the interest of many readers who would have thrown aside an essay in disgust, cast her treatise into the narrative form; and instead of describing a perfect woman, drew one. If Lucilla, therefore, were not faultless, she would not be what Mrs. More intended. One fault in that character would be a fault in the work. If it would have been wrong in Chapone or Gregory to recommend faults to their readers, it would have been wrong in Mrs. More to draw her Lucilla faulty.* Celebs is simply a narrative treatise, in the various chapters of which we learn how a christian lady ought to act in almost every conceivable position of social life. The novel reader, measuring the work by rules which were never intended to apply to it, and comparing it with compositions to which it bears no real affinity, will lose most of its excellence, and imagine many defects in it. The philosophical reader, however, will find in it a discourse of great wisdom and beauty. It has been supposed that some of the characters in Colebs were drawn after the life; but Mrs. More repeatedly assured her friends that such was not the case.† Cœlebs was followed in two years by a composition of not inferior excellence, the "Practical Piety:" and, in one year more, appeared the "Christian Morals:" a work which Mrs. More preferred to the former. In both cases the works were bespoken before they were out of the press. The former was soon popular in America; both that work and Colebs were translated into the language of Iceland; and several of Mrs. More's productions were invested with a Russian dress by the Princess Metschersky. In 1815, appeared her Essay on the Character and Practical Writings of St. Paul. During the composition of this work, an alarming accident occurred. In reaching across the fire-place to a book-shelf, the end of Mrs. More's shawl took fire, nor was she aware of the accident till the whole upper part of her dress was in a blaze. She had locked the door of her study, to exclude interruption; but her cries soon brought Miss Roberts, the sister of her biographer, to her assistance, who, at the cost of some burns, extinguished the flames. In 1817, Mrs. More's pen was again at work in defence of the constitution of her country. Various ballads and tracts, written to counteract the prevailing discontents and dangerous opinions, were rapidly thrown off. In the year following appeared a little piece called "The Feast of Freedom," written in one day, while Sir Alexander Johnstone • It is remarkable that Mrs. More, even in drawing a faultless character, is studious to draw after nature. Her Lucilla is copied from Eve before the fall, as described by that great student of nature, Milton. + Colebs has the misfortune to receive a stroke or two from the flail of "Talus." We are informed, however, that it still continues to be read. The delicacy of the moral gentleman is offended by the "grossness" (!) "expressed in the very title!" How he interpreted the title we cannot conjecture. was at Barley Wood, to commemorate his emancipation of the slaves in Ceylon. The poem was translated into the Cingalese, and several of the Indian languages. The "Sacred Dramas" also found their way into the former tongue; and the Practical Piety has been (we believe) translated into Persian. Shortly after this appeared "Moral Sketches on Prevailing Opinions and Manners, foreign and domestic, with Reflections on Prayer." That Mrs. More's Sunday Schools had been productive of great benefit, our readers will not doubt. It may, however, be interesting to them to be made acquainted with some of the alumni. Twenty years after the establishment of the Cheddar schools, Mrs. More found at Weymouth a young man who had been first scholar and teacher, as paymaster and serjeant-major! There were 800 men under his training. One of the officers observed to Mrs. More, "All this is owing to the great abilities and industry of Serjeant Hill. He is the greatest master of military tactics we have. At first he was so religious that we thought him a methodist, but we find him so fine a soldier, and so correct in his morals, that we now do not trouble ourselves about his religion."* Ten years afterwards she writes thus to Mr. Macaulay : Two of our first scholars at Cheddar, whom we taught their letters thirty years ago, died last week. They became remarkably pious at fourteen years old. I went to see them just before I was taken ill. One of them had prospered in life, and married another of our pious school-boys, who became afterwards a good tradesman. I never attended a more edifying dying bed. With ulcerated lungs and inflammation on the liver, she discovered something more than resignation: it was a sort of humble grateful triumph; she was obliged to pray against impatience for death, so ardent was her desire to be with her Saviour. Oh, how I envied her! there was no heated imagination; she was happy on good grounds.†-Vol. IV. pp. 33, 34. In the years 1819 and 1822, Mrs. More was visited with severe and dangerous illness. Her devotional resignation on both these occasions was such as might be expected from one who had lived as she had. Mr. Roberts's details on this subject are interesting in the very highest degree; but to abridge them with any effect would be impossible. One circumstance connected with the former of these illnesses may well astonish our readers. We give it in the words of Mrs. More herself, in a letter addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Huber. In the worst of my illness, Cadell wrote to entreat me to preface a new edition of "Moral Sketches," with a short tribute to our late lamented king. My friend wrote him word it was utterly impossible, that I might as well Roberts, Vol. III. p. 249. It may be satisfactory to our readers to know that the good work still prospers at Cheddar. On that once profligate and uncivilized spot, a noble national school is now rapidly rising, with dwelling-house for master and mistress, &c. &c., and conveniences of every description, inferior to none in the kingdom. All this is the work of private munificence, aided by a bequest of Mrs. More. The Marquis of Bath headed the subscription with a grant of the land and 1007. attempt to fly, as to write. A week after, supposing me to be better, he again renewed his entreaty. I was not better, but worse. I fancied, however, that what was difficult, might not be impossible. So, having got every body out of the way, I furnished myself with pen, ink, and paper, which I concealed in my bed, and next morning, in a high fever, with my pulse above a hundred, without having formed one thought, bolstered up, I began to scribble. I got on about seven pages, my hand being almost as incompetent as my head. I hid my scrawl, and said not a word, while my doctor and my friend wondered at my increased debility. After a strong opiate, I next morning returned to my task of seven pages more, and delivered my almost illegible papers to my friend to transcribe and send away. I got well scolded, but I loved the king, and was carried through by a sort of affectionate impulse; so it stands as a preface to the seventh edition.-Vol. IV. p. 112. In 1824, Mrs. More having now attained her 79th year, she published her "Spirit of Prayer." The whole edition was bespoken as soon as advertised, and the second was in the press before she had received her copy of the first. In three months from its appearance it had reached a third. This was Mrs. More's last work of any material importance. From this time her energies, while they remained, were principally concentrated on her schools, her friends, and herself. Four more years she passed in this pleasing activity, not realising altogether that airy fabric of contemplative retirement which her fancy had constructed almost in childhood, yet finding time for meditation amidst the frequent visits of the friendly, the pious, and the learned, and the continual calls on her expansive benevolence. At the end of this time, however, an extraordinary circumstance broke in upon Mrs. More's plans of rural and devotional retreat. Mrs. More had always been particularly indulgent to her domestics. She had selected them with prudence, and instructed them with care; like all generous natures, she was habitually unsuspicious; and she could not imagine that persons so bound to her interests by every consideration of gratitude, and even of selfishness, could be other than faithful and dutiful. She had, however, concluded with more charity than truth. After the death of her sister Martha, she alone remained charged with the government of the house, which neither her health, her age, or her habits allowed her to conduct effectively. Two ladies of Clifton, who had long been her intimate friends, and were with her in her last moments, discovered that the servants had availed themselves of their opportunities to carry on a system of the grossest fraud and peculation. On this disclosure, Mrs. More resolved to abandon Barley Wood, and retire to Clifton. On descending the stairs from the apartment to which she had, for the most part, confined herself, she gave a silent glance at the portraits of her numerous friends which lined ⚫ It was the observation of Bishop Porteus, that, whenever he heard Mrs. More was confined to her bed, he always expected a new effusion of her pen. 66 the lower room, and then gazing on the beautiful scenery which surrounded her, and the tasteful objects with which she had adorned it, she mournfully observed to some friends who had come to bid her farewell, "I am driven, like Eve, out of Paradise; but not, like Eve, by angels." In regard to the authors of her misfortune she only observed, "People exclaim against their ingratitude towards me, but it is their sinfulness towards God that forms the melancholy part of the case!" The abode selected by or for Mrs. More was situate in Windsor Terrace, Clifton, commanding a noble view of Bristol on one side, and on the other looking out upon the magnificent scenery of the Avon and St. Vincent's Rocks. Here she spent the remaining five years of her life, in intercourse with her own heart, and a few friends. It was not until about a twelvemonth before her death that her intellectual powers underwent any sensible diminution. She presented, however, a remarkable instance of the distinct natures of the mind and soul. Long after the former had sympathised with the decaying body, the latter maintained all its energies. The " spirit of prayer" never seems to have forsaken her, even in her last delirious hours. "Amidst all her wanderings," says Mr. Roberts," she was coherent and consistent on whatever had an immediate relation to the place to which she was going."* Mr. Harford, who saw her the day before her last seizure, in the simply beautiful account which he inserted in the newspapers, writes: "Mrs. Hannah More's last illness was accompanied by feverish delirium, but the blessed influence of christian habits was strikingly exemplified even under the decay of extreme old age and its attendant consequences. Not seldom she broke forth into earnest prayer and devout ejaculation. She expressed in a most impressive manner the sentiments of a humble and penitent believer in Jesus Christ, reposing her hopes of salvation on his merits alone, and expressing a firm and joyful affiance in his unchangeable promises." The euthanasia of Mrs. More is thus given by Mr. Roberts" in the natural and affecting language of the friend who cheered and comforted her last days and her last hours, and counted the last beat of her pulse:" (we presume one of the Misses David; for those ladies were in constant attendance on her dying bed.) During this illness of ten months, the time was past in a series of alternations between restlessness and composure, long sleeps and long wakefulness, with occasional great excitement, elevated and sunken spirits. At length nature seemed to shrink from further conflict, and the time of her deliverance drew near. On Friday, the 6th of September, 1833, we offered up the morning family devotion by her bed-side: she was silent, and apparently attentive, with her hands devoutly lifted up. From eight in the evening of this day, til nearly nine, I sat watching her. Her face was smooth and glowing. There was Vol. IV. p. 304. an unusual brightness in its expression. 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 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 expectation, she survived the night. At six o'clock on Saturday morning I sent in for Miss Roberts. She lasted out 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."-Vol. IV. pp. 310, 311. On the 13th of September, the remains of Mrs. More were brought to the family vault at Wrington for interment. The most excessive privacy was observed; the appointed time of the funeral was altered, even on the morning on which it was to take place, and the procession arrived at Barley Wood an hour and a half earlier than was contemplated in the original arrangement. Great numbers were thus disappointed of paying that tribute of affection which they had come many miles to bring. Still, however, a large body of clergy and neighbouring gentry, yeomanry, and peasantry, with the National Schools of Wrington, met the procession at Barley Wood. The service was read by the Rev. T. T. Biddulph, Rector of St. James's, Bristol, who was requested by the persons about the deceased to perform the office. The following is the simple inscription on the vault. BENEATH ARE DEPOSITED THE MORTAL REMAINS OF FIVE SISTERS MARY MORE DIED 18TH APRIL 1813 ELISABETH MORE DIED 14TH JUNE 1816 SARAH MORE DIED 17TH MAY 1817 MARTHA MORE DIED 14TH SEPTR 1819 HANNAH MORE DIED 7TH SEPI 1833 THESE ALL DIED IN FAITH ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED HEB. CH. II. v. 13 EPHES. CH. I. v. 6. An elegant tablet, to be erected by public subscription in Wrington Church, value 120l. is now executing by Bailey. |