred 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 117 
 
 to the doctrines of the gospel now that marked 
 its early introduction. " We see in the case of 
 Hannah More," says a pious clergyman of her 
 own day, " that every attempt to gain and se- 
 cure the world's favour is utterly vain, if you 
 support real religion, and act upon it yourself. 
 Look at her genius, popularity, influence, and 
 her innocence of every thing which can dis- 
 gust mankind, and see what treatment religion 
 will ever meet with from the world." 
 
 It is even so : the spirit of the world is ut- 
 terly incompatible with the spirit of Christianity, 
 and so Miss More found it. Notwithstanding 
 her scrupulous care never to transcend any of 
 the proprieties of life under the most rigid con- 
 struction either in her life or writings, she had 
 been assailed as a fanatic, a Methodist, a ranter, 
 and set down among the most puritanical and 
 austere professors of the Christian faith. These 
 things had opened her eyes, and she now saw 
 how utterly futile it was to court the friendship 
 of the world any further than to retain her influ- 
 ence in society, and thus enable her still to be, 
 in the language of the apostle, all things to all 
 men, that she might gain the more. In her 
 later works she had, therefore, assumed a bold- 
 er tone, and had pointed out with great ability 
 the strictness of the gospel requirements, and 
 the narrowness of the way which leads to ever- 
 lasting life. 
 
 In pursuing this path Miss More had for 
 some time been engaged in another work, to 
 which she was led by her reflections on the 
 
118 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 conversion and subsequent character of St 
 Paul, which she justly regarded as one of the 
 finest illustrations on record of the practical ef- 
 fects of Christianity. The work was begun in 
 1814, and occupied her at intervals until the 
 following year, when it was published in two 
 volumes. While engaged on this work she 
 met with an accident which had well nigh put 
 a dreadful termination to her life and labours. 
 She had retired to her apartment, locked the 
 door, and seated herself at her table by the fire, 
 when in the act of reaching across the fire-place 
 to a book-shelf, the corner of her shawl caught 
 fire, and before she was conscious of the acci- 
 dent she was enveloped in flames. Her cries 
 brought her speedy assistance, however, and 
 the fire was soon extinguished ; the injury did 
 not prove very serious, though Miss Roberts, 
 who had rendered her this timely assistance, 
 burnt her hands severely, and Miss More was 
 also considerably burned. The event made a 
 deep impression upon her mind, and caused her 
 often to exclaim, in the language of Scripture : 
 -^-" When thou walkest through the fire thou 
 shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame 
 kindle upon thee." In a letter to Mrs. Kenni- 
 cott she thus adverts to the accident : — " I con- 
 sider myself a monument of God's mercy, as I 
 was one sheet of flame before any help arrived. 
 Another moment, it is supposed, would have 
 rendered the flame inextinguishable. Many 
 trifling circumstances which appear to have 
 been providentially directed, contributed to my 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 119 
 
 presenation. Being confined with a bad cold, 
 I had that day only put on a thick stuff gown, 
 which, however, was burnt through the back 
 and sleeves ; the day before I wore a muslin 
 gown : I had also on at the time three shawls ; 
 the one next me was reduced almost to tinder 
 before it could be got off; of the others little is 
 left. It was in heroically tearing off these, and 
 taking me, flaming as I was, as if I had been an 
 infant, and laying me on the carpet, that Miss 
 Roberts burnt her hands so terribly. They 
 were healed, however, sooner than my slight 
 wounds, which are now healed also. What a 
 warning was this visitation to keep prepared for 
 a sudden call ! Yet I fear that I do not turn it 
 to a proper account." 
 
 This event, together with a flood of congratu- 
 latory letters on her escape, and a multitude of 
 visiters, which the circumstance brought to 
 Barley Wood, slightly delayed the appearance 
 of her forthcoming essay. " You inquire," she 
 , says in a letter to Lady Sparrow, " after St. 
 Paul ; he is in progress, but his course is much 
 interrupted by the multitude of letters I receive 
 daily, not from friends, those are refreshing, but 
 from strangers : many of them impertinent ap- 
 plications ; not a few of which duty and con- 
 science oblige me to answer, though I am a 
 poor casuist." These letters, which were the 
 subject of complaint, contained applications 
 from persons mostly unknown to her, for her 
 opinion on disputed questions of ethics and spe- 
 culative faith; matters in which Miss More 
 
120 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 took but little delight, and the applications were 
 therefore a great annoyance to her. 
 
 Another cause of delay was an application 
 from her publishers to make some addition to 
 her sacred dramas, the copy-right of which had 
 expired, and other booksellers were availing 
 themselves of the circumstance to their injury. 
 She says : — " I have lived so long that my le- 
 gal right to ' Sacred Dramas* is extijict, or 
 rather that of Cadell and Davis, to whom I had 
 sold the copy. They wrote in a great hurry to 
 say that several booksellers had advertised the 
 book in an inferior form, and to induce me to 
 make some additions to it, which would restore 
 to them their right. I refused at first ; but they 
 represented to me that as a new edition was in 
 the press it would be a considerable loss to 
 them : so I have added a scene at the end of 
 ' Moses/ "* In the same letter we hear again 
 of Mrsl Garrick, who had now attained to the 
 great age of ninety- one years. 
 
 In the month of February, 1815, Miss More, 
 having attained the age of seventy years, the 
 Essay on the Character of St. Paul made its ap- 
 pearance. But age had not diminished the 
 vigour or sprightliness of her intellect, or the 
 interest of the public in the productions of her 
 pen. The first edition was all sold on the day 
 that it was announced, and the author, in one 
 of her letters, states that she had not a single 
 copy left for her sisters to peruse : and, not- 
 withstanding the extraordinary events which 
 about that time agitated the world, the career 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 121 
 
 of Bonaparte, the war with America, the com- 
 motion of states, so engrossing the public mind 
 as to prevent the circulation of almost every 
 work not having a direct reference to politics, 
 it soon reached a fourth edition. 
 
 It was not her design to give a biographical 
 sketch of the apostle's character, nor to inquire 
 critically into his writings : but to make such a 
 faithful exhibition of both as would be likely to 
 benefit the reader. " Waiving," she says, "both 
 from inclination and from inability, whatever 
 passages in St. Paul's writings may be con- 
 sidered controversial, the writer has endea- 
 voured, though it must be confessed imperfectly 
 and superficially, to bring forward his character 
 as a model for our general imitation, and his 
 practical writings as a store-house for our gene- 
 ral instruction, avoiding whatever might be con- 
 sidered as a ground for the discussion of any 
 point not immediately tending to practical util- 
 ity." 
 
 In another part of the preface she remarks, 
 with characteristic humility : — " It is with no 
 little diffidence that the writer of the following 
 pages ventures to submit them to the public 
 eye. She comes in weakness and in fear, and 
 in much trembling. She is fully aware that 
 whoever undertakes to institute an inquiry into 
 the character, and especially the writings of 
 St. Paul, in a manner at all adequate to the 
 dignity and excellence of both, should possess 
 many and high requisites to which she can 
 make out no fair title. But it would be useless 
 
122 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 to insist on her incompetency to the proper ex- 
 ecution of such a work, and her deficiencies in 
 ancient learning, Biblical criticism, and deep 
 theological knowledge, because the sagacity of 
 the reader would not fail to be beforehand with 
 her avowal in detecting them. It may, how- 
 ever, serve as some apology for the boldness of 
 the present undertaking, that these volumes are 
 not of a critical but practical nature." Her an- 
 ticipations respecting the work were not great, 
 and she was fully aware that she could not 
 write on any thing connected with religion or 
 morals without crossing the feelings of some 
 who had imbibed peculiar notions : — " My book," 
 she says, in a letter to Mrs. Kennicott, " will 
 be called, and justly, a presumptuous under- 
 taking. I am sure beforehand of two classes of 
 enemies, the very high Calvinist, and what is 
 called the very high Church party — tw(? for- 
 midable bodies ; but as I have written I trust 
 from my conscience, I shall patiently submit to 
 their different awards. I own the subject is 
 above my strength at best, and now that little 
 strength is of course less. It will be my last 
 attempt." 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 123 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Observation — Loss of old friends— Mr. Thornton, Mr, 
 Bowdler, Dr. Buchanan — Severe sickness — Indisposition of 
 Miss More's sisters — Death of Miss Elizabeth More — Death 
 of Miss Sarah More — Conduct under affliction — Writes 
 more tracts and ballads — Corrects some of her works for the 
 press — Receives several distinguished persons at Barley 
 Wood. 
 
 Miss More had outlived her generation, and 
 seemed to stand alone amidst a new race. The 
 early friends of her literary career had long 
 since sunk to the tomb. Garrick, Johnson, 
 Burke, Walpole, Pitt, Reynolds, and many 
 others, whose names are identified with the 
 history of the world, whose wit, genius, and 
 talents, had so often delighted her, and in whose 
 friendship she had so largely 'participated, had, 
 one after another, left the orbit of their glory, 
 and gone to that " undiscovered country, from 
 whose bourne no traveller returns." More re- 
 cently the good bishop of London, Lord Bar- 
 ham, a Christian friend of many years, and a 
 beloved sister, had, among others, been added 
 to the list of her bereavements, which now 
 seemed to accumulate on every side, till an 
 age had disappeared before her, and the va- 
 cancy of her former associates was filled with 
 a new generation whom she knew not. A few 
 "of the friends of her maturer years were still 
 left, but these were dropping off" on the right 
 hand and on the left, and she was now called 
 to add to their number the names of Henry 
 
124 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Thornton, Esq., and soon after of John Bowdler, 
 and Dr. Buchanan. Mr. Thornton had been 
 one of the principal contributors to the mainte- 
 nance of her schools for many years, and the 
 others were of that class of tried and faithful 
 friends which so much contribute to our enjoy- 
 ment in life. 
 
 Miss More alludes to their losses in a man- 
 ner which shows how great was the comforting 
 influence of religion in her times of trial. 
 "How, alas!" she writes to Lady Sparrow, 
 " shall I touch on the successive grievous 
 strokes with which we have been smitten in 
 three short weeks ? They seem to have come 
 rapidly upon us, like the messengers of sad 
 tidings to Job. Our eyes were not dried after 
 the irreparable loss of Mr. H. Thornton, before 
 we received a deep and fresh blow in that of 
 Mr. J. Bowdler ; and as it is supposed that 
 Bowdler's kind attention on his dying friend 
 was the immediate cause of his own death, so 
 the attendance of Dr. Buchanan at the funeral 
 of his generous patron is said to have given him 
 the cold that sent him to the grave. We may 
 say with good old Jacob, ' All these things are 
 against us.' But God's ways are not as our 
 ways ; he saw that our lamented friends were 
 matured for heaven beyond the usual ripeness, 
 even of distinguished Christians ; and consum- 
 mated their bliss when we would have gladly 
 detained them in a world of sin and sorrow, 
 and incessant trial. They have left us exam- 
 ples both how to live and how to die. In Mr. 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 125 
 
 Thornton I have lost not only the most wise, 
 and consistently virtuous and pious, but the 
 most attached, faithful, and confidential friend. 
 My schools, too, have lost one who was their 
 principal support for twenty-five years : but my 
 own life is likely to be so short that I trust the 
 goodness of Providence will enable me to carry 
 them on to the end. 
 
 "By the death of Dr. Buchanan the Oriental 
 Scripture business has sustained an irreparable 
 loss. You will be pleased with a conversation 
 he had with a friend a short time before his 
 death. He was describing the minute pains he 
 had been taking in the proofs and revisions of 
 the Syriac Testament, every page of which 
 passed under his eye five times before it was 
 sent to press. He said he had expected before- 
 hand that this process would have proved irk- 
 some to him, lyit 'no,' he added, 'every fresh 
 perusal of the sacred page seemed to unfold 
 new beauties.' Here he stopped and burst 
 into tears. ' Do not be alarmed,' said he to 
 his friend, as soon as he recovered himself, ' I 
 could not suppress the emotion I felt as I recol- 
 lected the delight it had pleased God to afford 
 me in the reading of his word.' " 
 
 These wounds were still fresh when Miss 
 More was called to renewed afflictions. In the 
 spring of 1816 she suffered another severe in- 
 disposition, which for some days threatened 
 her life. Her recovery was slow, and the dis- 
 ease left her with impaired hearing, smell, and 
 taste. *' Like Barzillai," she says, "I have long 
 
126 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 ceased to hear any more the voice of singing 
 men and singing women : but though I hope I 
 can still discern between good and evil, yet I 
 cannot taste what I eat or what I drink, 1 
 have lost the too senses of smell and taste 
 completely for six weeks. It has given me an 
 excellent lesson not to overlook common mer- 
 cies, for I forgot to value these blessings till I 
 had lost them." 
 
 These afflicting dispensations were followed 
 by others if possible still more distressing. It 
 was evident that death was about to make 
 other inroads, not only among her friends, but 
 in her family. She was called to witness 
 painful and alarming symptoms of declining 
 health in her three remaining sisters. " My 
 poor sister Martha," she says in a letter to 
 Mr. Knox, " has not been out more than three 
 or four times for the last nine jnonths ; I fear 
 she is in a declining state, and I have sad prog- 
 nostics. Her loss to me, to whom she has 
 been hands, and eyes, and feet, would be incal- 
 culable. My lively sister Sarah, who still re 
 tains, at times, all the spirit and vivacity of 
 youth, is pronounced to be far gone in a dropsy. 
 We lately thought her going very rapidly, but I 
 bless God she somewhat rallied, and may, I 
 hope, be spared to us a little longer, but her 
 symptoms are very bad. My now eldest sister, 
 who has long had paralytic indications, has 
 been many weeks in bed with a mortification in 
 her leg. This has been resisted by vigorous 
 means ; but last week, after many hours of 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 127 
 
 quiet sleep, we found, on her awaking, that she 
 had lost the power of swallowing and of articu- 
 lation. She has remained speechless ever 
 since ; and it is a pitiable sight to explore the 
 asking eye, and receive no answer. She seems 
 to look at us, but there is no speculation in 
 those looks. These are trying scenes : pray 
 for us, my good friend, that they may be salu- 
 tary." 
 
 In the autumn of 1816 her fears were real- 
 ized in relation to her eldest sister Elizabeth, 
 the closing scene of whose life she thus de- 
 scribes in a letter to Lady Sparrow : — " How 
 good and how kind are you ! I cordially thank 
 you for your two feeling letters. It has, as you 
 have heard, pleased God to remove my poor 
 sister Betsey from this world of sin and sorrow. 
 I humbly trust, that through Him who loved 
 her and gave himself for her, she is now a 
 happy spirit, disencumbered of a suffering body, 
 and escaped from all the infirmities of age, and 
 the evils of life. She had for many years spent 
 the greater part of her time in reading the 
 Scriptures and devotional books ; and latterly 
 has read nothing else ; and though she was of 
 a reserved temper, and said little, yet I am per- 
 suaded she felt her own sinfulness, and was 
 earnest in hej supplications to the throne of 
 grace and mercy. For the last fortnight she 
 was entirely speechless. It was a most pitiable 
 sight to see her struggling to express some- 
 thing she seemed to wish to say, for her intel- 
 lect survived her power of articulation. May 
 
128 MEBIOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 the remembrance of such scene^i quicken us, 
 and make us labour more dihgently to be fol- 
 lowers of them who through faith and patience 
 inherit the promises." 
 
 The death of Miss Elizabeth More took 
 place on the 14th of June, 1816, in the seventy- 
 sixth year of her age, and was followed in less 
 than a year by the dissolution of another of the 
 sisters. Sarah, now the eldest, had for some 
 time been gradually sinking under the pressure 
 of a most painful disease, and for many months 
 her death was daily expected. She survived, 
 however, until the 17th of May, 1817, when 
 she exchanged a life of suffering for a glorious 
 immortality, aged seventy-four. Her last mo- 
 ments were the season of her greatest triumph. 
 When asked if she had comfort of mind she re- 
 plied, " O yes, I have no uncomfortable feel- 
 ings at all." One of her friends alluded to her 
 great sufferings. " I do not think of them," she 
 replied, in a tone of the meekest resignation : 
 and soon after, when she was supposed to be 
 near her end, she raised her hands in a holy 
 transport and exclaimed, " O for the glorious 
 morning of the resurrection !" — "but," she added, 
 " there are some clouds between." On taking 
 leave of her medical attendant she exhorted him 
 to love God and take care of his soul ; " and 
 O," she exclaimed, "if this should be the blessed 
 hour of my deliverance, may I die the death of 
 the righteous, and may my last thoughts be 
 thoughts of faithfulness." On the following- 
 day she awoke suddenly out of a tranquil sleep. 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 129 .. 
 
 and cried out in rapture, " Blessing, and honour, 
 and glory, and power be unto the Lamb, — Hal- 
 lekijah !" " Four months," says Miss More, 
 " we had watched over her increasing disease ; 
 the last two exceeded in agony any thing I had 
 ever witnessed. Poor Patty and I closely at- 
 tended this bed of suffering, but our distresses 
 were mingled with much consolation. The 
 sprightly, gay-tempered creature, whose vivacity 
 age had not tamed, exhibited the most edifying 
 spectacle I ever beheld. I cannot do justice to 
 her humility, her patience, her submission. It 
 was at times something more than resignation, 
 it was a sort of spiritual triumph over the suffer- 
 ings of her body. She often said, ' I have 
 Eiever prayed for recovery, but for pardon: I 
 do not fear death, but sin.' When she was 
 herself, almost her whole time was spent in 
 prayer. So exquisitely keen at times was her 
 anguish, that we were frequently roused in the 
 night by her piercing groans, which she vainly 
 endeavoured to restrain. Our prayers for a 
 gentle dissolution were granted ; she expired 
 in great tranquillity. May her example sink 
 deep in the hearts of all who witnessed it. 
 She commonly sent away her surgeon in tears. 
 Pray for me, that I may be enabled to do and 
 to suffer the whole will of God. My three de- 
 parted sisters have quitted the world in the 
 same order of succession in which they entered 
 it. My turn comes next. But all is in the 
 hands of infinite wisdom and mercy." 
 
 These sad events came one after another in 
 9 
 
130 MEMOIR OF UANXAII MORE. 
 
 such rapid succession, and were accomj)anied 
 with so much watching and anxiety, that it is 
 wonderful how the weak frame of Miss More 
 endured the ordeal. Keenly did she feel her 
 bereavements, but she repined not, though for 
 several weeks both she and her surviving sister 
 were unable to see their friends. But such a 
 mind as that of Miss More could not long be 
 fettered even by sorrow. Between the deaths 
 of her two sisters she had, at the earnest soli- 
 citation of some friends, penned a number of 
 articles after the style of her " Repository 
 Tracts," in order to counteract the spirit of in- 
 subordination and plunder which pervaded the 
 labouring classes in consequence of the pres- 
 sure and difficulty of the times. These, con- 
 sisting of tracts and ballads, were published by 
 a committee formed for the purpose, in London, 
 and widely circulated throughout the kingdom, 
 but without her name or any knowledge of the 
 authorship. But this was not all. In order to 
 give employment to the workmen in one or two 
 of the parishes where she had schools, and 
 where twelve hundred of them were reduced to 
 absolute want, she embarked some of her pro- 
 perty with Mr. Addington, then of the Treasury, 
 in order to set the works in motion, which, with 
 the assistance of her friend, she was for some 
 time enabled to do. Soon after the death of 
 her sister Sarah, in 1817, we find her toiling 
 with her pen, and making corrections and addi- 
 tions to some of her works, which were again 
 running through the press, " CoBlebs" to a fif- 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 131 
 
 teenth edition, and " Practical Piety" to the 
 eleventh. 
 
 Indeed the elasticity of Miss More's mind 
 was almost beyond belief. Her temper was 
 naturally gay, and neither age, sickness, nor 
 sorrow, had power, apparently, long to confine 
 it. 'She regarded her afflictions as needful to 
 her spiritual prosperity, and meekly bowed to 
 receive the rod. " Nothing," she says, " but 
 the grace of God, and frequent attacks through 
 life of very severe sickness, could have kept 
 me in tolerable order. If I am no better with 
 all these visitations, what should I have been 
 without them !" Again she says, " I have 
 never yet suffered a blow, of which I did not 
 feel the indispensable necessity, in which I did 
 not, on reflection, see and feel the compassion- 
 ate hand of divine mercy ; the chastisement of 
 a tender parent." 
 
 Mr. Wilberforce made several attempts to 
 engage her pen in a further effort to check the 
 revolutionary spirit which everywhere prevailed 
 in the kingdom, but she declined. " How can 
 you," she writes, *' be so cruel as to talk of my 
 writing for France or England, or for anything? 
 I have long since hung up my harp. I did to 
 be sure take it down in the spring, but it was 
 (hen a Jew''s harp. Dire necessity, and the im- 
 portunity of some people, drove me to scribble 
 about thirteen pieces, such as they were, in 
 about six weeks ; pretty well I think for a sep- 
 tuagenary.* 
 
 * One who is seventy years of age. 
 
132 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Although Barley Wood had latterly been the 
 scene of much affliction, and was despoiled of 
 some of its attractions by the withering hand of 
 death, yet it was not deserted by those who de- 
 lighted in advancing the standard of the cross. 
 In the autumn of 1817 Miss More had the gra- 
 tification to receive a visit from the celebrated 
 Dr. Chalmers, the eloquent Scotch divine, Drs. 
 Patterson and Henderson, the Bible mission- 
 aries, Sir Alexander Johnstone, with two Cinga- 
 lese priests, two Persian noblemen, who had 
 visited England to acquire a knowledge of its 
 literature, arts, and sciences, and many others. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Extensive circulation of Miss More's works^ — Evident 
 benefits of her labours — Sickness — Writes and publishes 
 " Moral Sketches" — Observations on the work. 
 
 Several of the works of Miss More, which 
 had passed through so many editions at home, 
 were equally popular abroad. She had the 
 pleasure of learning that large editions had been 
 printed and sold in America, some of her friends 
 found many copies in Sweden and Iceland. 
 " Ccelebs had been translated into French, and 
 was favourably received by the critics. From 
 Russia she received a letter from a princess, 
 informing her that she had translated some of 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 133 
 
 her productions into the Russian tongue, and 
 that they had been productive of the happiest 
 resuks. ' Practical Piely' was translated into 
 the Persian. From the Tract Society of Paris 
 she received a letter desiring her to furnish a 
 copy of her tracts, to be translated into the 
 French language for general distribution. Many 
 of her books had been sent out to India, and 
 some of them had been translated into Cinga- 
 lese. But what gratified Miss More particularly 
 was the testimony which she received from 
 every direction, that these works, which were 
 read by so many persons, were doing something 
 for the cause of God and the advancement of 
 pure religion. 
 
 But it was not only from her books that she 
 now received frequent testimonials of the good 
 which she had been instrumental in accom- 
 plishing, but also from her other labours, espe- 
 cially from her schools. Many of her pupils 
 had become^ decidedly pious, and were giving 
 the influence of their example in favour of that 
 religion which she had endeavoured to teach 
 them ; nay, many of them had died in the sure 
 and steadfast hope of a blessed immortality, 
 and had anticipated her in entering upon the 
 glories of that life which is to be hereafter. 
 " Two of our first scholars at Cheddar," she 
 says in one of her letters, " whom we taught 
 their letters thirty years ago, died last week. 
 They became remarkably pious, when only 
 fourteen years of age. I went to see them a 
 short time before their decease. One of them 
 
134 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 had married a schoolboy of ours, who became 
 a good tradesman ; and ihey had prospered in 
 life. I never attended a more edifying death- 
 bed. Though suffering much from her -mala- 
 dies, yet she discovered something more than 
 resignation — it was a sort of humble, grateful 
 triumph. She was obliged to pray against im- 
 patience for death, so ardent was her desire to 
 be with her Saviour. O how I envied her! 
 There was no heated imagination. She was 
 happy on good grounds." 
 
 In September, 1818, both Miss More and her 
 remaining sister were again attacked by severe 
 indisposition, which for some days threatened 
 serious results, but from which they gradually 
 recovered. The attack was mainly occasioned 
 by the great number of visiters at Barley Wood, 
 many of whom were distinguished strangers 
 from abroad, and demanded more of the atten- 
 tion of these sisters' than their feeble health ad- 
 mitted. Miss More had never enjoyed very 
 good health, and during her whole life had been 
 subject to frequent and violent attacks of illness, 
 which, however, she endured with wonderful 
 fortitude, and from which she recovered with 
 the same buoyancy and energy of mind. " My 
 whole Hfe," she justly observes in one of her 
 letters, " has been a successive scene of visita- 
 tion and restoration. I think I could enumerate 
 twenty mortal diseases from which I have been 
 raised up, without any consequent diminution 
 of strength, except in an illness which hap- 
 pered to me ten years ago, arid which continued 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 135 
 
 for nearly two years. Yet let me gratefully 
 remember this, that at nearly sixty, after this 
 hopeless disease, I was restored to sufficient 
 physical strength to write ten volumes, such as 
 they are. I remember that in that long afflic- 
 tion, though at one time I seldom closed my eyes 
 in sleep for forty days and forty nights, yet I 
 had never one hour's great discomposure of 
 mind, or one moment's failure of reason, tnough 
 I was always liable to agitation." 
 
 From this sickness Miss More recovered 
 with her usual vigour and elasticity of mind, 
 which, indeed, no circumstances seemed able 
 to conquer, and notwithstanding her resolution 
 never to write another large volume for the 
 press, such was her restless desire still to be 
 doing something for the benefit of mankind, 
 that, at the age of seventy-four she was induced 
 again to take up her pen. We give her rea- 
 sons in her own words, as contained in a letter 
 to Sir W. W. Pepys :— " The newspapers will 
 probably have told you," she says, " that I have 
 been guilty of the weakness, at my age, of doing 
 that imprudent and presumptuous thing, writing 
 a book. I had fully resolved, as became me, to 
 commit no more indiscretions of this sort, but 
 I have broken, as did not become me, my reso- 
 lution. Though living in retirement, falsely so 
 called, I see so many people from every point 
 of the compass, that I find there is a fresh crop 
 of errors springing up in a quarter where we 
 did not so much as look for them ; namely among 
 the religious, or rather the professing part of the 
 
136 MEMOIR OF HANNA.H MORE. 
 
 world. I have really seen and heard so much 
 of the evils arising, and likely to arise, from the 
 epidemic French mania that, as King David 
 says, ' while I was musing the fire burned, 
 and at last I spake' with my pen. You will, I 
 fear, think that I have been two strong: but 
 when I see my country almost abandoned in 
 this second assault upon its safety, and milHons 
 [of w^lth] spent abroad, while our poor have 
 been perishing at home, I could not restrain my 
 feelings." 
 
 The work thus called forth was originally de- 
 signed to be merely a pamphlet ; but as she pro- 
 gressed, it grew to a good-sized volume. It was 
 published during the summer of 1820, under the 
 title of " Moral Sketches," and the whole of 
 the first impression was taken off the first day. 
 It is similar in its character to her other ethical 
 works, but more miscellaneous, and notwith- 
 standing the age of the author, is not inferior to 
 any of them, unless it be " St. Paid," which is 
 regarded by many as her master-piece. Its 
 excellencies are thus sketched by the Rev. 
 Daniel Wilson, now the bishop of Calcutta : — 
 " The scrutiny into the heart, the details of 
 practical duty, the detection of prevalent dis- 
 orders, and, in fine, the new and excellent ob- 
 servations on the tendency and development of 
 religious principle, all founded on the charac- 
 teristic doctrines of Christianity, stamp a high 
 value upon the work, and must, under the divine 
 blessing, cause it to be productive of mucl^ 
 good." 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 137 
 
 In the preface she remarks : — " The writer, 
 at her advanced age, has Utile to hope from 
 praise, or to fear from censure, except as her 
 views have been in a right or wrong direction. 
 She has feh that the exposure of growing er- 
 rors is a duty devolving on those who have the 
 good of mankind at heart : the more nearly her 
 time approaches for leaving the' world, there is 
 a sense in which she feels herself more in- 
 terested in it ; she means, in art increasing 
 anxiety for its advancement in all that is right 
 in principle and virtuous in action : and as the 
 events and experience of every day convince 
 her that there is no true virtue which is not 
 founded on religion, and no true religion which 
 is not maintained by prayer, she hopes to be 
 forgiven, if, with declining years and faculties, 
 yet with increasing earnestness, from an in- 
 creasing conviction of its value, she once more 
 ventures to impress this most important topic 
 on their attention." 
 
 Some portion of the work is devoted to the 
 subject of education ; a subject which she well 
 understood, and the immense importance of 
 which she justly appreciated. " Why," she 
 asks, " should not Christian instruction be made 
 a prominent article in the education of those 
 who are to govern and legislate, as well as 
 those who are to w(j|;k and serve ? Why are 
 these most important beings the very beings 
 whose immortal interests are the most neglect- 
 ed ? Parents are grieved at the indications of 
 evil dispositions in their children, yet they study 
 
138 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 not the human character, but credulously believe 
 that the accidental defect and the budding vice 
 time will cure ; forgetting that time itself cures 
 nothing, but only inveterates and exasperates 
 where religion is not allowed to operate as a 
 corrective. Gentlemen should be scholars : 
 liberal learning.need not interfere with religious 
 acquirements, and no human learning ought to 
 keep religion in the back ground, so as to ren- 
 der it an accidental or subordinate part in the 
 education of a Christian gentleman." These 
 sentiments are worthy to be treasured up by 
 every pious parent. It seems to be the error, es- 
 pecially of our own country, that knowledge alone 
 can regulate the heart and correct the life, for- 
 getting that the imaginations of the unrenewed 
 heart are evil and only evil continually, and 
 that nothing can efTectually counteract this evil 
 but religion. How necessary, then, that it 
 should be made a part, an essential part of our 
 education. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Death of Miss Martha More — Miss More's feelings under 
 this bereavement — Alarming illness — State of her mind — 
 Writes a " Sketch of the Life of the King" — Correspondence 
 — Remarks on Madame Neckar's *' Notice of the Charactei 
 and Writings of Madame de Stael." 
 
 Miss MojiE was not permitted to enjoy, with- 
 out attendant trials, the congratulations which 
 flowed in upon her from all quarters of the 
 kingdom on the late successful achievement of 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 139 
 
 her pen. Death which had removed so many 
 of her dear friends and relatives was about to 
 strike a blow still nearer home, and to deprive 
 her of her only remaining sister, who was now 
 her chief help, support, and comfort. Miss 
 Martha More, the youngest of the five sisters, 
 was a most benevolent, active, affectionate, and 
 pious lady, and upon her had devolved in a great 
 measure the execution and responsibility of all 
 those schemes of charity and kindness origi- 
 nating in her more intellectual sister. She had 
 been connected with the parish schools from 
 the very first moment of their existence, had 
 taken the chief charge of household affairs, had 
 dispensed the bounties which her sister gathered, 
 and was to Miss More, as she well expressed 
 it, " hands, and eyes, and feet." She possessed 
 a sound understanding, a cultivated mind, a ge- 
 nerous and noble heart, was cheerful without 
 levity, serious without affectation, zealous with- 
 out ofiiciousness, and withal possessed a great 
 aptitude for imparting instruction, and a dili- 
 gence as indefatigable as that of her untiring 
 sister. With such a disposition, softened and 
 moulded by the benign influences of Christian- 
 ity, and a heart which was susceptible of nothing 
 but kindness, it may readily be imagined how 
 close must have been the ties which bound her 
 to Miss More, after a long life spent in the 
 closest union, the same pursuits, the same cares, 
 anil the same enjoyments. To lose such a sis- 
 ter, at such a time, was, indeed, no ordinary 
 affliction. 
 
140 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 She had taken cold in an excursion with the 
 Wilberforce lamily, who were spending a few 
 days at Barley Wood, and lived only four days 
 from the time of her attack ; dying, like those 
 of her family who had gone before, in the con- 
 fident expectation of a glorious immortality. 
 This event took place on the 14th of September, 
 1819, in the seventieth year of her age, and is 
 thus described by her sister in a letter to Mrs, 
 M'Auley : — " She came to my bedside at eleven 
 at night, and said, ' They are all gone to bed, 
 and our VV. and 1 have had a nice hour's chat.' 
 In an hour and a half after this she awoke in 
 the pangs of death ; after agonies unspeakable, 
 and shrieks which rent my heart, she sunk for 
 eight or ten hours into total insensibility, with 
 all the marks of a corpse on her countenance. 
 We sent for Dr. Lovell, who scarcely left her 
 while she lived. Whether rational or delirious, 
 fier expressions all indicated a strong faith in 
 her crucified Saviour. She was at times per- 
 fectly composed, said she had done but little 
 for God, but had never trusted in any thing she 
 had done. A few hours before her departure 
 she rambled a good deal, but in a quiet way, 
 full of piety and charity. 1 perceived her last 
 breath, when she sweetly slept in Jesus without 
 a sigh or groan. Her countenance in her coffin 
 was lovely. I wish you could have seen how 
 happy she looked. I need not tell you that my 
 grief is exquisite : but my consolations are great, 
 and I trust that not one rebellious thought has 
 risen in my heart. On the contrary I enumerate 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 141 
 
 my many mercies ; that she was spared to me so 
 long, that she had been in such a constant state 
 of preparation, that my grief is not aggravated by 
 any doubt of her present happiness, that she has 
 gained much more than / have lost." 
 
 In this severe affliction Miss More preserved 
 that calm submission to the will of God which 
 always caused her to look upon her bereave- 
 ments as so many just chastisements, bestowed 
 by a benevolent hand, for the purpose of deep- 
 ening her humility, and cutting loose the ties 
 which bound her to' the world. " I find," she 
 says, " not one reason for murmurs ; but many 
 for thanksgiving. She was enabled, after a 
 life of devotedness to God, to bear her dying 
 testimony to his faithfulness and truth. I fee) 
 thankful that she is removed from a world of 
 pain and suffering, of sin and sorrow, to that 
 blessed state purchased for her by Him who 
 loved her; that she sleeps in Jesus, and that her 
 last words were expressive of her Christian 
 hope. Shall I mourn for such a death 1 And 
 yet I cannot but mourn deeply. The remainder 
 of my pilgrimage, however, must be short. I 
 pray that I may be enabled to spend it better 
 than I have done the past ; and I believe that 
 she was taken from me in order to quicken my 
 repentance and preparation. My chief earthly 
 support was removed that I might lean more 
 entirely on God." In another letter she re- 
 marks : — " I can truly say that my grief has not 
 been mixed with one murmuring thought. I 
 kiss the rod, and adore the hand that employs 
 
142 MEMOIR OF lIANx\AH MORE. 
 
 it. I bless 'God that she was spared to me so 
 long ; that her last trial, though sharp, was 
 short ; that she is spared from feeling for me 
 what I wow feel for her; and though I must 
 finish my journey alone, yet it is a very short 
 portion which remains to be accomplished." 
 
 The loss of this excellent woman was deeply 
 deplored, not only by her surviving sister, but 
 by all who knew her, and especially by the vil- 
 lagers, who had for so many years been the 
 objects of her affectionate solicitude. Her loss 
 .was regarded as a common calamity, and she 
 was, therefore, mourned with no ordinary grief. 
 Several funeral sermons were preached for her 
 in the neighbourhood, at each of which a very 
 large company of clergymen attended, and the 
 people about Barley Wood generally put on 
 badges of mourning, and the parish schools for 
 some time forbore to make application for their 
 usual supplies of clothing and books. Surprised 
 at this last circumstance, Miss More inquired 
 of the Shipham schoolmaster, who replied : — 
 " Why, madam, they be so cut up for the sad loss 
 we have all sustained, that they have not heart 
 to come." 
 
 The death of this amiable and pious sister 
 pressed heavily upon Miss More's spirits for 
 some time, but she gradually recovered the 
 natural tone of her mind, though her body con- 
 tinued much enfeebled. Through the whole 
 winter and spring she was so ill as scarcely to 
 be able to leave her room, and seemed rather to 
 retrograde than improve, until in the month of 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 143 
 
 August she was brought, by a succession of 
 alarming attacks, to the very gates of death. 
 For many days no hopes were entertained for 
 her recovery, and she herself supposed that she 
 was about to leave the church miUtant, and join 
 the church triumphant. 
 
 In this situation Miss More felt how great 
 was the support of those Christian principles 
 which she had so long endeavoured to inculcate 
 on the minds of others, which she had defended 
 and enforced in her writings, and exemplified 
 in her life. " What," she exclaimed, " should 
 I do, at this trying season, if I had the work to 
 begin ?" a question which it would be well for 
 all to consider while yet -they are in health. 
 On the night of the 12th Miss More was seized 
 with an obstinate obstruction of the chest, and 
 supposing herself dying, she caused the family 
 to be called together. After repeated faintings 
 she so far recovered as to be able to speak, 
 when she broke out in these and other excla- 
 mations of triumph : — " Thou wilt §how me 
 the path of life ; in thy presence is fulness of 
 joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures 
 for evermore." " All my trust is through grace ; 
 all my hope is for mercy ; all I ask is accept- 
 ance through Jesus Christ." 
 
 Through the whole of her illness she pos- 
 sessed that calm reliance and firm confidence 
 which so wonderfully sustain the true Christian 
 in the hour of suflering and trial, though she 
 says she knew little of those triumphs which 
 others had experienced on the near approach 
 
144 MEMOIR OF HAXXAII MORE. 
 
 of death. Her mind, however, was continually 
 calm, and her faith unwavering: not af doubt of 
 her acceptance ever seems to have crossed her 
 mind, no fear of death, no wish of recovery, no 
 longing after the pleasures of the world. It 
 was her delight to talk of the glories of heaven, 
 and of the salvation provided through the Sa- 
 viour. " It is delightful to know," she said to 
 one of her friends, " that these our joys will be 
 unspeakable and full of glory : rest in the bosom 
 of God and the Saviour, and a full enjoyment 
 of his presence, chiefly present themselves to 
 my mind. The meeting of dear friends will, I 
 should think, constitute a part of our felicity, 
 though a very subordinate one : like Whiteiield, 
 I think, we shall be apt to say, ' Stand back, 
 and keep me not from the sight of the Saviour''" 
 To one of the clergymen who prayed by her 
 bedside she said : — " I thank God I have not 
 an anxiety whether to live or die," and added, 
 with energy, " there is peace and safety at the 
 foot of the cross : blessed be his holy name, I 
 am enabled to cast myself there, in a full, undi- 
 vided, unqualified reliance on that blood that 
 was shed upon.it." 
 
 But Miss More's work was not yet done, 
 and it pleased God to restore her to her friends, 
 and to grant her again a comfortable degree of 
 health. During this terrible illness her mind 
 retained its strength to a degree almost pas^ 
 belief ; as a wonderful evidence of which we 
 may state that the preface to a new edition of 
 her " Moral Sketches," consisting of a sketch 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 145 
 
 of the character of the late king, George III., 
 was composed and written by her while she 
 was most feeble, and while her friends were 
 despairing of her recovery. The circumstances 
 are narrated in a letter to Miss Hubert, to ac- 
 count for the supposed defects in the work. 
 " In the worst of my illness," she says, " Cadell 
 [son of the former] wrote to entreat me to write 
 a preface to a new edition of ' Moral Sketches,' 
 with a short tribute to our lamented king. My 
 friend wrote him word it was utterly impos- 
 sible, that I might as well attempt to fly as to 
 write. A week after, supposing me to be bet- 
 ter, he again renewed his entreaty. I was, 
 however, not any better, but I fancied that what 
 was difficult might not be impossible. So, 
 having got every body out of the way, I fur- 
 nished myself with pen, ink, and paper, which 
 I concealed in my bed, and the next morning, 
 in a high fever, with my pulse above a hundred, 
 without having formed one thought, bolstered 
 up, I began to scribble. I got on about seven 
 pages, my hand being almost as incompetent as 
 my head. I hid my scrawl,, and said not a 
 word while my doctor and my friend wondered 
 at my increased debility. After a strong opiate 
 I next morning renewed my task of seven 
 pages more, and delivered my almost illegible 
 papers to my friend to transcribe and send 
 away. I got well scolded, but I loved the king, 
 and was carried through by a sort of affection- 
 ate impulse ; so it stands as a preface to the 
 seventh edition." 
 
 10 
 
146 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 We can scarcely imagine any thing more 
 wonderful than this achievement. Miss More 
 was now seventy-five years of age, in the midst 
 of a raging fever, her body enfeebled to the last 
 extent by the ravages of disease ; and yet, un- 
 der these circumstances, when an ordinary per- 
 son would have been brooding in despondency 
 over so deplorable a situation, she was enabled 
 to write, in two successive days, no less thaa 
 fourteen pages ol foolscap paper, on a subject 
 which required thought, reflection, and labour. 
 Surely the mind that could achieve such a vic- 
 tory over time, debility, and disease, must have 
 been cast in no ordinary mould ! 
 
 Contrary to Miss More's expectations, her 
 health continued to improve during the winter 
 of 1820 and 21, and we soon find her bringing 
 up the arrears of her correspondence, neither 
 her wit nor vivacity being a whit diminished 
 by her late severe trials. Among those with 
 whom she held intercourse by letter, were still 
 persons of all classes ; the high, the low ; the 
 learned, the illiterate ; the old, the young. 
 Miss More took an interest in the afHicted of 
 whatever class ; her philanthropy was not con- 
 fined to the precincts of her native island ; it 
 looked abroad over the whole world. In the 
 exercise of this boundless benevolence she held 
 an intercourse with many in our own country, 
 and among them were several of the deaf and 
 dumb girls of the Hartford Asylum, Conn. 
 Their correspondence was of a very simple 
 kind, as the reader will see, for we cannot for- 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 147 
 
 bear to make the following extract from a letter 
 of Sophia Fowler, which, though not imme- 
 diately connected with the narrative, will, we 
 are sure, be interesting to the young American 
 reader. 
 
 " It gives me great pleasure to write to you, 
 although I think we shall never see each other's 
 face : but I do hope I shall meet you in heaven, 
 where, how happy we shall be to see each 
 other's face. I hope we shall make prepara- 
 tion for death, and God will give us peace and 
 happiness when we die. I was sorry to hear 
 that you were sick, but I hope you are now bet- 
 ter. I think how I live here a great many 
 miles from you. * * * If you are in any pain 
 I hope God will descend upon your soul in 
 peace. Jesus Christ sees us always when we 
 are in pain, and he sympathizes with us : then 
 he will certainly bless us if we truly love and 
 trust in him through faith. * * * May your 
 heavenly Father bless you, and be always with 
 you during your life. Although I write this 
 letter to you, I hardly expect you will answer 
 me, because I know that you are much engaged. 
 I hope to pray to God for you." 
 
 That Miss More's mind had not suffered ma- 
 terially, either in consequence of age or dis- 
 ease, is, we think, abundantly evident from the 
 sprightliness and vigour of her correspondence. 
 A friend had sent her Madame Neckar's " No- 
 tice of the Character and Writings of Madame 
 de Stael," requesting her opinion of its merits, 
 which was given with the same clear discri- 
 
148 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 mination of judgment which characterized her 
 mind at an earlier period. It will be observed, 
 too, that her style retains all the e^se, elegance, 
 and fluency of her younger days. " I have 
 read this work," she says, " with mingled feel- 
 ings of pain and pleasure. It indicates a kin- 
 dred genius with the work it celebrates, a simi- 
 larity of striking thoughts, brilliancy of style, 
 and happy turn of expression ; the same ardour 
 of feeling, the same generosity of sentiment. I 
 wish my regard to truth would allow me to stop 
 here ; but you insist on knowing my sentiments. 
 It would be a satire on my own judgment and 
 feelings not to allow that I am among the innu- 
 merable admirers of Madame de Stael. And 
 like the woman she celebrates, Madame Neck- 
 ar writes elegantly, and even splendidly, but 
 she has employed her eloquence to varnish over 
 every thing in her relative's conduct and writ- 
 ings. Religion, however, is the great point in 
 Madame de Stael's character on which she in- 
 sists : but these distinguished ladies have a re- 
 ligion of their own ; not the Christian religion : 
 humility is excluded ; there is no intimation of a 
 fallen nature, of its restoration, of the renewal 
 of the soul, of divine influences, &;c. It is, as 
 Isaiah says, 'as when a hungry man dreameth 
 and behold he eateth ; but he awaketh and be- 
 hold his soul is empty.'" 
 
 In another part of this letter she says : — " Per- 
 haps if I had as much personal interest in de- 
 fending genius as she has, I might have been 
 tempted to treat it with greater lenity. I am a 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 149 
 
 passionate admirer of the gifts of God, and 
 whatever is beautiful in nature or exquisite in 
 art, comes from him. They proceed from his 
 goodness, but form no part of his essence. 
 Nor can I conceive that the most enchanting 
 beauties of nature, or the most splendid produc- 
 tions of the fine arts, have any necessary con- 
 nection with religion. Genius and talents are 
 gifts of God ; they serve to adorn religion in 
 her brightest beauty, but they are no part of 
 herself: on the contrary, she has found some 
 of her worst enemies among those who have 
 b'een the most supremely gifted. Observe, I 
 mean the religion of Christ, not that of Plato ; 
 the religion of reality, not that of the beau-ideal. 
 The most exquisite pictures and statues have been 
 produced in those parts of Europe where pure re- 
 ligion has made the least progress. Athens was 
 once the most learned, and the most polished city 
 in the world ; yet the eloquent preaching of Paul 
 made but one convert in the whole Areopagus." 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Another attack of illness — Death of Mrs. Garrick — State 
 of her health — Employment of time — Barley Wood school 
 at Ceylon — Opinion of Scott's Novels — Wrington Bible 
 Meeting — Publishes " Spirit of Prayer" — Great energy of 
 mind. 
 
 In the spring of 1822 Miss More suffered 
 another of those severe attacks of illness which 
 had so often admonished her of the great neces- 
 sity of a constant preparation for death. For 
 
150 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 six months she was confined to her bed, and 
 for more than a year she did not leave her 
 room. But her sickness was not only very 
 protracted, but also very dangerous, and few 
 were so sanguine as to look for her recovery. 
 It pleased God, however, after a period of great 
 suffering, again to raise her up. 
 
 During this long affliction her mind was 
 stayed upon her Saviour, and through him she 
 was enabled to preserve the same patience, 
 peace, and confidence, which had hitherto 
 marked her trials. " Were it in my power," 
 she was wont to say, "to determine whether to 
 live or die, and could I determine either by the 
 lifting up of my hand, I would not dare to do 
 it." Miss More felt that her home was in 
 heaven ; her treasure and her heart were there ; 
 and although, like the great apostle, she knew 
 that " to live was Christ," yet she also felt that 
 " to die was gain." "O, " said she, "that I had 
 wings like a dove, for then would I fly away 
 and be at rest : I would hasten my escape from 
 the windy storm and tempests." And again : — 
 " O what a morning will that be when I shall 
 awake in endless joy ! When will it come ! 
 That was not an unpremeditated assertion which 
 Paul made, when he said nobly and truly: — 'I 
 reckon that the sufferings of this present time 
 are not worthy to be compared with the glory 
 that shall be revealed in us.' " When at length 
 favourable symptoms appeared, and her physi- 
 cian expressed hopes of her recovery, she said, 
 " I fear I am not thankful enough ; but suppose 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNaIi MORE. 151 
 
 you were going a long journey to receive a 
 large inheritance, would you not be grieved 
 were you suddenly called back to receive two 
 or three trifling sums, when you had nearly 
 reached the end ?" 
 
 One of her first letters, on her recovery, was 
 addressed to Sir W. W. Pepys, her old and 
 tried friend. In it she thus speaks of her ill- 
 ness : — " I have been in bed six months with 
 a fever as severe as it was durable. At my 
 advanced time of life I was bled seven times in 
 a few weeks, with other sharp discipline. The 
 mercies of my heavenly Father during this trial 
 have been great and numerous. Of the first 
 sixty nights I passed forty without one hour's 
 entire sleep, yet I had never one moment's de- 
 lirium, and scarcely any discomposure." She 
 then speaks of the general state of sickness 
 and want, which existed at the time of her own 
 afflictions, in the neighbourhood, and adds : — 
 " Through your generous bounty I was enabled 
 materially to mitigate these calamities. I had 
 a little bag [containing money] pinned to my 
 curtain, from which I sent to the sick, through 
 the apothecary, the almost daily dole, [charity,] 
 and I believe some lives were saved, and others 
 were made more comfortable." 
 
 In October she heard of the death of Mrs. 
 Garrick, her early and enduring friend, who 
 had gone down to the grave full of years. She 
 thus notices the event in one of her letters : — 
 " I was much affected yesterday with a report 
 of the death of my ancient and valued friend 
 
152 MEMOIR •of HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Mrs. Garrick. She was in her hundredth 
 YEAR. I spent above twenty winters under her 
 roof, and gratefully remember, not only her per- 
 sonal kindness, but my first introduction, through 
 her and her husband, into a society remarkable 
 for rank, literature, and talents. Whatever was 
 most distinguished in either, was to be found 
 at their table. He was the very soul of con- 
 versation." 
 
 The state of Miss More's health may be besi 
 ascertained by a quotation from another of her 
 letters, written in November, 1823. "It is 
 now," she says, " about two years since I have 
 been down stairs, and I think about four years 
 and a quarter since I have been in any house 
 besides my own. I have, however, a pleasant 
 prison, and am not anxious for a jail delivery." 
 But notwithstanding her long confinement, and 
 the feeble state of her body, she was not idle. 
 Her large correspondence was still kept up> 
 and Barley Wood was daily thronged with 
 visiters from all quarters of th^ world. Her 
 schemes of benevolence, too, were not con- 
 tracted on account of her bodily inactivity, but 
 were constantly enlarging, contrary to the gene- 
 ral rule, as she advanced in age. 
 
 Various repositories having been opened at 
 Clifton and Bath for the benefit of certain cha- 
 rities, a part of her leisure was employed in 
 fabricating articles to aid them. It being known 
 that these trifles had been prepared by a person 
 so celebrated as Hannah More, they generally 
 sold for large sums. On one occasion Sir 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 153 
 
 Thomas Ackland purchased a pair of garters 
 which shs had knit for one of the repositories, 
 which he was glad to get by paying a crown, 
 [a httle more than a dollar.] The circumstance 
 having come to the knowledge of Miss More, 
 she penned some sprightly lines, and addressed 
 them to Sir Thomas, in which she spoke of the 
 garters as one of the most faultless of her works. 
 The conclusion of the poem is in these words : 
 
 " Though some its want of ornament may blame, 
 Utility, not splendour, was my aim. 
 Not ostentatious I — for still I ween 
 Its worth is rather to he felt than seen. 
 Around \he feelings still it gently winds, 
 If lost, no comfort the possessor finds ; 
 Retired from view, it seeks to be obscure, 
 The public gaze it trembles to endure. 
 The sober moralist its use may find, 
 Its object is not loose, it aims to bind. 
 No creature suffers from its sight or touch, 
 Can Walter Scott say more — can Byron say as much ? 
 One tribute more, my friend, I seek to raise. 
 You've given, indeed, a crown, give More — your praise. 
 
 But it was not only for the repositories in the 
 vicinity of Barley Wood that she was engaged 
 in preparing these trifles. The American Board 
 of Missions, having received a print of Miss 
 More's residence, had a copy of it taken, and 
 devoted the profits of the sale to the establish- 
 ment of a school in Ceylon, which was to bear 
 the name of Barley Wood : in order to aid their 
 funds Miss More extended to them the benefit 
 of her labours. " If,'' she says in one of her 
 letters, " you saw my table on most days, you 
 would think that, if I were not a minister of 
 state, I was become at least a clerk in a public 
 
154 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 office. These petty businesses often prevent 
 my writing to those dear friends with whom it 
 would be my delight to have more intercourse 
 I find, however, a good deal of time to work 
 with my hands, while Miss Frowd reads for the 
 entertainment of my head. The learned labours 
 of my knitting-needle are now accumulating to 
 be sent to America, to the Missionary Society, 
 who will sell them there, and send the proceeds 
 to the Barley Wood school at Ceylon. So that 
 you see I am still good for something." 
 
 She also occupied much time in reading, 
 which she seems to have enjoyed with her 
 usual relish, and the large volumes that she 
 read is truly wonderful. Her taste did not run 
 to the light and frivolous trash which, in her 
 day as well as our own, was constantly teeming 
 from the press ; but she delighted in those solid 
 and instructive works which enlightened the 
 understanding and improved the heart. Indeed 
 she has in several places borne her testimony 
 in the strongest terms against the great evil of 
 what is called light reading. She censures 
 not only those inferior novels which have 
 nothing to recommend them but the fact that 
 they are fashionable, but also those of a higher 
 class, such for instance as emanated from the 
 pen of Sir Walter Scott. She acknowledged 
 their high merits as works of genius, but re- 
 garding time as a sacred trust for which we 
 must give an account, she thought that it should 
 not be squandered in reading books whose 
 highest claims consisted in doing no harm. 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. ^ 155 
 
 " Let those who consider that if our time is in- 
 deed to be accounted for as scrupulously as any 
 other talents with which we may be intrusted, 
 how will their reckoning stand in the great day 
 of accounts ? In the case of some, time is al- 
 most the only talent they have. Such ought to 
 be especially careful that this one be rightly 
 employed, as we have an awful lesson of the 
 danger of unprofitableness." 
 
 It had been the custom of Miss More to give 
 all her influence, and to aid in other respects, 
 the operations of tha British Bible Society, and 
 on the occasion of the Wrington Anniversary, 
 to entertain the guests from a distance. These 
 not unfrequently amounted to more than a hun- 
 dred, and on one occasion, which she names, 
 to one hundred and sixty. For some time she 
 had not been able to do this, but in the year 
 1824 her health was so much improved that 
 they were again invited to share her hospitality. 
 She was, however, unable to attend the meet- 
 ing, or even to dine with the guests, but she 
 saw most of the company in her room after din- 
 ner, where they spent several hours in edifying 
 conversation. Bishop Chase, of Ohio, was 
 among the number, and offered the parting 
 prayer. In about a month after this interesting 
 occasion Miss More was again laid on a bed 
 of sickness, where she viras detained for many 
 weeks with but little expectation of her reco- 
 very. But old age had not broken her spirits, 
 or overcome her patience. Her sick bed was 
 a scene of instruction to all who had the privi- 
 
156 ^ MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 # 
 
 lege to see her there. Ever ready to depart, 
 she did not look upon the approaches of our 
 last enemy with terror ; the sting of death had 
 been destroyed, and she waited with patience 
 the time when her earthly afflictions should 
 draw to a close, and permit her to enter on 
 those bright scenes of felicity which she was 
 confident awaited her beyond the grave. 
 
 As soon as she began to recover, and before 
 she was able to quit her bed for any length of 
 time, she commenced making selections from 
 her works on the subject pf prayer, which she 
 brought together into a little volume, making 
 occasional additions and alterations, and pre- 
 fixing a short preface. Not expecting to live 
 but a few days, this little book was bequeathed 
 to her friends. On its being announced, with 
 the name of the author attached, the whole 
 edition was bespoken, and a second edition was 
 in preparation before she received a single copy. 
 This second edition was followed within a few 
 weeks by a third. The work was received 
 with the highest commendation by her pious 
 friends, one of whom well observes that it was 
 a very appropriate and happy finish to her la- 
 bours. Sir W. W. Pepys, who, like herself, 
 had almost finished the journey of life, and was 
 some two or three years older than Miss More, 
 received it with particular delight. " Such an 
 animated spirit of piety runs through the whole 
 of it," he says, " that not to have greatly re- 
 lished it, would have impeached one's taste 
 even more than one's principles. I hope to 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 157 
 
 have it always upon my table, and to read it 
 over and over again as long as I shall wish to 
 cherish the spirit of piety, which I pray God 
 may be as long as I live." 
 
 Another pious friend says : — " I have perused 
 with great interest your 'Spirit of Prayer.' It 
 was well, instead of engaging in anything savour- 
 ing of novelty or originality, to select and place 
 in the public hand that part of the spiritual ar- 
 mour which is so prominently necessary to 
 bring into use and efficacy all the other parts 
 of the sacred panoply which you have been la- 
 bouring so long to recommend for the purpose 
 of Christian warfare." Mr. Stevens also wrote 
 her a long congratulatory letter, in which he 
 expatiated largely on the importance and plea- 
 sure of prayer. After the publication of this 
 little work, in 1825, Miss More's health con- 
 tinued to improve, and for two or three years it 
 remained perhaps better than it had been for 
 several years. 
 
 Her little work on prayer is remarkable as 
 being the last of her publications, and the la- 
 bour of one who had already entered upon her 
 eighty-first year. It is a striking example of 
 that energy of character which she possessed 
 in so remarkable a degree. This peculiarity is 
 well described by herself in one of her letters. 
 " Though I have not done much," she says, 
 " yet with a sickly life, an annual dangerous 
 fever of long duration, if I had been sober and 
 considerate I should have done nothing. My 
 thick volume, ' Moral Sketches, of more than 
 
158 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 five hundred pages, was first thought of in Ja- 
 nuary, and entirely written, printed, and pub- 
 lished in the end of August. In September of the 
 same year dear Patty died. Could I have fore- 
 seen this, or had I delayed the work, it would 
 aeA'^er have been written. So much in favour of 
 rashness." Miss More never indulged in pro- 
 crastination ; the moment that any practicable 
 work suggested itself to her mind, that moment 
 she set about it. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Death of old friends — Barley Wood frequented by dis- 
 senters — Great vivacity of mind — Readiness at composition. 
 
 Miss More's old friends, like the ancient 
 and venerable trees of a stately forest, had, one 
 after another, fallen before the arch-destroyer, 
 until she was left almost a solitary monument 
 of an age which had passed away. In 1S25 
 she was called to part with another of her old 
 companions, that excellent man, faithful friend, 
 elegant and accomplished scholar, Sir W. W. 
 Pepys. He had been one of her earliest lite- 
 rary acquaintances, and had figured in her little 
 poem, " The Bas Bleu." At a later period he 
 had become religious, and was one of her most 
 accomplished and faithful correspondents. Miss 
 More thus narrates her feelings on the occa- 
 sion, in a letter to Mr. Wilberforce: — "My 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 159 
 
 health, through the great mercy of God, is mar- 
 vellous, all things considered ; but I am feeling 
 the common effect of those who live to an ad- 
 vanced age, that almost all my contemporaries 
 are dropping before me. In one month I can 
 reckon the bishopof Salisbury, my valuable friend 
 the Rev. Mr. Jones, and a loss that afflicted 
 me very deeply, that of Sir William W. Pepys. 
 We had lived in undiminished friendship near 
 fifty years : he was a scholar and a gentleman, 
 and one of the principal ornaments of the select 
 society in which I passed so many pleasant 
 days. He was the Laclius of my now forgot- 
 ten little poem, the ' Bas Bleu.' Fifteen or 
 twenty years ago, when I gave up London en- 
 tirely, we continued our intercourse by letters, 
 and I had the great satisfaction of remarking 
 his gradual advance in piety. I had made him 
 a present of a fine Bible, marking those portions 
 on which I wished him more particularly to 
 dwell. He studied it constantly. His letters 
 for several past years, without losing any of 
 that classic elegance for which he was remark- 
 able, were characterized by a spirit of devotion 
 truly gratifying. His family character was ad- 
 mirable. His sons almost worshipped him. 
 For the last seven years he has been a bounti- 
 ful benefactor to my poor, and my schools. I 
 have no doubt he is accepted through Him who 
 loved him and gave himself for him.'* 
 
 Miss More seems to have sensibly realized 
 these losses, and to have reflected much upon 
 her peculiar situation in consequence of them. 
 
160 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 In another letter she remarks : — " I can truly 
 say that I have not one contemporary left. My 
 youthful associates, the Johnsons, the Garricks, 
 the Burkes, the Bryants, the Reynolds, &c., 
 I do not reckon, as they were much older than 
 myself: of my second set, the bishop of Dur- 
 ham and Lady Cremorne were the last, both 
 ninety-four : of your period (alas ! poor H. 
 Thornton !) there remain yourself, to me a host, 
 the Gisbornes, the Babingtons, my old accom- 
 plished friend the bishop of Bristol, &c. In a 
 letter to Lady Sparrow she continues the sub- 
 ject : — " My contemporaries," she says, " are 
 dropping away very fast. In one month only, 
 the bishop of Salisbury, the dean of Canterbury, 
 and my old and accomplished friend Sir W. W. 
 Pepys. The next death within the month, of 
 my aged friends, was that of the venerable cler- 
 gyman of Shipham, who in sixty-one years had 
 never missed his Sunday duty but four times. 
 All the clergymen for many miles around at- 
 tended him to the grave. I was so fortunate as 
 to obtain this little living for him thirty-five 
 years ago." In another letter she speaks of 
 no less than thirty physicians who had attended 
 her at different times in her life, all of whom 
 were in their graves. 
 
 She had outlived her age, and it must have 
 been a great satisfaction to see, from her ele- 
 vated position, the progress of society during 
 her time. A new race had grown up around 
 her, and as it were under an influence which 
 she had greatly aided in producing. The la 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 161 
 
 bours of Wesley, and Whitefield, and Wilber- 
 force, in conjunction with those which she had 
 put forth, had, indeed, wrought a pleasing 
 change in all classes ; and to her, who lived so 
 much in familiar intercourse with the higher 
 circles, the change in the conduct of the great 
 was particularly pleasing. " It is," she says 
 in a letter to Mr. Huber, " a singular satisfaction 
 to me that I have lived to see such an increase 
 of genuine religion among the higher classes of 
 society. Mr. Wilberforce and I agree that 
 where we knew one instance thirty years ago, 
 there are now a dozen, or more. It is the 
 Lord's doings, and it is marvellous in our eyes." 
 We have said elsewhere that Miss More ad- 
 hered steadily to the Established Church ; we 
 might have added, that she was both in princi- 
 ple and practice a thorough Churchwoman, ad- 
 hering to the doctrines and forms of the Church 
 of England with the greatest punctiliousness, 
 and refusing to have any connection whatever 
 with any thing that was considered irregular. 
 Still she possessed very enlarged views of 
 Christian charity, and to all the humble follow- 
 ers of the cross both her heart and her house 
 were open. Barley Wood was, therefore, fre- 
 quently made cheerful by the presence of the 
 learned and pious of different denominations of 
 Christians. Where true piety existed Miss 
 More inquired not with what class of professors 
 it was associated. At one time she says : — 
 " Daniel Wilson has been staying here several 
 days and nights, O how you would enjoy his 
 U 
 
162 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 devout energy, the heartfelt and heart- awaken- 
 ing piety of his prayers, and the interesting 
 manner in which he expounds the Scriptures !" 
 At another time she writes : — " Early this 
 morning arrived dear old Rowland Hill, and 
 another saintly visiter." She also speaks of 
 Dr. Marshman, the Baptist missionary, and 
 many others who were dissenters from the Es- 
 tablished Church. She mentions Mr. Wesley 
 with great respect, and names a message which 
 she received from him through one of her sis- 
 ters. " Tell her," said he, " to live in the 
 world ; there is the sphere of her usefulness ; 
 they will not let us come nigh them." 
 
 The great reformation which was commenced 
 under Mr. Wesley, and which resulted in so 
 much good to all denominations of Christians, 
 by diffusing more widely the principles of evan- 
 gelical piety, reached, at first, comparatively 
 few of the higher classes. The opprobrium 
 which was attached to the irregularities, as they 
 were called, of Mr. Wesley and his followers, 
 prevented that access to the great, the gay, and 
 the fashionable, which, in other circumstances, 
 these excellent men might have enjoyed. This 
 Mr, Wesley knew, and having observed the in- 
 fluence which Miss More's eloquent pen was 
 exerting over a class which his own efforts had 
 failed to reach, he gave the judicious advice 
 recorded above. 
 
 We have had occasion before to speak of the 
 wonderful vivacity and sprightliness of Miss 
 More's mind ; this quality, although she had 
 
MEMOIR OF HAxNNAH MORE. 163 
 
 now reached her eighty-second year, seemed to 
 be retained with all its youthful vigour, as is 
 evident in almost every production of her pen. 
 It was, however, scarcely less remarkable than 
 the faciUty with which she gave it expression : 
 as an evidence of which we quote the follow- 
 ing amusing lines, which were taken down by 
 a friend as they fell from her lips, while a lu- 
 dicrous scene, which was passing before her, 
 called them forth. She afterward made some 
 corrections in the lines, and sent them in a let- 
 ter to Mr. Hart Davis. " I fear," she says in 
 this letter, " you will say I am too old to write 
 nonsense, but I plead an excuse, that I am ap- 
 proaching my second childhood, when nonsense 
 is almost as pardonable as in the first. The 
 scene which elicited it having just passed un- 
 der my window, the foolish thought struck me, 
 and except some trifling additions made in 
 committing it to paper, you have it as my friend 
 took it down. It was spoken, not written, on 
 seeing the body of a large pig which had been 
 butchered dragged up the hill." 
 
 " The saddest sight that e'er was seen 
 Was piggy rolling up the green ! 
 Though dragg'd, he still would roll alone 
 Downward, like Sisyphus's stone. 
 This pig, as good as e'er was sold, 
 Was worth — not quite his weight in gold. 
 That pork's unwholesome, doctors tell us, 
 Though of the fact I'm somewhat jealous, 
 And I believe, beyond all question, 
 Baoon is sov'reign for digestion ; 
 For this one cause, among a few, 
 ['m glad I was not born a Jew. 
 
164 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 No quadruped, like piggy, claims 
 
 To give his flesh such various names. 
 
 The calf and sheep half starve the glutton, 
 
 By yielding only veal and mutton; 
 
 While all extol the liberal swine, 
 
 For griskin and the savoury chine : 
 
 How often does the brawny flitch 
 
 Adorn the table and eyirich : 
 
 The stately ham and rasher small, 
 
 Are liked in every state by all : 
 
 Who will confess they see no good in 
 
 The poignant sausage or black pudding 1 
 
 The spare-rib, sweet-bone, ears and snout 
 
 My bill of fare will quite make out ; 
 
 For I disdain my song to close 
 
 By stooping to the pettitoes. 
 
 He ne'er was seen to dance a jig 
 
 Though a genteel and graceful pig ; 
 
 Yet when he round my field would prance, 
 
 It might be call'd a country dance. 
 
 Those men who dancing lives have led 
 
 Are worse than nothing when they're dead ; 
 
 While piggy's goodness ne'er appears, 
 
 Till closed his eyes and deaf his ears. 
 
 Though feeding spoil'd his shape and beauty, 
 
 Yet feeding was in him a duty ; 
 
 In spite of this reproach or that, 
 
 'Twas his sole duty to grow fat. 
 
 Death was to him no awful sentence, 
 
 No need for sorrow or repentance : 
 
 How many a gourmand, stout and big, 
 
 Might envy thy last hour, O pig ! 
 
 From ray Stye, Barley Wood, March 16, 1826. 
 
 Soon after, in a letter to Dr. Wilson, who 
 had complained of turns of depression, she sent 
 some lines, beginning as follows : — 
 
 " Lord ! when dejected I appear, 
 And love is half absorb'd in fear 
 E'en then I know I'm not forgot, 
 Thou'rt present, though I see thee nets 
 Thy boundless mercy's still the same. 
 Though I am cold, nor feel the flame ; 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 165 
 
 Though dull and hard my sluggish sense, 
 Faith still maintains its evidence. 
 O would thy cheering beams so shine, 
 That I might always feel thee mine." 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Removal from Barley Wood — Causes of removal — Inci- 
 dents of the removal — Residence at Clifton — Mental decay 
 — State of her mind — Incidents of her last hours — Death. 
 
 Barley Wood, the delightful residence of 
 Miss More, was endeared to her by a thousand 
 delightful associations and recollections. It 
 had been built to suit her taste, had grown into 
 luxuriance and beauty under her own eye ; its 
 flowers, and groves, and shrubbery, had been 
 planted by her own hand ; it was ornamented by 
 nionuments raised to the memory of her own 
 dear and valued friends. Here for years had 
 been her enjoyments ; here she had closed the 
 eyes of her departed sisters ; here she had 
 gathered together, on every hand, mementoes of 
 affection intimately connected with the bright- 
 est periods of her life. But notwithstanding 
 these strong ties. Miss More, at a very advanced 
 age, when local attachments are the strongest, 
 and the mind clings with particular tenacity to 
 the past, had the courage to change her abode, 
 and to yield up her flowers and shrubs, and 
 groves and walks, and transfer the possession 
 into other hands. 
 
 Barley Wood had long been, as it were, the 
 court of literature and piety ; and latterly it had 
 
166 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 been thronged almost continually by visiters 
 from most parts of the world. Of the immense 
 number of persons which she entertained from 
 day to day, the reader will be able to form some 
 idea by the following extract from one of her 
 letters : — " Retirement," she says, " is a thing 
 that I know only by name. I think Miss Frowd 
 says that I saw eighty persons last week, and 
 it is commonly the same every week. I know 
 not how to help it. If my guests are old, I see 
 them out of respect ; if young, I hope I may do 
 them a little good ; if they come from a distance, 
 I feel as if I ought to see them on that account; 
 if near home, my neighbours would be jealous 
 of my seeing strangers and excluding them. 
 My levecy however, is from twelve o'clock to 
 three, so that I get my mornings and evenings 
 to myself, except now and then an old friend 
 steals in quietly for a night or two." 
 
 With such a constant pressure of visiters, it 
 is very evident that Miss More must have been 
 obliged to keep a large establishment, and at 
 her time of life she was -but poorly fitted to look 
 into, or prevent the extravagance and waste, to 
 say nothing of the dishonesty of her household. 
 The natural tolerance of her disposition had, in 
 her old age, given way to indulgence, and her 
 domestic government had, therefore, degenerated 
 into a looseness and negligence which put it 
 into the power of her servants to take any ad- 
 vantage which they might desire. They had 
 not been slow in availing themselves of the 
 misplaced confidence of their indulgent mistress, 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 167 
 
 and, taking advantage of her long confinement, 
 had carried on a system of the most wanton ex- 
 travagance and dishonesty, so that she found 
 herself obHged to take some decisive measure, 
 or submit to total ruin. 
 
 Under these circumstances, painful as was 
 the alternative, she did not long hesitate. Know- 
 ing that, at her age, when even " the grasshop- 
 per is a burden," she was totally unfit to look 
 after the discipline of her large household, she 
 resolved to quit Barley Wood, and at once re- 
 duce her cares and expenses. This resolution, 
 once taken, she proceeded to put into practice, 
 and the necessary arrangements having been 
 made, she removed, on the 18th of April, 1828, 
 at the age of eighty-three, to Windsor Terrace, 
 where she remained till death relieved her from 
 the cares and responsibilities of this mortal 
 state. 
 
 The effort was, indeed, a great one. " This 
 heavy blow," she says, " has overwhelmed me. 
 I strive and earnestly pray for divine support 
 and direction ; but such is the variety of diffi- 
 culties which await me for the next month that 
 I sink under the thought of them." As the day 
 approached for her departure from Barley Wood, 
 her friends became exceedingly anxious for the 
 result. It was dreary and cold, many of her 
 neighbours came to exchange sympathies with 
 her, and to witness the scene. Assisted by 
 Miss Frowd, her constant attendant and kind 
 friend, she left the room in which she had been 
 so many years confined, descended the stairs, 
 
168 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 walked for a few minutes around the room in 
 which were hung the portraits of most of her 
 old friends, was assisted into her carriage, cast 
 behind her, over her endeared bowers^ one pen- 
 sive, parting look, and took her leave for ever : 
 remarking, as the carriage rolled away, " I am, 
 like Eve, driven out of paradise, but, not like 
 Eve, by angels." 
 
 Removed to Clifton, Miss More soon found 
 herself very comfortable, and much relieved 
 from a pressure of cares. Her friends had 
 taken the precaution to engage for her an ele- 
 gant house, fitted up with every convenience, 
 though on a scale somewhat reduced from that 
 of Barley Wood. Here she carried the same 
 contented and cheerful mind, and, surrounded 
 with familiar faces, kindness, and attention, 
 soon began to feel herself at home. 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Wilberforce, dated Windsor 
 Terrace, October 27, 1828, she gives so good an 
 account of her new situation that we shall in- 
 sert nearly her whole letter. " I am," she 
 says, " diminishing my worldly cares. I have 
 sold Barley Wood, and have just parted with 
 the copy right to Cadell of those few of my 
 writings which I had not sold him before. I 
 have exchanged the eight pampered minions 
 for four sober servants. I have greatly lessened 
 my house expenses, which enables me to main- 
 tain my schools and enlarge my charities. My 
 schools alone, with clothing, rents, &;c., cost 
 me jC250 [over eleven hundred dollars] a year. 
 Dear, good Miss Frowd looks after them, though 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 169 
 
 we are removed much further from them. As 
 I have sold my carriage and horses, I want no 
 coachman ; as I have no garden, I want no 
 gardener. My removal here has been provi- 
 dentially directed to my good. I have two 
 pious clergymen, whom I call my chaplains, 
 and who frequently devote an evening to ex- 
 pound and pray with my family, and uniformly 
 on Saturdays. My most kind and skilful phy- 
 sician. Dr. Carrick, who used to have twelve 
 miles to come to me, has now not much above 
 two hundred yards. As to your kind visits, we 
 can give you two beds, and one for a female 
 servant : I am sorry I can do no more. The 
 house, though good, furnishes few conveniences. 
 We have no servants' hall, of course no second 
 table ; but we are surrounded with hotels, lodg- 
 ing houses, &c. I am expecting soon to see 
 ray much valued friend, Mr. Huber, and his 
 wife, from Geneva. He is a man of great ta- 
 lents and piety. I owe him much. He has 
 translated many of my works into French, and 
 is now going on with the ' Essay on St. Paul.' 
 It gratifies me that his translation of the * Spirit 
 of Prayer' is now circulating in Paris. Miss 
 Frowd desires her best respects. She is my 
 great earthly treasure. She joins to sincere 
 piety great activity and useful knowledge. She 
 has the entire management of my family, and 
 is very judicious in the common offices of life. 
 She reads well, and she reads much to me. I 
 have much more to say, and much, I trust, to 
 hear when we meet. May the God of all grace 
 
170 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 and goodness preserve you, my very deai 
 friend." 
 
 Up to this period Miss More had discovered 
 little or no symptoms of mental decay; but it 
 soon became evident that the fine fabric of that 
 mind which had so often shed its lustre on the 
 world was yielding to the pressure of accumu- 
 lated years. Her memory, formerly so reten- 
 tive, cQased to serve her with its usual fidelity ; 
 she fell intt) the error, common with old people, 
 of repeating the same anecdote to the same 
 person ; her health was more broken, and she 
 was seldom free from some attack of disease ; 
 her smell and taste had long since deserted her, 
 and her hearing was considerably impairea. 
 But in the midst of this decay of nature, she 
 continued to ripen for her great and last change. 
 Religion was the subject of her constant medi- 
 tation, and the theme on which she most de- 
 lighted to converse. Her schools and her cha- 
 rities, also, had a share in her attention to the 
 latest period of her life. It is a singular trait 
 in her character, a trait which could only have 
 been produced by her Christian faith, that her 
 benevolence increased with her years, and be- 
 came more and more expansive as she drew 
 near the close of life. The diminution of her 
 income, arising from the prodigality of her 
 household, might well have formed a plea ror 
 the diminution of her charities ; but with an eve 
 fixed on the " recompense of reward," she took 
 such a course as insured their continuance, 
 though at the expense of many of those little 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 171 
 
 pleasures which custom had rendered some- 
 what necessary, and which, at her age, could 
 not be given up without a painful conflict. 
 
 In the autumn of 1832 her mind received a 
 farther shock from the death of Miss Roberts, 
 an esteemed and intimate friend, to whom she 
 was much attached. But aside from all causes 
 of this nature, it was evident that she was now 
 rapidly declining. She took cold apparently 
 without exposure, her strength diminished, her 
 mind was occasionally a little bewildered, and 
 a slight fever continued to waste away her ema- 
 ciated frame. In this declining state she con- 
 tinued for about ten months, without complaint 
 or murmur, quietly awaiting her release from a 
 world in which she would now have no enjoy- 
 ment, save in the anticipations of that to which 
 she was rapidly hastening. Here all her de- 
 sire was centred, not, indeed, an impatient de- 
 sire, but a longing after that incorruptible and 
 glorious inheritance which she firmly believed 
 awaited her. 
 
 As she approached the termination of her 
 career, her thoughts dwelt more and more on 
 visions of eternity, and notwithstanding her oc- 
 casional wanderings she was always coherent 
 and consistent on whatever related to spiritual 
 things. Prayer was the delight and Ufe of her 
 soul. Ejaculations from the Psalms and other 
 portions of Scripture were almost continually 
 upon her lips, and her memory, though much 
 impaired in all matters relating to passing 
 events, served her with its accustomed faithful- 
 
172 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 ness in these quotations. To those who sur- 
 rounded her, she was wont to say, " Grow in 
 grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ." When very sick, she said, " What 
 can I not do with Christ ? I know that my 
 Redeemer liveth. Happy, happy are those 
 who are expecting to be together in another 
 world. The thought of that world lifts the mind 
 above itself. O the love of Christ, the love 
 of Christ!" She talked much of the mercies 
 which had been so bountifully dealt out to her 
 through a long life. To a friend at parting she 
 said, " I hope we shall meet in glory." In this 
 frame of mind, breathing devout prayers, and 
 looking earnestly for her deliverance, she con- 
 tinued to the last. In September, 1833, her 
 appetite, which had hitherto been sufficient for 
 her condition, suddenly failed, and a total rejec- 
 tion of nourishment led unavoidably to the ter- 
 mination of her lengthened struggle. For the 
 last week she scarcely seemed to recognise 
 any of those around her. The closing scene is 
 thus related by her attendant : — 
 
 " On the morning of Friday, the 6th of Sep- 
 tember, 1833, we offered up our accustomed 
 prayers by her bedside. She was silent, and 
 apparently attentive. All the time her hands 
 were devoutly lifted up. Throughout the day 
 she underwent but little change. I sat watch' 
 ing her in the evening from eight till nearly 
 nine. Her face was smooth and glowing; 
 there was an unusual brightness in its expres- 
 sion. She smiled, and, endeavouring to raise 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 173 
 
 herself from her pillow, reached out her arms, 
 as if catching at something. While making 
 this effort, she called out very plainly, ' Patty,' 
 the name of her last beloved sister, exclaiming 
 at the same time, ' Joy !' She then sank into 
 the same quiet and tranquil state as before 
 She remained thus for about an hour, when Dr. 
 Carrick came. At ten the symptoms of speedy 
 departure could not be doubted ; her pulse be- 
 came fainter and fainter; at twelve it became 
 almost extinct. She looked then very serene, 
 and there was nothing but the gentle breathing 
 of infant sleep. She survived the night, and 
 continued till a few minutes after one, when I 
 saw the last gentle breath escape, and one 
 more was added to that ' multitude which no 
 man can number, who sing the praises of God 
 and the Lamb for ever.' " 
 
 Thus died Hannah More, September 7, 1833, 
 in the eighty-ninth year of her age. Her life 
 had been long, and, in many respects, singu- 
 larly happy. No person was ever blessed with 
 more kind or faithful friends, or, in a situation 
 so responsible, ever had to contend with fewer 
 enemies. Her life was one of great activity 
 and usefulness, and was spent in the service 
 of her fellow-creatures and her God. Her 
 death was that of calm confidence, of firm reli- 
 ance upon the Saviour for salvation. She may 
 justly be said to have been an ornament to her 
 sex and to the world. With but few faults, she 
 had many great and ennobling virtues, and 
 she has left the impress of her fine mind upon 
 
174 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 the age in which she lived, and her influence 
 will probably be felt down to the very end of 
 time. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Funeral — Tablet to her memory — Peculiar notions — Per- 
 son and manners — Benevolence — Sums bequeathed by will 
 — Description of Barley Wood. 
 
 On the 13th of September the remains of this 
 excellent woman were deposited by the side 
 of her sisters, near Wrington church, and, in 
 accordance with her desire, the funeral was 
 plain and unostentatious. As the procession 
 passed through Bristol the bells were tolled, 
 and, about a mile from Wrington, it was joined 
 by most of the gentlemen in the neighbourhood : 
 nay, for a considerable distance from the church 
 the road on either hand was crowded with vil- 
 lagers, bearing badges of mourning, and eager 
 to catch a last glimpse of all that remained of 
 their departed benefactress. At the entrance 
 of the village the solemn procession was headed 
 by a large number of clergymen in their epis- 
 copal robes, and was joined by more than two 
 hundred children from her schools. The scene 
 was most affecting, especially in the church, 
 which was of course greatly crowded. Among 
 the number present were fifteen old men, who 
 had been provided with mourning at her parti- 
 cular desire. 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 175 
 
 In the new church of St. Philip, Bristol, a 
 monumental tablet has been erected to her me- 
 mory, by voluntary subscription, bearing upon it 
 the following inscription : — 
 
 SACRED 
 
 TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 HANNAH MORE. 
 
 She was born in the parish of Stapleton, near Bristol, 
 
 A. D. 1745, 
 
 and died at Clifton, September 7th, A. D. 1833. 
 
 Endowed with great intellectual powers, 
 
 and early distinguished by the success 
 
 of her literary labours, 
 
 she entered the world under circumstances 
 
 tending to fix her affections on its vanities ; 
 
 but, instructed in the school of Christ 
 
 to form a just estimate of the real end of human 
 
 existence, 
 
 she chose the better part, 
 
 and consecrated her time and talents 
 
 to the glory of God and the good of her fellow-creatures, 
 
 in a life of practical piety and diffusive beneficence. 
 
 Her numerous writings in support of religion and order, 
 
 at a crisis when both were rudely assailed, 
 
 were equally edifying to readers of all classes ; 
 
 at once delighting the wise, 
 
 and instructing the ignorant and simple. 
 
 In the eighty-ninth year of her age, 
 
 beloved by her friends, and venerated by the public, 
 
 she closed her career of usefulness, 
 
 in humble reliance on the mercies of God, 
 
 through faith in the merits of her Redeemer. 
 
 Her mortal remains are deposited in a vault in this 
 
 church-yard, 
 
 which also contains those of her four sisters, 
 
 who resided with her at 
 
 Barley Wood, in this parish, her favourite abode, and 
 
176 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 who actively co-operated in her unwearied acts of 
 Christian benevolence : 
 Mary More died 18th April, 1813, aged 75 years. 
 EUzabeth More died 14th June, 1816, aged 76 years. 
 Sarah More died 17th May, 1817, aged 74 years. 
 Martha More died 14th September, 1819, aged 69 years. 
 
 This monument is erected out of a subscription 
 
 for a public memorial to Hannah More, 
 
 of which 
 
 the greater proportion is devoted to the erection of a 
 
 school, in the 
 
 populous and destitute out-parish of St. Philip and Jacob, 
 
 Bristol, , 
 
 to the better endowment of whose district church 
 
 she bequeathed the residue of her property. 
 
 In bringing our narrative to a close we may- 
 remark that Miss More's notions were im- 
 bibed in the English school. With all her love 
 of the poor, and none ever loved them more, 
 she had never the remotest wish to raise them, 
 as the phrase is, above their condition. All 
 Jier efforts were bent on bettering their condi- 
 tion, but not on changing it. She had the most 
 scrupulous regard for the castes of society in 
 which she had been bred, and none of the en- 
 larged ideas of liberty and equality which are 
 so peculiarly the blessing of our own free coun- 
 try. In short, she was, in the strictest sense 
 of the word, an English woman, and her notions 
 of benevolence and kindness were all formed in 
 the school of aristocracy — a circumstance of 
 which it may be proper to remind the American 
 reader, though, with her peculiar education, 
 and under the circumstances in which she lived, 
 it should detract nothing from her worth. 
 
MEMOIR OF IIANN^i MORE. 177 
 
 In person Miss More was about the middle 
 size, and her figure rather slender. Her ap- 
 pearance was always interesting, and in conver- 
 sation she was often in the highest degree ani- 
 mated. Her dress was rather plain, but re- 
 markable for neatness and simplicity. She 
 wore no jewels, and avoided both expense and 
 singularity in the choice of her wardrobe. Her 
 manners were without ostentation, simple and 
 kind. She was accessible to all, and had the 
 singular art of saying much without seeming to 
 engross more than her share of the conversa- 
 tion. Her great wit was entirely subordinate to 
 her good nature, and her piety controlled all the 
 passions and tempers of her mind. 
 
 But, after all, the greatness of Miss More, 
 and the veneration of posterity for her charac- 
 ter, rest on her Christian philanthropy. Every 
 effort for the benefit of mankind was sure to be 
 seconded by her, and every institution calcu- 
 lated to advance Christian morals or diffuse 
 Christian light, to secure her warm support ; 
 while, at the same time, she neglected not to 
 sympathize with individual cases of distress, 
 and to extend a hand to their relief. The sums 
 which she had expended from her own income, 
 and which, through her great influence, she 
 had obtained from others to be appropriated to 
 the same benevolent objects, were immense : 
 and the single fact that her household establish- 
 ment was reduced, at an advanced period of her 
 life, for the purpose of enlarging her charities, 
 should never be overlooked in making an esti- 
 12 
 
178 MEMOIR (JF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 mate of 'her character. But notwithstanding 
 these munificent gifts, her philanthropy ceased 
 not with her life. Besides leaving to each of 
 her old pensioners, at Wrington, £1 each, and 
 bestowing a considerable sum on the new 
 church of St. Philip, at Bristol, she bequeathed, 
 by will, the following princely sums to the be- 
 nevolent purposes named : — 
 
 To the Bristol Infirmary £1,000 
 
 Anti.Slavery Society 500 
 
 London Pious Clergy 500 
 
 London Clerical Education Society 100 
 
 Moravian Missionary Society 200 
 
 Welsh College 400 
 
 Bristol Clerical Education Society 100 
 
 Hibernian Society ^00 
 
 Reformation Society 200 
 
 Religious Tract Society 150 
 
 Irish Scripture Reading Society 150 
 
 Burmese Mission 200 
 
 Society for the Conversion of the Jews 200 
 
 Society for printing the Scriptures ) ion o n 
 
 at Serampore ^ 
 
 Baptist Missionary Society 100 
 
 London Seamen's Bible Society .. 100 
 
 Liverpool Seamen's Bible Society 100 
 
 London Missionary Society 100 
 
 Society for printing the Hebrew > i nn i n 
 
 Scriptures .... ] lUU J U 
 
 British and Foreign Bible Society 1,000 
 
 Church Missionary Society 1,000 
 
 Society for Educating Clergymen's > nnn n n 
 
 Daughters S 
 
 Diocess of Ohio 200 
 
 Trustees of the New Church at > lezn n n 
 
 Mangotsfield \ ^^^ ^ ^ 
 
 Bristol Strangers' Friend Society ; 100 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 179 
 
 To the Bristol Society for the Relief of ) ^jgO 
 Small Debtors ^ 
 
 Bristol Penitentiary 
 
 Bristol Orphan Society 
 
 Bristol Philosophical Institution . . 
 London Strangers' Friend Society 
 Commissioners of Foreign Missions 
 in America, toward the school at 
 Ceylon, called "Barley Wood," 
 
 Newfoundland School Society 
 
 Society for the Distressed Vaudois 
 
 Clifton Dispensary 
 
 Bristol District for Visiting the Poor 
 
 Irish Society 
 
 Sailors' Home Society 
 
 Christian Knowledge Society 
 
 Bristol Misericordia Society 
 
 Bristol Samaritan Society 
 
 Bristol Temple Infant School 
 
 Prayer-Book and Homily Society 
 
 London Lock Hospital 
 
 London Refuge for the Destitute . . 
 
 Gaelic School ', .... 
 
 Society for Female Schools in India 
 
 Keynsham School 
 
 Cheddar School 
 
 For books for Ohio 
 
 Bristol and Clifton Female Anti- 
 Slavery Society 
 
 Clifton Lying-in Charity 
 
 Clifton Infant School 
 
 CHfton National School 
 
 Clifton Female Hibernian Society 
 
 Temple Poor ..., 
 
 For Pews in the Temple Church 
 
 Bristol Harmonica 
 
 Edinburgh Sabbath Schools 
 
 Shipham Female Club 
 
 Cheddar Female Club 
 
 Poor Printers' Fund 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 30 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 20 
 
 20 
 
 50 
 
 20 9 
 
 20 
 
180 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 To the Shipham Poor i?50 
 
 »' Minister of Wrington, for distribution ) ofk a o 
 
 among the Poor .. .. \ -^^ ^^ ^ 
 
 «» Minister of Cheddar, for distribution ) on o 
 
 among the Poor ) 
 
 " Minister of Nailsea, for the Poor 5 
 
 «» The Kildare School Society, DubHn 300 
 
 ;e9,675 
 
 A short time before this excellent woman 
 quitted her residence at Barley Wood, Dr. 
 Sprague, of Albany, in a visit to England, had 
 the good fortunr to have an interview with her» 
 at her delightful retreat, which he has made the 
 subject of an interesting article in the Christian 
 Keepsake, for 1838. He had just before seen 
 her friend Mr. Wilberforce, and had brought 
 from him a letter of introduction. We cannot 
 better conclude this brief memoir than by quot- 
 ing a portion of this article : — 
 
 " Within a few days after this delightful visit 
 at Highwood Hill, [Mr. Wilberforce's,] I was 
 passing a short time at Bristol, and availed my- 
 self of the opportunity of riding out to Barley . 
 Wood, distant I think about nine miles, the far- 
 famed residence of Hannah More. The morn- 
 ing was fine, the country exceedingly beautiful, 
 my company altogether agreeable, and every 
 thing adapted to prepare me for a luxurious, in- 
 tellectual, and social repast. 
 
 " When we had travelled nearly our distance, 
 we turned ofl" from the main road, and almost 
 immediately saw Miss More's dwelling before 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 181 
 
 US. It was a beautiful thatched cottage, situated 
 on rising ground, with a fine garden in the rear, 
 and every thing about it to indicate the most ex- 
 quisite taste, and the most minute and patient 
 labour. As I entered the room where she was 
 sitting, she rose and met me with an air of 
 great cordiality ; and, like her illustrious friend 
 whom I had seen the week before, instantly 
 put me as much at my ease as if I had known 
 her during my whole life. 
 
 " My introductory note from Mr. Wilberforce 
 led her immediately to inquire for him, and 
 then she dwelt for some time /ith the deepest 
 interest on his exalted character, especially as 
 a Christian ; on the pertinence, and fervour, 
 and pathos of his prayers in her family ; and 
 on the value of his friendship, which, she said, 
 she had known during much the greater part of 
 her life. 
 
 " She alluded, in a very touching manner, to 
 the fact that she was standing almost alone in 
 the midst of a new generation ; that nearly all 
 her early, and many of her later friends, had 
 gone before her to their long home ; and while 
 she mentioned the names of many of them with 
 deep emotion, she seemed to dwell with espe- 
 cial delight upon the memory of Bishop Porteus : 
 indeed she had testified her veneration for him 
 by erecting a monument to his memory in her 
 jiarden, which she requested me particularly to 
 observe as I passed over her grounds. 
 
 " Of the Princess Charlotte she spoke in no 
 measured terms of commendation. She re- 
 
182 MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 garded her quite as a model in the station she 
 occupied, and expressed a strong hope that she 
 died a true Christian. She remarked, as a pe- 
 culiarity in her experience, that she had never 
 been able to quote from her own writings ; that 
 she could not even distinguish her own style on 
 hearing it read ; and that one of her young 
 friends had sometimes amused herself by read- 
 ing to her extracts from her own works, and 
 getting her opinion of them, while she supposed 
 she was passing judgment upon another author. 
 
 " In presenting to me her work on ' The 
 Spirit of Prayer,' she expressed the deepest 
 sense of the importance of the subject, and re- 
 marked that the work was chiefly a compilation 
 from her other works, and made at a time when 
 she supposed herself on the threshold of eter- 
 nity, and that its circulation had altogether ex- 
 ceeded her highest expectations. She dwelt 
 with great interest on the happy state of our 
 country, and especially on its religious privi- 
 leges and prospects ; though I thought she dis- 
 covered some lack of confidence in the dura- 
 bility of our institutions. 
 
 " She made many kind inquiries in respect 
 to different individuals whom she had known 
 either personally or by correspondence, in this 
 country, and particularly concerning her ' little 
 deaf and dumb friend,' (Miss Alice Cogswell, 
 of Hartford, whose lamented death has occurred 
 since that time,) who, she said, had written her 
 the wittiest letters she ever received. She 
 showed me the beautiful and variegated prospect 
 
MEMOIR OF HANNAH MORE. 183 
 
 which she had from her different windows, and 
 then sent a servant to conduct me over her 
 grounds, requesting me to notice particular 
 objects, which, by reason of their associations, 
 were specially interesting to her. 
 
 " There is one portrait of her, I believe the 
 last that was taken, that brings her before me 
 nearly as she was at the time I saw her. Her 
 person was marked by the most beautiful sym- 
 metry; her countenance beamed with anima- 
 tion and benevolence ; and her manners united 
 the dignity of the court with the simplicity of 
 childhood. When I left her she gave me a 
 most gratifying assurance of her friendly re- 
 gard, and subsequently honored me with several 
 invaluable communications." 
 
 After some other observations on the charac- 
 ter and conduct of Miss More and Mr. Wilber- 
 force, the doctor proceeds : — "How inconceiv- 
 ably glorious must be the heavenly world ! It 
 was a privilege to come in contact with such 
 exalted minds on earth ; but how much greater 
 the privilege to mingle with them, now that the 
 last vestige of imperfection is removed, and 
 they operate with an unwearied and immortal 
 energy ! And there are minds there greater 
 and nobler than even these : there are higher 
 orders of being there who yet count it no con- 
 descension to become the associates of ran- 
 somed men. And can I hope, then, ever to be 
 joined to the glorified society of the world 
 above ! to be united to the great and good who 
 were natives of this earth, and the greater and 
 
l84 MEMOIR OF HANiVAH MORE. 
 
 the holier who are natives of heaven, in cele- 
 brating the praise and doing the will of the All- 
 merciful and the All-glorious ! May I aspire 
 even to wear an immortal wreath, and occupy 
 a heavenly throne, both purchased by redeem- 
 ing blood! Then let me live and labour for 
 heaven ! Let earthly objects fade from my 
 view, and heavenly objects brighten on my 
 vision ! Let me be anything, let me suffer any- 
 thing, let me even die a martyr's death — only 
 let my spirit at last be a glorified spirit, and my 
 associates for eternity the ransomed of the 
 Lord !" 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 W49 
 

 
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