through the land, and sapping, in its progress, all that was sound in morality or sacred in religion. The very success of her exertions to teach the poor to read, seemed to impose upon her the necessity of furnishing them useful matter to peruse to prevent their newly-acquired education being perverted to the most insidious and effectual means of their moral destruction. The friends of insurrection, infidelity, and vice,' we are told, carried their exertions so far as to load asses with their pernicious pamphlets, and to get them dropped, not only in cottages and in highways, but into mines and coal pits.' Miss More's plan was to defeat the enemy with his own tools; and by supplying the lower orders with similar pamphlets of a sound moral and religious tendency, and of a more attractive style, to pre-occupy the ground, and nip the evil in its bud. Mr. Roberts gives the following account of her design and its success :

• The success of "Village Politics" encouraged her to venture on a more extensive undertaking. This was to produce regularly every month three tracts, consisting of stories, ballads, and Sunday readings, written in a lively and popular manner; by these means she hoped to circulate religious knowledge as well as innocent entertainment, by way of counteraction to the poison which was continually flowing through the channel of vulgar, licentious, and seditious publications.

When she considered the multitudes whose sole reading was limited to those vicious performances, and that the temptation was obtruded upon them in the streets, or invitingly hung out upon the wall, or from the window, she thought the evil she wished to oppose was so exceedingly diffused, as to justify her employing such remedial means as were likely to become effectual, both by their simplicity and brevity. Being aware that sermons, catechisms, and other articles of preceptive piety were abundantly furnished by the excellent institutions already formed, she preferred what was novel and striking to what was merely didactic. As the school of Paine had been laboring to undermine, not only religious establishments, but good government, by the alluring vehicles of novels, stories, and songs, she thought it right to fight them with their own weapons. As she had observed that, to bring dignities into contempt, and to render the clerical character odious, was a favorite object with the enemy, her constant aim was to oppose it in the way she thought most likely to produce effect. The Jacobinical writers had indeed used various arts to alienate the people from the Church by undermining their respect for its ministers. She therefore scarcely ever produced a tract, in which it was not a part of her plan to introduce an exemplary parish priest.

As she proposed to undersell the trash she meant to oppose, she found that the expense would prevent the possibility of her carrying on the scheme without a subscription; and she no sooner published proposals of her plan than it was warmly taken up by the wisest and best characters in the country.

The success surpassed her most sanguine expectations. Two millions of the publications were sold in the first year; a circumstance, perhaps, new in the annals of printing. The exertion it required to produce, or to procure from others (for two or three friends and one of her sisters occasionally assisted her) three tracts every month, for three years, to organize the plan, and to keep up a correspondence

with the various committees formed in almost every part of the kingdom, materially undermined her health; and this was not the only sacrifice she made to her country and to humanity. She devoted to these labors that time which she might have employed in writings that would have greatly increased her yearly income; an increase which her large disbursements for her schools must have rendered expedient. Perceiving that they had not only made their way into kitchens and nurseries, but even into drawing rooms, she at length judged it expedient to have them handsomely printed in three volumes.'

Miss More was soon called to know the efficacy of religion in supporting her under one of the most extraordinary and malevolent persecutions with which the fame of any eminent individual was ever sought to be darkened. This was occasioned by her disinterested exertions, at a sacrifice both of money and of time, which few of her means and her talents would have afforded-to give education to the poor of an extensive and neglected district. It originated with the Rev. Mr. Bere, the curate of Blagdon, a man who had once given his full consent and cordial assent to her measures, and even requested her to form a school in his parish; and who seems to have had no other earthly motive for his subsequent conduct than envy at the wonderful success which Miss More's institutions, and the exertions of her pious teacher, had in reforming the morals of a place once notoriously wicked. This miserable instrument in the hands of the wicked one once wrote to Miss More, thanking her for the good she had done in his parish, and informing her that two sessions and two assizes are past, and a third of each nearly approaching, and neither a prosecutor nor prisoner, plaintiff or defendant, has this parish, once so notorious for crimes and litigation, supplied.' Yet while he bore this high and true testimony to the merits of her school, he was secretly endeavoring by every means in his power to suppress it; and failing in his object covertly, he at length broke out into open enmity against the revered and virtuous lady, whose superior sanctity so annoyed him, assailing her with the most unheardof calumnies, and stirring up against her every imaginable species of annoyance and persecution. Much of this necessarily defeated itself. She was accused of disaffection to the Church and king; of being a Jacobin; and many other things equally ridiculous and unwarrantable. For three years the wretched curate continued his persecution, until at length he attained his object. The school was discontinued; and the reverend conqueror attained as his just reward the disgraceful notoriety of success. Her biographer tells us,- Through all these attacks she preserved the dignity of silence; and when advised by Lord-chancellor Loughborough to prosecute the author of a scandalous pamphlet against her, she declared her resolution never, upon any provocation, to embark either in controversy or litigation-a passive pertinacity which tended notoriously to increase the effrontery of her assailants.

To a young clergyman in the neighborhood, who took an interest in her schools, she thus writes about this time,

Your track

'I think your definition of faith not an inaccurate one. seems to be right; you have only to pursue it,-to press on, not to count yourself to have attained; to trust in Christ and to preach him, not as our redemption only, for that would be a cheap way of being

religious, but as our sanctification also. Frequent and fervent prayer for a greater conformity to the will of God and a nearer likeness to Christ; a self-denying and a self-renouncing spirit; as much zeal in holiness and good works as if we had no Savior to trust to, with as absolute a trust in His merits and sacrifice as if we did nothing ourselves; earnest supplications for His grace and for the illumination of His spirit-these seem to me to be a sort of general outline, in all which, however short we may come, yet by having it in our eye as the. great object of pursuit, the thoughts and desires of the heart being bent on the attainment, in spite of all our frequent failings and great deficiencies, we shall, I doubt not, find that the light within us will grow brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Some spiritual difficulties and partial blindnesses obstruct, I doubt not, every true believer, on his being first awakened, and greatly retard his progress. All this is necessary to keep us humble and lowly, that temper of mind which alone can enable us to resemble our gracious Redeemer. An humble, doubting soul, which casts all its care upon Him, is, I venture to think, far more acceptable to God than many who appear, to human eyes, to be more strong in faith and more confident in security.'

Among the other opprobrious crimes laid to her charge at this stormy time, we need hardly wonder that the climax was added in calling her 'a Methodist'-one who would read the extract above quoted would think with some justice, however little she might know it. Yet in an elaborate vindication of her character, addressed to the bishop of Bath and Wells, this excellent Christian thought proper to vindicate herself from the aspersion in the following words :

'As to connection with conventicles of any kind, I never had any. Had I been irregular, should I not have gone sometimes during my winter residence at Bath to Lady Huntingdon's chapel, a place of great occasional resort? Should I never have gone to some of Whitfield's or Wesley's tabernacles in London, where I have spent a long spring for near thirty years? Should I not have strayed now and then into some Methodist mecting in the country? Yet not one of these things have I ever done.'

It is not our wish to comment on the infirmities of the saints:' nor will we offer a remark on the peculiar 'righteousness' of Miss More's religious views, which for thirty years could keep her from 'straying' to hear the Gospel preached by two eminent servants of God, because they were irregular.' She appears to have been an eminently pious female, whose labors were abundantly owned of God in her day and generation. But we may well remark on the exalted testimony which the application of this term of reproach bears to the character of the early Methodists, when only those individuals who were signalized above their cotemporaries for unusual holiness of life, or zeal for religion, were honored with the high distinction of being stigmatized as 'a Methodist.' Happily religion is no longer such a rarity as to be marked by any distinctive epithet; but we cannot the less help thinking that it would have been more for Hannah More's credit, had she exclaimed, like the sainted Fletcher, on hearing that the Methodists were a people who prayed all day and night, Then, by the blessing of

God, I will find them out;' instead of taking merit to her diocesan for having carefully shunned them during thirty years.

In the year 1799 she published her third ethical work, Strictures on Female Education,' one of the most able she has given to the world, in which she attacked the insidious evils of fashionable life in their strongest hold, and put a climax to her former works on the same subject. This production met throughout the nation generally with high and merited encouragement. But in spite of its unquestioned excellence as a guide to a rational instruction, its solemn and decided religious tone, and the fervency with which the importance of the topic was urged, it turned against her many of those high Church dignitaries, her former friends, whose drowsy piety was alarmed at the prospect of any other road to heaven than the formal routine of the prayer book. Archdeacon Daubeny denounced it with great bitterness on this account, but Mrs. More never answered his strictures, and the criticism expired with the critic. In 1805 she published her celebrated work, Hints toward forming the Character of a young Princess,' which, with a peculiar reference to the Princess Charlotte, may be found of eminent advantage to every grade of life. The religion of this work also made it an object of attack with the skeptical and the lukewarm. The Edinburgh Review attacked Hannah More with extreme severity on its account. She treated the diatribe with her usual silence, and it is forgotten. In 1809 was published her celebrated Cœlebs in search of a Wife,' one of the few works of fiction which we may feel safe in entirely commending. She made it for the same reason which composed the Sacred Dramas-the reading public was deluged with innumnerable novels, the greater part of which, formed of vicious sentiment and exaggerated passion, acied like a moral poison on the imaginations of the young. To counteract this as far as in her power was the design of Colebs. Since fiction must be read, she sought to furnish a model which would not necessarily bring corruption in its train. She had perhaps another object in view, to furnish her own idea of a female character, perfectly qualified by education for the duties of life. Brookes, a neglected, but one of the most elegant writers in the language, had long before written a novel, in which religion and moral principle were made to form the active impulses which should operate in life; and which, principally owing to the pains which the venerable founder of Methodism took to make its excellencies known, is still extensively read and admired. Mrs. More's work became equally popular; several large impressions were soon sold in England, and not less than twelve in America on the first year of its publication. It falls not within our scope, at the present time, to pass a general opinion on this kind of reading. Unhappily such works as Celebs and The Fool of Quality are not frequent. Religious novels we decidedly condemn. In 1811 was published her Treatise on Practical Piety. This is an admirable and an evangelical work. She addressed it, to use her own words in the preface, as a Christian who must die soon, to Christians who must die certainly.' As she approached the close of her life this excellent writer seemed to have become more and more estranged from earth, and more and more impressed with the vital necessity of religion. Accordingly few didactic works of this size enforce its duties in a clearer or more explicit manner; all minor subjects and consi

derations are forgotten in the earnestness and zeal with which she presses the one thing needful.' Soon after this appeared her Christian Morals,' which may be considered as a part of the other; and, in 1815, the Essay on the Character and Practical Writings of St. Paul,' generally considered, though at the age of seventy, as her chef d'ævre. In 1819, her last work, Modern Sketches,' was published; which for undiminished vigor of intellect may be well considered a prodigy in it she gave that beautiful character of George III. which has been so generally admired. This catalogue of Hannah More's works, though it has necessarily consisted only of their names, will establish for their author in every mind a loftiness of reputation which would need no other praise. Who of this age can point to what they have done, and say they have exceeded her? or, in future times, who will be looked to with more reverence for the earnestness and zeal with which great talents and opportunities were devoted to the cause of religion?

We must now bring this lengthened subject to a close. The greater part of the second volume is taken up with matter of high and deep interest to the religious reader; but affording little capable of being extracted in a notice like the present. During the remainder of her life she was principally confined to her delightful residence at Barley Wood, engaged in the composition of those noble works which will remain lasting monuments of her unequalled powers, and memorable exemplifications of the value of sanctified genius. One by one, the many friends, whose acquaintance shed such a brilliant light over the commencement of her career, dropt off, and left her at length alonethe last of that shining circle,'-a link that bound a present age with a past. Her sisters too, the loving and the loved, each after the other disappeared; and in a ripe, yet green old age, Hannah More was left, the last of her era-the last of her race. Yet she found herself not alone in the world—a generation, trained to virtue by her precepts, had grown up in the nation; and every grade bore its tribute of respect to the sage who had instructed them. The voice of grateful praise was wafted to her solitary home from distant nations; and her progress to the tomb was watched, with anxious solicitude, by thousands of sympathizing hearts, in every part of the world. Thus honored and thus regarded, her own conscience void of offence, and her soul ripe for heaven, Hannah More sunk at last into the grave-more unanimously revered-mourned-blessed in her life, her death, her labors, than perhaps any individual of the present century.

Before we close our article, we cannot fulfil our intention without examining more particularly what were the peculiar merits of her character, and the influence of her writings. In an age of clashing interests and rival reputations, the inquiry will be necessary.

Hannah More was, in all respects, one of the most extraordinary women of her age. Placed by her talents in its foremost rank, and influencing thousands and tens of thousands by her writings, she has employed her ascendency to purposes the loftiest and the purest to which talent ever was consecrated-and saw her reward, even before her death, in the wide veneration which was attached to her name, and in the marked and mighty influence of her writings, both in the old world and in the new.

What was that influence? There are surely shades in the beauty