A 
 
 1— 
 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -n 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 /[ 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 b 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 'A 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 b 
 
 
 
 • 'I ■* 
 
 'Ht: ";;.,;.„ ■■; 
 
 }. 
 
 '!) 
 
 I'lO&E 
 
 A^J^'.■■ /;' ^ 
 
 f'''*^'^''t!<;;f''S?>?''5§^
 
 WESLEYAN CHURCH. 
 
 CLEETHORPES. 
 
 3?ouna Caaics' £lbrarp

 
 HANNAH MORE IN EARLY LIFE. 
 (From a picture by OJ>ie.)
 
 THE 
 
 LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Jl fabi) ot ^\s)0 Ccntuucs. 
 
 BY 
 
 ANNA J. BUCKLAND, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 ' HOMELY HEROES AND HEROINES,' 'VIOLET FLETCHER'S HOME WORK,' 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 56, Paternoster Row, 65, St. Paul's Churchyard, 
 AND 164, Piccadilly.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. A Hundred and Forty Years Ago - - - . i 
 
 II. The Five Sisters 8 
 
 III. Visits to London -------- i8 
 
 IV. Attempts at Literature 28 
 
 V. ' Percy ' 39 
 
 VI. The ' Sacred Dramas ' and ' Sensibility ' - - 48 
 
 VII. Cowslip Green - 56 
 
 viii. The Dawning Light - - 68 
 
 IX. Mendip - 75 
 
 X. The ' Cheap Repository ' Tracts - - - - 92 
 
 XI. Inner Life — Diary, 1794-1798 100 
 
 XII. Opposition - - - 112 
 
 XIII, Barley Wood 121 
 
 XIV. Inner Life — Diary, 1803, 1804 131 
 
 XV. The Last Days of the Five Sisters - - - 147
 
 HANNAH MORE IN LATER LIFE.
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 It is not often that a single lifetime gathers into it the spirit 
 of two distinct ages — of the old things which are passing 
 away, and of the new things springing into life ; nor do we 
 often find in one individual the type of character which clings 
 with reverence to the past and its traditions, combined with 
 hearty sympathy and earnest working in the struggles of the 
 world towards a fuller day. It is only in a nature of rarely 
 
 I
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 delicate balance that reverence and zeal, modesty and courage, 
 good sense and imagination, prudence and hope, are thus 
 equally mingled, and produce a life which is at the same time 
 an impulse to the truer tendencies of the age and a check 
 upon the false. 
 
 In Mrs. Hannah More, however, we may find this rare 
 union. She was a w^oman of two centuries : ' In the twilight of 
 the old and in the dawn of the new era, Mrs. More accom- 
 plished her date here,' writes her early biographer ; and the 
 value of the study of her life and work lies in the example 
 given of a woman true to those deep essential principles 
 which are the same in every age, and v/hich must always lie 
 at the heart of all woman's work, while at the same time she 
 felt with the quick sympathy of a woman the new life that 
 was coming in, and adapted herself to its new necessities. 
 
 The lifetime of Mrs. Hannah More extended from 1745 to 
 1833. Already at her birth those elements of change which 
 broke up the cold, narrow rigidity of the eighteenth century, 
 and ushered in the greater liberty of thought and action, the 
 fuller life, the wider sympathies, and the deeper religious earn- 
 estness of the nineteenth century, were in existence. Abroad, 
 Voltaire was questioning all that rested on authority alone 
 with reckless indiscrimination ; Rousseau was protesting 
 against the despotism of conventionalism with an excess that 
 excluded the true rule of duty. At home, Wesley and Whit- 
 field were stirring the hearts of many into religious life by 
 their free preaching of Jesus Christ as the hope and salvation 
 of the human race, irrespective of ecclesiastical forms, and in 
 spite of ecclesiastical prohibitions; in 1745 Howard began his 
 first tour for the inspection of the prisons of England, waken- 
 inc: men to the idea that even the worst and most degraded
 
 A HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS AGO. 3 
 
 of their fellow-beings had a claim on their sympathy and 
 help. 
 
 But while these influences were already in existence at the 
 time of Hannah More's birth, the world into which she entered 
 had been as yet but little stirred or changed by them, and the 
 following description from Green's ' Short History of the 
 English People ' will fairly represent the England of 1745: 
 ' Never had religion seemed at a lower ebb. The progress of 
 free inquiry, the aversion from theological strife which had 
 been left by the Civil War, the new intellectual and material 
 channels opened to human energy, had produced a general 
 indifference to the great questions of religious speculation 
 which occupied an earlier age. A large number of prelates 
 were mere Whig partisans, with no higher aim than that of 
 promotion. The system of pluralities turned the wealthier 
 and more learned of the priesthood into absentees, while the 
 bulk of them were indolent, poor, and without social con- 
 sideration. The decay of the great Dissenting bodies went 
 hand-in-hand with that of the Church, and during the early 
 part of the century the Nonconformists declined in number as 
 in energy. In the higher circles " everyone laughs," says 
 Montesquieu on his visit to England, " if one talks of religion." 
 Of the prominent statesmen of the time the greater part were 
 unbelievers in any form of Christianity, and distinguished for 
 the grossness and immorality of their lives. At the other 
 end of the social scale lay the masses of the poor. They 
 were ignorant and brutal to a degree which it is hard to 
 conceive. For the vast increase of population which followed 
 on the growth of towns and the development of manufactures 
 had been met by no effort for their religious or educational 
 improvement. Not a single new parish had been created. 
 
 I — 2
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Hardly one new church had been built. Schools there were 
 none, save the grammar-schools of Edward and Elizabeth. 
 The rural peasantry, who were fast being reduced to pauperism 
 by the abuse of the poor-laws, were left without moral or 
 religious training of any sort. " We saw but one Bible in the 
 parish of Cheddar," said Hannah More later, "and that was 
 used to prop a flower-pot." Within the towns things were 
 worse. There was no effective police ; and in great out- 
 breaks the mob of London or Birmingham burnt houses, 
 flung open prisons, and sacked and pillaged at their wall. 
 The criminal class gathered boldness and numbers in the 
 face of ruthless laws which only testified to the terror of 
 society, laws which made it a capital crime to cut down a 
 cherry-tree, and which hung up twenty young thieves of a 
 morning in front of Newgate ; while the introduction of gin 
 gave a new impetus to drunkenness. In the streets of 
 London gin-shops invited every passer-by to get drunk for a 
 penny, or dead drunk for twopence.' 
 
 The literary world, with which Hannah More was early 
 brought into relation, was still suffering from the paralyzing 
 effects of the French influence introduced a century earlier. 
 Under this influence certain fixed rules were laid down for 
 the style, form, size, and arrangement of all kinds of literary 
 work ; and so arbitrary was the government of these rules, 
 that anything produced independently of them would have 
 laid itself open to criticism as barbarous and out of taste. 
 Another effect was to Latinize the style of English writing in 
 its construction, rhythm, and vocabulary ; so that literary 
 expression became almost a different language from the 
 common English speech. There was both a 'poetic diction' 
 and a ' prose diction,' neither of which condescended to the
 
 A HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS AGO. 5 
 
 use of those words in which the English people had since 
 the time of Shakespeare and the translation of the Bible 
 expressed their true mind and feelings in daily life. 
 
 The natural result of this was to narrow the circle of 
 readers into a group of patrons and critics : for these the 
 authors wrote ; and the higher aims of literature were sunk 
 in the effort to flatter a patron, to win the fugitive applause 
 of a clique, or to satisfy a superficial criticism founded on 
 French rules, and applied only to outside form. The object 
 of literature being thus the amusement of an idle and arti- 
 ficial circle, the choice of subjects often did not rise above 
 the follies and fashions of the day, personal attacks in satires, 
 rhyming epistles, epigrams, descriptions of Nature, taken 
 evidently from books, and betraying little real acquaintance 
 with her true aspects ; while through the whole ran frequent 
 allusions, comprehensible only to those mixing in the same 
 world as the authors. 
 
 It will be easily seen that the mighty influence of literature 
 as the faithful representation of human character and life over 
 the people was lost, and that it no longer could do its work 
 in elevating them by setting before them true and possible, 
 though higher and fairer, ideals. But already there was the 
 dawn of a better day, a dawn which had been heralded by 
 some rays of a truer light. Defoe had made fiction a repre- 
 sentation of real life, and had exalted to a hero a sailor, 
 struggling for the necessities of life on a desert island, trusting 
 in God, and doing his duty simply and steadfastly ; and he 
 had written his story in the common speech of the people, so 
 that even the poorest might read and understand. And the 
 very year before Hannah More was born Richardson had 
 brought out ' Pamela ; or, Virtue Rewarded,' choosing for his
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 heroine a poor servant-girl, and endeavouring to teach the 
 poor, after his own fashion and way of looking at things, that 
 it answered better in the end to be steadfast to the right than 
 to yield to evil. Others there were who were beginning to 
 feel that literature was not a mere fashionable art, exercised 
 for the pleasure and amusement of a circle, but that it had a 
 far higher purpose in bringing the hearts and minds of the 
 people into contact with truth and beauty. 
 
 In following the life and literary work of Mrs. Hannah 
 More, we shall see how she passed from the narrow view of 
 literature prevailing in the circle of fashionable society, into 
 sympathy with the deeper and more earnest spirit which more 
 and more stirred the heart of the age, and wakened a wider 
 love and concern for the interest of others. We shall also 
 find that while she brought her literary ability into the service 
 of God and of her fellow-creatures, she could not part with 
 many of the old traditions as to the form and style of literary 
 composition ; but when we think of her as the friend and 
 favourite of Dr. Johnson in her youth, we can readily believe 
 that while she held fast to the large- hearted care for the poor 
 and distressed, something of which she may have learned from 
 him, she would find it difficult to drop those phrased and the 
 Latinized style which he had held to be necessary to the 
 dignity of a writer. 
 
 In the literary world, at the time when Hannah More was 
 born, there was the force of the old French regime, existing 
 side by side with newly awakened thought and life. Pope 
 was still dominant, though not living, having died the year 
 before ; Johnson was writing, and struggling to make literary 
 work the means of an honest, honourable livelihood. Thomson 
 had published his ' Seasons ' not long before, in which he drew
 
 A HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 from Nature herself, and not from second-hand description 
 Chesterfield was writing his * Letters ' to his son. Collins was 
 writing his ' Odes,' and Gray his earlier poems. Hume had 
 just published his ' Essays, Moral, Religious, and Political.' 
 Richardson and Fielding had each brought out his first novel 
 the year before. Horace Walpole had entered Parliament, 
 and begun to exercise the sway he so long maintained over 
 literature and society. Garrick was acting and writing plays. 
 Sterne was a prebendary in York Minster, preparing for 
 writing. Goldsmith was being educated, and Cowper was a 
 sensitive, suffering boy at Westminster School.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FIVE SISTERS. 
 
 In the year 1745 there was a foundation school in the parish 
 of Stapleton, near Bristol, the head-master of which was 
 Mr. Jacob More. Some years before, he had come thither 
 out of Norfolk, havincr been obliged, through the loss of a 
 lawsuit, to give up his intention of entering the Church, and 
 accept instead the office of schoolmaster. Originally the 
 family of the Mores had been staunch Presbyterians, and 
 two great-uncles of Jacob More had been captains of 
 CromwelFs Ironsides ; Mr. More's mother, also, used to tell 
 how her father had protected a proscribed minister in his 
 house, and how meetings for prayer and the preaching of 
 God's Word were held there at midnight, to which the good 
 people of the neighbourhood would creep stealthily through 
 the snow, while the sturdy Puritan himself guarded his house- 
 door with a drawn sword in his hand. Soon after Jacob 
 More came to Stapleton he married a young woman, the 
 daughter of a farmer ; she had received a good plain educa- 
 tion, and possessed an unusually vigorous intellect and great 
 soundness of judgment. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Jacob More had already three daughters — 
 Mary, Betty, and Sally — when in 1745 Hannah was born;
 
 THE FIVE SISTERS. 
 
 and there was afterwards another daughter, Patty. These 
 five sisters Hved together, as we shall find, in unbroken 
 companionship and love for upwards of fifty years. 
 
 The little girls were taught to read by their mother ; but 
 their opportunities for learning must have been extremely 
 meagre, for their father, on his way from Norfolk to Stapleton, 
 had the misfortune to lose all his books, excepting a few 
 Latin, Greek, and mathematical works ; and it does not 
 appear that he ever had been able to replace them. Fortu- 
 nately, however, he was able to relate from memory stories 
 from Greek and Roman history, and to repeat many of the 
 sayings of Plutarch ; and he thus supplied to his little girls 
 the place of the books themselves. Indeed, when we recollect 
 what the school histories of that time were, we may conclude 
 that the loss of the books was more than compensated by the 
 histories told by the father to his little girls gathered round 
 his knees. In these Hannah More took the greatest delight, 
 as she did also in the stories told by their nurse about the 
 poet Dryden, in whose family she had lived. 
 
 Mr. More soon perceived that Hannah possessed unusual 
 powers of mind, and he began to teach her Latin and 
 mathematics ; but she got on so much more quickly than 
 Mr. More's pupils in the foundation school that he became 
 alarmed ; for he felt that, as these studies were at that time 
 unusual as a part of a girl's education, there was a danger 
 that the singularity might inflict more injury on her character 
 than the studies themselves would benefit her mind. They 
 were therefore dropped. 
 
 The income which Mr. More derived from the foundation 
 school at Stapleton was probably vory small. As Miss Sally 
 afterwards told Dr. Johnson, ' We were born with more
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 desires than guineas ; and as years increased our appetites, 
 the cupboard at home began to grow too small to gratify 
 them.' The father and mother, with a good sense rare at the 
 time, determined that instead of cramping the desires of their 
 gifted daughters, they would enable them to obtain the means 
 for themselves of gratifying them. They should, like their 
 father, keep a school ; and in order to fit them for this. Miss 
 More was sent as weekly boarder to a French school in 
 Bristol. On her return home at the end of each week, she 
 taught her sisters all she learned ; and at length, Miss More 
 being nearly twenty-one, the parents took a good house for 
 their daughters in Bristol, and they opened a boarding-schooi 
 for young ladies. 
 
 All the sisters seem to have been distinguished for good 
 sense, discretion, and intelligence ; they quickly obtained pupils, 
 and won for themselves that respect and esteem which they 
 held through life. The school was from its commencement 
 a success, and continued so for two-and-thirty years, when the 
 Misses More retired with a sufficient income. Hannah More 
 was only twelve years old in 1757, when her sisters began the 
 school, and she and her younger sister Patty entered it as 
 pupils. Here Hannah received all the educational advantages 
 which could be obtained in Bristol at that time. These con- 
 sisted chiefly in a thorough knowledge of modern languages 
 and a fair acquaintance with English and foreign literature. 
 She learned to speak and write French and Italian with readi- 
 ness and correctness ; and as guineas came in to the sisters, 
 they were able to satisfy ' their desires ' by buying books. 
 Thus Hannah early read Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, and the 
 ' Spectator.' In the last she took great delight, an indication 
 perhaps of that love of society, and skill in observing social
 
 THE FIVE SISTERS. n 
 
 characteristics and commenting on them, which she shows in 
 her own works and letters. 
 
 She seems, also, to have early displayed that natural readi- 
 ness and brilliancy in conversation which was the charm of 
 her latter life, and the secret of much of her influence ; for 
 when during an illness she was attended by Dr. Woodward, a 
 man of some eminence and taste, he forgot, in the attraction 
 of her conversation, the real purpose of his visit, and after he 
 had left her room exclaimed, ' Bless me ! I forgot to ask the 
 girl how she is to-day.' 
 
 She had also been conscious, in quite early childhood, of 
 the impulse to write, and her greatest delight had been to 
 scribble little poems and essays on every bit of paper she 
 could find, looking forward to the time, as to the realization 
 of a golden dream, when she might be rich enough to possess 
 a whole quire of paper. When she was sixteen years old, the 
 elder Sheridan came to Bristol to give some lectures on elo- 
 quence. These so kindled her imagination and roused her 
 girlish enthusiasm, that she addressed to him, after the fashion 
 of the time, some verses, which were shown by a friend to the 
 lecturer. They were probably only an imitation of the com- 
 plimentary verses which, in those days, all persons who had 
 the slight necessary skill addressed to one another on all 
 possible occasions ; but in these Sheridan discovered sufficient 
 originality and indication of genius, to induce him to request 
 an introduction to the young girl, and to form a high idea of 
 her talents. About the same time she also became acquainted 
 with Ferguson, the astronomer, who had been lecturing in 
 Bristol on astronomy, and who appears to have formed the 
 same impression of Hannah More's intellectual ability and 
 taste.
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Hannah More's first literary production was written in 1762, 
 when she was seventeen. It was written to supply a want 
 felt by herself and her sisters of some dramatic poetry, which 
 might be learnt and acted by their pupils. The acting of 
 plays by young ladies in boarding-schools very generally 
 prevailed at that time, adopted, perhaps, from the fame of 
 the plays acted by the young ladies in the celebrated French 
 boarding-school of St. Cyr, presided over by Madame de 
 Maintenon ; but the same care does not appear to have 
 always been taken in selecting plays suitable for representation 
 by young ladies in many English schools ; and the Misses 
 More no doubt often found it difficult to give their pupils 
 ' this amusement in the exercise of recitation,' and yet 
 ' avoid everything that is offensive on a young girl's lips.^ 
 
 So Hannah More wrote ' The Search after Happiness : a 
 Pastoral Drama for Young Ladies.' In it we may trace the 
 influence of the literature of the day. There was a fashion 
 for pastorals, as a reaction against the artificial life which 
 was the real life of the time. Allan Ramsay had written 
 ' The Gentle Shepherd, a Pastoral Play,' and Shenstone his 
 ' Pastoral Ballads.' The style, also, of ' The Search after 
 Happiness ' is laboured and artificial, with its ponderous 
 words, fine phrases, and trite maxims. The metre, too, is 
 the rhymed pentameter, the favourite metre of the eighteenth 
 century. But there are in the aim and spirit of the piece a 
 perception of the true principles of life, and a knowledge of 
 the social characteristics of the time, which are remarkable in 
 a girl of seventeen. Four young ladies ' of distinction,' having 
 begun life upon false principles, fail, as the natural result, to 
 find happiness. They set out therefore —
 
 THE FIVE SISTERS. 13 
 
 ' To find that sovereign good of life — a friend, 
 From whom the wholesome counsel we may gain 
 How our young hearts may happiness obtain.' 
 
 They meet with Florella, a young shepherdess, who, 
 hearing the object of their search, conducts tliem to Urania, 
 an ancient shepherdess, living in a cottage with her two 
 daughters. The young ladies of distinction find Urania 
 discoursing to her daughters, the younger of whom 
 remarks : 
 
 ' With ever new delight we now attend 
 The counsels of our fond maternal friend.' 
 
 Urania addresses the ladies : 
 
 'Tell me, ye gentle nymphs, the reason tell. 
 Which brings such guests to grace my lowly cell.' 
 
 To which one of them replies : 
 
 ' 'Tis Happiness we seek : oh, deign to tell 
 Where the coy fugitive delights to dwell.' 
 
 On entering the cottage Euphelia speaks first, and explains 
 how — 
 
 ' Bred in the regal splendours of a court, 
 Where pleasures dressed in every shape resort, 
 I tried the power of pomp and costly glare, 
 Nor e'er found room for thought or time for prayer. 
 In different follies every hour I spent; 
 I shunned reflection, yet I sought content.' 
 
 The life of vanity, of which personal admiration was the 
 aim, brought its natural results in envy and disappointment. 
 
 Cleora then relates her efforts to find happiness in the 
 gratification of ambition :
 
 14 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 ' On daring wing my mounting spirit soared, 
 And Science through her boundless fields explored ; 
 I scorned the salique laws of pedant-schools, 
 Which chain our genius down by tasteless rules ; 
 I longed to burst these female bonds, which held 
 My sex in awe, by vanity impelled ; 
 To boast each various faculty of mind, 
 The graces Pope with Johnson's learning joined. 
 The schoolmen's systems now my mind employed, 
 Their crystal spheres, their atoms, and their void. 
 Newton and Halley all my soul inspired. 
 And numbers less than calculations fired ; 
 Descartes and Euclid shared my varying breast. 
 And plans and problems all my soul possessed. 
 I now with Locke trod metaphysic soil. 
 Now chased coy nature through the tracts of Boyle. 
 To win the wreath of fame, by Science twined. 
 More than the love of Science fired my mind. 
 I seized on Learning's superficial part. 
 And title-page and index got by heart. 
 This the chief transport I from Science drew. 
 That all might know hoiu viiich Clcora knew. 
 Not love, but wonder, I aspired to raise, 
 And missed affection while I grasped at praise.^ 
 
 Pastorella has dreamed her Hfe away in romantic anticipa- 
 tions never realized, and represents the sentimental and 
 sensational young lady of any period : — 
 
 ' Left to myself to cultivate my mind, 
 Pernicious novels their soft entrance find. 
 I sickened with disgust at sober sense, 
 And loathed the pleasures worth and truth dispense. 
 I scorned the manners of the world I saw. 
 My guide was fiction, and romance my law. 
 A fancied heroine, an ideal wife, 
 I loathed the offices of real life. 
 These all were dull and tame ; 1 longed to prove 
 The generous ardours of unequal love.
 
 THE FIVE SISTERS. 15 
 
 Or prince or peasant, each had charms ahke, 
 
 Some marvel still my wayward heart must strike. 
 
 Whate'er inverted nature, custom, law, 
 
 With joy I courted, and with transport saw ; 
 
 In the dull walk of virtue's quiet round 
 
 No aliment my fevered fancy found, 
 
 Each duty to perform observant still, 
 
 But those which God and nature bade me fill' 
 
 The fourth young lady, Laurinda, has perhaps fewer 
 
 counterparts in the present day ; her idea of happiness was 
 
 in having nothing to do, no occupation, no responsibihties, no 
 
 culture : — 
 
 ' Till now I've slept in life's tumultuous tide, 
 No principle of action for my guide. 
 From ignorance my chief misfortunes flow, — 
 I never wished to learn, or cared to know. 
 With every folly slow-paced Time beguiled, 
 In size a woman, but in soul a child.' 
 
 After the four young ladies have confessed how they have 
 failed to find in life any true spring of happiness, Urania points 
 out to them the mistakes which they have made. Euphelia 
 had lived only for low aims, and only brought into action the 
 lower part of her nature ; the mind, the heart, the soul were 
 starved, and only misery could be the result. Pastorella had 
 lived only in her imagination and emotions ; reason was 
 dormant, and the sense of duty springing from love had no 
 influence over her life. Laurinda's idle life could only produce 
 enmii ; beauty alone could not make up for the culture and 
 active employment of every part of the being : — 
 
 ' Beauty with reason cannot cjuite dispense, 
 And coral lips may sure speak common sense.' 
 
 In conclusion, Urania gives to ' the four young ladies of
 
 1 6 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 distinction in search of happiness' advice which, being founded 
 on eternal truth, bears repetition in the nineteenth century : 
 
 ' In vain, ye fair, from place to place ye roam, 
 For that true peace which must be found at home ; 
 Nor change of fortune, nor of work can give 
 The bliss you seek, which in the soul must live. 
 Then look no more abroad, in your own breast 
 Seek the true seat of happiness and rest. 
 Fountain of Being ! teach us to devote 
 To Thee each purpose, action, word, and thought ; 
 Thy grace our hope, Thy love our only boast, 
 Be all distinctions in the Christian lost ! 
 Be this in every state our wish alone, — 
 Almighty, Wise, and Good, Thy will be done ! 
 
 No doubt this Httlc pastoral drama, acted or rather recited 
 (for action there is next to none) by the young ladies of the 
 Misses More's school, gave great satisfaction to the company 
 admitted to the performances, and helped to spread the fame 
 of Miss Hannah. She made one or two friends whose greater 
 knowledge and more vigorous intellects were of the highest 
 service to her in enlarging her views of things, and in giving 
 her better principles of literary criticism and taste. One of 
 these was a Mr. Peach of Bristol, a friend of Hume, who had 
 employed him in correcting his ' History.' Another was a 
 Dr. Langhorne of Weston-super-Mare, with whom she 
 carried on a clever and lively correspondence. At the same 
 time an acquaintance with Dean Tucker, Dr. Stonehouse, and 
 Dr. Ford led her to deeper thought and study of religious 
 and theological works. 
 
 She was also engaged during these years in translating 
 from the Italian, Latin, and Spanish, acquiring correctness 
 and grace of style in turning into English some of the odes
 
 THE FIVE SISTERS. 17 
 
 of Horace, and the dramas and poetry of Metastasio. The 
 opera of ' Regulus,' by the latter author, she worked up into 
 a play, and it was brought out at the Theatre Royal, Bath. 
 As in great part a translation, an analysis of the piece 
 would not convey any further illustration of Hannah More's 
 mind and genius beyond the choice of a noble subject, 
 and considerable skill in expression. She called the play 
 ' The Inflexible Captive,' and the motto attached to it was — 
 
 ' The man resolved and steady to his trust, 
 Inflexible to ill, and obstinately just.' 
 
 There is sufficient indication in this of sympathy with strict 
 adherence to the right, at whatever cost ; and this we shall 
 see later was one of the most vigorous principles of Hannah 
 More's life. 
 
 At the same time that Hannah More carried on her 
 literary work she was also engaged in teaching in the school. 
 The five sisters were now all partners in the establishment, 
 and with the strong sense of duty and bright intelligence for 
 which they were all distinguished, there can be no doubt that 
 the education they gave their pupils was greatly superior to 
 the usual course of instruction in girls' schools at that time. 
 What the Misses More's school was we may in great measure 
 judge from Hannah's later work on ' Female Education.' 
 They seem to have had a distinct perception that the object 
 of a girl's education is to develop her into the highest type of 
 a true, intelligent, harmonious woman, fit to add a brighter 
 glory and a sweeter charm to a woman's best life. Working 
 for this with earnestness and good sense, they lived, as 
 Johnson told them, ' lives to shame duchesses.'
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 VISITS TO LONDON. 
 
 When Hannah More was twenty-two an event occurred which 
 no doubt had the effect of detaching her from the active part 
 she had hitherto taken in the school, and helped to fix her 
 attention more upon literature as her work in life. 
 
 There were at that time in the school two young ladies of 
 the name of Turner ; they appear to have been orphans, and 
 were placed with the Misses More by their uncle, whose 
 daughter was also a pupil in the school. The young ladies 
 were to spend their holidays at the house of a cousin who 
 lived at Belmont, in Bath. This gentleman was a man of 
 more than forty years of age, unmarried, and of large property. 
 He had a beautiful house, kept carriages and horses, and had 
 some taste for poetry and art. A middle-aged lady resided 
 with him, who was housekeeper, and who received his friends. 
 Mr. Turner, in order to make the holidays agreeable to his 
 young cousins, requested them to bring with them any of their 
 companions whom they liked ; and the two girls fixed on Miss 
 Hannah and Miss Patty, their two youngest governesses, who 
 were but little older than themselves. 
 
 The result of the visit was that Mr. Turner asked Hannah 
 More to become his wife. The proposal was accepted, and
 
 JVSITS TO LONDON. 19 
 
 was no doubt considered by Hannah's friends as a very good 
 settlement for her. Arrangements were made for the marriage ; 
 the sisters were anxious that she should be provided with 
 everything necessary for her, as the wife of a man in Mr. 
 Turner's position ; and their little savings were encroached 
 upon in getting Hannah a handsome outfit. Her partnership 
 in the school was given up, and she withdrew from all share 
 in the daily work. The wedding-day was fixed more than 
 once, but each time as the day drew near Mr. Turner found 
 some excuse to postpone it. 
 
 It was evident he felt that he had made a mistake. He had 
 been charmed with the conversation and wit of Hannah More, 
 and had not, perhaps, sufficiently considered that a livel}', 
 clever young girl, gifted and educated beyond the majority of 
 her sex, delighting in society, and already the centre of interest 
 to a literary circle, was not just the kind of person to become 
 all that he wanted, at his age, in a wife. 
 
 It does not appear that Hannah's love for him was very 
 strong or deep ; her friends were displeased at his indifference, 
 and by mutual consent the engagement was broken off. Mr. 
 Turner had a high opinion of Miss Hannah More's talents and 
 prospects of success as a writer, and he wished on the conclu- 
 sion of the engagement to secure to her an annual sum of 
 money, which might enable her to devote herself to literary 
 pursuits, independently of the school, in which she had resigned 
 her partnership. This proposal Hannah More at once re- 
 jected ; but Mr. Turner felt that some compensation of the 
 kind was due to her for the trouble, expense, and loss of time 
 which he had caused her. He therefore communicated with Dr. 
 Stonehouse, the wise and kind friend through life of the Misses 
 More, and he arranged to become the agent and trustee for 
 
 2 — 2
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 the settlement of a part of the sum on Hannah More. She 
 still objected to accept this, but her reluctance was at length 
 overruled by her friends. 
 
 On Mr. Turner's death some years afterwards, he left her a 
 thousand pounds besides, as a mark of his respect and regard 
 for her. 
 
 It may have been, perhaps, as a diversion from the trouble 
 and vexation which Hannah More's engagement had caused 
 her, that she and her sister Patty paid their first visit to London. 
 It was the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream, though it did 
 not realize all their desires. Dr. Johnson had long been the 
 favourite author of the Misses More, who appreciated the 
 sound truth and goodness of his writings as much as their 
 talent. They had often imagined the delight of seeing Dr. 
 Johnson and hearing him talk, hidden safely themselves 
 behind some screen all the time ; and another long-cherished 
 desire had been to see Garrick in some of Shakespeare's best 
 characters ; but neither of these wishes was realized on this 
 occasion. ' That Idler, that Rambler, Dr. Johnson,' says 
 Hannah, in writing to a friend, 'was out of town, so we were 
 deprived of the felicity of seeing him.' Garrick was not well 
 enough to play, or to see company, and had gone down to 
 Hampton, where Hannah was afterwards to spend so many 
 happy days. At the house of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the young 
 ladies were introduced to ' a brilliant circle of both sexes.' 
 They went to see Hampton Court, and called up all their 
 English history over the rooms and the pictures ; they had 
 tickets offered them for ' The Birthnight.' ' But you will 
 believe,' says Hannah, ' I did not much regard the loss of 
 that, when I tell you that I visited the mansion of the tuneful 
 Alexander; I have ram.bled through the immortal shades of
 
 VISITS TO LONDON. 
 
 Twickenham ; I have trodden the haunts of the swan of 
 Thames !' 
 
 This visit to town was the beginning of an introduction to 
 society in which Hannah More, and sometimes one or two of 
 her sisters, met all the best and most distinguished persons of 
 the day. A part of every year seems to have been spent by 
 them in London, sometimes in lodgings, and sometimes at the 
 houses of friends. Their next visit was paid in 1774, and this 
 time Hannah was accompanied by Miss Sally More, a woman 
 of great liveliness and humour, who afterwards wrote some of 
 the best and most telling of the ' Cheap Repository Tracts ' 
 for the poor. The sisters in town kept up a constant corre- 
 spondence with those at home, and it is from these letters 
 that the story of Hannah More's life at this time must be 
 told. 
 
 A few days after their arrival. Miss Sally and Miss Hannah 
 went to the play, and had the long-desired gratification of 
 seeing Garrick in ' King Lear.' This was followed by an 
 introduction to the great actor, through a mutual friend. 
 Garrick was charmed with Hannah More's wit and bright 
 enthusiasm, and invited the sisters to come to his house the 
 next day, to meet Mrs. Montagu. To know this lady and to 
 win her approval was an introduction at once to the most 
 brilliant literary society of the period. She assembled at her 
 house all the wits, authors, and critics of any name or pre- 
 tensions to fame, and held reunions after the manner of 
 some of the French queens of society. These meetings had 
 acquired the name of the ' Blue-stocking Club,' in con- 
 sequence of one of the gentlemen who attended them, Mr. 
 Benjamin Stillingfleet, always wearing blue stockings. By 
 degrees the term was applied to any pretenders to literature.
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 especially ladies, who had acquired the somewhat pedantic 
 tone of conversation which these meetings encouraged. 
 Mrs. Montagu was the authoress of a reply to Voltaire's 
 criticisms on Shakespeare ; and although her defence of 
 Shakespeare had somewhat the tone of an apology, it must 
 not be forgotten that she ventured to maintain a true and 
 independent judgment of the great English dramatist at the 
 time when Voltaire had many more admirers than Shake- 
 speare. 
 
 Another of the long-cherished wishes of the Misses More 
 was realized during this visit, by an introduction to their 
 favourite author, Dr. Johnson. They met him at the house 
 of Sir Joshua Reynolds ; and he immediately accosted 
 Hannah by repeating a verse from a hymn for the morning, 
 which she had written for Sir James Stonehouse, their old 
 friend. A few days afterwards they paid a visit to Dr. 
 Johnson at his own house, which Miss Sally thus describes 
 in one of her letters home : 
 
 ' We have paid another visit to Miss Reynolds. She had 
 sent to engage Dr. Percy (" Percy's Collection of Ballads/' 
 now you know him), who is quite a sprightly modern, instead 
 of a rusty antique, as I expected. He was no sooner gone 
 than the most amiable and obliging of women (Miss Rey- 
 nolds) ordered the coach to take us to Dr. Johnson^s very 
 oivn house ; yes, Abyssinia's Johnson ! — Dictionary Johnson ! 
 — Rambler's, Idler's, and Irene's Johnson ! Can you picture 
 to yourselves the palpitation of our hearts as we approached 
 his mansion ? The conversation turned upon a new work of 
 his, just going to the press, " The Tour to the Hebrides." 
 Mrs. Williams, the blind poet, who lives with him, was 
 introduced to us. She is engaging in her manners, her
 
 VISITS TO LONDON. 23 
 
 conversation lively and entertaining.* Miss Reynolds told 
 the Doctor of all our rapturous exclamations on the road. 
 He shook his scientific head at Hannah, and said " she was 
 a sil/y thing." When our visit was ended, he called for his 
 hat, as it rained, to attend us down a very long entry to our 
 coach, and not Rasselas could have acquitted himself more 
 en cavalier. We are engaged with him at Sir Joshua's 
 Wednesday evening. What do you think of us ?' 
 
 Johnson afterwards told Miss Reynolds how much the 
 genuine, simple-hearted enthusiasm of the two girls had 
 touched him. 
 
 During this visit Miss Reynolds also introduced them to 
 Burke — ' the sublime and beautiful Edmund Burke,' as Miss 
 Sally calls him. 
 
 The next year we find Miss Sally and Miss Hannah More- 
 again in town ; and on this occasion Hannah was admitted 
 among the 'blue-stockings' at Mrs. Montagu's. She describes 
 the party in one of the letters to the sisters at home : 
 
 ' I had yesterday the pleasure of dining in Hill Street, 
 Berkeley Square, at a certain Mrs. Montagu's, a name not 
 totally obscure. The party consisted of the hostess, Mrs. 
 Carter, Dr. Johnson, Solander and Matty, Mrs. Boscawcn, 
 
 * In Johnson's house, in Bolt Court, lived several distressed persons 
 besides Miss Williams. She had been a friend of his wife, and during 
 her lifetime had come to London for an operation in her eyes. It was 
 unsuccessful ; she had no means of support, so Dr. Johnson kepther there, 
 though he had to bribe the servant by half-a-crown a week to put up with 
 her temper. There were besides beneath his roof, Robert Levitt, a poor, 
 helpless surgeon ; Mrs. Dumoulin, widowed daughter of his old school- 
 master ; Miss Carmichael ; and a negro, all dependent upon him, and 
 treated by him with the tender consideration of a friend rather than of a 
 benefactor.
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Miss Reynolds, and Sir Joshua, some other persons of high 
 rank and less wit, and your humble servant — a party that 
 would not have disgraced the table of Laelius or of Atticus. 
 Mrs. Montagu received me with the most encouraging kind- 
 ness : she is not only the finest genius, but the finest lady 
 I ever saw. She lives in the highest style of magnificence ; 
 her apartments and table are in the most splendid taste ; but 
 what baubles are these when speaking of a Montagu ! Her 
 form is delicate even to fragility, her countenance the most 
 animated in the world — the sprightly vivacity of fifteen, with 
 the judgment and experience of a Nestor. Mrs. Carter* has 
 in her person a great deal of what the gentlemen mean when 
 they say such a one is a " poetical lady ;" however, indepen- 
 dently of her great talents and learning, I like her much. 
 She has affability, kindness, and goodness, and I honour her 
 heart even more than her talents ; but I do not like one of 
 them better than Mrs. Boscawen ; she is at once polite, 
 learned, judicious, and humble, and Mrs. Palk tells me her 
 letters are not thought inferior to Mrs. Montagu's. She 
 regretted (so did I) that so many suns could not shine at one 
 time ; but we are to have a smaller party, where, from fewer 
 luminaries, there may emanate a clearer, steadier, and more 
 beneficial light. Dr. Johnson asked me how I liked the new 
 tragedy of " Braganza." I was afraid to speak before them 
 all, as I knew a diversity of opinion prevailed among the 
 company. However, as I thought it a less evil to dissent 
 from the opinion of a fellow-creature than to tell a falsity, I 
 
 * A lady distinguished for learning and goodness. She translated all 
 the works of Epictetus now extant from the original Greek, Crousaz's 
 ' Examen of Pope's " Essay on Man," ' and Algarotti's ' Explanation of 
 the Newtonian Philosophy,' She was a frequent contributor to the 
 CentlemaiCs Magazi7ic, and had published a small volume of poems.
 
 VISITS TO LONDON. 25 
 
 ventured to give my sentiments, and was satisfied with 
 Johnson's answering, "You are right, madam.'" 
 
 Another letter of Hannah More's shows that among the 
 ladies who formed the circle at Mrs. Montagues house there 
 was a seriousness and a sense of the more solemn and earnest 
 aims of life which raised them above that mere sparkle of 
 intellectual intercourse which is only another form of frivolity. 
 The letter is dated ' Sunday night,' and refers in its opening 
 to some remarks made in a letter from one of her sisters 
 about Sunday visiting, in reply to which she had said, * I did 
 think of the alarming call, " What doest thou here, Elijah ?" 
 Perhaps you will say I ought to have thought of it again to- 
 day when I tell you I have dined abroad ; but it is a day I 
 reflect on without those uneasy reflections one has when one 
 is conscious that it has been spent in trifling company. I 
 have been at Mrs. Boscawen's. Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Carter, 
 Mrs. Chapone,* and myself only were admitted. We spent 
 the time, not as zvits, but as reasonable creatures, better 
 characters, I trow. The conversation was cheerful but serious. 
 I have not enjoyed an afternoon so much since I have been 
 in town. There was much sterling sense, and they are all 
 ladies of high character for piety, of which, however, I do not 
 think their visiting on Sundays any proof, for though their 
 conversation is edif}-ing, the example is bad. For my own 
 part, the more I see of the " honoured, famed, and great," the 
 more I see of the littleness, the unsatisfactoriness of all created 
 good, and that no earthly pleasure can fill up the wants of the 
 
 * Mrs. Chapone was one of the ladies of the Blue-stocking Club. She 
 wrote ' Letters on the Improvement of the Mind,' which were highly 
 commended at the time. She afterwards published ' Miscellanies in Prose 
 and Verse.' Her writings are characterized by goodness and sense.
 
 26 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 immortal principle within. One need go no further than the 
 company I have just left to be convinced that " pain is for 
 man," and that fortune, talents and science are no exemption 
 from the common lot. Mrs. Montagu, eminently distinguished 
 for wit and virtue — " the wisest where all are wise " — is 
 hastening to insensible decay by a slow but sure hectic ; Mrs. 
 Chapone has experienced the severest reverses of fortune ; 
 and INIrs. Boscawen's life has been a continual series of 
 afflictions.' 
 
 Miss Sally More, about the same date, tells her sisters of 
 an evening they have spent at Sir Joshua Reynolds' with Dr. 
 Johnson : 
 
 'Tuesday evening we drank tea at Sir Joshua's with Dr. 
 Johnson. Hannah is certainly a great favourite. She was 
 placed next to him, and they had the entire conversation to 
 themselves. They were both in remarkably high spirits. It 
 was certainly her lucky night ! I have never heard her say 
 so many good things. The old genius was extremely jocular, 
 and the young one very pleasant. You would have imagined 
 we had been at some comedy, had you heard our peals of 
 laughter. They indeed tried which could " pepper the highest," 
 and it is not clear to me that the lexicographer was really 
 the highest seasoner. 
 
 ' Yesterday Mr. Garrick called upon us. A volume of 
 Pope lay upon the table ; we asked him to read, and he 
 went through the latter part of the " Essay on Man." He 
 was exceedingly good-humoured, and expressed himself quite 
 delighted with our eager desire for information ; and when he 
 had satisfied one interrogatory, said, " Now, madam, what 
 next?" He read several lines we had been disputing about 
 with regard to emphasis in many different ways before he
 
 VISITS TO LONDON. ' 27 
 
 decided which was right. He sat with us from half-past 
 twelve till three, reading and criticizing. Wc have just had a 
 call from Mr. Burke.' 
 
 Miss Sally and Miss Hannah More remained in town for 
 six weeks, and made many new friends and acquaintances, 
 one of the most intimate being that of the Garricks.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ATTEMPTS AT LITERATURE. 
 
 One of the results of Hannah More's introduction to the 
 literary world, during this visit to London, was to make her 
 feel that she ought herself to do something to render her 
 more worthy of the companionship of the distinguished men 
 and women with whom she had associated. On her return 
 home, therefore, she set to work to write a poem. Among 
 the persons to whom she had been introduced in London 
 was Dr. Percy, who a short time before had published a 
 collection of English ballads, ' Reliques of Ancient English 
 Poetry.' Although Dr. Percy had somewhat altered the 
 language of these ballads in a few cases, in order to make 
 it conform more to the Latinized ' poetic diction ' of the timc^ 
 yet the revival of the true old English literature, with its 
 deeper and more simple feeling, and its honest, homely 
 English language, was the beginning of the casting off of the 
 tyranny of the French school, and its subservience to classic 
 models and style. Hannah More possessed, as we shall see 
 in following her life, a large amount of sound common 
 sense ; and it was just this, and by no means the desire to 
 be superior to her age, which made her perceive at once its 
 prejudices and follies, and be ready to recognise the new
 
 A TTEMPTS A T LITERA TURK. 29 
 
 spirit already at work, wherever this was more in accordance 
 with truth, or better answered the higher purposes of life. 
 She had that true independence which springs not from self- 
 assertion, but from a strong sense of responsibility and a 
 love of truth. 
 
 In choosing the form of her poem, Hannah More took that 
 of a ballad, expressed for the most part in what was at 
 that time simple English, although the critics of the period 
 had not hesitated to speak of all the earlier English 
 literature as ' barbarous ;' and there were many who sided 
 with Voltaire in his criticisms of 'ce bouffon d'un Shake- 
 speare.' Hannah More's ballad was called ' Sir Eldred of 
 the Bower.' It wants the simple, hearty feeling of the 
 genuine ballads, such as makes them like the wild flowers in 
 the hedges, springing up spontaneously from the very nature 
 of the soil, and it has somewhat the air of being written to 
 order ; but it is free from the affectation of Latinized words 
 and classical illustrations. It is a story of hasty action, under 
 the impulse of passion : 
 
 * There was a young and valiant knight, 
 
 Sir Eldred was his name. 
 And never did a worthier knight 
 The rank of knighthood claim. 
 
 Where gliding Tay his streams sends forth 
 
 To feed the neighbouring wood, 
 The ancient glory of the north, 
 
 Sir Eldred's castle stood.' 
 
 He was all that a knight should be — brave,, generous, 
 truthful — and resolved not to live in his father's fame, but to 
 achieve noble deeds himself, worthy of his ancestry.
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 ' Yet if the passion stormed his soul, 
 
 By jealousy led on, 
 The fierce resentment scorned control, 
 Andbore his virtues down.' 
 
 Sir Eldred goes forth one morning, and in his wanderings 
 comes upon a ' modest mansion ' in the ' bosom of a wood,' 
 which is inhabited by an ancient knight and his daughter : 
 
 ' A young and beauteous dame. 
 
 Sole comfort of his failing years, 
 And Birtha was her name. 
 
 Her heart a little sacred shrine, 
 
 Where all their virtues meet, 
 And holy hope and faith divine 
 
 Had claimed it for their seat.' 
 
 Near the house was Birtha's bower, planted with all her 
 favourite shrubs and flowers : 
 
 'And here the virgin loved to lead 
 Her inoffensive day, 
 And here she oft retired to read, 
 And oft retired to pray.', 
 
 Here Sir Eldred finds her, and overhears her morning 
 prayer. He of course falls in love with her at first sight, and 
 on being joined by her father (the old knight. Sir Ardolph), 
 it is found that Sir Eldred is the son of his (Sir Ardolph's) 
 old friend and companion-in-arms. He is invited to enter 
 the ' modest mansion,' and he spends some days with Sir 
 Ardolph and his daughter. He is told the story of the old 
 knight's sorrows in the loss of his wife, and the supposed 
 death of his son upon the field of battle. In the end Sir
 
 A TTEMP TS AT LITER A TURK. 3 1 
 
 Elclrecl asks of Sir Ardolph the hand of his daugliter, to 
 which the father promptly repHcs : 
 
 ' " My beauteous Birtha, gracious Power, 
 How could I e'er repine," 
 Cries Ardolph, " since I see this hour ? 
 Yes, Birtha shall be thine."' 
 
 The wedding-day arrives, and after the ceremony is over: 
 
 ' To recollect her scattered thought, 
 And shun the noontide hour, 
 The lovely bride in secret sought 
 The coolness of her bower.' 
 
 She remains some time absent, and Sir Eldred comes to 
 seek her, when, to his horror, he finds her with a stranger 
 knight, whom he imagines to have been a former love. 
 
 ' Wild frenzy fires his frantic hand, 
 Distracted at the sight ; 
 He flies to where the lovers stand, 
 And stabs the stranger knight.' 
 
 ' Die, traitor, die !' he exclaims, and stabs the lady also, who 
 in dying explains that it is her brother Edwy, supposed to 
 have been killed in battle, but who has just returned to his 
 home. The old knight has been told of his son's return, and 
 hastens to the bower to welcome him, but sees on the ground 
 the bodies of his son and daughter, while : 
 
 ' Cold, speechless, senseless, Eldred near. 
 Gazed on the deed he'd done, 
 Like the blank statue of Despair, 
 Or Madness graved in stone.'
 
 32 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 The effect on the father of the terrible sight is such that, 
 falling beside them, he ' silent sunk to rest.' 
 A little ' moral ' is attached to the poem : 
 
 ' The deadliest wounds with which we bleed 
 Our crimes inflict alone ; 
 Man's ijic7xies from God's hand proceed, 
 His Jiiis'ries from his own.' 
 
 When Hannah More had finished her ballad, she deter- 
 mined to test its merits by sending it to Cadell, a publisher 
 of some note at the time, and, like herself, a native of 
 Stapleton. She added to it a poem which she had written 
 some years earlier, called ' The Bleeding Rock ; or, the 
 Metamorphosis of a Nymph into Stone.' The idea was 
 taken from the fact of a red stream, coloured by the nature 
 of the soil, flowing from a rock in Somersetshire, hence called 
 the Bleeding Rock. This Hannah More supposes to be a 
 maiden turned into stone by her own request, in order to end 
 the misery of a life rendered hopeless through the unfaithful- 
 ness of her lover, whose vanity led him to trifle with others. 
 Overcome with remorse, he stabs himself beside the well, from 
 which henceforth flows the blood-red stream. 
 
 In this earlier poem all the mannerism of the time is 
 prominent. The Somersetshire rustics are Polydore and 
 lanthe ; they invoke Apollo and Jove ; play upon the ' soft 
 flute ' or ' well-strung lyre,' tuned by the Graces ; pursue 
 with ' unerring dart the flying doe ;' and, with his poniard in 
 his hand, ' No other nymph shall ever share my heart ; thus 
 only I'm absolved,' cries Polydore, the English peasant, as he 
 stabs himself. But Hannah More knew more about the 
 condition of the Somersetshire peasantry before long, and
 
 A TTEMP TS AT LITER A TURK. 33 
 
 lived to carry on so real and true a work among them, that 
 one may fancy her smiling herself at the Polydore and lanthe 
 of her early days, 
 
 Mr. Cadell was much pleased with both her poems, and 
 showed the genuineness of his approval by offering her a far 
 larger sum than she had at all expected to receive for the 
 right of publishing them. He added, that if she could find 
 out what Goldsmith had been paid for 'The Deserted Village/ 
 published five years before, he would make the sum equal to 
 that. 
 
 Mr. Cadell had judged rightly as to the success of Hannah 
 More's poems. Mrs. Montagu, queen of the blue-stockings, 
 speaks of ' Sir Eldred ' in the highest terms of praise; and this 
 vindicator of Shakespeare against Voltaire adds, ' Let me beg 
 you, my dear madam, to allow your muse still to adorn 
 British names and British places.' Mr. Burke thanks Hannah 
 More for her ' truly elegant and tender performance ;' and 
 when the sisters go up to London for their winter sojourn in 
 town, Miss Sally writes to Miss Patty, ' From Miss Reynolds 
 we learn that " Sir Eldred " is the theme of conversation in all 
 polite circles, and that the " beauteous Birtha " has kindled a 
 flame in the cold bosom of Johnson. Mr. Garrick has read 
 "Sir Eldred" to us; and from henceforth let never man attempt 
 to read before me if he read worse.' 
 
 Miss Hannah a few days afterwards writes, ' Dr. Johnson 
 has invited himself to drink tea with us to-morrow, that we 
 may read " Sir Eldred " together. I shall not tell you what he 
 said of it, but to me the best part of his flattery was, that he 
 repeats all the best stanzas by heart, with the energy though 
 not with the grace of a Garrick.' 
 
 The next day Dr. Johnson went to drink tea with Miss 
 
 3
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Sally and Miss Hannah in their lodgings. They spent the 
 earlier part of the day at the Garricks', but got home by seven, 
 before the Doctor arrived. Of this quiet evening with John- 
 son Miss Hannah writes : ' I hardly ever spent an evening 
 more pleasantly or more profitably. Dr. Johnson, full of 
 wisdom and piety, was very communicative. To enjoy Dr. 
 Johnson perfectly one must have him to one's self, as he 
 seldom cares to speak in mixed parties. Our tea was not over 
 till nine o'clock; we then fell upon "Sir Eldrcd": he read both 
 poems through, suggested some little alterations in the first, 
 and did me the honour to write one whole stanza \^^ but in the 
 " Rock " he has not altered a word. Though only a tea visit, 
 he stayed with us till twelve.' 
 
 Miss Sally sends home her account of the same evening : 
 '• After much critical discourse, Dr. Johnson turns round to 
 me, and with one of his most amiable looks, which must be 
 seen to form the least idea of it, he says, " I have heard that 
 }'0u are engaged in the useful and honourable employment 
 of teaching young ladies !" Upon which, with all the same 
 ease^ familiarity, and confidence we should have done had 
 only our own dear Dr. Stonehouse been present, we entered 
 upon the history of our birth, parentage, and education ; show- 
 ing how we were born with more desires than guineas, and 
 how as years increased our appetites the cupboard at home 
 began to grow too small to gratify them ; and how, with a 
 bottle of water, a bed, and a blanket, we set out to seek our 
 fortunes ; and how we found a great house with nothing in 
 
 * ' My scorn has oft the dart repelled 
 Which guileful beauty threw ; 
 But goodness heard and grace beheld 
 Must every heart subdue.'
 
 A TTEMPTS A T LITER A TURK. 35 
 
 it ; and how it was like to remain so, till, looking into our 
 knowledge-boxes, we happened to find a Y\\X\q. learning, a good 
 thing when land is gone, or rather none ; and so at last by 
 giving a little of this little learning to those who had less, we 
 got a good store of gold in return ; but how, alas ! we wanted 
 the wit to keep it. " I love you both," cries the inamorato — 
 " I love you all five. I never was at Bristol — I will come on 
 purpose to see you. What ! five women all live happily 
 together ! I will come and see you — I have spent a happy 
 evening — I am glad I came ; God for ever bless you ! you 
 live lives to shame duchesses." He took his leave with so 
 much warmth and tenderness, we were quite affected at his 
 manner.' 
 
 Miss Sally More returned to Bristol to begin another half- 
 year's work in the school, leaving Miss Hannah in town, 
 where she remained six months living with the Garricks, partly 
 at their London house in the Adelphi, and partly at their 
 country residence at Hampton. 
 
 During this time she read and wrote for some hours of 
 every day, and had the advantage of intercourse with many 
 persons of intellect and culture. ' It is not possible/ she 
 writes to her sisters, ' for anything on earth to be more agreeable 
 to my taste than my present manner of living. I am so much 
 at my ease ; have a great many hours at my own disposal to 
 read my own books and see my own friends, and whenever 
 I please may join the most polished and delightful society in 
 the world. Our breakfasts are little literary societies ; there 
 is generally company at meals, as they think it saves time 
 by avoiding the necessity of seeing people at other seasons. 
 Mr. Garrick sets the highest value upon his time of anyone I 
 ever knew. From dinner to tea we laugh, chat, and talk 
 
 3—2
 
 36 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 nonsense ; the rest of his time is generally devoted to study. 
 I detest and avoid public places more than ever, and should 
 make a miserably bad fine lady. What most people come to 
 London for would keep me from it.' 
 
 Whilst Hannah More was in London the monotony of the 
 school life of the four sisters at home was broken in upon by 
 a visit from Dr. Johnson and Boswell. Hannah's letters were, 
 no doubt, also the means of bringing variety and liveliness into 
 their six months of daily work. She tells them of her going 
 to the trial of the would-be Duchess of Kingston before the 
 House of Lords, of Sir Joshua Reynolds's new picture of the 
 infant Samuel, about which the fashionable world are all 
 asking, ' Who is Samuel ?' of a new hotel in St. James's Street, 
 called the ' Savoir Vivre,' at which on the first occasion the 
 rooms were used sixty thousand pounds were lost at cards ; 
 of the death of a relative of the Duchess of Chandos at the 
 card-table, after which the company continued their play ; 
 and of Garrick's last performances of many of his celebrated 
 parts previous to his retiring from the stage. 
 
 In the beginning of June Hannah More returned to Bristol, 
 where she spent some months studying and writing, and keep- 
 mg up correspondence with the Garricks, Mrs. Boscawen, and 
 other London friends. 
 
 The next visit appears to have been into Norfolk, where 
 she made acquaintance with many of her father's relatives, 
 whom the Mores of Bristol had never seen before. These 
 relatives had much of the simple hospitality and godly earnest- 
 ness of their Puritan ancestors. In writing to her sisters, 
 Hannah speaks of their intelligent study of divinity, and of 
 their great liberality in contributing to every good object, 
 upon which she makes the just remark, ' I have long ago
 
 A TTEMP TS AT LITER A TURK. 37 
 
 found out that hardly any but plain, frugal people ever do 
 generous things. Our cousin, Mr. Cotton, who, I dare say, is 
 often ridiculed for his simplicity and frugality, could yet lay 
 down two hundred pounds without being sure of ever receiv- 
 ing a shilling interest.' 
 
 Hannah More returned home through London, stopping at 
 the Garricks', and with them she visited at Farnborough Place 
 in Hampshire, where she met Dr. and Mrs. Kennicott. With 
 them she at once formed an intimate friendship, which lasted 
 through their lives. Hannah More's greater seriousness and 
 more earnest views of life brought them, perhaps, into sympathy. 
 Beneath the vivacity and ease which led her to adapt herself 
 readily to all kinds of society, there already existed that inde- 
 pendence of character and steadfast adherence to duty which 
 so strongly marked her later years. A little incident occurred 
 during this visit to Farnborough Place which illustrates this. 
 She had always maintained the obligation of keeping holy the 
 Sabbath, and when one Sunday it was proposed to have 
 secular music, Garrick made the way easy to her to withdraw 
 by saying, ' I know you are a Sunday ivoinan ; retire to your 
 room, and I will call you when the music is over.' And 
 Hannah rose and left the room. 
 
 At the same time it may not be out of place to notice here 
 that the life she was leading at this time was one which had 
 very little of high purpose in it. The society she mixed in, 
 though composed of persons of more than average intellect, 
 was brilliant rather than thoughtful ; their aims were too much 
 centred in self-gratification ; and the mutual admiration they 
 constantly expressed for one another tended to produce 
 egotism and vanity^ rather than sincere love of truth and 
 reverent admiration of all that was noble and good. Hannah
 
 3.3 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 More's own sympathies were narrowed by it. Her letters at 
 this period are filled with accounts of the pleasures of the 
 hour, the visits she pays, the great people she meets, the com- 
 pliments she receives. There is a strange absence of all ex- 
 pression of interest in her family; she scarcely ever names her 
 father or mother, or makes any allusion to her sisters and their 
 work. Even her most eminent' London friends, Dr. Johnson 
 and others, from whom she had received so much kindness, 
 are sometimes mentioned with a want of feeling which shows 
 that frivolity had in some measure produced its usual effect 
 upon the heart.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ' PERCY.' 
 
 During the time which Hannah More spent at home after 
 her residence with the Garricks, she had been occupied in 
 writing a play. Garrick had no doubt encouraged her to 
 make the attempt, and it must also be borne in mind that the 
 drama supplied at that time the kind of opportunity for 
 testing the powers of a writer which is now afforded by the 
 modern novel. If an author wished to try whether he were 
 capable of stirring and interesting others by his conceptions 
 of character and his representations of life under its rarer 
 aspects, or as moved by the deeper emotions, he wrote a play; 
 and then anxiously watched its reception by the public and 
 the critics. Hannah More took as a slight foundation for her 
 play an old French story of Raoul de Coucy ; but, faithful to 
 Mrs. Montagu's advice, to allow her 'muse still to adorn 
 British names and British places,' she placed the scene in the 
 north of England, and chose for her dramatis persona; the old, 
 well-known heroes of English song, Douglas and Percy. The 
 story is an ' oft-told tale ' of those thwarts and complications 
 arising out of the feuds and the crusading life of the Middle 
 Ages. 
 
 Elwina, the daughter of Earl Raby, was betrothed to Percy,
 
 40 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Earl of Northumberland ; but one summer morning, while 
 chasing the deer among the Cheviots, some of Lord Raby's 
 knights were insulted by the herdsmen and foresters of Lord 
 Percy. Lord Raby took the insult as an intentional offence 
 to himself, and would receive no apology from Lord Percy. 
 Elwina was commanded to renounce her lover, which she did, 
 but says : 
 
 ' Oh, 'twas a task too hard for all my duty ! 
 I strove and wept ; I strove — but still I loved.' 
 
 Soon afterwards she was forced into a marriage with 
 Douglas, who is not aware that she had ever been betrothed 
 to his rival and enemy. Lord Percy, in the meantime, has 
 joined the Crusade, hopeless of reconciling Lord Raby, but 
 trusting to the influence of absence and time in lessening his 
 displeasure ; he therefore hears nothing of Elwina's marriage 
 to Douglas. 
 
 Ehvina endeavours to do her duty to her husband, but in 
 the first scene Douglas complains that it is only 
 
 ■ Cold, ceremonious, hard, unfeeling duty. 
 While duty portions out the debt it owes. 
 With scrupulous precision and nice justice, 
 Love never measures, but profusely gives, 
 Gives like a thoughtless prodigal its all, 
 And trembles then, lest it has done too little.' 
 
 He suspects that her heart is not his ; and when the news 
 comes that the King is returning from the Crusade, and Lord 
 Raby wishes his daughter to go to court to welcome him and 
 his knights, Douglas surmises from her reluctance that she is 
 attached to one of the crusading heroes. 
 
 This suspicion is confirmed when Harcourt^ friend and
 
 'PERCY: 41 
 
 messenger of Earl Percy, arrives at Raby Castle, the residence 
 of Elwina. He announces the approach of Percy, and the 
 constancy of his love for Elwina. Douglas throws Harcourt 
 into prison, and encounters Percy, who had unexpectedly 
 arrived and met Elwina in the garden. A duel follows, in 
 which Percy is killed. Earl Raby then comes upon the 
 scene, and explains to Douglas that Percy had left England 
 betrothed to Elwina, and had never since heard of her 
 marriage, and that he had been guilty of forcing his daughter 
 into it against her own will. Douglas, in remorse, stabs 
 himself, and Elwina drinks poison. The character of Elwina 
 is clearly and delicately conceived, and in the struggle be- 
 tween feeling and duty, she is throughout loyal to duty while 
 tender in feeling. 
 
 Garrick took the greatest interest in the composition of 
 ' Percy,' and wrote for it the prologue and the epilogue. Whilst 
 Hannah More was engaged upon it during the summer of 
 1777, a brisk correspondence was carried on between her and 
 Mr. Garrick. Some of his letters are interesting in the 
 indication they afford that the great actor and old friend of 
 Johnson was a man with serious views of life, and accustomed 
 to think on those deeper truths which are the essentials of 
 religious life. 
 
 Mr. Harris, of Covent Garden, undertook to bring out 
 ' Percy,' and in November Hannah More went to London 
 to be present at its first representation. She had lodgings in 
 Gerrard Street, from which she writes to her sisters : ' It is 
 impossible to tell you of all the kindness and friendship of 
 the Garricks ; he thinks of nothing, talks of nothing, writes of 
 nothing, but " Percy." He is too sanguine ; it will have a fall, 
 and so I tell him.' Garrick's judgment was, however, more
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 correct than the author's. The play was undoubtedly a 
 success. At ten o'clock at night Hannah More sits down in 
 Mr. Garrick's study to tell the anxious sisters in Bristol of its 
 favourable reception. ' He puts the pen in my own hand, 
 and bids me say that all fs just as it should be. Nothing was 
 ever more warmly received. I went with Mr. and Mrs. Garrick, 
 sat in Mr. Harris's box in a snug dark corner, and behaved 
 very well — that is, very quietly. The prologue and epilogue 
 were received with bursts of applause — so, indeed, was the 
 whole, as much beyond my expectation as my deserts. 
 Mr. Garrick's kindness has been unceasing.' After the 
 second night Hannah More writes again to her sisters : ' I 
 may now venture to tell you what I would not hazard last 
 night, that the reception of " Percy " exceeded my most 
 sanguine wishes. I am just returned from the second night, 
 and it was, if possible, received more favourably than on the 
 first. One tear is worth a thousand hands, and I had the 
 satisfaction to see them shed in abundance. The critics, as is 
 usual, met at the Bedford last night to fix the character of the 
 play. If I were a heroine of romance, and were writing to 
 my confidante, I should tell you all the fine things that were 
 said ; but as I am a real, living Christian woman, I do 
 not think it would be so modest. ... I think some of 
 you might contrive to make a little jaunt, if it were only 
 for one night, and see the bantling. Adieu, and some of 
 you come.' 
 
 The school half-year had not yet come to a close, but 
 Miss Sally and Miss Patty contrived to leave their work 
 and travel up to town, to enjoy one night of Hannah's 
 triumph. It was the twelfth night of the play, and, to the 
 gratification of the sisters, 'the theatre overflowed prodigiously.
 
 'PERCY: 43 
 
 notwithstanding their Majesties and the "School for Scandal" 
 at the other house.' 
 
 ' Percy ' had the most successful run of all the tragedies 
 brought out that winter, and it kept its place on the stage for 
 three or four years afterwards, when Mrs. Siddons played 
 Elwina. The first edition of four thousand copies was sold 
 within a fortnight, and a second edition called for. Meanwhile 
 congratulations and compliments poured in upon Hannah 
 More from every side. 
 
 Something must be granted to its favourable introduction 
 by Garrick; something, also, to the fact that Hannah More's 
 circle of personal friends was now very large, and included 
 most of the influential persons who, as critics and 'blues,' led 
 the taste of a great number of others. She had by the charm 
 of her agreeable manners and brilliant conversation become 
 'the fashion,' and her work was not likely, perhaps, to be 
 submitted to the vigorous criticism and guarded applause 
 bestowed upon an ordinary play, resting its claims for approval 
 solely on its own merits. To this must be added Hannah 
 More's own frank admission : ' I do not wish to rise on any- 
 body's fall, but it has happened rather luckily for " Percy," 
 that so many unsuccessful tragedies were brought out this 
 winter.' But, after taking all these things into consideration, 
 there remains the fact that not only at the time was it said to 
 be the most successful tragedy which had appeared for many 
 years, but that after Garrick was dead, and Hannah More had 
 withdrawn from the world, and the old circle to which she 
 belonged was broken up, ' Percy ' still held its place in public 
 esteem. At the time when Hannah More herself had formed 
 such strong objections to the theatre that nothing could 
 induce her to enter it, ' Percy ' was being played with Mrs.
 
 44 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Siddons as Elwina, and we find that Horace Walpolc and 
 Burke ' raved ' at the authoress for refusing to go and see it. 
 It was translated into German, and acted in Vienna ; and 
 was also bespoken by M. dc Calonne, who had translated it 
 into French, and wished to see it acted in England before 
 bringing it out upon the French stage. Hannah More made 
 by the play between seven and eight hundred pounds. 
 
 After spending the winter in town, she returned in April to 
 Bristol, and spent the next few months in writing another 
 tragedy — ' Fatal Falsehood.' As before, Garrick was her 
 friend and counsellor in her work ; she had sent four of the 
 acts to him, and he had expressed his approval of them ; and 
 she had completed the fifth, when she received a sorrowful 
 summons from Mrs. Garrick, asking her to come to her in her 
 first desolation and grief at the death of her husband. Hannah 
 More was ill in bed when she received Mrs. Garrick's letter, 
 but she rose immediately and set off for London. On arriving 
 at the house where she had spent so many happy hours and 
 received so much kindness, she found Mrs. Garrick just 
 quitting it in order to go to a friend's while the painful pre- 
 parations were being made for the public funeral and for the 
 lying in state. 
 
 'She was prepared for meeting me,' writes Hannah More to 
 her sisters, ' and she ran into my arms, and we both remained 
 silent for some minutes ; at last she whispered, " I have this 
 moment embraced his coffin, and you come next." She soon 
 recovered herself, and said with great composure, " The 
 goodness of God to me is inexpressible ; I desired to die, but 
 it is His will that I should live ; and He has convinced me 
 He will not let my life be quite miserable, for He gives 
 astonishing strength to my body and grace to my heart. I
 
 'PERCY: 45 
 
 deserve neither, but I am thankful for both." She thanked 
 me a thousand times for such a real act of friendship, and 
 bade me be comforted, for it was God's will. She told me 
 they had just returned from Althorpe, Lord Spencer's, where 
 they had reluctantly been dragged, for he had felt unwell for 
 some time ; but during his visit he was often in such fine 
 spirits, that they could not believe he was ill. I can never 
 cease to remember with affection and gratitude so warm, 
 steady, and so disinterested a friend ; and I can most truly 
 bear this testimony to his memory, that I never witnessed in 
 any family more decorum, propriety, and regularity than in 
 his, where I never saw a card, or even met a person of his own 
 profession at his table, of which Mrs. Garrick, by her elegance 
 of taste, her correctness of manners, and very original turn of 
 humour, was the brightest ornament. All his pursuits and 
 tastes were so decidedly intellectual, that it made the society 
 and the conversation which were always to be found in his 
 circle interesting and delightful.' 
 
 Another letter describes the funeral of Garrick in Westminster 
 Abbey, and the return of Mrs. Garrick to their house in the 
 Adelphi. ' She bore it all wath great tranquillity,' Hannah 
 More writes ; ' but what was my surprise to see her go alone 
 into the chamber in which he had died that day fortnight ! She 
 had a delight in it beyond expression. I asked her the next 
 day how she went through it. She told me, very well ; that 
 she first prayed with great composure, then went and kissed 
 what had so lately been his dying bed, and got into it with 
 a sad pleasure. Not a sigh escapes our poor friend which 
 she can restrain. When I expressed my surprise at her 
 command, she answered : " Groans and complaints are very 
 well for those who are to mourn but for a little while, but a
 
 46 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 sorrow that is to last for life will not be violent and 
 romantic." ' Hannah More spent some months with her 
 friend Mrs. Garrick, living principally at the house at 
 Hampton, and spending the time in retirement and study. 
 
 On their occasional visits to town she renewed in some 
 measure her intercourse with her friends, and speaks of 
 meeting Miss Burney, who had lately brought out her first 
 novel, ' Evelina.' 
 
 She also visited Mrs. Delany, a lady of much social 
 celebrity, once the friend and correspondent of Swift, but 
 now of great age, and living a very retired life. She was 
 still; however, greatly esteemed, and was much beloved by a 
 large circle of friends, amongst them Queen Charlotte and 
 the elder princesses, who frequently visited her. Through 
 Mrs. Delany, Hannah More became acquainted with Horace 
 Walpole, and was soon added to the list of his numerous 
 correspondents. 
 
 On coming up to town she had brought with her her new 
 tragedy, ' Fatal Falsehood,' intending to offer it to Mr. 
 Harris, of Covent Garden, and to leave it in his hands until 
 the next winter ; but, although the season was already 
 advanced, he wished to bring it out at once ; and after some 
 reluctance on Hannah More's part she at length consented 
 to allow it to appear. The time was, no doubt, unfavour- 
 able, for the weather was warm, and the play had but a short 
 run compared with ' Percy.' It was, however, well received, 
 and the printed copies sold so well that soon a second 
 edition was called for. 
 
 It is necessary to dwell on the success of Hannah More's 
 plays, not on account of the worth of the work itself, but 
 as indicating that the change in her opinions regarding
 
 'PERCY: 47 
 
 theatrical amusements resulted from convictions which led 
 her to give herself to work of a different kind, and not 
 from the vexed feeling of a disappointed play-writer. The 
 whole of her early life was a splendid social success ; and 
 her withdrawing from it was because she felt that it was not 
 a true and noble life, and that, even with religious principle 
 at heart, it could not be made so. It was the deeper and 
 more absorbing love of God and humanity which in the end 
 called her away from it all ; but as yet she was still a woman 
 of the eighteenth century, satisfied with the sparkling 
 surface of society, anxious to win the admiration of a narrow 
 clique, and indifferent to deeper questions affecting the 
 welfare of humanity outside of her literary circle. She had 
 learned to observe keenly, to discriminate, to criticize, and to 
 censure ; but the time was 3''et to come when she united 
 these abilities with a deeper sense of responsibility to God, 
 and a larger-hearted love to man, such as in her later life 
 made her work one of rare service.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ' SACRED DRAMAS ' AND ' SENSIBILITY.' 
 
 A C0NSIDERAI5LE portjon of the next i'ew years of Mrs. 
 Hannah More's Hfe was spent in London, or at Hampton 
 with Mrs. Garrick. During this time she made many new 
 friends, and mixed constantly with her old ones — Mrs. 
 Montagu, ]\Irs. Boscawen, Horace Walpole, Mrs. Delany, 
 Miss Burney ; but among her later acquaintances occur the 
 names of Dr. Kennicott, Dr. Home, afterwards Bishop of 
 Norwich, Dean Tucker, Dr. Lowth, and Dr. Porteus, men of 
 intellect and learning, who were directing their powers to the 
 study of religion and the service of God rather than to the 
 intellectual trifling which prevailed among the ' blue-stocking' 
 set. Her letters to her sisters during this period contain the 
 same repetition of visits and compliments, with here and 
 there little incidents of more than present and personal 
 interest, as indicating the state of society and the tone of 
 opinion of the day. Such is the conversation with Dr. 
 Johnson, who told Hannah More that George HI. had 
 urged upon him to include Spenser in his ' Lives of the Poets,' 
 but he had not agreed to do so, for the booksellers had not 
 named Spenser in their list of poets. On another occasion, 
 mentioning to Dr. Johnson that she had read ' Les Pensees
 
 THE 'SACRED DRAMAS' AND 'SENSIBILITY: 49 
 
 de Pascal/ he exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, and ' with the 
 most affecting earnestness' : ' Child, I am heartily glad you 
 read pious books, by whomsoever they may be written.' 
 
 About this time Hannah More published her ' Sacred 
 Dramas,' and with them a poem on ' Sensibility.' Her idea 
 in the ' Sacred Dramas ' was to turn the dramatic art to hicfh 
 and holy purposes, on the same principle that she afterwards 
 wrote her religious novel ' Coelebs.' But she did not perceive 
 the difference between using fiction to show the practical 
 illustration of some great and important truths, and the 
 giving a new and different form to the simple narratives 
 of the Bible. In the present day, when we are familiarized 
 in the best literature with a purer Saxon-English, the attempt 
 to put sounding words and phrases into the mouths of Scrip- 
 ture characters is even more offensive than in Hannah More's 
 own time. The subjects dramatized are, ' Moses in the 
 Bulrushes,' ' David and Goliath,' ' Belshazzar,' * Daniel ;' and 
 there are also reflections on ' King Hezekiah in his Sickness,' 
 such as might have been written by Johnson or any other 
 moralist in the days of Latinized English, but which have no 
 connection but the name with the King Hezekiah of the Bible. 
 The * Sacred Dramas ' appear to have given pleasure to many 
 earnest persons at .the time, who longed to see so great a 
 power as the drama used to elevate instead of to degrade ; 
 but in regard to the purpose they were intended to serve, it is 
 needless to say that they were failures. 
 
 The poem on ' Sensibility ' had a truer design. In an age 
 of little deep feeling it had become the fashion to affect to be 
 moved by the most trifling appeals to the emotions. Miss 
 Harriet Byron, the much-admired heroine of the much-read 
 novel, * Sir Charles Grandison,' is constantly spoken of as a 
 
 4
 
 50 777^ LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 young lady ' of exquisite sensibility,' and her fine feelings and 
 tears are paraded throughout the whole nine or ten volumes of 
 the novel, Goethe's 'Sorrows of Werther ' had established 
 sensibility rather than duty as the principle of action, and 
 he only followed in the steps of Rousseau and Sterne. The 
 false assumption of feeling and its usurpation over duty 
 is the subject of the first part of Hannah More's poem on 
 ' Sensibility ' : 
 
 'While her fair triumphs swell the modish page, 
 She drives the sterner virtues from the stage ; 
 While Feeling boasts her ever-tearful eye. 
 Fair Truth, firm Faith, and manly Justice fly.' 
 
 Then, after praise of true sensibility : 
 
 ' She does not know thy power who boasts thy fame, 
 And rounds her every period with thy name ; 
 Nor she who vents her disproportioned sighs 
 With pining Lesbia, when her sparrow dies ; 
 Who thinks feigned sorrows all her tears deserve, 
 And weeps o'er Werther while her children starve. 
 
 There are who fill with brilliant plaint the page 
 
 If a poor linnet meet the gunner's rage ; 
 
 There are who for a dying fawn deplore 
 
 As if friend, parent, country were no more ; 
 
 There are whose well-sung plaints each breast inflame, 
 
 And touch all hearts but his from whence they came. 
 
 He, scorning life's low duties to attend. 
 
 Writes odes on friendship, while he cheats his friend. 
 
 Of jails and punishments he grieves to hear, 
 
 And pensions prisoned virtue with a tear ; 
 
 While unpaid bills his creditor presents, 
 
 And ruined innocence his crime laments. 
 
 O love divine, sole source of charity ! 
 
 More dear one genuine deed performed for thee
 
 THE 'SACRED DRAMAS' AND 'SENSIBILITY.' 51 
 
 Than all the periods feeling e'er could turn, 
 Than all thy touching page, perverted Sterne ! 
 One silent wish, one prayer, one soothing word. 
 The page of mercy shall well pleased record ; 
 One soul-felt sigh by powerless pity given, 
 Accepted incense shall ascend to heaven. 
 
 The sober comfort, all the peace which springs 
 From the large aggregate of little things. 
 On these small cares of daughter, wife, or friend 
 The almost sacred joys of home depend ; 
 There, Sensibility, thou best may'st reign, 
 Home is thy true legitimate domain.' 
 
 In the following lines Hannah More discriminates the 
 falseness of the idea, which at that time pervaded foreign 
 literature even more than English, that feeling in itself is the 
 true guide of conduct, and stands for moral principle : 
 
 *As feeling tends to good or leans to ill 
 It gives fresh force to vice or principle. 
 'Tis not a gift peculiar to the good, 
 'Tis often but the virtue of the blood, 
 And what would seem compassion's moral flow 
 Is but a circulation swift or slow ; 
 But to divert it to its proper course, 
 There wisdom's power appears, there reason's force. 
 If, ill directed, it pursue the wrong. 
 It adds new strength to what before was strong ; 
 But if religion's bias rule the soul, 
 Then sensibility exalts the whole. 
 Sheds its sweet sunshine on the moral part. 
 Nor wastes in fancy what should warm the heart. 
 To give immortal mind its finest tone, 
 O Sensibility, is all thine own.' 
 
 The poem on ' Sensibility ' was followed soon after by the 
 * Bas Bleu ; or, Conversation.' It was written at first for pri- 
 
 4—2
 
 52 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 vate circulation, but quickly found its way into print, for 
 George III. had desired to have a copy of it, and Dr. Johnson 
 had said of it to Mrs. Thrale, ' Miss Hannah More has written 
 a poem called the " Bas Bleu," which is in my opinion a very 
 great performance ; it wanders about in manuscript, and 
 surely will soon find its way to Bath.' But Hannah More had 
 almost as little claim to be called a poet as she had to be 
 a dramatist. She had skill in writing verse, and the ' Bas 
 Bleu ' is a clever, neat description of the parties held at the 
 houses of Mrs, Vesey, Mrs. Montagu, and others, where 
 conversation was the only amusement of the evening. The 
 persons composing this brilliant circle were nearly all dis- 
 tinguished by talent, and they studied conversation as an art ; 
 consequently all who speak of these assemblies testify to the 
 brightness and wit of the social intercourse. There was also 
 a refinement and good sense governing the conversation, 
 which was rare in any circle at that time. 
 
 But there was little real fruit produced by this energy of 
 intellectual life ; and soon the sparkle of it passed away, as 
 the circle was broken in upon by the death or ill-health of 
 many of its most shining members. This hushing into utter 
 silence of all the wit and brilliant conversation which had so 
 charmed Hannah More, and in which she bore no insignificant 
 part herself, seems to have pressed upon her more deeply 
 the thought that her talents were given her for higher service 
 than to add to the glitter of social intercourse, that she might 
 do some good work for those who needed it, which would 
 endure, and ' whose glorious beauty ' should not be ' a fading 
 flower.' 
 
 Amongst those friends who were passing away was her 
 kind old friend Dr. Johnson. He died while Hannah More
 
 THE ' SACRED DRAMAS' AND ' SENSIBILITY.' 53 
 
 was staying with Mrs. Garrick at Hampton ; and in a letter 
 to her sister she relates the account she had received of his 
 death from Mr. Pepys : 
 
 ' A little before he died he said to his physician, " Doctor, 
 you are a worthy man, and my friend, but I am afraid 
 you are not a Christian, What can I do better for you 
 than offer up in your name a prayer to the great God 
 that you may become a Christian in my sense of the word ?" 
 Instantly he fell on his knees and put up a fervent prayer. 
 When he got up he caught hold of the physician's hand and 
 cried, " Doctor, you do not say ' Amen.' " The doctor 
 looked foolish, but, after a pause, he said "Amen." Johnson 
 then said, " My dear doctor, believe a dying man : there is 
 no salvation but in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God." A 
 friend desired he would make his will ; and as Hume in 
 his last moments had made a declaration of his opinions, he 
 thought it might tend to counteract the effect of this if 
 Johnson would make a public confession of his faith in his 
 will. He said he would ; seized the pen with great earnest- 
 ness, and asked what was the usual form of beginning a will. 
 His friend told him. After the usual form he wrote : " I 
 offer up my soul to the great and merciful God ; I offer it 
 full of sin, but in full assurance that it will be cleansed in 
 the blood of my Redeemer." And for some time he wrote 
 on with the same vigour and spirit, as if he had been in 
 perfect health. He talked of his death and funeral at times 
 with great composure. On the Monday morning he fell into 
 a sound sleep, having exclaimed just before, "Jam moriturus" 
 (Now I am about to die). He continued in that state for 
 twelve hours, and died without a groan. His death makes 
 a kind of era in literature : piety and goodness will not easily
 
 54 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 find a more able defender ; and it is delightful to see him set, 
 as it were, his dying seal to the professions of his life and to 
 the truth of Christianity/ 
 
 Not long before the death of Dr. Johnson, Hannah More 
 had been brought face to face with death beside the dying bed 
 of Dr. Kennicott. On hearing of his dangerous illness she 
 had hastened to his house in Oxford, in order to give all the 
 comfort and help she could to Mrs. Kennicott. In a letter to 
 her sister she says : ' My last will have prepared you to expect 
 the contents of this letter. Dear Dr. Kennicott expired 
 yesterday about four o'clock in the afternoon. I saw him 
 breathe his last. I have got her away from him downstairs ; 
 and for the last two hours ran continually up and down from 
 the afflicted wife to the expiring husband, she all the time 
 knowing he was in the last agonies, yet, when I came to 
 break it to her, she bore it with the utmost fortitude. She 
 has been very composed ever since ; indeed, she is a true 
 Christian heroine. Thus closed a life the last thirty years 
 of which was honourably spent in collating the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. One now reflects with peculiar pleasure that, 
 among other disinterested actions, he resigned a valuable 
 living because his learned occupation would not allow him to 
 reside upon it. What substantial comfort and satisfaction 
 must not the testimony which our departed friend was 
 enabled to bear to the truth of the Holy Scriptures afford 
 to those who lean upon them as the only anchor of the soul ! 
 When Dr. Kennicott had an audience of the King to present 
 his work, his Majesty asked hirji what upon the whole had 
 been the result of his laborious and learned investigation ; 
 to which he replied that he had found some grammatical 
 errors and many variations in the different texts, but not one
 
 THE ' SA CRED DRA MA S' AND * SENS I BI LIT V.' 55 
 
 which in the smallest degree affected any article of faith or 
 practice.' 
 
 Then follows a sketch of Dr. Kennicott's character, which 
 Hannah More drew up while it was fresh in her recollection, 
 at the close of which is the following note : 
 
 ' Oxford, August 21, 1783. 
 'This imperfect sketch of the character of an excellent man 
 was drawn by one who affectionately esteemed him ; who 
 two days ago heard from him the groan which could not be 
 repeated, and who is j ust now going to see him laid in the 
 grave. May the recollection of that awful scene long rescue 
 her heart from the vanity and weakness to which it is too 
 subject !'
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 COWSLIP GREEN. 
 
 The desire for rest, and a feeling of the unfruitfulness of her 
 London Hfe, induced Hannah More to buy some land near 
 Bristol, and build upon it a cottage, where she might live 
 in retirement some part of every year, hoping that this 
 ' might favour her escape from the world gradually.' The 
 name given to the house was * Cowslip Green,' which Walpole 
 declared must be 'some relation, a cousin at least, to Straw- 
 berry Hill.' In this cottage, which was about ten miles from 
 Bristol on the Exeter road, Hannah More spent some 
 months each 3^ear, her sisters being still engaged in their 
 school at Bristol. She seems to have had the idea that by 
 shutting herself up in her cottage, and amusing herself with 
 the more simple pleasures of gardening and other country 
 occupations, she would find that happiness and satisfaction 
 in life which she felt was missing in the days she spent 
 among a crowd of admiring acquaintance. She discovered, 
 however, after awhile, that the simpler pleasures of a country 
 life, when made the sole aim of life, were as unsatisfactory as 
 the pleasures of her social life in London. 
 
 It was after having tried the experiment of two summers 
 passed at Cowslip Green that she writes thus to John
 
 COWSLIP GREEN. 57 
 
 Newton, whose acquaintance she had made a short time 
 before in London : 
 
 ' Coivslip Green, 1787. 
 
 ' My dear Sir, 
 
 ' I am really extremely obliged to you for your very agreeable and 
 instructive letter. Whenever I receive a letter or a visit, I always feel 
 pleased and grateful in proportion to the value I set on the time of the 
 visitor or the writer ; and when a friend who knows how to work up to 
 advantage all the ends and fragments of his time, is so good as to bestow 
 a little portion of it on me, my heart owns the obligation ; and I wish it 
 were understood as preliminary in all acquaintance, that where no good 
 can be done and no pleasure given, it will be so unprofitable a commerce 
 as to be hardly worth engaging in. I am sure your letter gave me pleasure, 
 and I hope it did ine good, so you see it is doubly included in the treaty. 
 
 ' Excepting one month that I have passed at Bath on account of health, 
 and occasional visits to my sisters at Bristol — in this pretty quiet cottage, 
 which I built myself two years ago, I have spent the summer. It is about 
 ten miles from Bristol, on the Exeter road, has a great deal of very 
 picturesque scenery about it, and is the most perfect little hermitage that 
 can be conceived. The care of my garden gives me employment, health, 
 and spirits. I want to know, dear sir, if it is peculiar to myself to form 
 ideal plans of perfect virtue, and to dream of all manner of imaginary 
 goodness in untried circumstances, while one neglects the immediate 
 duties of one's actual situation ? Do I make myself understood ? I have 
 always fancied that if I could secure to myself such a quiet retreat as I 
 have now really accomplished, that I should be wonderfully good ; that I 
 should have leisure to store my mind with such and such maxims of 
 wisdom ; that I should be safe from such and such temptations ; that, in 
 short, my whole summers would be smooth periods of peace and goodness. 
 Now the misfortune is, I have actually found a great deal of the comfort 
 I expected, but without any of the concomitant virtues. I am certainly 
 happier here than in the agitation of the world, but I do not find that I 
 am one bit better : with full leisure to rectify my heart and affections, the 
 disposition unluckily does not come. I have the mortification to find that 
 petty and (as they are called) innocent employments, can detain my heart 
 from heaven as much as tumultuous pleasures. If to the pure all things 
 are pure, the reverse must be also true when I can contrive to make so
 
 58 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 harmless an employment as the cultivation of flowers stand in the room 
 of a vice, by the great portion of time I give up to it, and by the entire 
 dominion it has over my mind. You will tell me that if the affections 
 be estranged from their proper object, it signifies not much whether 
 a bunch of roses or a pack of cards effects it. I pass my life in intending 
 to get the better of this, but life is passing away, and the reform never 
 begins. It is a very significant saying, though a very old one, of one of 
 the Puritans, that " Hell is paved with good intentions." I sometimes 
 tremble to think how large a square my procrastination alone may furnish 
 to this tesselated pavement. 
 
 ' I shall come London-ward next month, but shall be only geographi- 
 cally nearer you, as I pass much of the winter at Hampton, I shall gladly 
 seize every opportunity of cultivating your friendship, and must still regret 
 that your house and the Adelphi are so wide of each other. I heartily 
 commend myself to your prayers, and am with the most cordial esteem, 
 dear sir, your much obliged and faithful, 
 
 'H, More.' 
 
 In reply to this John Newton writes : 
 
 '1787. 
 
 * My DEAR Madam, 
 
 ' It is high time to thank you for your favour of the first of 
 November. Indeed I have been thinking so, for two or three weeks past, 
 and perhaps it is well for you that my engagements will not permit me to 
 write when I please. 
 
 ' Your hermitage — my imagination went to work at that, and presently 
 built one. I will not say positively as pretty as yours, but very pretty. 
 It stood (indeed, without a foundation) upon a southern declivity, fronting 
 a woodland prospect, with an infant river, that is a brook, running 
 between. Little thought was spent upon the house, but if I could describe 
 the garden, the sequestered walks, and the beautiful colours with which 
 the soil, the shrubs, and the thickets were painted, I think you would 
 like the spot. But I awoke, and behold it was a dream ! My dear friend 
 William Cowper has hardly a stronger enthusiasm for rural scenery than 
 myself, and my favourite turn was amply indulged during the sixteen 
 years I lived at Olney. The noises which surround me in my present 
 situation, of cairiagesand carts, and London cries, form a strong contrast 
 to the sound of falling waters, and the notes of thrushes and nightingales. 
 But London, noisy and dirty as it is, is my post : and if not directly my
 
 COWSLIP GREEN. 59 
 
 choice, has a much more powerful recommendation ; it was chosen for 
 me by the wisdom and goodness of Him, whose I trust I am, and whom 
 it is my desire to serve. And therefore I am well satisfied with it ; and if 
 this busy imagination (always upon the wing) would go to sleep, I would 
 not awaken her to build me hermitages ; I want none. 
 
 ' The prospect of a numerous and attentive congregation, with which I 
 am favoured from the pulpit, exceeds all that the mountains and lakes of 
 Westmoreland can afford ; and their singing, when their eyes tell me 
 their voices come from the heart, is more melodious in my ear than the 
 sweetest music of the woods. But were I not a servant who has neither 
 right nor reason to wish for himself, yet has the noblest wish he is capable 
 of forming, gratified — I say, were it not for my public services, and I were 
 compelled to choose for myself, I would wish to live near your hermitage, 
 that I might sometimes have the pleasure of conversing with you, and 
 admiring your flowers and garden ; provided I could likewise, at proper 
 seasons, hear from others that joyful sound which it is now the business, 
 the happiness, and the honour of my life to proclaim, myself. What you 
 are pleased to say, my dear madam, of the state of your mind, I under- 
 stand perfectly well ; I praise God on your behalf, and I hope I shall 
 earnestly pray for you. I have stood upon that ground myself. I see 
 what you yet want to set you quite at ease, and though I cannot give it 
 you, I trust that He who has already taught you what to desire, will, in 
 His own best time, do everything for you, and in you, which is necessary 
 to make you as happy as is compatible with the present state of infirmity 
 and warfare : but He must be waited <?;/, and waited 76);-, to do this ; and 
 for our encouragement it is written as in golden letters over the gate of 
 His mercy, " Ask, and ye shall receive ; knock, and it shall be opened unto 
 you." We are apt to wonder that when what we accounted hindrances 
 are removed, and the things which we conceived would be great advan- 
 tages are put within our power, still there is a secret something in the 
 way which proves itself to be independent of all external changes, because 
 it is not affected by them. The disorder we complain of is inlcfiial, and, 
 in allusion to our Lord's words upon another occasion, I may say, it is 
 not that which surrounds us, it is not anything in our outward situation 
 (provided it be not actually unlawful), that can prevent or even retard our 
 advances in religion ; we are defiled and impeded by that which is with- 
 in. So far as our hearts are right, all places and circumstances, which 
 His wise and good providence allots us, are nearly equal ; their hindrances 
 will prove helps ; losses, gains — and crosses will ripen into comforts ; but
 
 6o THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 till we are so far apprised of the nature of our disease, as to put ourselves 
 into the hands of the great and only Physician, we shall find, like the 
 woman in Luke viii. 43, that every other effort for relief will leave us as it 
 found us. 
 
 Our first thought when we begin to be displeased with ourselves, and 
 sensible that we have been wrong, is to attempt to reform ; to be sorry for 
 what is amiss, and to endeavour to amend. It seems reasonable to ask, 
 what can we do more ? but while we think we can do so much as this, we 
 do not fully understand the design of the gospel. This gracious message 
 from the God who knows our frame, speaks home to our case. It treats 
 us as sinners — as those who have already broken the original law of our 
 nature, in departing from God our creator, supreme lawgiver, and bene- 
 factor, and in having lived to ourselves instead of devoting all our time, 
 talents, and influence to His glory. As sinners, the first things we need 
 are pardon, reconciliation, and a principle of life and conduct entirely 
 new. Till then we can have no more success or comfort from our endea- 
 vours, than a man who should attempt to walk while his ankle was dis- 
 located : the bone must be reduced before he can take a single step with 
 safety, or attempt it without increasing his pain. For these purposes we are 
 directed to Jesus Christ, as the wounded Israelites were to look at the 
 brazen serpent (John iii. 14, 15). When we understand what the Scripture 
 teaches of the person, love, and offices of Christ, the necessity and final 
 causes of His humiliation unto death, and feel our own need of such a 
 Saviour, we then know Him to be the light, the sun of the world, and of 
 the soul ; the source of all spiritual light, life, comfort, and influence ; 
 having access by God to Him, and receiving out of His fulness grace for 
 grace. 
 
 ' Our perceptions of these things are for a time faint and indistinct, like 
 the peep of dawn ; but the dawning light, though faint, is the sure 
 harbinger of approaching day (Prov. iv. 18). The full-grown oak that 
 overtops the wood, spreads its branches wide, and has struck its roots to 
 a proportionable depth and extent into the soil, arises from a little acorn ; 
 its daily growth, had it been daily watched from its appearance above 
 ground, would have been imperceptible, yet it was always upon the in- 
 crease ; it has known a variety of seasons, it has sustained many a storm, 
 but in time it attained to maturity, and now is likely to stand for ages. 
 The beginnings of spiritual life are small likewise in the true Christian ; 
 lie likewise passes through a succession of various dispensations, but he 
 advances, though silently and slowly, yet surely ; and will stand for ever.
 
 COWSLIP GREEN. 6i 
 
 ' At the same time it must be admitted, that the Christian life is a war- 
 fare. Much within us and much without us must be resisted. In such a 
 world as this, and with such a nature as oiers, there will be a call for 
 habitual self-denial. We must learn to cease from depending upon our 
 own supposed wisdom, power, and goodness, and from self-complacence 
 and self-seeking — that we may rely upon Him whose wisdom and power 
 are infinite. 
 
 ' It is time to relieve you ; I shall therefore only add Mrs. Newton's 
 affectionate respects. Commending you to the care and blessing of the 
 Almighty, 
 
 ' I remain, my dear madam, with great sincerity, 
 
 ' Your affectionate and obliged servant, 
 'John Newton.' 
 
 The failure to which Hannah More alludes in her life at 
 Cowslip Green led her to look more deeply into the true 
 sources and aims of life ; and to see how all strong, pure, and 
 noble life derives power from union with God through Jesus 
 Christ, and finds its expression in a wide love for humanity 
 and in faithful service. 
 
 One of the first results of her endeavour to write some- 
 thing of more weight and influence than the lively pieces 
 which had charmed a circle of admiring friends, was the 
 publication of an essay on ' The Importance of the Manners 
 of the Great to General Society.' Mixing as she did among 
 the class of persons whose manners she censures, and includ- 
 ing among them personal friends, she felt that she had often 
 allowed much to pass without remark which was not only 
 wrong in itself, but which spread downwards through the 
 lower strata of society, and did even more mischief there 
 than in the class where it had had its origin. The desire to 
 enter a protest against the evils existing in the upper classes 
 of society, and the feeling now growing within her that man 
 cannot stand alone, but is linked by inseparable ties to all
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 his fellow-men, were the chief motives which prompted this 
 pamphlet. 
 
 These she expresses in a letter to her sister : 
 ' My book is now before the public, with its sounding 
 title, " Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the 
 Great to General Society." I really was fearful lest many of 
 those with whom I live a good deal might think that my own 
 views and theirs were too much alike. Occasions, indeed, 
 continually occur in which I speak honestly and pointedly ; 
 but all one can do in a promiscuous society is not so much 
 to start religious topics as to extract from common subjects 
 some useful and awful truth, and to counteract the mischief 
 of a popular sentiment by one drawn from religion ; and if I 
 do any little good, it is in this way ; and this they will in a 
 degree endure. I find people are ready enough to join you 
 in reprobating vice : they are not all vicious, but their 
 standard, if right, is low ; it is not the standard of the 
 Gospels. In this little book I have not gone deep : it is 
 but a superficial view of the subject ; it is confined to pre- 
 vailing practical evils. Should this succeed, I hope by the 
 blessing of God another time to attack more strongly the 
 principle. I have not owned myself the author ; not so 
 much because of that fear of man which "worketh a snare," 
 as because, if anonymous, it may be ascribed to some better 
 person ; and because I fear I do not live as I write. I hope 
 it may be useful to myself, at least, as I give a sort of public 
 pledge of my principles, to which I pray I may be enabled 
 to act up.' 
 
 The book went into five editions before the end of the year. 
 Hannah More was still in town, and wherever she went heard 
 it discussed, and guesses made at the author. It was at first
 
 COWSLIP GREEN. 63 
 
 ascribed to Wilberforce, then to the Bishop of London. 
 ' When the author is discovered,' Hannah More writes, * I 
 shall expect to find almost every door shut against me ; inais 
 n'importe, I shall only be sent to my darling retirement' But 
 the secret soon crept out, and by the readiness with which it 
 was ascribed to Hannah More, it would appear that no one 
 who knew her felt that the principles she expressed in the 
 book were incongruous with her practice ; and probably she 
 had borne more unconscious testimony than she was aware of 
 to the strength of her religious principles while mixing in the 
 society of the day, for in writing to Mr. Newton about this 
 time she says, 'When I am in the great world I consider 
 myself as in an enemy's country, and as beset with snares, 
 and this puts me on my guard. Fears and snares seem 
 necessary to excite my circumspection ; for it is certain that 
 my mind has more languor, and my faith less energy at 
 Cowslip Green, where I have no temptation from without, and 
 where I live in the full enjoyment and constant perusal of the 
 most beautiful objects of inanimate nature.' Horace Walpole 
 had also already bestowed upon her in good-humoured raillery 
 the title of St. Hannah. 
 
 The book itself, although linked by its aim to the deeper 
 earnestness which belongs rather to the present century than 
 to the last, has still the cold formality and the superficial 
 treatment of a subject which are characteristic of the age 
 which was then passing away. Outside change is nearly all 
 which is asked for; the deeper principles of life are not 
 sounded. ' The great ' are the rich and titled ; they are to be 
 the leaders of the world ; the other classes simply follow them 
 without independent action on fixed principles. ' The great,' 
 on this account as much as for the sake of truth and right, are
 
 64 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 to give up certain practices which corrupt society. These 
 are — extravagance ; gaming ; Sabbath-breaking ; neglect of 
 family worship ; the practice of allowing to servants the sale 
 of the cards used in the house ; the habit of directing servants 
 to deny admission to visitors by the social falsehood, ' not at 
 home ;' Sunday concerts of sacred music ; the frequenting of 
 public gardens on Sunday ; the checking of charity by the 
 fashionable habit of commenting constantly on the ' ingratitude 
 of the poor/ and the calling of vices by fine names. On each 
 of these evils Hannah More writes with good sense, and the 
 moderation of a lady accustomed to society. 
 
 ' Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great ' 
 was but an introductory book to a work which Hannah More 
 published two years afterwards, in which she fulfilled her hope 
 that she ' might, by the blessing of God, attack more strongly 
 the principle' The second book she called ' An Estimate of 
 the Religion of the Fashionable World,' This, like her former 
 work, is grounded to some extent on the idea that religion 
 spreads downward, descending from the upper to the middle 
 and lower classes. But at that very period when Hannah 
 More wrote to show that the religion of 'the great' was 
 limited to one or two ideas, there was among the middle 
 classes a far fuller theology, and a sufficient grasp of religious 
 truths to resist the current of wild extravagance surging up 
 from the later days of the French Revolution. 
 
 The wane of religion in the upper class is traced to several 
 causes, the first of which is the prejudice, still surviving, which 
 was created at the Restoration against Puritanism, w4ien 
 'party was no longer confined to political distinctions, but 
 became a part of morals, and was carried into religion. The 
 more profligate of the Court party began to connect the idea
 
 COWSLIP GREEN. 65 
 
 of devotion with that of Republicanism, and to prove their 
 aversion to the one, thought they could never cast too much 
 ridicule on the other. It was not till piety was thus unfortunately 
 brought into disrepute that persons of condition thought it 
 made their sincerity, their abilities, or their good-breeding 
 questionable to appear openly on the side of religion. Before 
 this, a strict attachment to piety did not subtract from a great 
 reputation. Men were not thought the worse lawyers, generals, 
 legislators, or historians, for believing and even defending the 
 religion of their country. The gallant Sir Philip Sidney, the 
 politic and sagacious Burleigh, the all-accomplished Falkland, 
 not only publicly owned their belief in Christianity, but wrote 
 things of a religious nature. These instances, and many 
 others which might be adduced, are not, it will be allov^'cd, 
 selected from among contemplative recluses or grave divines, 
 but from the busy, the active, the illustrious, from public 
 characters, from men of strong passions, beset with great 
 temptations ; distinguished actors on the stage of life, whose 
 respective claims to the title of fine gentlemen, brave soldiers, 
 or able statesmen, have never been called in question.' 
 
 Amongst the other causes of the irreligion of the upper 
 classes, Hannah More mentions the influence of French 
 literature, Voltaire and Rousseau, and especially the want of 
 religious education. Her remarks under this head have in 
 them a good sense, which has often been wanting in later 
 discussions on the same subject : ' Religion is the only thing 
 in which we seem to look for the end without making use of 
 the means ; and yet it would not be more surprising if we 
 were to expect that our children should become artists and 
 scholars without being bred to arts and languages, than it is 
 to look for a Christian world without a Christian education. 
 
 5
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Shall we expect then, since men can only become scholars by 
 diligent labour, that they shall become Christians by mere 
 chance ? Shall we be surprised if those do not fulfil the offices 
 of religion who are not trained to an acquaintance with them ? 
 Religion, if taught at all, is taught rather incidentally^ as a 
 thing of subordinate value, than as the leading principle 
 of human actions, the great animating spring of human 
 conduct.' 
 
 Prominent amongst the drawbacks to religion arising from 
 society, Hannah More places the 'habit of living in a crowd,' 
 even though that crowd may consist of 'the best company,' 
 persons intellectual, well-principled, or even eminently pious. 
 ' So many books of rigid morality,' in which low motives for 
 virtue are urged, such as prudence, self-interest, are also 
 mentioned as aiding to lower the place of religion ; and 
 others again, in which benevolence is set forth, as including 
 in itself the whole root and principle of religion, apart from 
 God or holiness. Neither morality nor benevolence is the 
 whole of religion. ' When there will be no distress to be 
 relieved, no injuries to be forgiven, no evil habits to be 
 subdued, there will be a Creator to be blessed and adored — a 
 Redeemer to be loved and praised.' 
 
 In two years 'An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashion- 
 able World' passed through five editions, and seems to have 
 been largely read by the class for whom it was written. 
 Perhaps no one else but Hannah More could have written 
 at that time a book on the subject of religion which would 
 have been read by ' the fashionable world ;' but her intimate 
 acquaintance with this circle, the complete entree to it which 
 her charming conversation and manners had given her, the 
 general admiration she excited, and her known principles,
 
 COWSLIP GREEN. 67 
 
 fitted her in a very peculiar degree for the work. At the 
 same time it will be easily seen that it required no little 
 amount of courage and steadfastness to duty to write on such 
 an unpopular subject for the very circle in which her little 
 lively pieces had always met with so much applause. No 
 attempt is made to smooth things over, but the whole book 
 is characterized by perfect simplicity, independence and 
 straightforwardness. 
 
 ■? — 2
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE DAWNING LIGHT. 
 
 Up to this time Hannah More's four sisters had continued 
 to carry on the school in Bristol, spending the summer 
 holidays every year at Cowslip Green. Thirty-three years 
 had passed away since, as Miss Sally More told Dr. Johnson, 
 they had set out to seek their fortunes, with nothing but a 
 big empty house and a little laming. And now they had 
 made sufficient money by their school to live upon, and to 
 build for themselves a good house in Pulteney Street, Bath. 
 Here they intended to reside during the winter, which 
 Hannah generally spent in London, or in visiting friends, 
 and they would still spend the summers together at her cottage 
 at Cowslip Green. Their retirement from the school brought 
 the sisters together once more, and formed for Hannah a 
 home with natural obligations and ties, such as hitherto she 
 had lived almost independently of The sisters had been 
 accustomed to lives of usefulness and order, duty having a 
 much stronger claim upon them than pleasure, and in their 
 intercourse with others they had had rather to seek the 
 highest good of those around them, than merely to gratify 
 and please. The influence therefore which they now brought 
 into Hannah More's life was to detach her still more from
 
 THE DA WNING LIGHT. 69 
 
 the restless round of visiting among a crowd of persons, and to 
 settle her to a more steadfast choice of her work in life, and 
 to the concentration of her thoughts and energies upon it. 
 
 She still maintained a constant correspondence, however, 
 at this time with nearly all the persons of note in the 
 world ; and the many-sidedness of her character may be seen 
 from the names of those who regarded her as a valued 
 friend, and ' with whom she had genuine sympathy, but who 
 had very little with one another. Thus among her frequent 
 correspondents we find Horace Walpole, John Newton, 
 Mr. Pepys, Dr. Home, Mrs. Garrick, Mrs. Trimmer, Rev. 
 Richard Cecil, Mrs. Montagu (Queen of the " Bas Bleu "), 
 Bishop Porteus, Mr. Soame Jenyns, Mr. Wilberforce, and 
 many others as diverse in character, but of less note.' 
 
 The sisters had also the pleasure of entertaining many of 
 Hannah's friends at different times in the cottage at Cowslip 
 Green, and, amongst others, John Newton, from whom we 
 find the following characteristic letter, written on his return 
 with Mrs. Newton from this visit : 
 
 ^September 7, 1791. 
 ' In Helicon could I my pen dip, 
 I might attempt the praise of Mendip ; 
 Were bards a hundred I'd outstrip 'em 
 If equal to the theme of Shipham ; 
 But harder still the task, I ween, 
 To give its due to Cowslip Green ! 
 
 ' I send to you and by you my fivefold thanks to five 
 ladies who will always be dear to my heart. I have no 
 reason to think that I ever lived a single day so as to wish to 
 live it over again. But were I obliged to retrace some one 
 past week, and to choose which it should be, I think the
 
 70 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 week I spent at the foot of Mendip would certainly have its 
 claim. I contracted a sort of friendship for Mendip while I 
 was with you, and therefore you will not wonder that when 
 I was at King's Weston it gave me some pleasure to see 
 my new old friend peeping at me over the inferior hills. I 
 immediately recognised him or her (which Miss Sally 
 pleases), and was so foolish as almost to envy a hill, which, if 
 it had eyes like me, might look at Cowslip Green from 
 morning till night. I descended from King's Weston Hill, 
 therefore, with some reluctance. What a prospect was I 
 forced to give up ! I thought, like Peter, " it is good to be 
 here." But then neither he nor I was designed to spend our 
 days on the top of a hill, however glorious the prospect. He 
 had something better to do for his Lord, and so, I hope, 
 have I. If so, farewell then the happy retirement of Mendip, 
 and the view of it from King's Weston, and welcome the 
 noise and dirt of Cheapside and of Coleman Street.' 
 
 We have now brought Hannah More's life down towards 
 the close of the eighteenth century. We have seen her a 
 ,'oman of that century, living in the very centre of its 
 intellectual life, and manifesting in herself many of its 
 tendencies. The change we shall find henceforward in her 
 character and in the aim and work of her life must not be 
 ascribed merely to an individual awakening to the true sense 
 of life and its higher purposes, nor to merely personal growth. 
 Hannah More's course was undoubtedly one in which she 
 constantly ' forgot those things which were behind in pressing 
 on to those things which were before ;' but the deeper 
 earnestness and the wider sympathy and love into which we 
 find her passing were not peculiar to her as an individual in 
 
 w
 
 THE DA IVNING LIGHT. 71 
 
 that age. She was, however, particularly susceptible to the 
 best influences at work ; she allowed neither pride nor 
 prejudice to close her mind against these, but opened her 
 whole nature to receive the clearer light dawning on the world, 
 and to drink in the early dew of the coming day. Thus we 
 shall find that she not only was ready for the v/ork of her 
 time, but was abje to give an impulse to general progress, and 
 to sow the seeds for thought for the future. 
 
 One of the most striking features of the earlier part of the 
 eighteenth century is its indifference to human suffering and 
 life ; coldness and egotism everywhere prevailed ; satire fed 
 the bitterness and cynicism of the age with scoffs at 
 humanity ; all its deformities and weaknesses were exhibited 
 to view, and made the subject of mocking jest ; there was 
 no respect for man as ' the noblest work of God,' no tender- 
 ness nor pity for his fall, no regard for his inalienable rights. 
 The result of this spirit may be seen in the slave-trade 
 abroad ; the utter ignorance and degradation of the poor at 
 home, in the treatment of criminals in prisons, and in the 
 frequent executions. Even the Church of Christ itself seemed 
 to have lost sight of the command to 'go into all the world, 
 and preach the gospel to every creature.' 
 
 Against this narrowness that cramped the very heart of 
 humanity there arose tov/ards the end of the century a 
 vigorous reaction, out of which sprang some very strong 
 convictions of certain new ideas, or rather of certain lost 
 truths, for they were really principles lying in the very 
 foundation of Christianity. The feeling was gaining ground 
 that all mankind formed but one family, that each brother 
 . had his rights, and all had claims on one another. In France 
 this perception expressed itself in the words, soon empty
 
 72 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 enough, ' Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.' In England, the 
 first to recognise the truth and give it its due place were the 
 most earnest Christians of the day, for they saw in it at 
 once the forgotten teaching of Christ their Lord, the Divine 
 Son of Man. 
 
 Howard visited the prisons ; Wilberforce roused England 
 to the guilt of the slave-trade ; Raikes began to care for the 
 little children of the poor, and to gather them into Sunday 
 schools ; the heathen of distant lands were for the first time 
 acknowledged to have claims upon their Christian brethren ; 
 and Cowper, the most Christian poet of the time, raised his 
 song in the dark gloom around him, and sang : 
 
 ' How then should I and any man that lives 
 Be strangers to each other ? 
 What edge of subtlety canst thou suppose 
 Keen enough (wise and skilful as thou art), 
 To cut the link of brotherhood by which 
 One common Maker bound me to the kind ? 
 Bone of my bone, and kindred souls to me.' 
 
 One of the first expressions of Hannah More's sympathy 
 with this rising feeling of the time is in her little poem on 
 ' Slavery,' written, as she says, ' in such a hurry as no poem 
 should ever be written in ; but good or bad, if it does not 
 come out at the particular moment when the discussion comes 
 on in Parliament, it will not be worth a straw : here time is 
 everything.' 
 
 The poem begins with an apostrophe to Liberty, demanding 
 why her sun, intended to shine equally on all, should only 
 bless the north. 
 
 'Why should fell darkness half the south infest? 
 Why lies sad Afric quenched in total night ?'
 
 THE DA WNING LIGHT. 73 
 
 The equal worth and right of every man to all the blessings 
 life can afford are vigorously expressed, and some of the best 
 lines Hannah More ever wrote are in this poem. It must be 
 remembered that while the sentiment they express is familiar 
 enough to us, and beyond dispute, it required no little courage 
 at the time to exclaim : 
 
 'Perish th' illiberal thought which would debase 
 The native genius of the sable race ! 
 Perish the proud philosophy, which sought 
 To rob them of the powers of equal thought ! 
 Does then the immortal principle within 
 Change with the casual colour of the skin ? 
 Does matter govern spirit ? or is mind 
 Degraded by the form to which 'tis joined ? 
 No ; they have heads to think and hearts to feel, 
 And souls to act with firm, if erring zeal ; 
 For they have keen affections, kind desires, 
 Love strong as death, and active patriot fires : 
 All the rude energy, the fervid flame. 
 Of high-souled passion and ingenuous shame ; 
 Strong but luxuriant virtues boldly shoot 
 From the wild vigour of the savage root. 
 
 ' Hold, murderers, hold, nor aggravate distress, 
 Respect the passions you yomsclves possess : 
 E'en you, of ruffian heart and ruthless hand. 
 Love your own offspring and your native land. 
 Oh, think how absence the loved scene endears 
 To him whose food is groans, whose drink is tears. 
 If warm your heart to British feeling true, 
 As dear his land to him as yours to you ; 
 And liberty, in you a hallowed flame, 
 Burns unextinguished in his breast the same. 
 Then leave him holy freedom's cheering smile. 
 The heaven-taught fondness for the parent soil ; 
 Revere affections mingled with our frame, 
 In every nature, every clime the same :
 
 74 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 In all these feelings equal sway maintain ; 
 In all the love of home and freedom reign ; 
 And Tempe's vale and parched Angola's sand 
 One equal fondness of their sons command.' 
 
 Then passing from tlie slave-dealer, with no regard for the 
 brotherhood of men, Hannah More addresses all tyrants and 
 oppressors, who ' make millions wretched ' for the sake of gain 
 or power : 
 
 ' In reason's eye, in wisdoni's fair account, 
 Your sum of glory boasts a like amount ; 
 The means may differ, but the end's the same, 
 Conquest is pillage ivith a finer name. 
 Who makes the sum of human blessings less, 
 Or sinks the stock of general happiness, 
 Though erring fame may grace, though false renown 
 His life may blazon, or his memory crown ; 
 Yet the last audit shall reverse the cause. 
 And God shall vindicate His broken laws.' 
 
 The poem concludes with the prayer : 
 
 ' And Thou ! great Source of nature and of grace. 
 Who of one blood didst form the human race ; 
 Look down in mercy in Thy chosen time, 
 With equal eye on Afric's suffering clime ; 
 Disperse her shades of intellectual night, 
 Repeat Thy great command, Let there be light ! 
 Bring each benighted soul, great God, to Thee, 
 And with Thy wide salvation make them free.'
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 / MENDIP. /\ 
 
 We have spoken of the rise and growth of the idea of the 
 brotherhood of humanity as characteristic of the opening of 
 the present century. As a Christian truth it had had its place 
 in the very foundation of Christianity, but since the Refor- 
 mation its recognition had been but slight, and had led to very 
 little practical effort. This may be accounted for by the fact 
 that the Church of the Reformation was distinctly combative ; 
 it had to struggle through persecution and attacks of different 
 kinds ; hence all its energies were concentrated on self-defence 
 and the maintenance of its own existence. The religious 
 earnestness of the Puritans was also exhausted in struggles 
 for ecclesiastical freedom, and for purity of life amidst the 
 active sources of corruption in the world around them. It 
 seems strange to us now, when we endeavour to realize the 
 fact, that the most earnestly religious man of those times did 
 little for the ignorant and miserable around him, and nothing 
 for the heathen nations abroad. This has led to an idea, that 
 the source of the love which has taught us to call all men 
 brethren, must be looked for outside of Christianity. 
 
 But whatever quarter we choose to fix upon, as the point 
 from which the light arose to dawn upon our age, is of little
 
 76 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 moment, while this fact remains, that the followers of Christ 
 alone have carried out the truth into practical, self-sacrificing 
 work for others. As a beautiful sentiment the idea found a 
 home in many hearts ; and here and there one or two noble 
 natures rose to the practice of it as a principle ; but to live a 
 true life of love, of love wide as the bounds of human existence, 
 and tender and deep as its sorrows and needs, demands a self- 
 denial which common natures are not in themselves capable 
 of exercising. Only the spirit and life of Christ in men can 
 raise communities and masses of ordinary human beings into 
 those organizations for the help of humanity, which are the 
 special glory of our own century; and we may add, that only 
 Divine power working in human effort can give life and effi- 
 cacy to the work, so as to make it really regenerating. If we 
 look at any scheme or system now at work for the good of 
 humanity in any form, we shall find that there are none in 
 which the Church of Christ has no concern or part, either 
 recognised or unrecognised. Thus the seeds of ' Liberty, 
 Equality, and Fraternity,' which in France fell into barren 
 ground, found in England the fertile soil of ' honest and good ' 
 Christian hearts, in which the Spirit of Christ dwelt ; and 
 by this Spirit the love of men passed into earnest, devoted 
 service. 
 
 We must now see how Hannah More did not rest satisfied 
 with singing the praise of liberty, and with proclaiming the 
 equality and claims of all men upon all that makes this life 
 and the life to come blessedness and joy. She gave herself 
 to the work of serving others ; and it was now no longer ' the 
 great ' who claimed her love and help — those who could re- 
 pay her by admiration and applause. The poorest and most 
 degraded, amongst whom she met with the severest trials of
 
 MENDIP. 77 
 
 malignant opposition and false accusation, became the objects 
 of her care. 
 
 We must also notice that the work to which she devoted 
 herself was at that time new ; there was none of that litera- 
 ture of ' good works,' which has thrown a fame around all 
 efforts to raise the degraded classes, and which holds out 
 example and hope to beginners in the present day. She and 
 her sister Patty were the pioneers in the field, breaking up 
 new ground, and with no materials but what they had to make 
 for themselves as they went along. It must be remembered, 
 also, that Hannah More was not in the position of a young 
 lady of the present day, who Is tired of doing nothing, and of 
 being nobody at home, and ' longs for a work and a sphere.' 
 She belonged to a brilliant circle in society, in which she was 
 courted and flattered, as few other women have been. At 
 that very time Mrs. Siddons was acting her play of ' Percy ' 
 in London, and Horace Walpole was ' raving ' at her for not 
 coming up to town to see the great actress personate her own 
 heroine. Whatever she wrote was read eagerly, and without 
 criticism. Every year we find new names of rank and note 
 added to her list of friends and correspondents. 
 
 The work to which Hannah More and her sister Patty 
 devoted henceforth their best energies extended over a period 
 of upwards of thirty years ; but it will be more interesting to 
 make the sketch of it continuous, and then to return to 
 Hannah More's literary labours and social life during this 
 period, for at the same time it must be kept in mind that some 
 of her best and most thoughtful productions were written 
 during these years, and a constant correspondence and inter- 
 course maintained with many old and new friends. 
 
 Cowslip Green was situated near the Mendip Hills, a long
 
 78 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE, 
 
 limestone ridge, extending from Wells in Somersetshire to 
 the Bristol Channel at Bream Down. According to tradition 
 these hills had been inhabited from the earliest times by a 
 rude race of quarrymen and miners. In the old Glastonbury 
 legends, the holy men who founded the Christian settlement 
 on the Isle of Avalon, where Glastonbury now stands, are 
 said to have passed over the water, and carried the gospel 
 to the savages of Mundean, or Mendip ; yet since that 
 time apparently no kind of light or teaching had been 
 brought to them, and generation after generation had 
 grown up and passed away in utter ignorance and savage 
 lawlessness. 
 
 The attention of Hannah More was first drawn to the state 
 of these people by Mr. Wilberforce ; he had come with his 
 sister to spend a few days at Cowslip Green, and was per- 
 suaded by Miss Patty More to pay a visit to the cliffs of 
 Cheddar. On his return she asked him how he liked the 
 cliffs. He replied ' that they were very fine, but the poverty 
 and distress of the people were dreadful.' The rest of the 
 day Mr. Wilberforce spent in his room, and the sisters feared 
 he was unwell, but at supper he appeared, and his first words 
 were : ' Miss Hannah More, something must be done for 
 Cheddar.' He then told them of the state of the people, no 
 spiritual teacher of any kind, no education, no settled em- 
 ployment, and so utterly lawless, that on Sunday, when the 
 men were idling on the cliffs, no honest man or woman could 
 pass that way without danger of assault. They discussed 
 plans together till a late hour, ar.d at last Mr. Wilberforce 
 exclaimed : ' \{ you will be at the trouble, I will be at the 
 expense.' 
 
 The first idea was to open a Sunday school at Cheddar,
 
 MENDIP. 79 
 
 and in order to see if this was practicable, Miss Hannah and 
 Miss Patty undertook a tour of discovery through Cheddar. 
 They were told nothing could be done without the consent of 
 a Mr. C, a rich farmer, who lived ten miles from the place. 
 After a toilsome journey across ploughed fields and bad roads, 
 they reached his house, ' almost starved.' They told him 
 what they wished to do, at which he was very much shocked, 
 assuring them religion was a most dangerous thing, ' especially 
 to agriculture ; that it had done the greatest mischief ever 
 since it was introduced by the monks down at Glastonbury.' 
 They could do but little with him, nor with one or two other 
 farmers, on whom they called the next day. ' They are just 
 as ignorant,' says Miss Hannah More of the men, ' as the 
 beasts that perish ; intoxicated every day before dinner, and 
 plunged in such vices as make me begin to think London a 
 virtuous place. The incumbent is a Mr. R., who has some- 
 thing to do at the University of Oxford, ivhcre Jie resides. The 
 curate lives at Wells, twelve miles off. The incumbent of a 
 neighbouring parish is intoxicated about six times a week, 
 and is often prevented from preaching by black eyes, earned 
 by fighting. We saw but one Bible in all the parish, and that 
 was used to prop a flower-pot.' 
 
 A house was found, which by removing a partition could 
 form a schoolhouse, and it was taken at once by Hannah 
 More, on a lease/^r seven years. ' There's courage for you,' 
 she says to Mr. Wilberforce. The whole parish was visited 
 by the two ladies, and promises gained by them of children 
 for the school. The next thing was to find a schoolmistress. 
 An excellent person, Mrs. Baker, was mentioned to Hannah 
 More, and Mrs. Baker consented to give up all, and go into 
 the midst of this little better than heathen village^ where,
 
 8o THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 shut out from the rest of the world, she laboured faithfully 
 amongst these poor people. 
 
 When all was ready, Hannah and Patty More went to 
 Cheddar, and took up their abode for a week at a little 
 ale-house, every hour being occupied in preparations for 
 opening the school. In this village ale-house they received 
 Mrs. Baker, ' who,' writes Hannah More, ' arrived with the 
 true spirit of a missionary, in a little cart, with her daughter 
 and a spinning-mistress, on one of the wettest days 
 imaginable. Here wc all assembled in the kitchen of the 
 little public-house, and a shoulder of mutton we had the 
 prudence to secure at Uxbridge was devoured eagerly with 
 much appetite. The next day we collected all the parents of 
 this vast parish — a sight truly affecting. Poor, miserable, 
 and ignorant, not a ray of light appeared in the mind of 
 any single one. It was a day of dreadful consideration in 
 every view — the deplorably dark state of the people before 
 us — the appointment we seemed to be called to. Much 
 prayer and much faith seemed necessary. On the 25th of 
 October we opened our school with one hundred and forty 
 children, with exhortations, portions of Scripture, and prayer. 
 We attended them in procession to church. The clergyman 
 gave us a twelve minutes' discourse, upon good Tory princi- 
 ples, upon the laws of the land, and the divine right of kings ; 
 but the divine right of the King of kings seemed to be a law 
 above his comprehension.' 
 
 The Cheddar school prospered, and then the two ladies 
 began to teach the parents of these poor children on Sunday 
 evenings, reading to them the Bible and a sermon. Soon 
 about sixty attended these little meetings. 
 
 Before long they discovered that even Cheddar was not
 
 MENDIP. 8 1 
 
 the worst of the Mendip villages. Amongst the most 
 depraved and wretched were Shipham and Rowther Row, 
 two mining villages at the top of Mendip ; the people savage 
 and depraved even beyond Cheddar, brutal in their natures, 
 and ferocious in their manners. They began by suspecting 
 we should make our fortunes by selling their children as 
 slaves. No constable would venture to arrest a Shipham 
 man, lest he should be murdered and concealed in one of their 
 pits, and never heard of more — no uncommon case. The 
 rector of Shipham had claimed the tithes for fifty years, but 
 had never catechized a child or preached a sermon there for 
 forty years. 
 
 Here a school was opened, which was soon followed by 
 schools at Landford and Banwell, Yatton and Congresbury. 
 The next place to be taken in hand was Nailsea. ' We here 
 made our appearance for the first time,^ writes Miss Patty in 
 her journal, ' among the glasshouse people, and entered 
 nineteen little hovels in a row, containing in all near two 
 hundred people. We had already encountered savages, hard- 
 hearted farmers, little cold country gentry, a supercilious and 
 ignorant corporation ; yet this was unlike all other things, 
 not only different, but greatly transcending all we had im- 
 agined. We had a gentleman with us^ who being rather 
 personally fearful, left us to pursue our own devices, which we 
 did by entering and haranguing every separate family. We 
 obtained the promise of twenty-seven children. The colliers 
 even are more like human beings than the people of the 
 glasshouses.' 
 
 Soon after this the Misses More received a deputation 
 from the parish of Blagdon, consisting of the overseer and 
 churchwardens, begging the ladies to be so kind as to do 
 
 6
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 their parish a little good. On inquiry they found this parish 
 exceeded in wickedness, if possible, any they had yet taken 
 in hand. The execution of a woman there for taking butter 
 from a man, who offered it, as she thought, at too high a 
 price, had occasioned a riot in the village and alarmed 
 these officers. ' Had the occasion been less interesting or 
 solemn,' writes Miss Patt}', ' our interview with these 
 deputies would have been almost ridiculous. One of them, 
 full six feet high, implored us to come, because, he said, 
 there were some parts of the parish where they were afraid 
 to go. 
 
 ' There was a little hamlet belonging to it, called Charter 
 House, on the top of Mendip, so wicked and lawless that no 
 one ever ventured there, and thieving had been the employ- 
 ment handed down from father to son for the last fifty years. 
 The poor woman under sentence of death was an inhabitant 
 of this place, and it was here that these tender-hearted 
 churchwardens wished to send two nervous women, because 
 they were personally afraid to venture into the hamlet them- 
 selves.' Want of health and time prevented the Misses 
 More from consenting immediately, ' but the crying neces- 
 sities of these poor creatures prevailed.' Nothing daunted, 
 the two sisters visited this desperate place, and in October 
 opened there ' one of the largest, most affecting, and 
 interesting schools we have had. One hundred and seventy 
 young people attended, from eleven to twenty years of age, 
 amongst them the three children of the woman about to be 
 hanged. Several of the grown-up youths had been tried at 
 the last assizes. Nothing we had before experienced surpassed 
 the ignorance of these poor creatures. Not one out of the 
 hundred and seventy could make any reply to the question.
 
 AIENDIP. 83 
 
 Who made you ? One of the men from Charter House had 
 been tried for murder.' 
 
 Some idea may be formed of the terrible state of the 
 country poor in England from the preceding extracts ; and 
 it must be remembered that, unlike those in our great cities, 
 not even crime and its dangers had in their case been turned 
 into a means for sharpening the perceptions ; they were as 
 dull, as sunk in intellectual degradation as in moral night. 
 The work in our ragged schools and reformatories cannot 
 be compared with the hopeless, heavy task of bringing the 
 light to these rural savages. Other difficulties there were 
 arising from the scattered nature of the work in ten different 
 parishes, extending over a district of more than thirty miles ; 
 the roads also were not only rough, but highly dangerous ; 
 many a time Miss Patty records in her journal an upset at 
 night in returning from some out-of-the-way village among 
 the Mendip Hills, and the wild state of the country exposed 
 them to constant danger from robbers. 
 
 One of the greatest difficulties, however^ lay in the wan-t of 
 materials. Teachers and books for the poor were not in 
 existence ; these they had to make for themselves, like the 
 Israelites working without straw. ' The teaching of the 
 teachers is not the least part of the work,' writes Hannah 
 More to one of her friends ; ' add to this, that having about 
 thirty masters and mistresses, with under-teachers, one has 
 continually to bear with the faults, the ignorance, the pre- 
 judices, humours, misfortunes, and debts of all those poor 
 well-meaning people. I hope, however, it teaches one for- 
 bearance, and it serves to put me in mind how much God has 
 to bear with from inc. I now and then comfort Patty in our 
 journey home by night, by saying, that if we do these people 
 
 6—2
 
 84 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 no good, I hope \vc do some little good to ourselves.' And 
 Hannah More certainly did not look back on such occasions 
 to the evenings she had spent in town in the gay assemblies 
 of 'the great,' nor in the brilliant coteries of the 'blue- 
 stockings,' with any wish to find herself there, instead of 
 rambling homewards in an old chaise in the dark over the 
 rough roads with her sister Patty ; for further on in the same 
 letter she writes words finer than all her wittiest and best 
 remarks in society: 'I care little to have to do with "the 
 great ;" I have devoted the remnant of my life to the poor, 
 and to those that have no helper ; and if I can do them 
 little good, I can at least sympathize with them, and I know 
 there is comfort for a forlorn creature to be able to say, 
 " There is somebody that cares for me." That simple idea of 
 being cared for has always appeared to me a very cheering 
 one. Besides this, the affection they have for us is a strong 
 engine with which to lift them to the love of higher things ; 
 and though I believe others work successfully by terror, yet 
 kindness is the instrument with which God has enabled me 
 to work. Alas ! I might do more and better ; pray for me 
 that I may.' 
 
 In the work undertaken by Miss Hannah and Miss Patty 
 More, they had no other guide than the wisdom they sought 
 from God working together with their own good sense ; but 
 they had firm unshaken faith, all the stronger and purer 
 because they were imitating no one, walking in no trodden 
 path. It is interesting now, especially to those engaged in 
 similar work, to read of the means used by the Misses More, 
 and to see the blessed results following them. Religion was 
 made the very foundation of the intellectual, moral, and 
 social change. It was the lever which elevated every part of
 
 MEND IP. 8s 
 
 the degraded condition of these poor human beings ; and we 
 must notice also that it was religion in the hands of two 
 highly educated, cultured women, with large experience of 
 life, knowledge of the world and of human nature. They 
 were no ignorant, unskilled workwomen, trusting alone to 
 the magic of certain words and phrases, or to the force of 
 one or two ideas ; they rather shunned than sought any attempt 
 to play upon the feelings ; every part of their work aimed, 
 through well-adapted means, at a practical result. 
 
 Hannah More's easy address and readiness in conversation, 
 gained in society, were now brought to bear upon her work, 
 while Patty More's school-life had no less been a most fitting 
 training for her. Hannah More, in a letter to Mr. Bowdler, thus 
 sketches the plans they adopted for raising and Christianizing 
 the lowest classes : ' My plan for instructing the poor is very 
 limited and strict. They learn of week-days such coarse 
 works as may fit them for servants. My object has not been 
 to teach dogmas and opinions, but to form the lower class to 
 habits of industry and virtue. I know no way of teaching 
 morals but by infusing principles of Christianity, nor of teach- 
 ing Christianity without a thorough knowledge of Scripture. 
 In teaching in our Sunday schools the only books we use are 
 two little tracts called " Questions for the Mendip Schools," 
 the Church Catechism (these are hung up in frames, half a 
 dozen in a room), spelling-books. Psalters, Common Prayer 
 Book, and Bible. The little ones learn " Watts's Hymns for 
 Children." They repeat the collect every Sunday. In some 
 of the schools a plain printed sermon and a printed prayer 
 are read in the evening to the grown-up scholars and parents, 
 and a psalm is sung. When we are present my sister or I 
 read them ; in our absence the schoolmistress. The clergy-
 
 86 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 man chooses them, and is generally present. For many years 
 I have given away annually near two hundred Bibles, Com- 
 mon Prayer Books, and Testaments. To teach the poor to 
 read without providing them with safe books has always 
 appeared to me a dangerous measure. This induced me to 
 the laborious undertaking of the " Cheap Repository" tracts, 
 which had such great success that above tivo millions were 
 sold in one year. 
 
 ' In some parishes, where the poor arc numerous, and where 
 there are no gentry to assist them, I have instituted Friendly 
 Benefit Societies for poor women, which have proved a great 
 relief in times of sickness, especially in the late seasons of 
 scarcity and distress. We have raised in the parish of Cheddar 
 only, a fund of nearly ;!^300 ; in Shipham very nearly as 
 much. This money I have placed out in the stocks. We have 
 two little annual festivals for the children and poor women, 
 which are always attended by as many of the gentry as we can 
 assemble. As the morals of my own sex are the great object 
 of my regard, I have made it a standing rule at these anniver- 
 saries that every young woman brought up in my school, and 
 belonging to the club, who has been married during the 
 preceding year, and can produce a testimonial of her good 
 conduct from the parish minister and schoolmistress, is 
 presented by me with five shillings, a pair of white stockings 
 of our own knitting, and a handsome Bible. This trifling 
 encouragement has had a very good effect, for we have had to 
 create the regard for virtue, and sobriety and modesty are 
 now considered as necessary to the establishment of a young 
 woman. 
 
 ' The grand subject of instruction with me is the Bible itself, 
 the familiar use of which I greatly prefer to any abridgments,
 
 MENDIP. 87 
 
 histories, or expositions. To infuse a large quantity of Scripture 
 into their minds, with plain practical comments in the way of 
 conversation, is the means which I have founds under God, 
 most instrumental in forming the principles and directing the 
 hearts of youth. God has promised His blessing on His 
 Word. The great thing is to get it faithfully explained, in 
 such a way as shall be likely to touch the heart and influence 
 the conduct, I usually make them get by heart some of the 
 most important chapters, such as the Sermon on the Mount, 
 and many of the psalms. I delight much in familiarizing 
 them with the histories in Genesis, as they furnish such 
 abundant matter for practical illustration, and suggest striking 
 applications to their own hearts and lives. To make good 
 members of society (and this can only be done by making 
 good Christians) has been my aim. S^^eculative doctrines I 
 always avoid ; but with the plain leading doctrines of 
 Scripture they ought to be well acquainted. Principles, and 
 not opinions, are what I labour to give them.' 
 
 It is almost impossible to form any accurate idea of the 
 results of such a work as Hannah More and her sister were 
 engaged in. If the work itself be true, much of the effects 
 will be hidden from human sight ; all labour which is brought 
 to bear upon the soul of man must be supported by faith and 
 confident trust that the blessing of God does make vital the 
 good seed, and that it is as surely germinating as is the corn- 
 seed in the dark earth of the ploughed field, before the green 
 shoots appear. To work only for results, to look constantly 
 for them, to exhibit them to others, and to make them alone 
 the ground of hopefulness, is but a shallow egotism rather 
 than a true devotion. 
 
 No account of the success which followed the labours of
 
 88 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Hannah More and her sister was ever published by them ; in 
 some of Hannah Morc's letters to Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. 
 Thornton, both of whom supplied money for their work, 
 details of results are given ; and in letters to other correspon- 
 dents there are allusions to encouragements in connection 
 with their schools in the various Mendip villages. It was not 
 until many years after both the sisters had passed away from 
 earth that an account of their work and some of its results 
 was published, under the name of ' Mendip Annals,' edited 
 by Mr. Roberts, the son of Hannah Llore's old friend and 
 biographer. This book is almost a reprint of a journal 
 kept by Miss Patty More. On the cover of the book she 
 had written, ' I have not imitated Xenophon ;' for with true 
 heroism she had entered the enemy's country, thoroughly 
 resolved, let the result be what it might, victory or failure, 
 she would never retreat from the field. In this journal she 
 notes down various things she wished to keep in memory 
 respecting the different schools. And again and again 
 we read of sinners the most hardened and brutal brought 
 to repentance and melting into love as they laid hold of 
 the great truth of the gospel — help and salvation in Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Two years after the Cheddar school had been begun, Miss 
 Patty More records in her journal, ' Cheddar as usual was 
 reserved for the great reward. Here boys and girls, old and 
 young, men and women, all seemed blended together to sing 
 their Maker's praises, and to cry aloud that a Redeemer is at 
 length found in Cheddar. Here the great work evidently 
 goes on — the people hunger and thirst — the church is filled — 
 families pray — children are early brought to the knowledge of 
 God — and, as a proof of their sincerity, are the means of being
 
 MENDIP. 89 
 
 permitted to bring their parents. Thus shall this seemingly 
 forgotten people, buried as it were in their own cliffs, at 
 length become an enlightened race, praising and glorifying 
 the Giver of all things. Our expectations during the winter 
 had been considerable, and we found the children in general 
 had made great progress. The young men and women appear 
 to have increased in knowledge and grace. O Lord, do Thou 
 enable them to press forward ! Three young men were added 
 to their number, who discovered strong signs of repentance. 
 One, in particular, seemed dreadfully struck with his own 
 depravity. I never heard any creature deplore his fallen 
 nature so affectingly. However, he has since, by Divine 
 assistance, been shown the redemption of sinners by the death 
 and sufferings of a Saviour, and he is more cheerful and 
 composed.' 
 
 Then of Nailsea : ' The first letter we received confirmed 
 the growing prosperity, not only of Cheddar, but of Nailsea. 
 The poor colliers are daily being strengthened in their good 
 intentions, and become hourly more serious. The room 
 overflows at the evening reading. We can now boast (but 
 oh ! let it be with fear and trembling, yet still with rejoicing) 
 that we have a righteous coal-pit. The present prosperity at 
 Nailsea calls loud for thankfulness, and the looking to such a 
 hopeful futurity will, or should, excite a spirit of prayer. An 
 old man in one of the poor-houses was certainly brought to a 
 deep sense of religion by the reading of the chapter and 
 prayers, morning and evening. Most interesting indeed was 
 his account of himself, of his former and present state ; crying 
 aloud that the prayers had struck conviction into his heart, 
 and had been the saving of his soul. In short, a more humble 
 and sincere Christian one has seldom seen. Many, no doubt,
 
 90 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 are turned from a life of sin to a life of holiness, and will 
 praise the Lord to all eternity. 
 
 'At Uxbridge there is certainly a material improvement. 
 
 ' At Shipham, the land of labour, but still of hope, we have 
 the certainty of much improvement in the knowledge of the 
 Scriptures, and great acquirements in reading. We wait with 
 patience for Divine grace to operate upon the heart, and then 
 Shipham shall shine as bright as Cheddar. 
 
 ' The smaller schools of Landford and Banwell are certainly 
 improving. We trust many are training for future holiness. 
 
 ' Yatton gives us some comfort, and Congresbury can read 
 the Bible. 
 
 'Thus are nearly a thousand children in training, at all 
 events, for the mansions of the blessed, and thus in ten villages 
 will the Saviour's name be known at last. So ends '93. May 
 we consider ourselves not only the Lord's luilinig, but His 
 waiting servants, that nothing may ever discourage us.' 
 
 This report relates, it must be remembered, to only two 
 years' labour in the oldest school, Cheddar; the others were 
 all of a later date. As the work spread beneath the surface, 
 and the children in the schools grew up, the change in the 
 whole condition of the population of this part of the country 
 became most marked. The habits of the people were altered ; 
 'old things were passing away, and all things seem to be 
 made new.' Again and again the county justices find the 
 number of criminals brought before them diminishing year by 
 year. Even at Blagdon, in that village on the top of Mendip 
 into which no officer dared to enter, the justice desires that 
 the ' Miss Mores may be publicly informed of the extraordinary 
 decorum of the men on the day of their club, their conduct 
 having struck all parties. We ventured to infer from this,'
 
 MEN DIP. Qi 
 
 adds Miss Patty, ' that religion was evidently operating upon 
 their conduct, and were much rejoiced.' 
 
 Of the means which God thus abundantly honoured and 
 blessed we notice two features. First, the honour which was 
 given in all the teaching of Patty and Hannah More to the 
 moral law of God. It was * the schoolmaster ' to bring these 
 degraded human beings to Christ. For they were distinctly 
 shown at once what was its high standard, that they might 
 see how they had fallen from it ; and the hope held forth to 
 them in Jesus Christ was the hope of power and life to rise 
 from the slavery of sin to the obedience of God's law. Salva- 
 tion from sin was to be a return to God. 
 
 Secondly, the means employed were neither new nor 
 singular. It consisted in a wide and intelligent teaching of 
 the Word of God, not of single verses picked out of it as mere 
 motives ; but the whole Bible was read, and considerable 
 portions of it learned by heart. Old Testament narratives, 
 the Psalms, the Gospels and Epistles — all were used as neces- 
 sary to a well-founded piety, and a steadfast, righteous life.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE 'CHEAP repository' TRACTS. 
 
 The work of Hannah More and her sisters in the Mendip 
 villages soon brought strongly before them the fact that, 
 while in all their schools they were teaching children to read, 
 there was little or no literature of a wholesome character and 
 popular style which could find its way into the hands of the 
 lower classes. It is difficult now to realize the state of things 
 with which these earnest women had to contend, or to imagine 
 what our work among the poor would be were every tract, 
 magazine, and popular story suppressed. The literature of 
 the time was written for educated readers of a certain class, 
 and in language so far removed from our daily homely English, 
 that the words would be as strange to an ignorant person as 
 a foreign language ; while the expense of books alone shut 
 them up from the poor. The only reading which they could 
 procure was the ballads and sheets sold by the hawkers, and 
 these were for the most part of a foul and degrading character. 
 Beyond these there were a few pamphlets, which had been 
 written in the early days of the French Revolution, by persons 
 anxious to spread French infidelity in England, and to stir 
 up the working classes to lawless revolt. 
 
 To supply the terrible want of sound and helpful literature
 
 THE 'CHEAP RErOSITORV TRACTS. 
 
 for those to whom they had given the power over the world 
 of thought and imagination which comes with the abihty to 
 read, Hannah More and her sister Sally determined to set to 
 work to write lively stories, ballads, and songs, such as should 
 treat of the common life of the poor, with its trials and temp- 
 tations ; and w^hich should set before them the best ideals 
 they could draw of persons under the same circumstances, 
 who bravely did their best and overcame through the might 
 of faith, industry, and self-denial. They had no models of 
 successful works of this kind upon which to form their own. 
 They had to adopt a style with which no doubt they were now 
 familiar in their intercourse with the poor, but which they 
 had never used themselves through the many years of their 
 past life. They had also to get their writings printed in a 
 cheap form, so as to sell them at a price hitherto unheard of 
 in the annals of publishing. Hannah Mores plan was to 
 produce every month three tracts, consisting of stories or 
 ballads, written in the language of the people, and which 
 should be sold to the hawkers at a lower rate than their usual 
 books and songs, so that for the sake of the better profit they 
 might have every inducement to sell these in preference. 
 
 During the first year the plan was so far successful that two 
 millions of the ' Cheap Repository ' Tracts, as they were called, 
 were sold. Many of these found their way into the hands of 
 Hannah More's very large circle of friends and acquaintances ; 
 but allowing for a few thousand remaining in the possession 
 of those persons who were curious to see what the late bas- 
 hleu could have to say to the poor, a very large proportion 
 were carried into the homes of the class for which they were 
 intended. In this work Hannah More had the occasional 
 assistance of her sister Sally, whose bright intelligence and
 
 94 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 sense of humour produced one or two of the most popular of 
 the tracts ; she also obtained the help of two or three friends ; 
 but so great was the gulf which then existed between the 
 upper and lower classes, that very few persons had the least 
 idea of how to write for any class but their own. Most of the 
 work had, therefore, to be done by Hannah More herself. To 
 this she applied herself for three years, bringing out three new 
 tracts every month, and setting aside for this all other literary 
 work. It is needless to say that the toil, as regards money, 
 was wholly unremunerative. The plan, on the other hand, 
 could not be carried out without considerable expense ; and 
 the time it demanded prevented her from carrying on her 
 other writings, by which she always made a large sum of 
 money every year. 
 
 Hannah More has the honour of being the first writer who 
 addressed herself directly to the poor, and who endeavoured 
 to make literature a means of bringing light and help into 
 lives sunk in sordid toil, or the deeper degradation of mere 
 brutal existence. She has had many followers, who in the 
 wider sympathy of the present day have knowm better how to 
 reach the human hearts of their brothers and sisters struggling 
 with the difficulties of earning their bread by labour. But to 
 take the first step in a new course demands always more 
 courage and resolution, more faith and steadfastness to duty, 
 than to follow where others lead the way. Hannah More's 
 name must, therefore, always be held in the esteem due to all 
 brave pioneers in a march over untrodden ground. 
 
 Her work in this good cause is characterized by her relation 
 to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She shows in it 
 the full recognition of the right of every class in the community 
 to the light and development enjoyed hitjierto by the few ;
 
 THE 'CHEAP REPOSITORY' TRACTS. 95 
 
 and she sets herself with earnest purpose to help to raise 
 those below, catching the spirit of the coming age, and fore- 
 stalling its work. But the tone of the tracts, the assertion of 
 superiority, the style of writing, and the tendency to deal only 
 with the outside life and habits of the poor, belong to the 
 period in which she had first begun to take rank herself in 
 the literary world. As in her other writings, so in these for 
 the poor, the principles on which they are grounded are those 
 of common sense and obedience to all the laws of God. It is 
 to a life spent in strict accordance with these that she 
 points as the ideal life in which happiness and comfort are to 
 be found. 
 
 One of the best specimens of Hannah More's ' Cheap 
 Repository ' Tracts is the ' History of Tom White.' He 
 begins life as the son of an honest labourer in Wiltshire. As 
 soon as he is big enough he goes into service at Farmer 
 Hodges' as waggon-boy. The farmer makes him read the 
 Bible every evening, and ' would have turned him out of his 
 service if he had ever gone into the ale-house for his own plea- 
 sure.' Tom has to go with the waggon to the Bear Inn, at 
 Devizes, then on the great highway to the west, and here he 
 sees smart postboys, whose red jackets and tight boots make 
 him ashamed of his carter's smock. He resolves to be a post- 
 boy, ' drive a chaise and see the world.' By degrees Tom 
 falls by the temptations of his new life. He learns to swear, 
 to drink ' for the sake of being thought merry company and a 
 hearty fellow.' He leaves off going to church, and ' does not 
 know a Sunday at last from a Monday.' He gets money, 
 but * fives, cards, cudgel-playing, and laying wagers ' soon run 
 away with it. 
 
 At last, in driving a race with another postboy through
 
 96 THE LIFE OF [FINN AH MORE. 
 
 Brentford, his chaise is upset, and with his leg broken in two 
 places, Tom finds himself in a London hospital. His life 
 hitherto had been in violation of God's laws, and trouble and 
 sorrow are shown to be the result of such a course. In the 
 hospital Tom sees this himself; he heartily repents ; sends 
 for his Bible and Pra}-cr Book ; resolves by God's help to lead 
 a different life in the future. On his discharge he doubts 
 whether he ought to return to his old employment as postboy ; 
 but Hannah More never represents those things as sinful 
 which arc not real and actual breaches of God's commands ; 
 Tom is made, therefore, to reply to his thoughts thus : ' But,' 
 says he, sensibly enough, ' gentlefolks must travel ; travellers 
 must have chaises, and chaises must have drivers ; 'tis a very 
 honest calling, and I don't know that goodness belongs to one 
 sort of business more than another ; and he who can be good 
 in a state of great temptation, provided the calling be lawful, 
 and he be diligent in prayer, may be better than another man, 
 for aught I know ; and all that belongs to us is to do our duty 
 in that state of life in which it shall please God to call us.' 
 
 Tom becomes again a postboy, but strives now at all times 
 to order his life by the laws of God. He becomes thus 
 careful, civil, neat, and industrious ; is good to his horses, 
 ' because he has read in the Bible that " a- good man is 
 merciful to his beast." ' He is a favourite on the road, gets 
 well paid, and ' being frugal, he spent little ; and having no 
 vices, he wasted none. He soon found out that there was 
 some meaning in the text which says that " godliness hath 
 the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is 
 to come." ' By the advice of Farmer Hodges, Tom at last 
 takes a small farm, and here the ' regularity, sobriety, peace- 
 ablcness, and piety of his daily life,' make him a pattern to
 
 THE 'CHEAP REPOSITORY' TRACTS. 97 
 
 the parish. But Farmer White soon finds that his house 
 wants a mistress ; acting on the Bible assertion, that he that 
 findeth a good wife receives her from God, he ' prays to God 
 to direct him in so important a business.' He soon hears of a 
 young woman who Hved as upper maid in the vicar's family. 
 ' She was prudent, sober, industrious, and religious. Her 
 neat, modest appearance at church was an example to all 
 persons in her station. It was her character, however, which 
 recommended her to Farmer White. He knew that " favour 
 is deceitful, and beauty is vain ; but a woman that feareth the 
 Lord, she shall be praised." " Ay, and tiot only praised, but 
 chosen too," says Farmer White, as he took down his hat from 
 the nail, in order to go and wait on the vicar and ask his 
 consent.' 
 
 They are married ; and on the wedding-day, after advice 
 from the vicar, Tom White concludes, ' I could tell you, sir, 
 not as a thing that I have read in a book, but as a truth I 
 feel in my own heart, that to fear God and keep His 
 commandments will not only bring a man peace at last, but 
 will surely make him happy now, for the commands of God 
 are the best laws for this world.' 
 
 As a good specimen of the ballads written by Hannah 
 More for the people we may take ' Turn the Carpet ; or, the 
 Two Weavers :' — 
 
 ' As at their work two weavers sat, 
 Beguiling time with friendly chat, 
 They touched upon the price of meat, 
 So high, a weaver scarce could eat. 
 
 "What with my brats and sickly wife," 
 Quoth Dick, " I'm almost tired of life ; 
 So hard my work, so poor my fare, 
 'Tis more than mortal man can bear.
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 " How glorious is the rich man's state ! 
 His house so fine ! his wealth so great ! 
 Heaven is unjust, you must agree. 
 Why all to him ? Why none to me ? 
 
 " In spite of what the Scripture teaches, 
 In spite of all the parson preaches. 
 This world (indeed, I've thought so long) 
 Is ruled, methinks, extremely wrong. 
 
 " W^here'er I look, where'er I range, 
 'Tis all confused, and hard, and strange ; 
 The good are troubled and oppressed, 
 And all the wicked are the blessed." 
 
 Quoth John, " Our ignorance is the cause 
 Why thus we blame our Maker's laws ; 
 Parts of His ways alone we know, 
 'Tis all that man can see below. 
 
 " Seest thou this carpet, not half done, 
 Which thou, dear Dick, hast well begun? 
 Behold the wild confusion there. 
 So rude the mass, it makes one stare. 
 
 •'A stranger ignorant of the trade 
 Would say no meaning's there conveyed : 
 For where's the middle, where's the border .'' 
 Thy carpet, sure, is all disorder." 
 
 Quoth Dick, " My work is yet in bits, 
 But still in every part it fits ; 
 Besides, you reason like a [lout — 
 Why, man, that carpet's inside out." 
 
 Says John, "Thou say'st the thing I mean. 
 And now I hope to cure thy spleen ; 
 This world, which clouds thy soul with doubt, 
 Is but a carpet inside out.
 
 THE 'CHEAP REPOSITORY' TRACTS. 99 
 
 " As when we view these shreds and ends 
 We know not what the whole intends, 
 So where on earth things look but odd, 
 They're working still some scheme of God. 
 
 " No plan, no pattern can we trace, 
 All wants proportion, truth, and grace ; 
 The motley mixture we deride, 
 Nor see the beauteous upper side. 
 
 " But when we reach that world of light, 
 And view those works of God aright, 
 Then shall we see the whole design, 
 And own the workman is Divine. 
 
 " What now seem random strokes will there 
 All order and design aj^pear ; 
 Then shall we praise what here we spurned, 
 For then the carpet shall be turned." 
 
 " Thou'rt right," quoth Dick, "no more I'll grumble 
 That this sad world's so strange a jumble ; 
 My impious doubts are put to flight, 
 For my own carpet sets me right."' 
 
 Encouraged as Hannah More was by the success of her 
 undertaking, she was unable to keep it up for more than three 
 years ; for very soon the whole labour of writing the tracts 
 devolved entirely upon her, and this, in addition to her 
 Mendip work, seriously affected her health. Fresh editions 
 of the tracts continued, however, to be called for, and for some 
 years they formed the larger portion of the popular literature 
 distributed by visitors of the poor. ' The Shepherd of Salisbury 
 Plain' is still issued by the Religious Tract Society. 
 
 7—^
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 INNER LIFE — DIARY, 1794-1798. 
 
 Thoroughly engaged now in the earnest work of life, living 
 for others and for God, Hannah More became more and more 
 detached from the general society in which she had spent so 
 much of her time during her earlier years. She now lived 
 only two months of the year in London ; and this time was 
 divided between her old friend Mrs. Garrick, Bishop Porteus, 
 Lord Teignmouth, Mr. Thornton, and Mr. Hoare ; while she 
 also met at some of these houses a circle of earnest Christians, 
 whose spiritual life was deep and strong, and whose outward 
 lives were manifestations of devoted love to Christ as the 
 Saviour and Redeemer. From the tone of her tracts it might 
 be supposed that she aimed only at an outward and moral 
 reformation in the poor ; but the work was altogether so new 
 that she had not yet learned to trust to the living power of the 
 representation to the poor and ignorant of Christ's v/ork and 
 death for man in bringing him to God, as the principle and 
 strength of obedience. Hannah Mere's own diary, kept at 
 this time, shows, however, how completely her own heart was 
 ' at the secret source of every precious thing.' 
 
 ^Sunday, Jainiary 19, 1794. — Heard of the death of Mr. Gibbon the 
 historian, the calumniator of the despised Nazarene, the derider of
 
 INNER LIFE— DIARY, 1 794-1 798. loi 
 
 Christianity. Awful dispensation ! He, too, was my acquaintance. Lord, 
 I bless Thee, considering how much infidel acquaintance I have had, that 
 my soul never came into their secret ! How many souls have his writings 
 polluted! Lord, preserve others from their contagion ! 
 
 ' Sunday, February 9. — This has been a hurrying week to me, in trying 
 to raise money for the militia shoes : so much writing and talking, that 
 there has been little leisure for reading — little disposition for communion 
 with God. When shall I gain more self-possession .'' when shall I be able 
 to do business with the world, without catching the spirit of the world ? 
 Another friend dead, Richard Burke ! witty, eloquent ! but how vain those 
 talents without the one thing needful ! I thank God that He has shown 
 me the vanity of genius, and given me a comparative deadness to reputa- 
 tion. Lord ! do Thou increase it, till I become quite mortified to the 
 world. A fresh subject for praise this night — my dear friend Wilberforce 
 carried one clause of the Slave Bill. Lord ! hasten the time when true 
 liberty, light and knowledge shall be diffused over the whole earth. 
 
 ^ March 12. — Dined with friends at Mrs. . What doest thou 
 
 here, Elijah ? Felt too much pleased at the pleasure expressed by so 
 many accomplished friends on seeing me again. Keep me from con- 
 tagion ! 
 
 ' Sunday, March 23. — Had a comfortable religious day. I see the need 
 of doing the duty of every day in its day ; by not noting down the texts, 
 I have forgotten them. When I look back on the past week, I see cause 
 for mourning over my vanity and folly. Escaped from hurry, vexation, 
 gaiety, and temptation, to peace, leisure, and retirement. Where I had 
 planned much progress to my own mind — I find a languor, a drowsiness, 
 and deadness — sloth and self-love getting strong dominion, and much 
 time wasted which I had devoted to improvement. Let these continual 
 discoveries make me humble. All has been peace and quiet without, and 
 that has induced carelessness within — the calm of prosperity is not good 
 for the soul. 
 
 ^Sunday, April 20, — Passed this week in hurry — neither read nor prayed 
 with fervour. 
 
 ^Sunday, May 4. — Heard Mr. Cecil— on "the Good Shepherd, who 
 layeth down His life for the sheep." Oh, blessed Shepherd ! receive me, 
 Thy erring and straying sheep, into Thy fold ! 
 
 ' May 6. — Came to Fulham to my dear Bishop — much kindness — literary 
 and elegant society ; but the habits of polished life, even of virtuous and 
 pious people, are too relaxing. Much serious reading, but not a serious
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 spirit ; good health, with increased relaxation of mind ; thus are the 
 blessings of God turned against Himself. 
 
 ^Sunday, Jtily 13. — Went to Shipham and Cheddar — very full schools 
 at each : had much comfort in the improvement of most, and the growing 
 piety of many. We were both enabled to speak and instruct with spirit, 
 and seemed to make an impression. Read a sermon to the aged. Came 
 home very late and much tired, but I hope full of gratitude. 
 
 '' Jitly 15. — Prayed with some comfort ; bat my mind was too much in 
 other concerns. Have much business on my hands at this time ; and 
 though it is all of a charitable and religious nature (for I humbly design 
 never to have any other), yet still the details of it draw away my soul and 
 thoughts from God. When shall I be purified .'' 
 
 ' Wednesday, Jj^Jy ~3- — Gave our annual feast on Mendip to our poor 
 children, near one thousand. Conjured by the Bishop to answer Paine's 
 atheistical book, with a solemnity which made me grieve to refuse. Lord ! do 
 Thou send abler defenders of Thy holy cause ! Heard of the death of Mr. 
 
 W , an awful death ! Profane, worldly, unawakened, in the extremest 
 
 old age ! 
 
 ' Sunday, AugKsf 10.— Talked earnestly to sweet Mrs. F ; gave her 
 
 Witherspoon. Have read and conversed for many days with her and Lady 
 W . Lord ! enable me with equal prudence and zeal to labour to im- 
 press Thy great doctrines on her heart, and at the same time let me in all 
 humility copy her resignation. Heard of the death of young Burke. 
 Lord ! bless this heavy loss to his broken-hearted father. Oh ! do Thou 
 now show him the vanity of ambition, and the worthlessness of the noblest 
 talents, except as they are used to promote Thy glory. Lord Chancellor 
 Bathurst is gone, one of my oldest, kindest friends : I had very many 
 obligations to him. How warnings multiply ! this week I have not made 
 the most of my time ; vain thoughts and old besetting sins begin to 
 resume their power. Lord ! enable me to pray more, to struggle more, to 
 live in closer communion with Thee. Went to Sandford, Banwell school, 
 and Church Shipham school. Patty read Walker on " If any man be in 
 Christ, he is a new creature." A large and attentive audience. She 
 laboured diligently ; expounded Scripture at four schools. She greatly 
 eclipses me. Lord ! be Thou her exceeding great reward. Another month 
 has now ended ; before it closed, I heard of the death of ten old friends ; 
 all taken — /left. Will nothing quicken my diligence ? 
 
 ' September. — Confined this week with four days' headache : an unpro- 
 fitable time — thoughts wandering — little communion with God. I see by
 
 INNER LIFE— DIARY, 1 794-1 798. 103 
 
 every fresh trial that the time of sickness is seldom the season for religious 
 improvement. This great work should be done in health, or it will seldom 
 be well done. Oh for better preparation for sickness and death ! 
 
 ^Sunday, September 14.— Cheddar— a very blessed day ; between three 
 and four hundred young and old ; many seriously impressed. This has 
 revived my hopes that God will enable us to carry on this very extensive 
 work, notwithstanding the heavy loss of our dear schoolmistress. May 
 we be deeply humbled under a sense of our own unworthiness for this 
 work ! May Thy glory, and the good of souls, be our only end. We are 
 nothing, have nothing, and of ourselves can do nothing. 
 
 ' S7i7iday, September 21.— Stayed at home on account of the weather. 
 Read and prayed with some degree of comfort, which was invaded by the 
 reflection that we might have been doing good at the schools. For some 
 days have found more comfort in prayer, more warmth in spirit ; but still 
 lamentably defective— above all '\x\ family prayer. What is read by others 
 makes little impression on me — not so in extemporary prayer. Yet I have 
 a fear that it is novelty, or curiosity, that catches me. Lord, let my heart 
 and not my ear be seized upon ! 
 
 * Sunday, September 28.— Nailsea church and Yatton— had a painful, 
 trying day. Much enmity against religious schemes ; opposition, labour, 
 and bodily fatigue ! Yet what is this to what the Apostles and their 
 blessed Master endured ! Lord, strengthen my faith, enable me to have 
 patience with these ignorant opposers of Thy law. Encouraged by seeing 
 many of our young men seriously affected ; unwilling on that account to 
 throw up this one school, which I think we should have done, had our 
 motives been merely human. 
 
 ' When will my heart be a fit tabernacle for the Spirit of purity ? Have 
 lately had much communion with God in the night. I grow, I hope, more 
 disposed to convert silence and solitude into seasons of prayer. I think 
 also I fear death less. I am much tried by the temper of others. Lord, 
 subdue my owti evil tempers. Let me constantly think of Him ' who 
 endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself.' 
 
 ' Sunday, October 19.— Being hindered by heavy rains from visiting our 
 schools, I resolve by Thy grace to devote myself this day, O Lord, in an 
 especial manner to Thy service. I have seldom a Sabbath to spend on 
 myself. Let me not trifle away this precious opportunity, but pass it in 
 extraordinary prayer, reading and meditation. Enable me to make 
 conversation one of my pious exercises. 
 
 ' I desire to remember with particular gratitude in my devotions, that on
 
 I04 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 this day five years, my colleague and myself set up our first religious in- 
 stitution at Cheddar. Bless the Lord, O my soul, for the seed which was 
 that day sown ! Do Thou daily turn more hearts from darkness to light, 
 and preserve them from falling back again. O Lord, I desire to bless 
 Thy holy name for so many means of doing good, and that when I visit 
 the poor, I am enabled to mitigate some of their miseries. I bless Thee 
 that Thou hast called me to this employment, which, in addition to many 
 other advantages, contributes to keep my heart tender. 
 
 ' Sunday^ November 9. — I have lately been negligent in self-examination. 
 I resolve by Thy grace to be more diligent. My faithful colleague has 
 gone to our schools. I wish to acknowledge her superiority to myself in 
 many principal parts of our joint concern, particularly in familiarizing 
 Scripture to untutored minds. 
 
 ''Sunday, November 16. — A fatiguing day — visited five schools ; many 
 difficulties surrounded me. Lord, increase our faith ; let the discoveries of 
 faith be more clear, the desires of faith more strong, the dependencies of 
 faith more firm and fixed, the dedications of faith more ardent and resolute, 
 and the delights of faith more elevating and durable. 
 
 ' Swiday, November 23. — Detained at home by a severe cough and head- 
 ache. Grieved to find that when I have this last complaint to a great 
 degree, I have seldom any strong religious feelings. I would have hoped 
 it is because its acuteness almost destroys the power of thinking, did I not 
 feel, to my great sorrow, that my mind rambles through a thousand vain, 
 trifling, and worldly thoughts, even sometimes in extremity of pain ; but 
 seldom sticks close to God and holy things. It seems a just punishment 
 for my sinfulness, in having suffered my thoughts to roam too much in 
 easier and happier hours, that I am deprived of the consolations of pious 
 reflections in those moments of keen suffering, when nothing else can 
 support the soul under the pains of the body. Lord, enable me to keep 
 closer to Thee at other times, and then I humbly trust Thou wilt not 
 desert me at these trying times. Enable me to fix my thoughts more 
 intensely, more frequently, on death and dying scenes.' 
 
 ' December 15. — Went to Bath. I have now entered anew scene of life. 
 O Lord ! fit me for the duties and keep me from all the temptations of 
 it. I thank Thee that the vain and unprofitable company with which this 
 place abounds, is a burden to me. Give me a holy discretion on the one 
 hand, and zeal not to be drawn off from better practices on the other. 
 As my conversation will be less useful, let me be careful that my thoughts 
 are more holy, and that I look more after the state of my heart. Give
 
 INNER LIFE— DIARY, 1 794-1 798. 105 
 
 me a submissive spirit to bear all the wounding words I may be obliged 
 to hear against religion. And do Thou remove those prejudices which 
 obstruct the growth of some of my friends in Divine things.' 
 
 Three years later she writes : 
 
 '■January i, 1798. — Having obtained help of God, I continue to this 
 day. Lord, I am spared, while others are cut off. Let me now dedicate 
 myself to Thee with a more entire surrender than I have ever yet made. 
 
 ' First. I resolve by the grace of God to be more watchful over my 
 temper. 2ndly. Not to speak rashly or harshly. 3rdly. To watch over 
 my thoughts : not to indulge in vain, idle, resentful, impatient, worldly 
 imaginations. 4thly. To strive after closer communion with God. 5thly. 
 To let no hour pass without lifting up my heart to Him through Christ. 
 6thly. Not to let a day pass without some thought of death. 7thly. To 
 ask myself every night when I lie down, am I fit to die 1 Sthly. To 
 labour to do and to suffer the whole will of God. gthly. To cure my 
 over-anxietj', by casting myself on God in Christ. 
 
 ' Sunday, January 7. — I will confess my sins. Repent of them. Plead 
 the atonement. Resolve to love God and Christ. Implore the aid of the 
 Spirit for light, strength, and direction. Examine if these things are 
 done. Be humbled for my failures. Watch and pray. 
 
 ' Through death the Christian's soul goes to — ist. Perfect purity. 2ndly. 
 Fulness of joy. 3rdly. Everlasting freedom. 4thly. Perfect rest. Sthly. 
 Health and fruition. 6thly. Complete security, ythly. Substantial and 
 eternal good. 
 
 ' Sttnday, January 21. — Up late last night — much harassed all the 
 week by worldly company. My temper hurt^ieart secularized. I had 
 looked forward to a peaceful Sunday — instead of this, an acute headache. 
 Spent the day in bed^little devotion— no spirituality. Could not even 
 tJiink at all. Had an hour's talk with Mr. Wilberforce — had reason to 
 bless God that in my present difficulties this wise Christian friend was 
 at hand to counsel and comfort me. Lord, grant that my many religious 
 advantages may never appear against me. Many temptations this week 
 to vanity. My picture asked for two publications. Dedications — flattery 
 without end. God be praised, I was 7iot flattered but vexed. Twenty- 
 four hours' headache makes one see the vanity of all this ! Am I 
 tempted to vanity ? Let me call to mind what shining friends I have lost 
 this year — each eminent in his different way, yet he that is least in the 
 kingdom of grace is greater than they.
 
 io6 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 ' I resolved at the beginning of the year, to pray at least twice a week, 
 separately for the country, in this time of danger, independently of the 
 petitions offered up in my other prayers. 
 
 ' Sunday., January 28.— I indulge too much in the thought, how much 
 better I might be, had I fewer interruptions, more opportunity of vital 
 preachers, more pious friends, less worldly company. There is great 
 self-deceit in all this. Am I praying against these disadvantages? Do I 
 make the most of the rest of my time ? Lord, assist me to do so, and to 
 bear patiently what I dislike. This week I have watched my words 
 more, but not sufficiently my thoughts. . . . Heard of John Wilkes's 
 death — awful event ! talents how abused ! Lord, who hath made me to 
 differ? but for Thy grace, I might have blasphemed Thee like him. In 
 early youth I read Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau, etc. I am a monument of 
 mercy, not to have made shipwreck of my faith. 
 
 ' February 2. — My birthday. Lord, grant I may never have cause to 
 say, " it were good for me had I never been born." Lord, forgive the sins of 
 my youth — they have pressed on me this day. Blot them from Thy book, 
 and give me grace to subdue my remaining corruptions. Oh, how strong ! 
 
 ' . . . Preparing for London. Oh ! that I were as anxious to forget 
 nothing relating to the next world, as I am to omit nothing 1 shall want 
 in this journey. 
 
 ' Heard preach : elegant language, earnest and bold, but nothing 
 
 to the heart ; no food for perishing sinners. Lord, send more labourers 
 into Thy vineyard ! Increase the number of those who preach Christ 
 Jesus, and salvation through Him only. 
 
 ' Sunday., February 25. — Came last night to Fulham Palace. Lord, 
 while I admire these Christian friends, let me not overrate any child of 
 man. Christ is all. Oh for a fuller persuasion of this ! 
 
 ' Testoii, MarcJi i. — Arrived here on Monday — seriously ill all the way. 
 How many suffer painful journeys, who find no rest for the sole of the foot 
 at night ; but I rest with kind Christian friends, and find every comfort 
 and alleviation. Several bad nights — violent cough — not comforted by 
 religious, but tormented by worldly thoughts. Oh for a sanctified 
 suffering ! Merciful Father, withdraw not Thy heavy hand until Thy 
 work of sanctification is done in my soul. 
 
 '. . . While attending on the dying-bed of Mrs. I did not feel my 
 
 heart properly affected. Oh that I may lay to heart this lesson of 
 mortality ! Lord, prepare me for this state of pain, weakness, imbecility, 
 if it be Thy will I should pass through it. She is dead. I too must die.
 
 INNER LIFE— DIARY, 1 794-1 79S. 107 
 
 Oh that I could learn to die daily ! and then I should look without fear 
 to the dark valley which lies before me. 
 
 ^ March 25. — Tempted to be warm in politics. Under the mask of 
 religion, I fear I indulge my own humours and resentments. I would 
 learn of Him who was meek and lowly. I cannot fix my thoughts 
 intently on death, according to my resolution. Death advances, but I do 
 not advance in my preparation for it. 
 
 ^Monday, April 2. — My attention has not wandered so much as usual, 
 but my heart has not been deeply touched. I am about to leave this 
 place. Lord, forgive what I have neglected to do, and what I have done ; 
 and if any little good has been done by me, be pleased graciously to 
 
 accept it, and forgive its imperfections. Mrs. B gave me largely for 
 
 the poor. Lord bless her, and make all her bed in her sickness ! 
 Strengthen her faith. Remove the prejudices that impede her comforts. 
 Support her through life. Be her support in death, and if we never meet 
 again here,grant that we may meet in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 'London, Sunday, Apj'il 15. — I have been a week here— hurried, 
 worldly, with little serious reading, less serious thoughts, except when I 
 lie awake in the night : this is often a comfortable time with me — the 
 world shut out — my conscience more tender— my memory more quick in 
 bringing my sins before me. My temper is sore tried. Yesterday I was 
 tempted to anger — to-day I bore the provocation. Teach me to subdue 
 all anger. Lord, and not to think I am helping Thy cause when I am 
 angry. Oh that I could learn of Him who was meek and lowly ! Had 
 a little serious talk with the Duchess of Gloucester, Lady Amherst, and 
 the Duchess of Beaufort. Lord, let me be no mean respecter of persons, 
 but make me valiant for Thy truth. 
 
 * Sunday, April 29. — Had a bad headache all day— nothing done for God 
 — in pain my religion vacillates ; I trust I am tolerably patient and resigned, 
 yet not as becomes a disciple of the suffering Jesus. This week has been 
 nearly passed in visiting — little reading or seriousness. A few occasions, 
 indeed, were snatched to talk seriously to young Christians, and I bore 
 my testimony pretty strongly in company with some learned sceptics. 
 At another time too much carried away with the pleasure of talking on 
 mere subjects of taste — have taken too much pains to shine, and felt too 
 much pleasure to hear my taste commended on the subject of French 
 literature. Spent three days at Mitcham— felt the joy of pious society. I 
 fear I do not profit enough when I get with pious people — it evaporates 
 in self-satisfied feehngs and serious talk, without reaching the heart.
 
 io8 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 ' I feel full of schemes of charity — of doing good — of promoting God's 
 glory— of writing for usefulness, not fame : yet I can take little comfort in 
 these evidences, because I do not feel the love of Christ constraining me. 
 
 ' Sunday, May 20. — My journal stopped a fortnight : — busy in getting 
 forward my " Strictures on Education." This week has been too much 
 spent in receiving visits from the great. Lord, preserve me from these 
 temptations to vanity. Oh, let me feel more and more that I am 
 a miserable sinner. 
 
 ''May 21. — A present of Lord Orford's work — my picture in the book — 
 I laboured to hinder it. Lord, keep me from self-sufficiency, and humble 
 me under a deep sense of the emptiness of earthly honours. He had all 
 this world could give — great, witty, brilliant. Of how little importance 
 are these things now ! " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see 
 God." Grant me this purity, and an utter indifference to fame, and 
 deadness to the world. 
 
 '■June 4. — Much painful feeling at Pitt's duel. Lord, show these wise 
 men the Gospel, that in Thy light they may see light, for without that 
 the wisest sit in darkness. 
 
 'Sunday, June 10. — Went to Nailsea. Lord, fill my heart with grati- 
 tude for the blessings of this day. Found all flourishing. One hundred 
 and forty children. Taught the Scriptures to three poor young colliers. 
 
 ' Many strangers came to see me this week. I bless God this raised in 
 me no vanity ; nor did a flattering history of me in a public print : I 
 desire " that honour which cometh from God only." 
 
 ' Sunday, August 26. — By the mercy of God I am permitted to write 
 once more. Lord, grant that my life, thus graciously spared, may be 
 spent more vigorously to Thy glory. On the 13th, after two days' severe 
 headache, fell down in a violent fit — dashed my face against the wall, and 
 lay long seemingly dead — much bruised and disfigured ; have lain by 
 above a fortnight almost useless ; violent pains in my head, loss of sleep. 
 Grant, Lord, that as my outward man decays, I may be renewed in the 
 spirit of my mind. I have lost all this time from my book, and have 
 redeemed too little of it by serious thought. Oh for that happy state, 
 where is neither sorrow nor crying ! 
 
 ' A fresh proof of human depravity has, I hope, brought me nearer to 
 God. I have been driven nearer to Him, and have had more comfort in 
 prayer ; but still I am not enough renewed in the spirit of my mind. 
 Lord, perfect what is lacking in my faith and love, and let me " possess 
 my soul in patience." Refine my zeal, purify my motives, lead me to act
 
 INNER LIFE— DIARY, 17 94- 17 98. 109 
 
 with a holy simplicity, leaving the event to Thee who doest all things 
 well. Oh for purer, holier converse ; more disentanglement from the 
 world : more heavenly meditation ! 
 
 ' Saturday, September 22. — Head seldom free from pain. Suffering 
 does not yet purify my heart, though my gracious Father purposes it for 
 that end. Lord, sanctify pain to me : make me as willing to sjiffer Thy 
 will as to do it. Company eve7'y day, all day ; chiefly good people, but so 
 much company unspiritualizes my mind, and swallows up time. Book 
 goes on slowly. Cheap Repository is closed. '•' Bless the Lord, O my 
 soul !" that I have been spared to accomplish that work ! Do Thou, O 
 Lord, bless and prosper it to the good of many ; and if it do good, may I 
 give to Thee the glory, and take to myself the shame of its defects. I 
 have devoted three years to this work. Two millions of these tracts dis- 
 posed of during the first year ! God works by weak instruments to show 
 that the glory is all His own. 
 
 ' Siaiday, Septe?nber 30. — Have had more communion with God lately, 
 especially in the night-watches. Thoughts more called off from worldly 
 things, and less vexed by disappointments ; still I find it hard to fix my 
 mind on God and eternity by day. I had rather work for God than 
 meditate on Him ; yet Divine communion is the work of heaven, and how 
 shall I be prepared but by this ? 
 
 ^Sunday, November 18. — Returned from Bath in an improved state of 
 health, as I thought ; but health being doubtless not good for me, had a 
 return of my headache. I might turn the time lost from more active 
 duties to good account by secret communion with my God and Saviour, 
 but, alas ! this is too little the case — partly, indeed, that the intense pain 
 in my head deprives me of the free exercise of thought, and gives an 
 involuntary gloom and depression to my spirits, but more, I fear, from a 
 habit of not sufficiently watching over my thoughts at other times. It is 
 a grievous truth that I am in general least religious when I am sick. Lord, 
 do Thou give me grace to improve these seasons ! 
 
 '' December 2.— N 2xs\ thoughts discompose my own mind, and evil tempers 
 show me the emptiness of that flattery with which I am at times over- 
 whelmed. Lord, I hope I can say that I derive little pleasure from such 
 praises, while my heart tells me how little I deserve them. I compare 
 myself with the purity of Thy law, and then I see my own sinfulness too 
 plainly to be pleased by flattering words. Heard of a silly and humiliating 
 history of myself just published, and can truly say it gave me little or no 
 mortification ; nor did I feel any desire to contradict it.
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 ^Sunday, December 23. — 111 above a week with violent cough — blistered, 
 etc. By the grace of God I am resigned to pain, but my thoughts, which 
 ought at such times to be devoted to heavenly things, are not always in 
 my own power — they wander amidst the vanities and cares of earth, 
 instead of being directed straight forward to the goal to which I am tend- 
 ing. Lord, raise my grovelling affections to Thyself— disperse these 
 earthly vapours which obscure my faith — increase my desires after that 
 world where sin and sorrow will be done away ! 
 
 ' An awful dispensation ! the curate of visited with sudden blindness 
 
 for three days — it seems to have been a supernatural awakening. Lord, 
 do Thou perfect this work : do Thou call this man out of darkness to Thy 
 marvellous light, for his own sake, and the sake of those many souls over 
 whom he is set ! 
 
 ' Heard of the dangerous illness of Mr. Cecil. Lord, I bless Thee that 
 Thou hast enabled this faithful servant to bear his agonies as a Christian, 
 and that his sufferings have not slackened his faith. Raise him up, if it 
 be Thy will, for further usefulness ; but if not, sustain him in his last 
 conflict, and enable him to bear his dying testimony to Thy faithfulness 
 and truth ; and do Thou supply his place so that his people shall not miss 
 his services. 
 
 '■ December "^i. — I am now, by the great mercy of God, brought to the 
 end of another year. Lord, enable me to consider this mercy as I ought 
 to do, and do Thou strengthen my memory to recollect the numberless 
 favours I have received at Thy hands during the course of it. Enable me 
 to call to mind my trials, and to lament my sins of the past year. Lord, 
 forgive whatever fresh guilt I have contracted. O wash me clean in the 
 blood of the everlasting covenant ; forgive whatever I have done amiss, 
 whatever I have neglected to do. Supply all my wants out of Thine 
 abundant mercies. Strengthen my weakness, subdue my pride, heal my 
 self-love, root out my evil tempers, deliver me from open anger, secret 
 resentments, and discontents ; deliver me from myself, from the corruptions 
 of my own evil heart, from the suggestions of unbelief ; and do Thou 
 sanctify to me the mercies and deliverances of the past year. Thou hast 
 preserved my colleague and myself from many dangers. Thou hast pre- 
 served our going out and our coming in at unseasonable hours. Thou 
 hast carried us through much labour of body, and much anxiety of mind. 
 Thou hast blest in no common degree our unworthy labours in Thy cause ; 
 Thou hast in some degree owned our endeavours.'
 
 INNER LIFE— DIARY, 1 794-1 798. in 
 
 During this time Hannah More suffered frequently from 
 violent attacks of pain in the head, which laid her quite aside 
 from all active employments. Her testimony recorded in her 
 diary in regard to these seasons of illness is useful in helping 
 to do away with the too common idea that illness in itself 
 has any sanctifying power, or that the soul which in times of 
 health lives apart from God, is raised in any way b)'- suffering 
 itself into nearness to Him. It is not in sickness and disease 
 that those who live in habitual communion with God can best 
 rise in faith and love to the joy of His presence ; and still less 
 can bodily weakness and suffering become in and of themselves 
 a source of spiritual life to those who in health have never 
 offered themselves to God as a reasonable service.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OPPOSITION. 
 
 Another trial, more severe even than bodily suffering, about 
 this time passed like a dark cloud across the sunshine of 
 popularity and fame which Hannah More had so long en- 
 joyed. 
 
 Many instances of opposition to the work of Hannah More 
 and her sisters in the neglected parishes of Mendip are recorded 
 in ' Miss Patty More's Diary ;' the ignorance of the farmers, 
 and their desire to keep down the labouring class, and the 
 jealousy of cold-hearted clergymen, who felt their slothfulness 
 rebuked by the labours of the Misses More, and who in every 
 earnest effort dreaded Methodism, combined to produce 
 constantly irritating opposition to the attendance of the people 
 at the evening readings, and of the children at the schools. 
 Still, the patience and tact of Hannah More and her sisters 
 overcame these difficulties for a time, and in spite of all, this 
 work for God was unshaken by any of the efforts of man to 
 overturn it. The ill-will, however, did not subside with the 
 success of the work, but gathered strength and virulence ; and 
 at last it broke forth into open attacks upon the character 
 and actions of the Misses More and the teachers they had 
 engaged.
 
 OPPOSITION. 
 
 The leader in this persecution, for so it may be called^ was 
 the curate of Blagdon, that village the reformation of which 
 was only undertaken at the earnest request of the church- 
 wardens and leading parishioners, at a time when Hannah 
 More felt they had already more in hand than they could 
 accomplish. The attack began by a false accusation against 
 the schoolmaster at Blagdon. Both Miss Patty and Miss 
 Hannah More were in London at the time, and the charge 
 against the teacher was communicated to them by the curate 
 in what Miss Patty calls 'a short and impudent letter.' They 
 consulted influential friends in London, and the whole was 
 referred to Sir A. Elton, who judged the accusation to be 
 false. Having cleared his character, it was thought better 
 that the master should leave the school, and he went to 
 Dublin to superintend large charitable institutions there. 
 The school at Blagdon was then discontinued, for neither 
 Hannah More nor her sister thought it right to carry it on in 
 a parish the only resident clergyman of which was so strongly 
 opposed to their work. 
 
 Not satisfied with putting a stop to the good work in his 
 own parish, the curate of Blagdon now used every endeavour 
 to stir up others to oppose the efforts of these two women to 
 bring light and help to the poor. In addition to accusations 
 made to the bishop and dean against the teaching in the 
 schools and in Hannah More's ' Cheap Repository' Tracts, 
 that it was fanatical and seditious, charges were brought 
 against her character by private slander, ' which,' as her old 
 biographer says, ' were so preposterous as to conduce only to 
 the defeat and disgrace of the fabricators.' 
 
 But there is often a vitality in evil things, and outrageous 
 and even absurd as these slanders were (originally invented 
 
 8
 
 114 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 by the hostile foes of religion and light to serve their own 
 ends), the whisper of them has still hardly died away in some 
 quarters, and they are occasionally repeated by persons who 
 have never read the ' Mendip Annals,' nor the complete 
 vindication which Hannah More's life and works establish. 
 
 During the time that she was undergoing this persecution, 
 she was also suffering from an ague, which lasted seven 
 months, and which was brought on by her constant devotion 
 to the cause of the religious reformation and elevation of the 
 lower classes. For herself, Hannah More determined to enter 
 into no contest with her opponents, but to continue the work 
 as God should make the way plain before them. To the 
 Bishop of Bath and Wells alone did she write to explain 
 her plans of teaching, and the subjects taught in her schools, 
 holding herself in regard to him accountable for her conduct, 
 ' which,' as she says, ' has been attacked with a wantonness of 
 cruelty which, in civilized places, few persons, especially of my 
 sex, have been called to suffer.' 
 
 'When I settled in this country thirteen years ago, I found the poor 
 in many of the villages sunk in a deplorable state of ignorance and 
 vice. There were, I think, no Sunday schools in the whole district, 
 except one in my own parish, which had been established by our re- 
 spectable rector, and another in the adjoining parish of Churchill. 
 This drew me to the more neglected villages, whose distance made it 
 very laborious. Not one school there did I ever attempt to establish 
 without the hearty concurrence of the clergyman of the parish. My 
 plan of instruction is extremely simple and limited. They learn, on 
 week-days, such coarse work as may fit them for servants. 1 allow of 
 no writing for the poor. My object is not to make fanatics, but to 
 train up the lower classes in habits of industry and piety. I know no 
 way of teaching morals but by teaching principles : or of inculcating 
 Christian principles without imparting a good knowledge of Scripture. 
 I own I have laboured this point diligently. My sisters and I always 
 teach them ourselves every Sunday, except during our absence in the
 
 OPPOSITION. 115 
 
 winter. By being out thirteen hours, we have generally contrived to 
 visit two schools the same day, and to carry them to their respective 
 churches. When we had more schools, we commonly visited them on 
 a Sunday. The only books we use in teaching are two little tracts 
 called "Questions for the Mendip Schools" (to be had of Hatchard), 
 the " Church Catechism " (these are framed, and half a dozen hung up 
 in the room) ; the Catechism, broken into short questions ; Spelling 
 Books, Psalter, Common Prayer, Testament, Bible. The little ones 
 repeat "Watts's Hymns." The Collect is learned every Sunday. They 
 generally learn the Sermon on the Mount, with many other chapters 
 and psalms. Finding that what the children learned at school they 
 commonly lost at home by the profaneness and ignorance of their parents, 
 it occurred to me in some of the larger parishes to invite the latter 
 to come at six on the Sunday evening, for an hour, to the school, 
 together with the elder scholars. A plain printed sermon and a printed 
 prayer is read to them, and a psalm is sung. I am not bribed by my 
 taste — for, unluckily, I do not delight in music — but observing that 
 singing is a help to devotion in others, I thought it right to allow the 
 practice. 
 
 ' For many years I have given away annually nearly two hundred Bibles, 
 Common Prayer Books, and Testaments, To teach the poor to read, 
 without providing them with safe books, has always appeared to me an 
 improper measure, and this consideration induced me to enter upon 
 the laborious undertaking of the " Cheap Repository" Tracts. 
 
 ' In some parishes where the poor are numerous, such as Cheddar, 
 and the distressed mining villages of Shipham and Rowbarrow, I have 
 instituted, with considerable expense to myself, friendly benefit societies 
 for poor women, which have proved a great relief to the sick and 
 lying-in, especially in the late seasons of scarcity. We have in one 
 single parish an accumulation of between two and three hundred pounds 
 (the others in proportion); this I have placed out in the Funds. The 
 late lady of the manor of Cheddar, in addition to her kindness to my 
 institutions there, during her life, left, at her death, a legacy for the 
 club, and another for the school, as a testimony to her opinion of the 
 utility of both. We have two little annual festivities for the children 
 and poor women of these clubs, which are always attended by a large 
 concourse of gentry and clergy. 
 
 ' At one of these public meetings Mr. Bere declared that since the 
 
 8—2
 
 ii6 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 institution of the schools he could now dine in peace : for that where he 
 used to issue ten warrants, he was not now called on for two. 
 
 ' I shall take the liberty of sending your lordship the rules of my school, 
 which have never been altered, and of referring you to the testimonials 
 (printed in the public papers) of the churchwardens and principal in- 
 habitants of some of those parishes where my conduct has been most 
 attacked, to ascertain whether I have been used to act in concert with the 
 minister, and whether my schools have been of any use in improving 
 morals, or attracting the people to church. 
 
 ' My schools were always honoured with the full sanction of the late 
 bishop ; of which I have even recent testimonials. It does not appear 
 that any one person who has written against them, except Mr. Bere, ever 
 saw them. I am not accustomed to refer to others for my character ; I 
 am not accustomed to vindicate it myself; but it is natural to wish that 
 it should not be taken from avowed enemies, or total strangers. My 
 friendships and connections have not been among the suspected part of 
 mankind. My attachment to the Established Church is, and has ever 
 been, entire, cordial, inviolable, and, until now, unquestioned. Its 
 doctrines and discipline I equally approve. I have long had the honour 
 of reckoning many of its most distinguished dignitaries amongst my 
 friends. 
 
 ' I am too deeply sensible of the infirmity and evil of my own mind not 
 to allow readily that much error and imperfection may have been mixed 
 with my attempts to do a little good. But it would be false humility not 
 to say that the whole drift and tendency has been right to the very best 
 of my power. Mine is so far a singular case, that I not only feel myself 
 guiltless of the motives and actions imputed to me, but I am conscious 
 that all my little strength has been employed in the very contrary direc- 
 tion. Your lordship's enlightened mind will give me credit for studiously 
 abstaining from what would, with ordinary judges, have best served my 
 cause ; I mean a resentful retaliation on the conduct and motives of my 
 adversaries. 
 
 'In one of the principal pamphlets against me, it is asserted that my 
 writings ought to be burned by the hands of the common hatigma?i. In 
 most of them it is affirmed that my principles and actions are corrupt 
 and mischievous in no common degree. If the grosser crimes alleged 
 against me be true, I am not only unfit to be allowed to teach poor 
 children to read, but I am unfit to be tolerated in any class of society. 
 If, on the contrary, the heavier charges should prove not to be true, may
 
 OPPOSITION. 117 
 
 it not furnish a presumption that the less are equally unfounded ? There 
 is scarcely any motive so pernicious, nor any hypocrisy so deep, to which 
 my plans have not been attributed ; yet I have neither improved my 
 interest nor my fortune by them. I am not of a sex to expect prefer- 
 ment, nor of a temper to court favour ; nor vi^as I so ignorant of mankind 
 as to look for praise by a means so little calculated to obtain it ; though, 
 perhaps, I did not reckon on such a degree of obloquy. If vanity were 
 my motive, it has been properly punished ; if hypocrisy, I am hastening 
 fast to answer for it at a tribunal, compared with which all human 
 opinion weighs very light indeed ; in view of which the sacrifice which I 
 have been called to make of health, peace, and reputation shrinks into 
 nothing.' 
 
 Of her sister Patty at this time she writes : ' Poor Patty, 
 in bad health herself, fights Dianfully, and combats well 
 with these sorrows. She is holding our annual club feast, 
 and feasting six or seven hundred each day with outward 
 cheerfulness. It puts me in mind of poor actors, who play 
 their comic parts gaily on the stage, when perhaps they 
 have all sorts of miseries at home.' And in another letter : 
 ' Patty behaves nobly, and only works the harder for all these 
 attacks. She has been in all this weather on a three days* 
 mission to Wedmore, where things look very smiling.' 
 
 This trial called forth strong expressions of sympathy from 
 Hannah Mores friends, many of whom were amongst the 
 best and v^isest of their time. Old John Newton writes : 
 ' My dear madam, " blessed are ye when men shall revile and 
 persecute you, and sliall speak all manner of evil against yon 
 falsely, for My sake." When I consider whose words are 
 these, I am more disposed to congratulate than to condole 
 with you on the unjust and hard treatment you have met 
 with. Yet I do feel for you. These things are not joyous, 
 but grievous at the time ; yet cheer up, my dear friend, tarry 
 thou the Lord's leisure. Be strong, and He shall comfort
 
 ii8 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE, 
 
 thy heart. Depend upon it, all shall turn out to the further- 
 ance of that Gospel for which you are engaged.' 
 
 Another letter Hannah More received at this trying time 
 was from the Duchess of Gloucester. For some years now 
 she had been endeavouring to turn the intercourse she had 
 with persons of rank, who admired her works and enjoyed 
 her society, to good account for the service of God and 
 themselves. In her diary for 1798 she wrote while in London, 
 ' Had a little serious talk with the Duchess of Gloucester, 
 Lady Amherst, and the Duchess of Beaufort. Lord, let me 
 be no mean respecter of persons, but make me valiant always 
 for Thy truth.' 
 
 At an earlier date she speaks of an evening spent at 
 Gloucester House as ' the most rational and religious evening 
 by far that I have passed in town. It would make some folks 
 smile to know that we read the Epistle to the Ephesians, and 
 commented as w^e went along.' 
 
 A letter from the Duchess of Gloucester, written to Miss 
 Patty More during the time of the attacks made upon her 
 and her sister, and while Hannah More was suffering from 
 illness, shows the esteem in which she was held by the 
 princess : 
 
 ' Dear Madam, 
 
 ' The Bishop of London told me yesterday that 
 Miss H. More was very unwell. Her life is of too much 
 consequence to the world not to create serious alarm to her 
 friends when she is indisposed ; but I very much fear that 
 she is at present very much more than indisposed. Will you, 
 my dear Miss Martha, write me a few consolatory lines ? for 
 I am really very uneasy about her. My reverence for her
 
 OPPOSITION. 119 
 
 unblemished character and exalted piety has turned into 
 respectful affection ; and that she may be restored to us is 
 the anxious prayer of, dear Miss Martha More, 
 
 ' Your sincerely attached well-wisher, 
 
 ' Maria. 
 ' My Sophia is, you may be certain, as anxious as myself.' 
 
 Other letters from Wilberforce, the Bishop of Bath and 
 Wells, the Bishop of Durham, the Rev. Richard Cecil, and 
 Mrs. Kennicott, consoled and supported the sisters during 
 this trial. 
 
 On Hannah More's recovery, she and her sister Patty paid 
 a visit to the Bishop of London at Fulham. Of this visit 
 Miss Patty More thus writes to her sisters : ' We arrived here 
 Thursday afternoon, and found Mrs. Kennicott, who has just 
 been reading to us a sweet letter from Mrs. Barrington. 
 She says, " So Hannah More has again been persecuted ; but 
 she will indeed receive our Saviour's blessing, ' Blessed are 
 they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake.' " Our 
 friends say these trials will have a good ending, even in 
 this world. Nothing can exceed, and {&\n things equal, the 
 behaviour of the bishop and Mrs. Porteus. I cannot express 
 to you the very marked attentions which are paid to Hannah 
 from all ranks and descriptions of people ; they say such a 
 persecution of such a woman is unexampled.' 
 
 The attacks on Hannah More extended beyond the Mendip 
 Hills ; scurrilous pamphlets were published against her in 
 Bath, the ' Anti-Jacobin ' directed its satire against her, and 
 repeated a slander which gave amusement to herself and her 
 sisters, and made her say to Mr. Wilberforce, ' I am sorry 
 you do not read the ' Anti-Jacobin,' because you would have 
 seen how I am in love with an actor and two officers at
 
 I20 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 once' The writer was probably not aware that she was 
 then in her sixtieth year. But the ' Anti-Jacobin ' afterwards 
 changed its tone towards her, on the complete falseness 
 of all the accusations against her becoming better known. 
 
 It was about this time that Hannah More and her sisters 
 took to themselves the title of Mrs. instead of Miss, and 
 requested their friends to address them thus. At a some- 
 what earlier time all ladies past their youth were addressed 
 by the more dignified title, and they wished, perhaps, thus 
 to mark their arrival at more advanced years. 
 
 In the meantime the schools which slander had endea- 
 voured to damage flourished more and more. The people 
 themselves learnt to feel the worth of them, the attendance 
 increased, and improvements were made in the system and 
 teaching as the new experience advanced. So far from being 
 daunted or turned aside from this good work, the sisters 
 devoted themselves with increasing earnestness and a deeper 
 endeavour to reach the very heart of the people, and sow 
 there the good seed of the kingdom of God — life and hope in 
 Jesus Christ. With no symptom of fear, or thought of turning 
 back from the work, they fully realized the motto of Miss 
 Patty's journal of the ' Mendip Annals' — ' I have not imitated 
 Xenophon.'
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 BARLEY WOOD. 
 
 The persecution raised against Hannah More and her sisters 
 extended over a period of more than two years ; during that 
 time she removed from her cottage at CowsHp Green to a 
 house she had built in a better situation, called Barley Wood. 
 This was a larger and more convenient residence, and her 
 sisters now gave up their house in Bath, and joined her in her 
 new home. Here they all lived together until one after 
 another of the four sisters gently passed to her home in 
 heaven, leaving Hannah More alone. The house was cheerful 
 and healthy, and the taste of the sisters was constantly at 
 work in planting and cultivating the garden, and in carrying 
 out various little plans for adding to the beauty of their rest- 
 ing-place. One of their designs was to place among the 
 trees memorial urns, in remembrance of departed friends or 
 favourite authors. 
 
 A large number of persons visited them there, and Hannah 
 More's extensive circle of correspondents kept them acquainted 
 with all the ideas and events of the time. 
 
 Another branch of Hannah More's literary work at this 
 time shows how fully she lived in her age, if not indeed before 
 it. This is the series of books bearinc: on the education of
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 women. We have seen how she was one of the first to 
 recognise the right of the labouring classes to education and 
 development, and she was also one of the first women to claim 
 for womicn an education, the purpose of which should be 
 individual culture, directed to the training of every faculty, so 
 that the result might be a nobler and sweeter development 
 more fit for the true work of life. 
 
 As early as 1799 she brought out her ' Strictures on Female 
 Education,' the opening words of which are : ' It is a singular 
 injustice which is exercised towards women, first to give them 
 a very defective education, and then to expect from them the 
 most undeviating conduct ; to train them in such a manner 
 as shall lay them open to the most dangerous faults, and then 
 censure them for not proving faultless, and for turning out 
 that very kind of character for which it would be evident to 
 an unprejudiced bystander that the whole scope and tenour of 
 their instruction had been systematically preparing them.' 
 From this it will be seen that she perceived how far the aim 
 of the education of the day was lowered from the true ideal of 
 womanhood, and had become a hindrance to its realization. 
 
 The education of that time had for its object mere external 
 adornment and display. It consisted of a few showy accom- 
 plishments, taught for the purpose of exciting admiration. 
 'If,' says Hannah More, 'we were required to condense the 
 reigning system of the brilliant education of a lady into an 
 aphorism, it might be comprised in this short sentence — " To 
 allure mid to shine.'" ' She then shows that a course of training 
 with no higher purpose is not an education at all ; and sets 
 forward a scheme of study in which the reasoning faculty is 
 to be cultivated by books such as ' Watts's or Duncan's little 
 books of Logic, some parts of Mr. Locke's " Essay on the
 
 BARLEY WOOD. 
 
 Human Understanding," and Bishop Butler's " Analogy." ' 
 History is to be studied, so as to understand its principles and 
 lessons, and not as a ' mere collection of facts and anecdotes, 
 dates and epochs.' In like manner geography and natural 
 history are to be made the means of awakening intelligence, 
 observation, and giving a sense of the oneness of the human 
 family. The study of philology is advised as giving care in 
 exact use of words, and in clearly defining ideas and feelings, 
 instead of indulging in loose statements, exaggerated expres- 
 sions of emotion, and vague ideas, all tending to untruthfulness. 
 The whole of the chapter on ' Definitions' would bear repetition 
 in the present day. 
 
 Considerable space is given to the subject of the culture of 
 the imagination and taste, in the education of women, by 
 accustoming girls to read the best works of poetry and fiction, 
 excluding carefully all that are false in sentiment and morals. 
 Amongst the means of promoting superficiality of mind, Mrs. 
 More justly places 'the swarms of abridgments, "Beauties," 
 and compendiums of literature,' read or learnt by heart, with 
 no knowledge of the works themselves or their authors, and 
 which are no substitute for that true study of literature which 
 is one of the most important instruments in forming the 
 character of a woman. 
 
 Two great hindrances to the thorough culture which should 
 develop the whole character and faculties in a woman were 
 the time spent in learning music, and the means employed in 
 acquiring skill in speaking French. 
 
 Under the first Hannah More quotes the calculation of a 
 * person of great eminence now married to a man who dislikes 
 music' From the age of six to eighteen she had spent four 
 hours a day ' in the acquisition of music,' making a total of
 
 124 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 14,400 hours employed in learning an art which supplied her 
 mind with no information nor ideas, and which she now never 
 practised either for her own pleasure or that of others. 
 
 With great good sense Hannah More also estimates the 
 value attached to French conversation at its true worth, and 
 shows how, for an acquirement frequently of little use, ' piety 
 and principle were offered up as victims to sounds and 
 accents.' Why should Englishwomen, she asks, sacrifice so 
 much to be able to converse with a nation who had done little 
 of late to make their society desirable or improving .-' and why 
 should an Englishwoman be ambitious of speaking French 
 like a native, or of having it supposed she had been brought 
 up in France ? ' Some recent events may surely serve to 
 reconcile an intelligent, well-educated Englishwoman to the 
 suspicion of having been bred in her own country, and con- 
 versed more frequently in her own tongue.' 
 
 On the subject of objections brought against the fuller edu- 
 cation of women, from the idea of its rendering them ambitious 
 of power, and unfit for the duties of life, Hannah More says : 
 
 ' The more a woman's understanding is improved, the more 
 obviously will she discern that there can be no happiness in 
 any society where there is a perpetual struggle for power ; 
 and the more her judgment is rectified, the more accurate 
 views will she take of her true life and its duties, and 
 the more readily will she accommodate herself to them ; 
 it is the uiost vulgar and ill-inforincd zvoiiien who are ever 
 most inclined to be domestic tyrants ; and those always 
 struggle most vehemently for power who feel themselves at 
 the greatest distance from deserving it, and who would not 
 fail to make the worst use of it when attained. An unedu- 
 cated woman is far more masculine than one in whom all the
 
 BARLEY WOOD. 125 
 
 graces of intellect, the delicate vibrations of feeling, and the 
 refinements of taste have been duly recognised and cultivated. 
 Co-operation, and not competition, is the clear principle we 
 wish to see reciprocally adopted by those higher minds in 
 each sex which really approximate the nearest to each other.' 
 
 Hannah More's old friends, Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Chapone, 
 Mrs. Barbauld, and Mrs. Montagu, all of them ladies who 
 had made self-improvement an earnest purpose in their lives, 
 welcomed warmly Hannah More's book ; but the age was 
 scarcely ripe for its general reception, and probably one witty 
 lady was right when she said, ' Everybody will read her, 
 everybody admire her, and nobody mind Jier! Old John 
 Newton's shrewd sense saw at once the truth in Hannah 
 More's views, and he writes to her after reading the ' Stric- 
 tures on Female Education :' 
 
 ' 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, and 
 make it extensively useful, answering to your design and far 
 beyond your expectation.' 
 
 A few years after the publication of the ' Strictures on 
 Female Education,' Hannah More wrote ' Hints towards 
 forming the Character of a Young Princess.' It was brought 
 out anonymously in 1805, just at the time that the question 
 of a suitable education for the Princess Charlotte, heiress to 
 the throne, was being discussed. Mrs. Hannah More's in- 
 timacy with the Duchess of Gloucester had given her frequent 
 interviews with the young princess, and she had formed a 
 high opinion of her talents. Just as Hannah More had 
 finished her work, the Bishop of Exeter, Dr. Fisher, was 
 appointed the tutor of the princess, and to him therefore she
 
 126 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 sent the book. The bishop wrote to her, highly approving 
 her views for tlie princess's education, he addressing her as a 
 man, and a correspondence, in which she preserved her in- 
 cognito, was carried on between them. A copy of the book 
 was presented by the bishop to the Queen, who highly ap- 
 proved of it, and desired to know if Mrs, Hannah More were 
 not the author, as she traced resemblance in it to her earlier 
 work on female education. The secret soon became known, 
 and Hannah More received many letters from the nearer 
 relatives of the princess thanking her for the work. 
 
 Her next work was of an altogether new character. In 
 her ' Strictures on Female Education ' she had recommended 
 fiction as one means of cultivating the imagination ; but there 
 were few novels fit for the purpose, and some of her friends 
 thought she had done wrong in advising their use at all in the 
 education of a young girl. Some of these remarks, perhaps, 
 suggested to her the idea of writing a novel which should 
 be designed especially for girls, and which might exhibit in 
 action some of her views in regard to the education of 
 women. The heroine was to be the ideal woman, as daughter, 
 sister, and wife ; and further to illustrate her ideas, various 
 other characters, in whom might be shown the evil results of 
 the prevailing false system of education, were also to be 
 introduced. She called her novel ' Ccelebs in Search of a 
 Wife.' 
 
 It was published in December, 1809, in two volumes, and 
 excited so much attention that in a {q.\n days a second edition 
 was called for, and before the end of a fortnight it was out of 
 print. During the next twelve months, no less than twelve 
 editions were published, and its popularity continued during 
 the lifetime of its author. In America it ran through thirty
 
 BARLEY WOOD. 127 
 
 editions within a few years. Like many of Hannah Morels 
 works, ' Coelebs ' was published anonymously ; but she was so 
 well known in such a large circle, that her style of writing 
 was recognised immediately by all her intimate friends, and 
 the secret was soon spread abroad. After paying all expenses 
 of publication, and the bookseller's profits, Mrs. Hannah 
 More cleared i^2,ooo by the work during the first twelve- 
 month. The price of the book was 12s. 
 
 The success of ' Coelebs ' must be partly attributed to its 
 being the first book of its kind, for while passing as a novel, 
 it was also recognised as a religious work, having a very 
 serious purpose. Compared with many a fiction equally high 
 in aim, but full of life and feeling, ' Coelebs ' would in the 
 present day scarcely find a reader. Hannah More was no 
 more a novelist than she was a dramatist, but she was a skilful 
 writer, and had seen a good deal of society, so that her 
 sketches of character are fair representations of many of the 
 social types of the time ; but she is far more interested in 
 pressing her own views upon various subjects, and in correct- 
 ing the evils of society, than she is in the men and women of 
 her story. These are not living creations, but mere illustra- 
 tions of her religious and social opinions. 
 
 The plan of the story is simple enough. Coelebs has lost 
 his father and mother ; he is lonely, and wishes for a wife. 
 He sets out to pay a round of visits to his friends, and he 
 hopes among them to find the lady he wants as a companion 
 for life. ' 1 do not want a Helen,' he says to himself, as he 
 drives along in his post-chaise, ' nor a St. Cecilia, nor a 
 Madame Dacier : yet she must be elegant, or I should not 
 love her ; sensible, or I sliould not respect her ; prudent, or I 
 could not confide in her ; well-informed, or she could not
 
 128 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 train my children ; well bred, or she could not entertain my 
 friends ; consistent, or I should offend the shade of my 
 mother ; pious, or I should not be happy with her.' He goes 
 first to London. Here he visits a gentleman, a widower, with 
 two pretty daughters. The arrangements of the house and 
 table are so bad that Cffilebs concludes the ladies are wholly 
 occupied in higher intellectual pursuits. He therefore asks 
 them ' if they did not think Virgil the finest poet in the 
 world ?' but they stare, and declare they never before had 
 heard of him ; they arc wholly ignorant and uneducated, 
 ' and,' says Coelebs, ' I rose from the table with a full con- 
 viction that it is very possible for a woman to be totally 
 ignorant of the duties of common life without knowing one 
 word of Latin, and that her being a bad companion is no 
 proof of being a good economist.' 
 
 The next visit was to a Mr. Ranby, at Hampstead, who 
 had a reputation as an eminently religious man. Mrs. 
 Ranby's time was occupied in attending meetings, and running 
 after her favourite preachers. There are here two daughters, 
 whom she has totally neglected, being satisfied with the fact 
 that they had never been to a ball or play in their lives, and 
 that she never allowed them to read any books which were 
 not religious. These young ladies are empty-headed and 
 frivolous in the extreme. They spend their days ' in playing 
 the piano and harp, in copying some indifferent drawings, 
 gilding a set of flower-pots^ and netting white gloves and 
 veils.' Mrs. Ranby stands as the type of the narrow, self- 
 righteous religionist, satisfied with holding certain doctrines, 
 and regarding the teaching of Christ as ' not to be taken 
 literally.' 
 
 At Lady Belfield's Coelebs meets with some fashionable
 
 BARLEY WOOD. 
 
 129 
 
 young ladies of the day, whose actions are all studied for 
 effect, and with Lady Bab Lawless, who represents the fast 
 woman of that time. Here also he is introduced to Lady 
 Denham, who, it being Passion Week, has before her in the 
 room where she receives visitors a large book, called ' A 
 Week's Preparation.' She abstains from certain fixed amuse- 
 ments during the holy season, ' but indemnified herself for her 
 abstinence from her usual diversions by indulging in the only 
 pleasures which she thought compatible with the sanctity of 
 the season — tuicJiaritable gossip and unbounded calumny.' As 
 her friends are leaving, she says, ' / am sorry this is a week in 
 which I cannot see my friends at their assemblies, but on 
 Sunday, you know, it will be all over, and I shall have my 
 house full in the evening.' 
 
 From London, and the various characters represented in its 
 society, Coelebs passes on to visit at the house of a Mr. 
 Stanley in Hampshire. Hitherto Coelebs has of course met 
 with no lady whom he would like to ask to be his wife ; but 
 Mr. Stanley has two daughters, and Lucilla, the elder, repre- 
 sents Hannah More's ideal of what a young lady should be. 
 Coelebs thus describes her : 
 
 ' Lucilla Stanley is rather perfectly elegant than perfectly 
 beautiful, I have seen women as striking, but I never saw 
 one so interesting ; it is not so much the symmetry of features 
 as the joint triuviph of intellect and szveet temper. • A fine old 
 poet has well described her : 
 
 " Her pure and eloquent blood 
 Spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, 
 That one could ahviost say her body thought !" 
 
 Her conversation is full of liveliness, sensibility, and delicacy. 
 There is nothing like effort in her expression, or vanity in her 
 
 9
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 manner. She has rather a playful gaiety than a pointed wit. 
 Taste is indeed the predominating quality of her mind, and 
 she may rather be said to be a nice judge of genius in others 
 than to be a genius herself The same true feeling pervades 
 her writing, her conversation, her dress, her domestic arrange- 
 ments. Though she has a correct ear she neither sings nor 
 plays. Her notions are too just to allow her to be satisfied 
 with mediocrity, and for perfection in art she thinks life is too 
 short, without neglecting the culture of the mind and other 
 various and important duties.' Sir John Belfield says of 
 Lucilla later, ' What a refreshment it is to see a girl of fine 
 sense more cultivated than accomplished, the creature not of 
 music, dancing, and French masters, but of nature, of books, 
 and of good company !' 
 
 It will be thus seen that Hannah More illustrates in Lucilla 
 the ideas she had already brought forward in the ' Strictures 
 on Female Education,' that the best life and development of 
 women is attained by culture rather than by so-called accom- 
 plishments. Later in the story she again takes up the evil of 
 the large amount of time spent in acquiring mechanical skill 
 in playing on the piano, and in facility in speaking French ; 
 neither of which arts touches the mind, nor gives it any know- 
 ledge or culture that is fruitful in after-life, or that fits a 
 woman for her true work in the home or in society. Hannah 
 More was one of the first writers to perceive this, and to point 
 it out ; but when ideas are fixed by fashion, and followed 
 through subservience to it, it takes long for sense and judg- 
 ment to gain ground ; and it is only in this generation that 
 the idea is fully received of choosing in the education of 
 women those subjects for study v/hich train the mind and 
 form the taste, giving depth and fulness to the inner life.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 INNER LIFE — DIARY, 1803, 1804. 
 
 Hannah More renewed again, during the progress of 1803, 
 her secret controversy with her own heart, and her solemn 
 pledges of service in the work of edification and practical 
 piety. Her diary of this year presents to us the mirror of a 
 mind gathering strength daily from the increasing conviction 
 of its natural w^eakness, and from the succours of grace con- 
 ceded to prayer and self-abasing confession before the throne 
 of grace. 
 
 She commences it in the following terms : 
 
 ' January i, 1803. — Since I have been in some measure drawn off from 
 the pursuits of the world, and have laboured, though in a most imper- 
 fect manner, to assist others in the knowledge of the truth— my life 
 being active and my health bad, I find I have neglected my writing ; 
 but being now, through the will of God, brought to a life of more leisure 
 and retirement, I resolve, through grace, to resume it. And do Thou, O 
 Lord, grant that I may be more fixed in my thoughts, more frequent in 
 self-examination, more heedful of the emotions of my own mind, more 
 mindful of death, from thus marking the progress to it. O Lord, I re- 
 solve to begin this year with a solemn dedication of myself to Thee : 
 Thine I am ; I am not my own ; I am bought with a price. Let the 
 time past suffice for me to have lived in the world— let me henceforward 
 live to Him who loved me and gave Himself for me. Lord, do Thou 
 
 9—2
 
 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 sanctify to me my long and heavy trials. Let them not be removed till 
 they have answered those ends which they were sent to accomplish. 
 
 '•Janiiary 5. — I fear I am become more intent on reading Scripture and 
 cultivating retirement, than willing to bestow time on others. I have 
 hitherto erred on the other side ; the danger now is, lest the slanders I 
 have met with should drive me to too much caution and silence. 
 
 ' January 7. — Various trials, acting on a nervous frame and keenly 
 feeling temper, have disturbed my peace and health — I fear to the dis- 
 credit of religion. Blessed be God, my mind is not only placable, but is 
 become serene. Instead of being disturbed by every petty event, I now 
 endeavour not to think very much of anything which is to end when this 
 life ends. 
 
 '"JaViiiaiy 8. — Have been frecjuent in prayer for poor ]Mr. , who is 
 
 supposed to be dying; Lord, lay not to his charge his offences against me. 
 I forgive him, as I hope to be forgiven. 
 
 ' Sunday, January 9. — Formerly I was glad when they said unto me, 
 " Let us go up into the house of our God." Now I endeavour to submit 
 cheerfully to be detained by sickness from church ; yet it is a great 
 hindrance to spiritual improvement, and I ascribe it partly to this, that I 
 have scarcely ever known any one person who has lived long abroad 
 retain much serious piety. Lord, I thank Thee that my lot was cast in a 
 land of light and knowledge, where the name of Christ is publicly pro- 
 fessed, and Christianity preached in its purity. I bless Thee for Thy day, 
 Thy Word, Thy Spirit. Lord, grant that my advantages may not one day 
 appear against me ; and that while strangers are called from the north 
 and the south, from the east and the west, I, with all my means, may not 
 be shut out of Thy kingdom. 
 
 '■January 10. — -Heard to-day of fresh persecution ; new attacks from 
 the old cjuarter ; after frequent promises of silence. Lord, grant that I 
 may bear this with a holy resignation to Thy will. If reputation be the 
 sacrifice Thou requirest, Thy will be done. I try daily to look less to 
 human applause, and more to Thy favour, which is eternal life. Grant 
 that I may not be content with saying this ; do Thou enable me to do it. 
 
 '•January 12.— Finished reading " Halyburton's Life." It is so ill 
 written, so full of Scottish idioms and vulgarisms, and so uncouth, that, 
 together with the gloomy state of his mind, it was a heavy labour to get 
 through the first half ; but the second made rich amends ; it exhibits the 
 most consolatory view of a soul which had struggled with and conquered 
 habitual sin ; all ending in such a vigorous unshaken faith, and such a
 
 JNNER LIFE— DIARY, 1803, 1804. 133 
 
 triumphant death-bed, as must animate the coldest heart, and leave the 
 most cheering impression of the truth of Christianity. 
 
 ^Jamiary 13. — I was struck at hearing read one of my o-.vn stories, 
 '•'Tis all for the best!" meant as an answer to Voltaire's ridicule of 
 optimism. The story goes strongly to the vindication of every dispensa- 
 tion of Providence, and inculcates unqualified submission in the warmest 
 terms. I blushed to think that I had not acted up to my own views — 
 "Thou that teachest another, teachest not thou thyself !" 
 
 ' January 19. — A delightful letter from my dear ancient friend, Mrs. 
 Boscawen, at eighty-four : her praise of me too exalted, but kindly meant to 
 support me under my strange attack. She desires my prayers ; how many 
 do this, who little know how much more I need theirs, and what a poor, 
 erring, sinful creature I am ! 
 
 ^ Jaiutaty 20. — I try to bring into practice this remark. If I get re- 
 pentance by affliction, it is not so much a ti'ouble as an advantageous 
 traffic ; it is a voyage which has pain in the way, but treasure in the end. 
 No affliction can hurt him that is penitent and believing ; if we escape, it 
 will make us more thankful ; if not, it will bring us nearer to God. 
 
 ^Januaiy 24. — Seeing that evils which I feared have been graciously 
 withheld, and mercies which I despaired of have been granted, I would 
 learn to trust God more, to commit myself to Him, to throw aside all 
 anxiety, and neither to fear remote evils, nor to look for distant good. 
 
 '■January 2'-). — With sorrow I find, that though it has pleased God by 
 various trials, both in my health and fame, to wean me from what is called 
 tlie world ; and I have, through grace, obtained a considerable deadness 
 to honours, pleasure, and human applause, yet it is easy to detect the same 
 spirit still at work on nearer occasions, and in the daily petty affairs of 
 life. I am discomposed by trifles which I despise, and feel inequalities of 
 temper at trifling faults in others ; am impatient at their follies, weaknesses, 
 imprudences; forgetting how often I myself offend, not only against them, 
 but against infinite mercy and inexhaustible patience. Blessed be God 
 for Jesus Christ ! 
 
 '■January 27. — I am thankful to say that my thoughts in the night, in 
 which my waking hours are many, are for the most part on serious 
 subjects ; but I grieve to find, that though my reins chasten me in the 
 night season, yet when the light of day restores cheerfulness and gaiety, 
 and objects are alive about me, I cannot get back altogether to that 
 spirituality which the night encouraged. 
 
 ' January 28. — 1 find it hard, nay impossible, to acquit myself during
 
 134 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 the day of the promises and resolutions made in the night season : this 
 furnishes fresh, constant reasons for flying "to the fountain open for sin 
 and uncleanness ;" it serves to keep the heart humble, by showing its 
 constant need of pardon, mercy, and the pleading of the Divine Intercessor. 
 ' Februaiy 2. — My birthday ! How slender was my prospect this day 
 twelvemonth that I should live to see it ! I would enumerate some of the 
 mercies of the past year : Raised up from a long and dangerous sickness 
 — from a broken state of nerves and spirits, restored to a serene and re- 
 signed frame of mind, able to thank God, not only for amended health 
 and spirits, for the many comforts and alleviations of my long and heavy 
 trial, but enabled to thank Him for the trial itself: it has shown me more 
 of the world, more of its corruptions, more of my own heart, more of the 
 instability of human opinion ; a.nd it has weaned me from many attach- 
 ments which were too strong to be right. Among other mercies, I have 
 been preserved from injury, when my horse twice fell under me. My 
 schools are not only continued, but God has raised up a powerful protector 
 in the new bishop. He has enabled me to meet, without resentment, 
 those whom I knew to be my enemies. He has given me a new and de- 
 lightful habitation, and continued to me many friends : " Bless the Lord, 
 
 my soul !" May I seriously renew my repentance for the sins of the 
 past year, and enter upon a new course of holy obedience. I would also 
 reckon it among my mercies that I have escaped the bustle and worldliness 
 of a Bath winter, and have so much time at my disposal. Oh that I 
 could spend it to the glory of the great Giver ! 
 
 '' Fcbruiwy (i.— \x\ "Oci^ night I had much comfortable intercourse with 
 my heavenly Father, and felt resigned to His will, whether it decreed that 
 
 1 should pass through honour or dishonour, evil report or good report, 
 life or death ; but when the business of the day returns, the unsteadiness 
 of my own heart, and the frivolous conversation of others sadly diminish 
 these good impressions. Oh for more permanent spirituality of mind ! 
 
 ^February 17. — A sleepless night, but, I thank God, no great pain. I 
 did not indulge my gloomy thoughts : nor did lamenting recollections 
 obtain power over my mind, but I was enabled to repeat larger passages 
 of Scripture, and to pray. 
 
 '' Februaty 18. — Another month has passed over my head. I have to 
 be thankful for its mercies. No calamity hath befallen, nor any evil over- 
 taken me, but such as is common, and to be expected in a life frail, un- 
 certain, and suftering. Oh for warmer aspirations after a life that shall 
 have no sorrow and no end !
 
 INyER LIFE— DIARY, 1803, 1804. 135 
 
 *■ February 2"]. — I am grieved to find on this Sunday, that though I 
 have leisure, I have not the right reHsh for serious objects. I find it im- 
 possible, alas ! to confine my thoughts to any devout contemplations for 
 any length of time. " Who shall deliver me from this body of death and 
 sin ?" I thank my God through Jesus Christ, that my mind kept up a 
 sense of devotion for a blessed interval on first awaking this morning. 
 
 ' March 2. — This day finished Paley's " Natural Theology." It is a 
 very able work — evinces the author's acquaintance with anatomy, and 
 almost all science. All these endowments are made subservient to the 
 grand purpose for which the book is written. But the work is still de- 
 ficient in some essential points. 
 
 '' MarcJi 12. — Poor Captain has been spending some days with us. 
 
 I think it has pleased God, by the trial of his sickness, to work a material 
 change in his heart. There seems to be in him a growing delight in 
 spiritual things, and a tenderness of conscience. I bless Thee, Lord, 
 that that exemplary servant of Thine, his sergeant, was one of our first 
 scholars at Cheddar, and that Thou hast graciously preserved him in 
 faith and virtue, in a station so full of temptation. With Thy grace a 
 camp may become a sanctuary, and without it the holiest place may be 
 converted into a scene of iniquity. 
 
 ^ March 15. — Finished this day, for the second time. Bishop Home's 
 " Paraphrase of the Psalms." A work of great edification, and of a sweet 
 and devout spirit. I do not know any book that has greater unction and 
 savour of piety. Only one thing surprises me, that this excellent man 
 falls into the common error of mistaking baptism for regeneration. 
 Surely it is confounding the outward and visible sign with the inward 
 and spiritual grace. 
 
 ' March 24. — I feel in finishing my garden that I have too much anxiety 
 to make it beautiful ; that it occupies too much of my attention, and tends 
 to give worldly thoughts a predominance in my mind. How imperfection 
 mixes itself with all we do and are ! This innocent relaxation, which 
 Providence seems kindly to have provided for me so seasonably in the 
 time of my distress and depression, is in danger of becoming a snare, by 
 fixing me too much to that world from which I am in other respects 
 trying to free myself. May I ever remember, that whatever keeps the 
 mind from God, or that stops the heart short of heavenly things, how- 
 ever harmless in itself, becomes sinful by drawing the time and thoughts 
 and affections from their proper and legitimate objects. I have, perhaps, 
 too strong a passion for scenery and landscape-gardening.
 
 136 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 ' Sunday^ March 27. — By the great favour and goodness of God, I have 
 this day been enabled to go to church. Adored be Thy holy Name, that 
 I am again restored to this privilege. Oh may it be sanctified to me! 
 May I lift up my heart in gratitude for every spiritual blessing— for 
 Sabbaths, for ordinances, for ministers I May I be less unfruitful under 
 these multiplied advantages ! Every opportunity increases my responsi- 
 bility. Let mie always remember that it was to the professors, to the 
 jiistn/cfi'd, to those who, because they had the inca7is, made sure of 
 salvation, that the Lord said, " Depart from Me, I never knew you." 
 Better to have been a pagan, a blind, ignorant idolater, than a disobedient 
 Christian, or an unfruitful believer. 
 
 ' Good Friday. — May the awful transactions of this holy day sink deep 
 into my heart, and may I resolve with more effect than I have hitherto 
 done to live henceforth to Him who died forme. May all my reading and 
 meditation this day respect that great event on which my own salvation 
 and that of the whole world depends. Lord Jesus, hasten Thy great 
 work, and grant that the knowledge of Thee may cover the earth, as 
 the waters cover the sea. Bring in the Gentiles, convert Thine 
 ancient people the Jews, and finally accomplish the number of Thine 
 elect. 
 
 ''April 13. — A fresh call to repentance and preparation, in the death 
 
 of one of my oldest friends, Mr. L- . Our accjuaintance began when 
 
 I was eighteen ; we were both then devoted to poetry, literature, and 
 intellectual amusement. His was a singular character. About the middle 
 of life he renounced worldly society and reading, yet persisted in a close 
 application to business. He fell into the habits and opinions of the 
 mystics — was much given up to secret devotion, devout meditation, and a 
 thoughtful intercourse with his Maker. I have no doubt of his sincerity, 
 but he was a character rather to be admired than imitated. He left off 
 at last all public worship. Taking no active part in society, he brought 
 little glory to God, and was less useful to mankind than his talents, his 
 virtues, and his fortune ought to have made him. He was, however, one 
 of the most amiable, gentle, and self-denying of men, and with all his 
 peculiarities, was, I doubt not, a sincere Christian /;/ Jiis luay. May I be 
 found watching, as I doubt not he was ! 
 
 ''April 19. — On Sunday I was enabled to go twice to church, through 
 the goodness of God. Shipham in the morning ; the first time of my 
 visiting the schools. I hope I was thankful for being restored to my 
 poor children, and for finding a very full and flourishing school, well-
 
 INNER LIFE— DIARY, 1S03, 1S04. 137 
 
 informed in the Scriptures. We can only put Cliristianity into their heads: 
 do Thou, O Father of mercies ! put it into their hearts, and sanctify our 
 labours ! 
 
 ' April 22. — Mr. Whalley passed a day or two with us. I am always 
 edified by his highly devotional spirit. He seems more dead to the' 
 world, and to realize the invisible things of eternity more than almost any 
 man I ever knew. We conversed much on serious subjects, and read 
 largely in Bishop Reynolds. I have to lament that the impression of such 
 reading and such conversation is so soon effaced. Last night, having lost 
 my feverish symptoms, I was enabled to keep up devout thoughts and 
 prayers during all my waking intervals. Oh that I could carry them more 
 into the intercourse of the world ! 
 
 'i1/^j/ 4.— Indisposition of body and mind has prevented my writing. 
 Things the most trivial and contemptible occupy, distract, and indispose 
 the soul for its proper work. I fear I have gone back in religion this 
 week. My waking nightly thoughts have been less voluntarily pious. I 
 find with sorrow that I stand in need of continual calls and awakening ; 
 for when all goes on peacefully, I easily degenerate into sloth and 
 deadness. 
 
 ' JMay 5. — One ill consequence I experience from my long trial is, that 
 whereas I used to watch for all occasions for introducing useful subjects, 
 I am now backward to do it, from the idea that all I say maybe called 
 enthusiasm. Alas ! it is a difficult case — I know not how to act. Lord, 
 direct me by Thy Spirit. The low tone, too, of common conversation is 
 very unfavourable to a spirit of devotion. I seize, however, what time I 
 can to be alone, and that is the time I most truly enjoy. I do not get 
 weary of holy i-eading ; but meditation and prayer too soon fail. Just 
 finished Hayley's " Life of Cowper." Cowper's letters are interesting, as 
 they present to view the genuine, affectionate, benevolent heart of the 
 incomparable author. I was disappointed to find so few of his religious 
 letters printed. The biographer seems to forget, or not to know, that 
 religion was the grand feature, the turning-point in the character of 
 Cowper. It was difficult to write his life truly, and yet tenderly. Hayley 
 has very judiciously sunk some circumstances which might have been 
 misunderstood ; and he has treated his insanity with great tenderness. 
 The whole is written in a good temper, and much favour is shown to 
 religious people. As to the composition of the life, by way of preface, it is 
 in a bad taste, florid and incorrect. It is, however, with all its faults, a 
 pleasing work, but might have been made far more useful. The letteis
 
 138 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 wind about the heart, and captivate the affections, by their natural feehng, 
 truth, elegance, and simplicity. 
 
 '■June i8. — A long pause. P. and I have been absent a month at 
 Cheltenham to drink the waters. However I may be as to bodily im- 
 provement, I fear my soul has not prospered in health. With fewer 
 impediments than I have almost ever had, fewer trials, more leisure for 
 reading and meditation, I am not more spiritually-minded. I read with 
 little improvement, I fear, though I read much. O Lord, do Thou root the 
 spirit of worldliness out of my heart. It flourishes there, because it finds 
 a congenial soil. 
 
 '' y^iiy '20. — I had hung my harp upon the willows, never more to take 
 it down, as I thought : but importunity on the one hand, and supineness 
 on the part of others, have driven me to write a popular song on the dread 
 of invasion. What a state of things must we be in, when the most im- 
 mediate way of doing good that occurs, is for iiic to write a song ! I was 
 driven to make it merrily loyal ; had it been serious it would have been 
 scouted. 
 
 ' 7^'^y 29. — Heard to-day that my enemies had been undermining my 
 character, among those of the highest rank. I am anew accused of 
 disaffection to those whom my humble talents have heartily supported, 
 and whom it is one great business of my life to support. Blessed be God ! 
 I heard this with little emotion. Oh how thankful am I, that I can now 
 hear such charges with patience ! May I more and more learn of Him 
 who was meek and lowly ; may I with humble reverence reflect that even 
 that Divine and Perfect Being was accused of sedition, and of stirring up 
 the people. 
 
 ' September 30. — I find it easier to pray that others may be weaned from 
 the world than to be weaned myself. I have spent nearly all this week in 
 my garden ; too much occupied by amusement without doors, and company 
 within. I am now, through the mercy of my God, come to the conclusion 
 of another month. Great have been my mercies — great my undeservings. 
 I would especially be thankful for a letter from the Rev. , acknow- 
 ledging the good done in his parish by my tracts— and to his own soul by 
 one in particular — that on bringing religion into the common business of 
 life. May my heart be filled with gratitude for that goodness which has 
 vouchsafed to work by so worthless an instrument. 
 
 ' Sunday. — W^e were all at W^rington church, and at sacrament. This 
 last is a blessing I have so rarely enjoyed the last two years, that I 
 cannot be thankful enough for any such opportunity. O Lord, bear and
 
 INNER LIFE— DIARY, 1803, 1S04. 139 
 
 confirm the vows I offered up to Thee at Thy table ; strengthen my 
 faith, animate my hope, influence my charity. I was not well ; I hope 
 that may partly account for the coldness of my heart. When shall I be 
 dead unto sin and alive unto God ? 
 
 ' Tuesday night, October 9. — At home for reading and prayer ; but a 
 cold heart and dead affections. Lord, prepare every heart, and 
 especially my own, to confess with deep contrition and self-abhorrence 
 our great and numberless transgressions : and may we say in the view of 
 our great military preparations, " Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, 
 and maketh flesh his arm, and departeth from the living God." 
 
 'October 13. — What a miscellaneous world! What different scenes 
 occupy successive days ! Yesterday, Patty and I dined at Clevedon, to 
 
 meet the Duke of • , though our hearts were fresh bleeding with the 
 
 recent wound of Drewitt's death. I thought it right to go, as a desire 
 had been expressed for my acquaintance, which, under any other circum- 
 stances than those of my late trials, I should have thought of no im- 
 portance. But neither the compliments nor the splendours of the day 
 could make me forget my dear departed friend. We stayed all night. 
 
 '■Friday, Octoberi^. — My beloved friend, Mr.Wilberforce, and his family, 
 came to pass a few days. I bless God that we were permitted to meet 
 once more in this tempestuous world, in tolerable peace and comfort. I 
 hope to profit by this fresh view of this excellent man's faith and holiness ; 
 his superiority to worldly temptation and worldly censure ; his patience 
 under provocations, and his lively gratitude for the common mercies of life. 
 
 ' Monday, October 17. — After breakfast the Wilberforces departed for 
 Bath, and Patty and I for Cheddar, to pay the last sad duty to Drewitt. 
 When I saw the poor widow, there were no tears, no murmurs, no com- 
 plaints, it was the most heroic piety and exemplary fortitude. We 
 attended the widow with her three young children, to take her last leave 
 of the body, before it was carried out of the house. She leaned in a 
 praying posture for a long time over the coffin, embracing it — her little 
 ones beside her — but not a groan escaped her ; she was solemnly silent, 
 but her heart was praying. 
 
 ' Mr. B preached a most interesting funeral sermon to above two 
 
 thousand weeping auditors, and it fell to his hard lot to read the prayers, 
 and to bury the friend of his heart. After sermon, the widow quietly 
 walked out of her pew, took her babies by the hand, and went to the 
 grave, over which she stood without indulging any emotion during the 
 last sad ceremony. When all was over she walked with her children
 
 I40 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 back to the house, to which the mournful procession all returned. The 
 
 sight and sorrow of R ■, the beloved friend of her husband, at length 
 
 forced a flood of tears from this heroic mourner. If I am not the better 
 for her example on this occasion, it will be among the number of my 
 sins. Lord, sanctify to us all, and to me in particular, the solemnities 
 of this day ; and grant that the sight of youth, genius, and virtue con- 
 signed to the grave, may quicken my preparation for it. Such were the 
 last honours paid to an obscure country curate, whose talents and 
 acquirements would have adorned the highest station ; but whose humility 
 and piety eminently fitted him for that which he filled. 
 
 *" October 10. — Yesterday, the 19th, was the public fast. It appears to 
 have been not only decently but solemnly observed everywhere. O Lord, 
 accept the prayers which Thy sinful, but in many instances, I trust, Thy 
 repenting creatures, have offered up at the throne of Thy grace ; and 
 grant that sorrow for sin may be an abiding principle in the hearts of all 
 those whose lips yesterday confessed it. Accept the prayers which were 
 offered up for our king and country. Avert the stroke which we have 
 most righteously deserved ; and grant that, renouncing all dependence 
 on ourselves and on an arm of flesh, we may place it solely on Thy tender 
 mercies in Christ Jesus. Unite the hearts of this nation, as the heart of 
 one man, both in their allegiance to the king, and especially to Thee the 
 King of kings and Lord of lords ; and grant that whatever may be the 
 event, we may be taught by it a deeper submission to Thy will ; and if in 
 anger Thou hast decreed that national peace should be deferred, as a 
 punishment for our sins, grant that we may individually have peace v.ith 
 Thee, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 ''November 3. — We have had the comfort of two days of the company of 
 our dear friend H. T. His mild, peaceful, subdued, holy, cheerful spirit 
 does honour to religion. May God spare him to a world not worthy of 
 
 him. I forgot to record that on nearly the same day with Drewitt, B 
 
 was called away to answer at the bar of God for a life spent in opposition 
 to the light of knowledge and education. He was one of the worst 
 calumniators of poor D. Both called into eternity together ! Oh, how 
 different the account they had to give of their respective talents ! 
 
 ' Some petty vexations from a friend convinced me too sadly how much 
 I am still in the power of trifles, and how little, after all, the world is 
 crucified to me and I to the world. Oh that I had the wings of a dove ! 
 
 '' NoTeinber 29. — Being able to do little or nothing to serve our country, 
 it occurred to us as a sacrifice it would become us to make that I should
 
 INNER LIFE— DIARY, 1803, 1804. 141 
 
 write and ofter to give up Barley Wood to the commanding officers at 
 Bristol, to be entirely at their disposal in the event of the French actually 
 landing at Uphill, eight miles distant ; or a partial use of our house in the 
 meanwhile ; — a kind letter of thanks and friendly refusal for the present, 
 but of acceptance in case of an invasion, has satisfied our minds that we 
 did right in making the offer. 
 
 '■Sunday, zjth of November. — Too damp and wet for schools or church. 
 Tried to improve the solitude thus afforded me. Read " Baxter's Funeral 
 Sermon," and some of the more serious passages of his life, and found 
 them striking, and in some respects appropriate ; but how sadly do I fall 
 short of him, particularly where he speaks of his calumnious assailants. 
 Fifty books were written against him ; about twenty-three, I think, were 
 written/fr and against mc j besides three years' monthly attack from the 
 "Anti-Jacobin ;" but while Baxter blessed God that none of these things 
 disturbed him, I have to lament that through my want of his faith and 
 piety they had nearly destroyed my life. In one thing only I had the 
 advantage — I never once 7'eplicd io my calumniators. In this one thing his 
 trial was less than mine — that his calumniators did not hinder him in the 
 service of God by diminishing his estimation as a writer, whereas I believe 
 that the false witness borne against me has caused my works to be much 
 less read and more condemned : but God can carry on His own work, 
 though all such poor tools as I were broken. 
 
 ' November 29. — I am much more sensible than heretofore of the 
 breadth and length and depth of the radical sin of selfishness, and of the 
 excellence and necessity of self-denial and public spirit and charity. 
 
 ^ Nove7nber 30. — Lord, grant me more patience and watchfulness, and 
 forgive my numberless sins, known and unknown, for the merits, and 
 sacrifice, and intercession of my Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 ' I have been much humbled in reading an account of the death of good 
 
 Mr. K 's son. What resignation to the Divine will, what trust in 
 
 Christ, what love of God joidcr ix'vsXs, and y"^?;- trials, at the early age of 
 nineteen ! At three times that age, how cold, how dead, how slack am I 
 in preparation for that eternity which is so rapidly advancing. 
 
 ' December. — Letter from Mr. Pearson declining Cheddar. This is a 
 great grief. Lord, let it be a sanctified grief. Teach me a complete 
 acquiescence in Thy holy will ; the work is in Thine hand ; to Thee I 
 would commit it. Deliver my soul from all sinful anxiety, and let me not 
 be anxious about Tliy work, but my 07vii. Oh for more faith in the pro- 
 mises, more renunciation of my own wisdom, my own will, my own way !
 
 142 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 ^Sunday, December ii. — Patty is gone to take leave of Shipham. It 
 grieves me, whose health is better than hers, thus to put the labouring 
 oar on her ; but the fear of being laid up for the winter deters me. I have 
 spent this Sabbath morning in my own room, with much peace of mind ; 
 I never do this voluntarily ; public worship is God's ordinance, and ought 
 never to be omitted but on very strong grounds. Without public worship 
 all private religion would soon decay. 
 
 '•December 26. — In the midst of my pain I have secretly been trying 
 to reconcile friends whom trifles had set at variance. Oh, what an im- 
 perfect world it is ! Good people quarrel for very nothings. For my 
 own part I feel so much sinfulness in my own nature, that it makes me 
 lenient to the faults of others. I say this now with more truth, from having 
 felt sinful tempers rise in my mind to-day about trifles. Shall I not then 
 forgive my fellow-sinner his hundred pence — I who have a debt of a 
 thousand talents to be forgiven ? May we bear one another's burdens ; 
 and may I prepare for that period of pain, and weariness, and imbecility, 
 which must be found in that old age which is approaching.' 
 
 Her diary for 1804 is the last of those interesting impres- 
 sions of her mind found among her papers, in which her 
 thoughts flow in a consecutive series ; and which, while they 
 indicate the progress of her self-searching piety, and its 
 beautiful surrender to Divine discipline, exhibits an instructive 
 specimen of the great gain of godliness, in the settled serenity 
 and liappy confidence in which it lands us at the last. 
 
 ^Sunday, Jamia7y i, 1804. — I am now, through the great and unde- 
 served mercy of my God, brought to the beginning of another Sunday 
 and another year. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His 
 benefits ; who forgiveth all thy sins and pardoneth all thine iniquities." 
 O Lord, give me grace on this day solemnly and seriously to repent of 
 the sins of my whole life, and especially of the sins which the past year 
 has added to the sins of my former life. And do Thou touch my heart 
 with a deep and lively sense of Thy continued, renewed, and increased 
 mercies. Enable me this day to pass over in review these particular 
 mercies ; among others, a considerable restoration of my health and
 
 INNER LIFE— DIARY, 1803, 1804. 143 
 
 spirits ; personal and family comforts continued ; family misfortunes 
 averted ; opportunities of doing some good ; our schools continued ; 
 kindness of friends ; ability to enjoy my sweet place ; escape from the 
 turbulent life of Bath ; increased opportunities of reading and retirement. 
 I have, too, to be thankful, amidst grievous alarms and dangers, for many 
 public blessings ; for an unusual degree of domestic peace and unanimity ; 
 for the cordiality with which all ranks have come forward in defence of 
 the country ; that a foreign invasion has been mercifully kept off, and 
 that we have had time for preparation. So blind and ignorant are we, 
 that perhaps even those very winds and tempests which have made us 
 tremble for our safety have helped to insure it. We know not, as to 
 temporals, what we should ask for ; let me, therefore, implore earthly 
 blessings with entire submission to the Divine will ; but in praying for 
 spiritual mercies no reserve, no caution, no limitation is necessary. Lord, 
 pour out the grace of Thy Holy Spirit on me and mine without measure ; 
 teach us to love Thee with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength, and 
 to devote the remainder of our lives to Thy service, and to the glory of 
 our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 '■January 7.— Intense pains in my head and face continue. Lord, give 
 me more patience : " Shall a living man complain ?" Oh, how much fewer 
 are my sufferings than my sins ; how much less do I suffer for my sins than 
 my Saviour suffered for them ! 
 
 ' January 14. — Blessed be God for an interval of ease for two days. I 
 call myself to account for my late deadness, and hardness, and worldliness, 
 disturbed with petty cares, and my heart much alienated from prayer by 
 those vefy sufferings which ought to have drawn my soul nearer to God. 
 " Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of 
 
 this death 1 I thank God through Jesus Christ." A visit from Mr. A ; 
 
 he declares that the country is in a complete state of defence, and the foe 
 hourly expected. Lord, strengthen our arms and prepare our hearts. 
 Alas ! what preparations are the great of my own sex making ! Balls, 
 routs, masquerades ; such was the preparation Belshazzar made, when 
 Cyrus burst the brazen gates, and Babylon was lost in a night. O Lord, 
 awake this sinful, sleeping land. Death and eternity ! impress these two 
 awful words on all our hearts. 
 
 ' Mr. and Mrs. and Miss H came for a week ; thus my solitary hours 
 
 are abridged ; we read together one or two sermons of Gisborne's every 
 day, and a portion of general history in the evening. May I be rendered 
 useful to these pleasing friends, by being enabled to make such remarks
 
 144 '^HE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 as may lead this young person to read common books with moral and 
 religious advantage. 
 
 'My greatest loss in giving up the society of my distant friends is that I 
 have fewer to stimulate me to the love of God. Lord, let this deficiency 
 lead me to look more to the fountain. 
 
 ' Long habits of vexation and disappointment, to which I am now inured, 
 make ordinary trials light to me. Impatience has been one of my besetting 
 evils ; it is still too ready to break out, even on occasions too small to 
 record ; but it is less so than it was. 
 
 ' Some painful occurrences. May we pity the errors, weaknesses, 
 failings, and evil tempers of each other. Teach us, O Lord, to cultivate 
 a spirit of Christian charity, and to bear with each other, especially as the 
 days of age and imbecility advance. 
 
 ' Let me be thankful that I have a comfortable evidence of growth in 
 grace. I have lately heard of new enemies and of the malignity of old 
 ones with composure ; and, I trust, with submission to the Divine will. 
 Oh that I may be entirely delivered from the fear of man, and the desire 
 of human praise ! 
 
 ' I was tempted to a piece of levity, of which I have rarely been guilty ; 
 in writing a loyal paper I had approached too near to a parody on the 
 Church Catechism. I am thankful that I felt my error, and altered the 
 piece, even to its injury, to avoid giving oftence to the serious, or any 
 example of lightness to the vain. 
 
 ' My religious reading has been much abridged, but I have in general 
 kept up my hour of reflection at the close of the day ; a retirement I much 
 enjoy and labour to secure. If religion has lost ground in my heart 
 lately, a day or two of pain, through grace, may help to restore it. I 
 had this morning in bed more comfortable intercourse with my Maker 
 than of late. 
 
 ' Sunday, ya/iuaiy 15.- — Ill-health detains me from church. Have been 
 awakened to-day to more than usual fervour in prayer, in which I have 
 been lately so dead. God grant there may not be more servile fear than 
 filial love in it. O Lord, I have not loved Thee as I ought, and therefore 
 I have not served Thee devotedly. I know not how much unbelief may 
 
 be at the root of all this deadness. The Misses S here for some days 
 
 —a painful breach healed— no misunderstanding ought to subsist for a day 
 between Christian friends ; life is too short, peace too precious ; we must 
 '■ bear one another's burdens." Christ bore all ours. 
 
 ' Lord, look upon Cheddar — suffer not the work begun there to fail.
 
 INNER LIFE— DIARY, \Zo2, iZoj^. 145 
 
 ' Lord, I come to Thee persuaded that all Thy ways are perfect wisdom, 
 and all Thy dispensations perfect goodness. 
 
 ' Sunday, Jainiary 22. — After a week of too much worldliness, my mind 
 has somewhat recovered its tone in devout prayer in the night. I have also 
 to-day prayed with more affection. I have endeavoured to check my 
 own spirit, by placing death before my eyes, and carefully reading 
 Doddridge's last chapter — the dying scene. When I read, the impression 
 is strong, and my mind serious ; but when the book is closed, the heart 
 grows cold, and the world rushes in. Some worldly trials in the week 
 have given me less vexation than usual, but that may be, not because my 
 resignation is greater, but my animal spirits better. 
 
 ' Janua)y 25. — I bless God for the holy example my friend N is giv- 
 ing of the power of religion — under tedious, painful, and dangerous disease 
 — she is divinely supported — her children and servants are grown serious 
 through her means ; Divine grace has made her to be willing to die, and 
 resign her numerous children into the hands of her heavenly Parent. 
 
 '■Sunday, February ig. — How uncertain are all sublunary things! 
 Just as the delay of the invasion was lulling the country into a false peace, 
 it has pleased God to afflict us wath an awful visitation — the sudden and 
 alarming illness of the King. Into what new calamities may this sad 
 event plunge this unthinking nation ! O Lord, in mercy remember us ! 
 Avert, if Thou seest fit, this heavy stroke. Though we have rebelled 
 against Thee, and our national iniquities cry aloud against us, yet do Thou 
 spare us, or do Thou overrule this event to his everlasting salvation and 
 for the public good : comfort and bless the royal sufferer, support and 
 strengthen him under every trial, especially under the last great conflict. 
 Sanctify it to his family, and grant that it may bring us all to a more 
 serious temper, to a closer personal apprehension of the vanity of life, and 
 a constant preparation for another world. 
 
 'February 28. — Our Bath house is sold. I am thankful for an event which 
 fixes us to this place for the short remainder of life, without the turmoil, 
 care, and expense of a divided dwelling and bustling town. Lord, grant 
 that this may prove a blessing to us all, and draw us nearer to Thee. 
 Make us thankful that our own lot is fallen in so pleasant a place — that we 
 have a goodly heritage ; but let us not take up with so poor a portion as 
 this life, or anything in it. 
 
 'March 7.— My diary is here interrupted, and maybe so for along time; 
 the idea has been suggested to me to write a pamphlet on the education 
 of the princess. I am unequal to it, yet they tell me it is a duty to attempt 
 
 10
 
 146 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 it ; I feel reluctant, but no irksomeness in the task should prevent me, if 
 I dared hope I could do any good. Lord, if it be fit that I should 
 undertake it, do Thou strengthen me for the work ; fill me with a holy- 
 boldness, with prudence and wisdom ; and if I really set about it, let Thy 
 blessing, without which all is nothing, attend it. Have been reading the 
 lives of Pascal, Cranmer, Hall. Few things are so profitable or so 
 pleasant as the lives of eminent and holy men : the last is not impres- 
 sively written — does not enter into those domestic details so interesting in 
 the lives of good men. Cranmer seems faithfully delineated by Gilpin, 
 and is of all characters the most interesting to me ; partly from a corres- 
 ponding weakness : but a more religious use might have been made of it 
 by Gilpin. 
 
 ' March 12. — A visit at last from Mrs. , ardent, amiable, pious. I 
 
 am humbled at her assuring me that my writings have been the honoured 
 instruments of bringing her to the knowledge of the truth ; for, alas ! how 
 little power have they on my own heart and life !
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF THE FIVE SISTERS. 
 
 There remains little more to tell of the life and work of Mrs. 
 Hannah More. The health and strength of all the five sisters 
 were declining, and all suffered more or less during the years 
 which followed their removal to Barley Wood. They were 
 now all of them between the ages of seventy and eighty, and 
 all their lives had been spent in incessant activity of mind and 
 body. Even now none of them were idle, and Mrs. Hannah ■^'^^ 
 More and Mrs. Patty More continued their work in the villages 
 of Mendip, superintending and planning, when they were no 
 longer able themselves to teach in the schools. 
 
 The subject which seems to have engaged the mind of 
 Hannah More at this time, and to which her last energies 
 were given, was that of the moral life of Christians. A re- 
 action against the dead forms of the past century had set in, 
 and this ' lady of two centuries ' saw now in the revival of 
 doctrinal teaching, of appeals to the emotions, and efforts to 
 awaken zeal, that there was danger lest the commands of God 
 and the principles of external life laid down in the life and 
 teaching of Christ should be overlooked, or held as secondary 
 to orthodoxy of creed and warmth of feeling. 
 
 Her first work on this subject she called ' Practical Piety.' 
 
 lO — 2
 
 148 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 Religion, she shows, was intended not for exceptional persons, 
 but for the world at large ; it was to be the leaven working 
 through all things, having to do with all life at every point. 
 The common mistakes of the older ' moralists,' who separate 
 morality from religion, and of the new ' professors,' who 
 separate religion from morality, are both exposed, so that 
 the work is just the blending of the foremost truths of both 
 the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in regard to religion. 
 A good chapter, useful in every age, is the chapter on 
 ' periodical religion,' in which the alternations of carelessness 
 and repentance, alarm and indifference, severe renunciation 
 and indulgence, are strikingly shown in all their emptiness 
 and unfruitfulness. 
 
 ' Practical Piety ' was followed by ' Christian Morals,' and 
 later still by ' Moral Sketches.' The last was written when 
 she was in her seventy-fifth year, and bears on the surface 
 some of the marks of age in its tone of plaintive anxiety 
 respecting the special evils arising out of the newer time ; but 
 here she still rises into ardent sympathy with all the best life 
 of the coming days, with the breaking down of those barriers 
 that shut off the lower classes from light and knowledge, and 
 with the more tender love and concern which admitted the 
 claims of every individual to help and protection. All these 
 books are written with vigour, and with the thorough sound 
 sense which was a special characteristic of Hannah More to 
 the last. 
 
 The five sisters had up to this time lived in unbroken love 
 and constant intercourse, ever since they had set out to seek 
 their fortunes together, nearly sixty years before, in the school 
 in Bristol ; but soon after the publication of 'Christian Morals,' 
 the first of the band was taken from their pleasant home at
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF THE FIVE SISTERS. 149 
 
 Barley Wood to her Father's house above. The eldest sister, 
 on whose sense and energy the younger ones had all depended 
 in the early days of their life together, was the first to leave 
 them. A gradual decline of strength brought her life to a 
 close on Easter Sunday, 18 13. Hannah More writes of her: 
 ' My dear eldest sister is escaped from this world of sorrow, 
 and is, I humbly trust, through the mercy of her God and the 
 merits of her Saviour, translated to a world of peace, where 
 there will be neither sin, sorrow, nor separation. Her desire 
 to be gone was great. I thought it something blessed to die 
 on Easter Sunday, to descend to the grave on the day when 
 Jesus triumphed over it.' 
 
 Three years later Mrs. Betty More, the second sister, was 
 taken from them. She had been the housekeeper of the 
 family^ and her kindness and care were much missed by the 
 remaining sisters. At that time Mrs. Sally More was in a dan- 
 gerous state from dropsy, but, as Hannah More writes, * still 
 retains all the spirit and vivacity of her youth,' often cheering 
 her sisters by the liveliness that had long ago so charmed 
 Dr. Johnson. Mrs. Patty More, Hannah More's fellow- 
 worker in the Mendip villages, was suffering from a liver 
 complaint, and in a very declining state. 
 
 Six months afterwards Mrs. Sally More's sufferings, so 
 bravely borne, were ended. To the last she maintained the 
 same playful brightness and courageous endurance of pain 
 which she had shown all through her illness. ' This sprightly, 
 gay-tempered creature,' says Hannah More, ' 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 more than resignation, it was a sort of 
 spiritual triumph over the sufferings of her tormented body.
 
 ISO THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 On one occasion one of her sisters said to her, ' Poor Sally ! 
 you are in dreadful pain.' She answered, ' I am indeed, but 
 it is all well.' 
 
 A friend who attended her all through her last illness, thus 
 writes : 
 
 ' While still so well as to be able, in some degree, to pursue her 
 usual sedentary employments, she gave a striking proof how entirely she 
 was withdrawing her mind from the things of this world, by refusing 
 to have her chair placed near the bow-window, from whence she could 
 enjoy the sight of those plants and flowers which it had been her constant 
 amusement and delight to cultivate, but from which she now turned 
 with an expression of the most entire indifference. 
 
 ' At length it became impossible for her any longer to support a sitting 
 position, and just before she was assisted upstairs for the last time, 
 she threw a look all around her, evidently taking a mental farewell 
 of the scene to which she had been so long accustomed, with an expres- 
 sion which, though she uttered no word, was full of solemn meaning. 
 The extremity and constancy of her sufferings at length deprived her 
 of the power of attending to a chain of reading which had hitherto been 
 her chief delight and solace. To supply in some measure this loss, 
 her sisters used to repeat from time to time a few detached texts, in 
 which she would constantly join with the greatest fervour. During the 
 last two years of her life more especially, she had been so diligent and 
 constant a reader of the Scriptures, as well as of other devotional books, 
 that her mind had become completely imbued with them ; and it was 
 very remarkable, that in the moments of her sharpest pain, her attention 
 was instantly excited, and her mind visibly comforted, if any bystander 
 recited a verse from the Scripture, or a short prayer, in which, even when 
 unable to speak, she joined wilh deep fervour. 
 
 ' One day, after she had lain some time in an almost insensible state, a 
 friend tried her with a few texts of Scripture ; she suddenly burst forth, 
 " Can anything be finer than that ? it quite makes one's face shine !" 
 Towards the latter part of her illness she asked one day to have a little 
 girl in whom she was interested brought to her. She could only deliver 
 herself in short sentences, but her words were, " God bless thee, my dear 
 child ; love God ; serve God ; love to pray to God more than to do any 
 other thing." One night she complained of too much light, adding that 
 " the smallest light was enough to die by." Mrs. H. I\Tore asked her if
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF THE FIVE SISTERS. 151 
 
 she had comfort in her mind ? " Yes," she replied, " I have no uncom 
 fort at all." She was then asked if she knew some friend that was in the" 
 room. " Oh yes !" she answered ; " I know everybody and remember 
 everything." " Poor dear soul," said one of her attendants, " she remem- 
 bers her sufferings too !" " No," she answered, in a tone of the most 
 affecting resignation ; " I do not think of them." When she was sup- 
 posed to be very near her last hour, on her medical attendant wishing her 
 good morning, she raised her hands in a holy transport, exclaiming, " Oh 
 for the glorious morning of the resurrection ! — but there are some grey 
 clouds between !" She then blessed him with all his family, and exhorted 
 him to love God, and to take care of his soul. "Oh," 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 !" 
 The following day she awoke suddenly out of a tranquil sleep, crying out 
 in a rapture, " Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto the 
 Lamb — Hallelujah !" Another morning, when she was imagined to be in 
 the very act of dying, recovering herself a little, she murmured out, " When 
 shall I come to these things — grace — mercy — peace !"' She then asked 
 for a little cold water, and turning her head towards a nurse who was at- 
 tending her, " Do you know who it was that said, ' A cup of cold water 
 given in My name ' ? ' 
 
 ' Again, in the intervals between her wanderings and the extremity of 
 pain, she exclaimed incessantly, " Oh, the blood of Christ! He died for 
 me ! God was made man ! May His blood be shed on me !" " Lord, 
 let the light of Thy countenance shine upon me." " When shall I appear 
 before God ?" And then half bewildered again, she cried out earnestly to 
 her sister, " Patty, do love the blessed God ! Lord, shield me with the 
 wings of Thy love." After a little interval, she said to Mrs. H. More, " I 
 hope I have had all my stripes ; Lord, I am ready — finish the work !" On 
 awaking in the afternoon, she again poured forth this ejaculation, " Lord, 
 look down upon me with the light of Thy salvation ; let Thy Holy Spirit 
 shine upon me. Look, O Lord ! upon Thy afflicted servant." When 
 somebody present said to her, " The Lord will release you, and take you 
 out of your pain," she seemed to fear lest she had betrayed some im- 
 patience, and immediately answered, "Aye, in His own good time." She 
 then broke out into the Gloria Patri, and added, " Lord, look down upon 
 a poor penitent, humble, contrite sinner." 
 
 ' Nearly three days now passed, either in strong delirium, or total 
 stupor, at the end of which time she became more composed, and, as at
 
 152 THE LIFE OF HANNAH HI ORE. 
 
 every other time, uttered no sentence in which supplication or praise was 
 not mingled. Her chief cry on this day was for pardon and sanctification, 
 and she charged her sisters to strive for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Her 
 wanderings were frequent, but whether sensible or incoherent, calm or 
 agitated, still the names of her God and her Saviour were constantly on 
 her tongue. 
 
 ' Her sister asked her if she knew her : she answered, " I know nobody 
 but Christ." In the evening of her last day but one, though scarcely 
 able to articulate, she murmured out to those who stood around her, 
 " Talk of the cross — the precious cross — the King of love." On the morn- 
 ing of her blessed and quiet release from an earthly existence, though 
 no longer able to swallow food, or discern any outward object, she was 
 still enabled to give an evidence of the heavenly frame of her mind ; 
 when a friend repeated to her that heart-sustaining assurance , " That 
 the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin," she pronounced with a devout 
 motion of her hands and eyes, "cleanseth," and a moment after," Blessed 
 Jesus !" and these were the last of her words that could be collected. 
 It is scarcely necessary to repeat, after such a relation, that her whole 
 conduct during her conflict with this last enemy was one uniform and 
 uninterrupted display (when she was in possession of her faculties) of 
 those fruits of the Spiiit enumerated by the apostle, " Love, peace, meek- 
 ness, long-suffering, faith :" and it only remains for us to pray that our 
 latter end may be like hers.' 
 
 The loss of this sister, whose bright intelh'gence and gaiety 
 of heart made her the sunshine of the home, was deeply felt 
 by Mrs. Hannah More and her sister Patty. They were both 
 suffering, too, from bad health and declining strength ; but for 
 two more years it pleased God to spare them as companions 
 to one another. They had toiled and rejoiced together in 
 their work in the Mendip villages, and the parting, when it 
 came at last, was very hard to bear. Mr. and Mrs. Wilber- 
 force had been staying in the house, and Mrs. Patty More had 
 exerted herself to go with them to Cheddar and some of the 
 other villages. In the night she was seized with violent in- 
 flammation, and four days afterwards Mrs. Hannah More was
 
 THE LAST DA YS OF THE FIVE SISTERS. 153 
 
 left alone, and Mrs. Patty's long and very useful life was 
 ended. 
 
 ' I may now indeed say,' writes the solitary survivor of this 
 band of distinguished sisters, ' my house is left unto me deso- 
 late. I bless my heavenly Father^ however, that He has not 
 left me without consolation and support. And when I reflect 
 on Iter immense gain, I am ashamed to dwell so much on my 
 own loss. I find not one reason to murmur, but many for 
 thanksgivings. She was enabled, after a life of devotedness 
 to God, to bear her dying testimony to His faithfulness and 
 truth. I feel 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 and gave Himself 
 for her ; that she indeed sleeps in Jesus. Her last words 
 were expressive of her strong Christian hope. When a friend 
 pitied the excruciating pain she was suffering, she said, 
 " Oh, I love my sufferings ; they come from God, and I love 
 everything that comes from Him." Shall I mourn such 
 a death ? And yet I cannot but mourn deeply. The re- 
 mainder of my pilgrimage, however, must be short. My chief 
 earthly support is removed, that I may lean more entirely 
 on God. She is spared feeling for me what I now feel 
 for her.' 
 
 The year following her sister's death, to all human 
 appearance, she herself was on the point of departing. She 
 aroused her household in the night-time, being seized with a 
 suffocating obstruction on the chest. Her illness was very- 
 tedious, and it was expected to be her last. Even when the 
 fear of an immediate dissolution was removed, it was not 
 expected that she would survive during another winter. For 
 herself, she did not seem to have any care or anxiety on the
 
 154 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 subject. ' I thank God,' she said to a clergyman who had 
 been praying by her bedside, ' I have not the slightest anxiety 
 whether to live or die. 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, undivided, unqualified reliance on that 
 blood that was shed upon it.' It pleased God yet to preserve 
 her useful life for various years. In another bad attack on a 
 future occasion, she then said : 'If I could determine for life 
 or death by holding up my hand, I would not do it. ... I 
 seem to long as much for the holiness as the happiness of 
 heaven ; it is such a blessed idea to be delivered from the 
 possibility of sinning.' In reading the thirty-ninth psalm, 
 when she came to the verse, ' Oh, spare me a little,' she broke 
 short, saying : ' That part I will not repeat : it does not express 
 my feelings.' 
 
 She recovered from these dangerous attacks so far as to be 
 able once more to receive her multitudinous visitors, although 
 much of the annals of the closing years of her life is occupied 
 by the narrative of her dangerous illnesses and remarkable 
 recoveries. She was hardly able to answer half her letters, 
 but she did her best for her visitors. It was her system, on 
 her first introduction to worldly characters, not immediately to 
 press upon them the subject of religion, if it was likely that 
 they would meet her more than once ; but if it was a single 
 opportunity, she would try and come to the point at once. 
 Many of her visitors brought her cheering news. One had 
 met with one of her works in Iceland ; another told her that 
 a Russian princess was translating some of her tracts into the 
 Russian language ; and a third that some of her poems were 
 being translated into the Cingalese tongue. Some of the best 
 people in the world came to see her, using the word ' best ' in
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF THE FIVE SISTERS. 155 
 
 its highest sense. At one time it is Mr. Wilberforce ; at 
 another time Dr. Chalmers comes ; or it may be a bishop of 
 the infant Episcopal Church of America ; then it would be Mr. 
 Jay, or perhaps her correspondent Mr. Foster ; or it is Rowland 
 Hill. ' I had been told so much of his oddities in the pulpit, 
 that I was prepared for something amusingly absurd. But, as 
 the phrase is, I reckoned without my host, or rather without 
 my guest. As a proof that he takes good works largely into 
 his notions of religion, when I asked him if it were true that 
 he had vaccinated six thousand poor people with his own 
 hand, his answer was, " Very near eight thousand." ' Among 
 her visitors there was one who was very remarkable — one who 
 was considered the cleverest schoolboy and the cleverest 
 undergraduate in England. Hannah More's piercing glance 
 discovered her visitor's vast capabilities. She ' wished Tom 
 was in Parliam.ent, for then he would surpass them all.' She 
 lived to see it. It was Thomas Babington Macaulay of whom 
 she speaks, the future peer and historian. 
 
 For eight years she continued to live at Barley Wood, 
 having generally some friend staying with her as a com- 
 panion ; and left as she was, the last of her family, yet she was 
 no solitary stranded wreck, cast upon a desert shore, when all 
 besides had gone down. Her old friends of the eighteenth 
 century had passed away, one of the last of them being Sir 
 William Pepys, the ' Lselius' of her ' Bas Bleu,' who died in 
 1825, after a friendship with her of fifty years, and another, 
 Mrs. Garrick, who lived to the age of a hundred ; but Hannah 
 More's heart was in the nineteenth century as well as in the 
 past. She loved the people and the work which had suc- 
 ceeded to the old order of things, for she felt that, under the 
 rule of God, the world was passing to a brighter and not a
 
 156 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 darker day, that there were hope and Hfe around her, though 
 hers were fading now. 
 
 Mrs. Hannah More had hoped to end her hfe at Barley 
 Wood, the home which had become most dear to her, the 
 purchase of her own toil, the object of her special taste, and 
 from which the four sisters had passed away to their Father's 
 house above ; but in her eighty-fourth year circumstances 
 induced her to leave the much-loved spot. All her early life 
 had unfitted her for attending in any way to the domestic 
 management of a household, and since the sisters had lived 
 together that part of their home arrangements had fallen to 
 those most accustomed to it. After their deaths everything 
 was left to the servants, and a thorough system of robbery 
 and misconduct was carried on by them. It was some time 
 before this was made known to Mrs. Hannah More, and then 
 it was a kind friend who discovered to her what almost every- 
 one around had long been conscious of. She felt her inability 
 to contend with the household difficulties of keeping up a suf- 
 ficient establishment for Barley Wood, and she resolved to 
 sell the place, and to remove to Clifton, using her money for 
 the service of God while she still lived, instead of waiting till 
 death made it useless to her. Still the trial was great, and as 
 she left the house, she exclaimed, ' I am driven like Eve out 
 of Paradise, but not like Eve by angels.' 
 
 Her new abode was on Windsor Terrace, Clifton, and she 
 lived here for rather more than five years. With the exception 
 of some loss of memory, Mrs. Hannah More retained the use 
 of her mental powers till the close of her eighty-seventh 
 year, taking still the deepest interest in public events of the 
 time, and in the work being carried on in the Mendip villages ; 
 but during the last year of her life she suffered much from
 
 THE LAST DA YS OF THE FIVE SISTERS. 157 
 
 inflammation of the lungs, and the inflammatory symptoms 
 passed at times to the brain, disturbing the clearness of her 
 intellectual powers. To the very last she retained sight and 
 hearing unimpaired. 
 
 During her last illness there was the shining within of that 
 clear light of utter trust in the love of God which gave such 
 brightness to the even-tide of her sisters' lives. She talked 
 much of the many mercies of God to her through her long 
 life, often making use of such expressions as ' God of light, 
 God of love.' ' I know that my Redeemer liveth. Oh, the 
 love of Christ, the love of Christ !' * It is glorious to die to go 
 to heaven — think what tJiat is !' 
 
 The fifty-first psalm was always on her lips : ' Create in me 
 a clean heart, O God ; renew a right spirit within me. Cast 
 me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy 
 Spirit from me.' ' I love you, my dear child, with fervency,' 
 she said to the lady who was with her. ' It will be pleasant to 
 you twenty years hence to remember that I said this on my 
 death-bed.' When she w^as asked if anything could be done 
 to make her more comfortable, she answered, ' Nothing but 
 love me, and forgive me when I am impatient. I hope my 
 temper is not peevish or troublesome.' When they answered 
 that it was the temper of an angel, she replied, ' Oh no, not of 
 an angel, but of a very highly favoured servant of the Lord, 
 my Saviour.' Her servant proposed to read a chapter to her, 
 and she said, ' What are you going to read .''' and upon being 
 told the * resurrection of Christ,' she said, ' If we meet at His 
 feet we shall be equal.' And when an attendant was repeat- 
 ing some psalms and hymns, she said, ' You cannot have your 
 mind too much stored with these things ; w'hen you get old 
 or in solitude they will supply you with comfort.' Again, to
 
 158 THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 a friend, ' To go to heaven, think what tJiat is ! to go to my 
 Saviour who died that I might hve. Lord, humble me ; 
 subdue every evil temper in me. May we meet in a robe of 
 glory ! through Christ's merits alone can we be saved ! Look 
 down, O Lord, upon Thy unworthy servant with eyes of com- 
 passion. ... It pleases God to afflict me, not for His plea- 
 sure, but to do me good, to make me humble and thankful ; 
 Lord, I believe ; I do believe with all the powers of my weak, 
 sinful heart. Lord Jesus, look down upon me from Thy 
 holy habitation ; strengthen my face and quicken me in my 
 preparation. Support me in that trying hour when I most 
 need it ; it is a glorious thing to die !' And when some one 
 mentioned to her the good deeds which she had wrought, she 
 answered, ' Talk not so vainly ; I utterly cast them from me, 
 and fall low at the foot of the cross.' 
 
 * On Friday the 6th of December, 1833,' writes a friend, 
 ' we offered up the morning family devotion by her bedside : 
 she was silent, and apparently attentive, with her hands 
 devoutly lifted up. From eight in the evening of this day 
 till nearly nine I sat watching her. Her face was smooth 
 and glowing. There was an unusual brightness in its expres- 
 sion. She smiled, and endeavouring to raise herself a little 
 from her pillow, she reached out her arms as if catching at 
 something, and while making this effort she once called 
 "Patty," the name of her last and dearest sister, very plainly, 
 and exclaimed, " Joy." 
 
 ' In this state of quietness and inward peace she remained 
 for about an hour. At half-past nine o'clock, Dr. Carrick 
 came. The pulse had become extremely quick and weak. At 
 about ten, the symptoms of speedy departure could not be 
 doubted. She fell into a dozing sleep, and slight convulsions
 
 THE LAST DA YS OF THE FIVE SISTERS. 159 
 
 succeeded, which seemed to be attended with no pain. She 
 breathed softly, and looked serene. The pulse became fainter 
 and fainter, and as quick as lightning. It was almost extinct 
 from twelve o'clock, when the whole frame was very serene. 
 With the exception of a sigh or a groan, there was nothing 
 but the gentle breathing of infant sleep. Contrary to expec- 
 tation, she survived the night. She continued till ten 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 of the Lamb for 
 ever and ever." ' 
 
 Few indeed among ' honourable women ' have spent such 
 a useful and beneficent career. Her writings, which, generally 
 speaking, are more the offspring of sound sense and careful 
 culture than genius and originality, will probably obtain a 
 less permanent value than her contemporaries expected. But 
 the influence which they had in her own lifetime was immense, 
 and it would be difficult to gauge the length and the breadth 
 of the good which they accomplished. To this must be added 
 the practical and religious benefits diffused by this remarkable 
 sisterhood far and wide throughout the neighbourhood in 
 which they resided. Moreover, the life of Hannah More was 
 in beautiful harmony with her words of wisdom and works of 
 mercy ; her example is fraught with influence, and the record 
 of her days with instruction. 
 
 ' Only the actions of the just. 
 Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.' 
 
 Hannah More's life, read aright, is full of meaning. She 
 was no mere spoiled child of a literary circle, no mere trite 
 moralist of the last century, no mere narrow religionist of a 
 doctrinal clique ; and yet she has been too much regarded by
 
 i6o THE LIFE OF HANNAH MORE. 
 
 a later generation as one or all of these. She sympathized 
 with the literary life of her own time such as she found it; 
 she felt the good sense of the practical morality of the 
 English people, especially as standing in relief against 
 German sentimentalism and French license ; and she warmly 
 received those truths brought into prominence by the evan- 
 gelical revival. She stands thus before us as an illustration 
 of how much pure religion, sound morality, and wide culture 
 are all needed rightly to understand our age, and to do true 
 work for God in it. It was this combination of forces, too 
 often disunited, which gave her so much influence and 
 strength, and which formed the ground of her steadfast, 
 cheerful faith in God's rule : 
 
 ' That God which ever lives and loves, 
 One God, one law, one element, 
 And one far-off Divine event, 
 To which the whole creation moves.' 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BILLING AND SONS, TRINTEKS, GUILDFORD AND LONDON.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW.
 
 1- x^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 A. A. 
 
 SorS'882 
 
 ^U-v-X'^Li^ 1205 00618 9466 
 
 ^