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No. XXIII.

MRS. HANNAH MORE.

Few persons have enjoyed a higher degree of public esteem and veneration than Mrs. Hannah More. Early in life she attracted general notice by a brilliant display of literary talent, and was honoured with the intimate acquaintance of many highly eminent individuals, who equally appreciated her amiable qualities and her superior intellect. But, under a deep conviction that to live to the glory of God, and to the good of our fellow-creatures, is the great object of human ex-istence, and the only one which can bring peace at the last, she quitted, in the prime of her days, the bright regions of fashion and literature, and devoted herself to a life of active Christian benevolence, and to the composition of various works, having for their object the religious improvement of mankind. Her practical conduct beautifully exemplified the moral energy of her Christian principles. She was the delight of a wide circle of friends, whom she charmed by her mental powers, edified by her example, and knit closely to her in affection by the warmth and constancy of her attachment. She lived and walked in an atmosphere of love, and it was her delight to do good; the poor for many miles round her felt the influence of her unceasing benevolence, and her numerous schools attested her zeal for the improvement and edification of the rising generation.

To the "Imperial Magazine," and "The National Portrait Gallery," we are almost entirely indebted for the following memoir of this excellent and lamented lady:

Hannah More, the eldest of five sisters, was born at Stapleton, in the midst of the coal district of Gloucesterhire, bordering on the river Avon, where it divides that county from

Somerset, in the year 1745. Her parents were poor, but pious, and respected by all their neighbours. Her father was the village school master; and such was his reputation for sobriety and diligence, that, on a vacancy in the parochial school of St. Mary, Redcliff, at Bristol, he was appointed to that situation without competition. Hannah, who was at this time about fourteen years old, had even at that age attracted notice by the fertility of her genius and aptitude for learning. The propriety of her conduct, as evinced in the assistance which she rendered to her parents, and particularly in the instruction she imparted to her sisters, could not fail to procure her friends in the more extended sphere to which she was now removed.

By one of those fortunate, or, as we should, perhaps, more properly say, providential, coincidences, which give an important turn in life, about the time of Hannah's transplantation to Bristol, she drew the attention of Doctor, afterwards Sir James Stonhouse, by a poetical compliment addressed to his daughter. The doctor had but just quitted the profession of a physician, which he had practised above twenty years at Northampton, and had now, for his health, settled in Bristol. At his onset in life, he was perverted to infidelity by his medical tutor, the celebrated Dr. Frank Nichols, the king's physician. Doctor Stonhouse, on graduating at Oxford, after his return from abroad, settled at Northampton, where it was his happy lot to contract an intimacy with Dr. Doddridge and Mr. James Hervey; this friendship had the effect of shaking his sceptical principles, and at length he became so deeply convinced of the truth of the Christian religion, that he destroyed all the copies of a pamphlet which he had, not long before his conversion, written against it. He also now exerted himself to the utmost, in repairing the evil he had done, by recovering to the truth those who had fallen by his example.

Mr. Hervey died in the arms of Dr. Stonhouse; and so lively an interest did that eminently pious minister take in the welfare of his friend and physician, that he earnestly urged

him to enter into orders. The exhortation, at such an awful moment, made a strong impression upon the doctor's mind, and, about four years afterwards, he was ordained by Lord James Beauclerk, bishop of Hereford. Upon this change, he was presented by his friend, Lord Radnor, to the living of Little Chevnal, in Wiltshire; besides which, he accepted the lectureship of All Saints in Bristol; but the stipend of this last preferment he gave to his assistant, having a handsome fortune of his own, and so had his lady, who was a very pious woman, and had been brought up in the family of Dr. Doddridge, her guardian.

Through the patronage of Dr. Stonhouse, and that of his worthy family, the subject of this memoir was enabled to establish a very respectable and flourishing day-school on Redcliff Hill; but afterwards, through the same interest, she removed to Park Street, within a door or two of her friend the doctor. Here she and her sisters took a select number of boarders, and at length the day-school was given up altogether. This was mainly, if not solely, owing to the doctor, whose circle of friends being large and of the first rank, proved of the greatest importance to our young Hypatia ; and it might be justly said, that she found in her patron another Synesius. The doctor was an elegant classical scholar, and thoroughly conversant with polite literature, as well French as English. Hannah's education, as may be supposed, had been very contracted; for her father, who was the sole instructor of her childhood, could set up no higher pretensions to learning than those ordinarily possessed by common schoolmasters; and the books then in use among teachers of that description were little adapted to expand the enquiring mind. The reading of Hannah, till her removal to Bristol, had, in consequence, been very limited; and she was wont to say, that an odd volume of Pamela, and another of the Spectator, were the only books of character that had fallen in her way, previous to her transplantation from the Boeotian region where she drew her breath, to the populous city of which she soon became the principal ornament. So well, however,

did she profit by this event, that at the age of eighteen she composed some poetical pieces for the improvement of her pupils, one or two of whom were actually older than herself. Among these early productions was a pastoral drama, which was recited by a party of young ladies, for whom it was purposely written; and which was eagerly read and much admired by several persons of literary taste and judgment at Bristol. As manuscript copies were in consequence handed about and multiplied among the author's friends, the publication of the pastoral was strongly desired, but all importunities to that effect were resisted till the rule "nonum prematur in annum” was nearly complied with; and then, on the recommendation of Mr. Garrick, and with the consent of Dr. Stonhouse, it was suffered to issue from the Bristol press, accompanied by a prologue to Hamlet, and another to Lear, with some lyrical pieces. The publisher in London was Mr. Cadell, who had not long before removed thither from Bristol as successor to Andrew Millar. Such was the popularity of "The Search after Happiness," the title of the drama, that in a few months it passed through three editions.

The success of her pastoral, and the influence of so good a judge as Garrick, encouraged our author to try her strength in the highest branch of dramatic poesy. Accordingly, in the following year, the tragedy of "The Inflexible Captive" was brought out, and experienced a reception sufficiently flattering to induce a continuance in the "train of Melpomene." Two seasons afterwards, "Percy," the most popular of her tragic compositions, was enacted at Drury Lane, and ran fourteen nights successively.

The tragedy of "Fatal Falsehood" closed the dramatic career of our author; and the same year, on the death of her much valued friend, Mr. Garrick, who bequeathed to her a legacy as a token of esteem, she bade adieu for ever to theatrical amusements. With Mrs. Garrick she continued to live on terms of the most cordial intimacy; and, as long as she had it in her power to travel so far, she commonly spent some portion of every year at Hampton.

Soon after her first tragedy, she sent to the press two legendary poems entitled, "Sir Eldred of the Bower," and "The Bleeding Rock," founded upon some popular traditions current in Somersetshire, among the peasantry of Mendip. The success of these pieces was extraordinary, a thousand copies being sold in a fortnight.

A small volume of "Essays for Young Ladies," printed in 1777, was also stamped with the public approbation; though the author thought proper to reject it from the collection of her works, published in 1801, on the ground that the book was superseded by her "Treatise on Female Education."

Of the above performance, the worthy and liberally-minded Job Orton thus gave his opinion at the time of its publication:

"I have read Miss More's Essays for Young Ladies,' with which I am very well pleased; as containing excellent prudential cautions, and admirable religious maxims. She writes so well, so usefully, and with such a strong tincture of rational and manly piety, that I would have every reader enter fully into her sentiments and advices, which are adapted to do much good."

The "Ode to Mr. Garrick's House Dog, Dragon," which came out the same year with the Essays, is another instance of the versatile genius of the writer, and shows how happily she could expose literary affectation, in whatever form it might appear.

Among the most intimate friends of Hannah More, at this period, was Sir Robert Palk, of Haldon House, in Devonshire. At this beautiful and elevated spot, which, George III. used to say, was the finest for its prospects he had ever seen, our author commonly spent part of every summer.

In 1782, Hannah More made another addition to her laurels, by the publication of a volume of "Sacred Dramas;" with a poem annexed, entitled "Sensibility." The attempt to dramatise historical portions of the Bible was not new; the same having been done, and eloquently, in Latin, by Buchanan and Grotius; who were preceded, ages before, by Ezekiel,