court for the purpose of studying belles-lettres | precepts to counteract the effect of his lessons. with the princess of Ferrara, where she astonished the Italians by declaiming in Latin and Greek, explaining the paradoxes of Cicero, and answering any question that was put to her. Her father's death, and the ill health of her mother, withdrew her from court, and she devoted herself to household affairs, and the education of her three sisters and a brother. A young German, named Andrew Grunthler, who had studied medicine, and taken his doctor's degree at Ferrara, married her, and took her, with her little brother, to Germany. They went to Schweinfurt, in Franconia, which was soon after besieged and burnt, and they barely escaped with their lives. The hardships they suffered in consequence, caused Morata's death in the course of a few months. She died in 1555, in the Protestant faith, which she had embraced on her coming to Germany. Several of her works were burnt at Schweinfurt, but the remainder were collected and published at Basil, 1558, by Coeluis Secundus Curio. They consist of orations, dialogues, letters, and translations. MORELLA, JULIANA, A NATIVE of Barcelona, was born in 1595. Her father being obliged to leave Spain for a homicide, fled to Lyons, where he taught his daughter so well, that at the age of twelve, she publicly maintained theses in philosophy. In her tenth year, she is said to have held a public disputation in the Jesuits' College at Lyons. She was profoundly skilled in philosophy, divinity, music, jurisprudence, and philology. She entered into the convent of St. Praxedia, at Avignon. MORE, HANNAH, DISTINGUISHED for her talents, and the noble manner in which she exerted them, was the fourth daughter of Mr. Jacob More; she was born February 2d, 1745, at Stapleton, Gloucestershire. Mr. More was a schoolmaster, and gave his daughters the rudiments of a classical education; but he was a narrow-minded man, and so fearful they would become learned women, that he tried by The elder daughters opened, at Bristol, a boarding-school for girls, which was for a long time very flourishing, and at this school Hannah obtained the best advantages of education she ever enjoyed. How small these were compared with the opportunities of young men! And yet what man of her nation and time was so influential for good, or has left such a rich legacy of moral lessons for the improvement of the world as Hannah More has done? Her influence has been wonderful in this our new world, as well as in her own country; our mothers were aided by her in teaching us in our infancy. "We have felt the effect of her writings ever since we began to reason; in the nursery, in the school-room, and even in college halls," says an enthusiastic American* writer. "Her looks, her cottage, her air and manner, were all enquired after by every youth who read her works; and for ourselves, we can recollect, that a favourite, pious, kind, and affectionate maiden friend of our childhood, was in the exuberance of our admiration and gratitude, compared in some infant attempts at verse, to Hannah More; we could go no higher." In 1761 Hannah More wrote a pastoral drama, "The Search after Happiness." She was then sixteen; and though this production was not published till many years afterwards, yet she may be said to have then commenced her literary career, which till 1824, when her last work, "Spirit of Prayer," was issued, was steadily pursued for sixty-three years. The next important event of her life is thus related by Mrs. Elwood: "When about twenty-two years of age, she received and accepted an offer of marriage from a Mr. Turner, a gentleman of large fortune, but considerably her senior. Their acquaintance had commenced in consequence of some young relations of Mr. Turner's being at the Misses More's school, who generally spent their holidays at their cousin's beautiful residence at Belmont, near Bristol, whither they were permitted to invite some of their young friends; and Hannah and Patty More, being near their own age, were generally among those invited. The affair was so far advanced that the wedding-day was actually fixed, and Hannah, having given up her share in her sister's establishment, had gone to considerable expense in making her preparations,-when Mr. Turner, who appears to have been of eccentric temper, was induced to postpone the completion of his engagement; and as this was done more than once, her friends at length interfered, and prevailed on her to relinquish the marriage altogether, though this was against the wishes of the capricious gentleman. To make some amends for his thus trifling with her affections, Mr. Turner insisted upon being allowed to settle an annuity upon her, which she at first rejected, but subsequently, through the medium of her friend, Dr. Stonehouse, who consented to be the agent and trustee, she was at length prevailed on to allow a sum to be settled *Samuel L. Knapp, in his " Female Biography." upon her, which should enable her hereafter to lume of verse, Florio, a Tale for Fine Gentlemen devote herself to the pursuits of literature. She had soon after another opportunity of marrying, which was declined, and from this time she seems to have formed the resolution, to which she ever afterwards adhered, of remaining single." In 1774 she became acquainted with the great tragedian, David Garrick; he and his wife soon formed a warm attachment for the young authoress, invited her to their house in London, and introduced her to the literary and fashionable world. She was there presented to Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, and Dr. Johnson; how highly she prized the privilege of such acquaintances may be gathered from her letters. She constantly wrote to her sisters at Bristol, describing in a style of easy elegance whatever interested her in London. Speaking of letter-writing, she used to say, "When I want wisdom, sentiment, or information, I can find them much better in books. What I want in a letter is the picture of my friend's mind, and the common-sense of his life. I want to know what he is saying and doing." She added, "that letters among near relations were family newspapers, meant to convey paragraphs of intelligence, and advertisements of projects, and not sentimental essays." Her first acquaintance with that much-abused class, the publishers, is thus narrated by Mrs. Elwood: "Hannah More again visited London, in 1775, and in the course of this year the eulogiums and attentions she had received induced her, as she observed to her sisters, to try her real value, by writing a small poem and offering it to Cadell. The legendary tale of Sir Eldred of the Bower' was, accordingly, composed in a fortnight's time, to which she added The Bleeding Rock,' which had been written some years previously. Cadell offered her a handsome sum for these poems, telling her if he could discover what Goldsmith received for the Deserted Village,' he would make up the deficiency, whatever it might be. Thus commenced Hannah More's acquaintance with Mr. Cadell, who was, by a singular coincidence, a native of the same village with herself; and her connexion with his establishment was carried on for forty years." In 1782 Hannah More's "Sacred Dramas" were published, with a poem, entitled " Sensibility." As we prefer to present the opinions of acknowledged critics in literature, respecting the works of the celebrated female writers, rather than our own, whenever we think the former give a correct and impartial estimate of character and talents, we will here insert an extract from the notice of Hannah More in a late and excellent publication:* "All her works were successful, and Johnson said he thought her the best of female versifiers. The poetry of Hannah More is now forgotten, but 'Percy' is a good play, and it is clear that the authoress might have excelled as a dramatic writer, had she devoted herself to that difficult species of composition. In 1786 she published another vo *Chambers' Cyclopædia of English Literature. and Fine Ladies,' and 'The Bas Bleu, or Conversation.' The latter (which Johnson complimented as a great performance) was an elaborate eulogy on the Bas Bleu Club,* a literary assembly that met at Mrs. Montagu's." The following couplets have been quoted as terse and pointed: "In men this blunder still you find, All think their little set mankind." "Small habits well pursued betimes, May reach the dignity of crimes." Such lines mark the good sense and keen observation of the writer, and these qualities Hannah now resolved to devote exclusively to high objects. The gay life of the fashionable world had lost its charms, and having published her Bas Bleu,' she retired to a small cottage and garden near Bristol, where her sisters kept a flourishing boarding-school. Her first prose publication was Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to General Society,' produced in 1788. This was followed, in 1791, by an Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World.' As a means of counteracting the political tracts and exertions of the Jacobins and levellers, Hannah More, in 1794, wrote a number of tales, published monthly, under the title of The Cheap Repository,' which attained to a sale of about a million each number. Some of the little stories (as the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain') are well told, and contain striking moral and religious lessons. With the same object, our authoress published a volume called Village Politics.' Her other principal works are 'Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education,' 1799; Hints towards Forming the Character of a Young Princess,' 1805; Colebs in Search of a Wife, comprehending Observations on Domestic Habits and Manners, Religion and Morals,' two volumes, 1809; Practical Piety, or the Influence of the Religion of the Heart on the Conduct of Life,' two volumes, 1811; Christian Morals,' two volumes, 1812; Essay on the Character and Writings of St. Paul,' two volumes, 1815; and Moral Sketches of Prevailing Opinions and Manners, Foreign and Domestic, with Reflections on Prayer,' 1819. The collection of her works is comprised in eleven volumes octavo. The work entitled Hints towards Forming the Character of a Young Princess,' was written with a view to the education of the princess Charlotte, on which subject the advice and assistance of Hannah More had been requested by queen Charlotte. Of Colebs,' we are told that ten editions were sold in one year-a remarkable proof of the popularity of the work. The tale is admirably written, with a fine vein of delicate irony and sarcasm, and some of the characters are well depicted, but, from the nature of the story, it presents few incidents or embellishments to attract ordinary novel-readers. It has not inaptly been styled a dramatic sermon.' Of the other publications of the authoress, we may say, with one of * See sketch of Elizabeth Montagu, page 432. her critics, it would be idle in us to dwell on works so well known as the "Thoughts on the Manners of the Great," the "Essay on the Religion of the Fashionable World," and so on, which finally established Miss More's name as a great moral writer, possessing a masterly command over the resources of our language, and devoting a keen wit and lively fancy to the best and noblest of purposes.' In her latter days there was perhaps a tincture of unnecessary gloom or severity | in her religious views; yet, when we recollect her unfeigned sincerity and practical benevolence— her exertions to instruct the poor miners and cottagers-and the untiring zeal with which she laboured, even amidst severe bodily infirmities, to inculcate sound principles and intellectual cultivation, from the palace to the cottage, it is impossible not to rank her among the best benefactors of mankind. The great success of the different works of our authoress enabled her to live in ease, and to dispense charities around her. Her sisters also secured a competency, and they all lived together at Barley Grove, a property of some extent, which they purchased and improved. From the day that the school was given up, the existence of the whole sisterhood appears to have flowed on in one uniform current of peace and contentment, diversified only by new appearances of Hannah as an authoress, and the ups and downs which she and the others met with in the prosecution of a most brave and humane experiment-namely, their zealous effort to extend the blessings of education and religion among the inhabitants of certain villages situated in a wild country some eight or ten miles from their abode, who, from a concurrence of unhappy local and temporary circumstances, had been left in a state of ignorance hardly conceivable at the present day.' These exertions were ultimately so successful, that the sisterhood had the gratification of witnessing a yearly festival celebrated on the hills of Cheddar, where above a thousand children, with the members of female clubs of industry (also established by them), after attending church service, were regaled at the expense of their benefactors. Hannah More died on the 7th of September, 1833, aged eighty-eight. She had made about £30,000 by her writings, and she left, by her will, legacies to charitable and religious institutions amounting to £10,000." In 1834, "Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah More," by William Roberts, Esq., were published in four volumes. In these we have a full account by Hannah herself of her London life, and many interesting anecdotes." From this memoir we select the estimate of Hannah More's moral character: "Her love of her country, and her love of her species, were without any alloy of party feelings or prejudices. To her sound and correct understanding, liberty presented itself as including among its essential constituents loyalty, allegiance, security, and duty. Patriotism, in this view of it, should be placed in the front of her character, since it really took the lead of every other temporal object. All the powers of her mind were devoted to the solid improvement of society. Her aims were all practical; and it would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to name a writer who has laid before the public so copious a variety of original thoughts and reasonings, without any admixture of speculation or hypothesis. To keep within this tangible barrier, without contracting the range of her imagination, or denying to truth any advantage to which it is fairly entitled, of illustration or entertainment, is a secret in the art of composition with which few, if any, have been so well acquainted. Her indefatigable pen was ever at work; kept in motion by a principle of incessant activity, never to stop but with her pulse; never to need the refreshment of change; and never to be weary in well-doing. Thus to do good and to distribute was no less the work of her head than of her hand, and the rich and the great were among the objects of her charity. The specific relief of which they stood in need she was ever forward to supply; and as she had passed so many of her earliest years among them, she knew well their wants, and how to administer to them. She was a woman of business in all the concerns of humanity, refined or common, special or general, and had a sort of righteous cunning in dealing with different cases; exposing without irritating, reproving without discouraging, probing without wounding; always placing duty upon its right motives, and showing the perversity of error by bringing it into close comparison with the loveliest forms of truth and godliness.” As the writings of this excellent woman are widely known, and probably more read in America than England, we shall give few extracts from her prose works; but there was one event of her life which should never be forgotten; we allude to the persecution she met with when she attempted to instruct the poor. The brutal ignorance and degradation which then, fifty years ago, (is it much changed now?) characterized the peasantry of England were shocking; but even these do not appear so utterly inhuman as the conduct of the rich farmers, and particularly that of the clergymen, in opposing all reforms. Miss More says, in a letter, writing of one of her schools, "It is a parish, the largest in our county or diocess, in a state of great depravity and ignorance. The opposition I have met with in endeavouring to establish an institution for the religious instruction of these people would excite your astonishment. The principal adversary is a farmer of £1000 a-year, who says, the lower class are fated to be wicked and ignorant, and that as wise as I am I cannot alter what is decreed." She surmounted this opposition; but then began the persecutions instituted against her by the clergy. These were so vindictive that Miss More appealed to the bishop of Bath and Wells, in whose diocese she was labouring in this mission of charity. We insert a portion of her letter, which, for its masterly exposition of the subject, and firm, yet gentle tone of remonstrance against injustice to the poor, as well as to herself, deserves to be studied. We are compelled to omit the greater part "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 respectable rector, and another in the adjoining parish of Churchill. This drew me to the more neglected villages, which, being distant, made it very laborious. Not one school here 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 works as may fit them for servants. I 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 knew no way of teaching morals but by teaching principles; nor of inculcating Christian principles without 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 winter. By being out about thirteen hours, we have generally contrived to visit two schools the same day, and 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 parish only, a saving 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 at 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 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. ness. "I need not inform your lordship why the illiterate, when they become religious, are more liable to enthusiasm than the better informed. They have also a coarse way of expressing their religious sentiments, which often appears to be enthusiasm, when it is only vulgarity or quaintBut I am persuaded your lordship will allow that this does not furnish a reason why the poor should be left destitute of religious instruction. That the knowledge of the bible should lay men more open to the delusions of fanaticism on the one hand, or of jacobinism on the other, appears so unlikely, that I should have thought the probability lay all on the other side. "I do not vindicate enthusiasm; I dread it. But can the possibility that a few should become enthusiasts be justly pleaded as an argument for giving them all up to actual vice and barbarism? "In one of the principal pamphlets against me, it is asserted that my writings ought to be burned by the hands of the common hangman. 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 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 preferment, nor of a temper to court favour; nor was 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. "And now, my lord, I come to what has been the ultimate object of this too tedious letter — a request to know what is your lordship's pleasure? I have too high an opinion of your wisdom and candour to suspect the equity of your determination. I know too well what I owe to the station you fill, to dispute your authority or to oppose your commands. If it be your will that my remaining schools should be abolished, I may lament your decision, but I will obey it. My deep reverence for the laws and institutions of my country inspires me with a proportionate veneration for all constituted authorities, whether in church or state. If I be not permitted to employ the short remnant of my life (which has been nearly destroyed by these prolonged attacks) in being, in any small measure and degree, actively useful, I will at least set my accusers an example of obedience to those superiors whom the providence of God has set over me, and whom, next to Him, I am bound to obey.* EXTRACTS FROM "HINTS FOR FORMING THE CHARACTER OF A YOUNG PRINCESS." One of the first lessons that should be inculcated on the great, is, that God has not sent us into this world to give us consummate happiness, but to train us to those habits which lead to it. High rank lays the mind open to strong temptations; the highest rank to the strongest. The seducing images of luxury and pleasure, of splendour and of homage, of power and independence, are only to be counteracted by a religious education. The world is too generally entered upon as a scene of pleasure instead of trial. The highborn are taught to enjoy the world at an age when they should be learning to know it; and to grasp the prize when they should be exercising themselves for the combat. They look for the sweets of victory when they should be enduring the hardness of the conflict. The exalted station of the young princess, by separating her from miscellaneous society, becomes her protection from many of its maxims and practices. From the dangers of her own peculiar situation she should be guarded, by being early taught to consider power and influence, not as exempting her from the difficulties of life, or ensuring to her a larger portion of its pleasures, but as engaging her in a peculiarly extended sphere of duties, and infinitely increasing the demands on her fortitude and vigilance. FROM "FLORIO." Exhausted Florio, at the age When youth should rush on glory's stage, Had scarce an unbroach'd pleasure left; He loath'd and left her when possess'd. * Notwithstanding this Christian appeal, Hannah More was compelled to give up her schools. He thought the world to him was known, That tradesmen should be sometimes paid, FROM "SENSIBILITY." * Sweet Sensibility! thou keen delight! Unprompted moral! sudden sense of right! Perception exquisite! fair Virtue's seed! Thou quick precursor of the liberal deed! Thou hasty conscience! reason's blushing morn! Instinctive kindness ere reflection's born! Prompt sense of equity! to thee belongs The swift redress of unexamined wrongs! Eager to serve, the cause perhaps untried, But always apt to choose the suffering side! To those who know thee not, no words can paint, And those who know thee, know all words are faint Since trifles make the sum of human things, O let the ungentle spirit learn from hence, |