fair friends, that the latter longed to take up the pen against her, on that subject, and assert the full equality of the sex. Had ink been spilled in this encounter, it would, in the opinion of one of Mrs. More's correspondents, have given a fatal advantage against her; for the more she wrote, the more evident it would be, that her opponent was in the right! Of Mrs. More's abilities, both natural and acquired, there can be but one opinion among those who are acquainted with her works. Her génius was of a high order. Few writers, in our day, have equaled her in a clear and comprehensive understanding, and in a correct and refined taste. She came from the hands of her Creator, a prodigy. So she seems to have been regarded from her early childhood, by her immediate relatives. As she grew up, all of thein paid deference to her, and were proud of her superiority. The admirers of her genius, and the associates of her leisure hours, were a class of persons, that must have conferred honor on the most distinguished abilities. With Johnson, Garrick, the two Sheridans, the two Burkes, Walpole, Kennicott, Porteus, Wilberforce, and other great and brilliant men of those times, as well as the literary champions of her own sex, she took her equal place, and played her equal part, in the sallies of wit and humor, in the effusions of fancy and sentiment, or in the communications of wisdom and truth. All appeared to regard her as a favorite. Nor were rank, and wealth, and fashion, unwilling to merge the consideration of plebeian birth, mediocrity of possessions, and plain attire, in their admiration of genius. Even royalty condescended to be gracious to so much wisdom and worth. The circles of wit and fashion in which she mingled, during many of the earlier years of her womanhood, were enlivened by the choice combination of intellectual qualities which she brought to them; not here to say, were, in a sense, hallowed by her decent and able defenses of serious religion. It was an uncommon proof of the estimation in which her talents were held, that she was suffered, with so much freedom, to reprove the follies and vices of the great; while, at the same time, she continued to be an object of their attention and favor. The native energy, as well as the exquisite culture, of her understanding, was attested, both on such occasions, and in the more private interchanges of friendship, by means of her tact in conversation. She appeared to no disadvantage, even by the side of Johnson, in his own peculiar province, "full of wisdom and piety" as he was, and also, when he chose to be, "the greatest sophist, that ever wielded an argument in the schools of declamation." In Mrs. More, conversation possessed that fine, easy, ready, lively character, which she has herself described as the peculiar feature of London conversation, among its higher and literary classes. In her youth, one of her earliest friends, Dr. Stonehouse, it is recordVOL. VII. 17 ed, "was unbounded in his admiration of the freshness and originality of her powers in conversation, in which her modesty and judgment contended with her fancy and fertility." What must she not have been, in this respect, in the maturity of her powers, when she was the pride of the fashionable and literary circles of the British metropolis! In In her letters, as introduced into the memoirs of her life, or rather as constituting them, we have a strong additional proof of her great and various talents. Without choosing to point out, here, their particular characteristics, we shall be disappointed in our expectations, if, by general consent, they are not hereafter ranked among the first productions of their kind in English literature. Among her numerous, learned, and ingenious correspondents, she appears not at all inferior to the best; nay, we fancy, that her epistolary effusions surpass, in the peculiar attributes of that class of writings, the generality of those, which, together with her own, contribute to swell these fascinating volumes. This we know is saying a great deal, considering who her correspondents were. ease and sprightliness of manner, in cunning turns and winning forms of address, woman-like, she strikes us as superior to all her correspondents, except the females; while in correctness of taste, beauty of allusion, richness of sentiment, and originality of thought, she is behind none of them, male or female. There are, it must be confessed, elegant specimens of the epistolary style, in these volumes, taking the principal contributors. Mrs. Boscawen has ease and humor; Mrs. Montagu is correct and sensible; Garrick, in the few letters of his, which appear in this work, exhibits sprightliness and wit; Walpole pleases us with his playfulness and sagacity; Pepys is rich in classical allusions, and is a model of classical neatness; Porteus displays the amiability of his temper, and is descriptive and sentimental; and Newton, though careless in expression, is delightfully spiritual and instructive. The several writers in the book, seem to us to have done their best, in their communications to Hannah More, as being aware of the character of the intellect with which they were coming in contact: and if, as some one remarks, we naturally graduate our letters to the intelligence of our correspondents, according to our own conceptions of it, there can be no doubt of the very sincere and profound respect, which they all entertained for her talents and worth. But the published works of this lady, afford the most direct indications in respect to the character of her intellect. They have long been before the public; and the settled and often-expressed opinion of the wise and good, -the sway, which, for more than half a century, she has exercised over minds of every order, in productions designed for every order of minds, has placed her in the foremost ranks of capacity and genius. In a different part of this article, we shall offer a few remarks on her works in general: we will, therefore, only add here, that the circumstances attending their publication, indicated the high estimation in which Mrs. M. was held, as an able and accomplished writer. Not only were the most ardent expectations expressed, in regard to forth-coming works; not only were compliments most profusely poured upon her, by her literary associates, and scholars of the age, both at home and abroad; (though these, we know, are sometimes only the offerings of friendship or flattery,) but she had the more substantial proof of favor, in the boundless circulation and innumerable editions of her books. Her popularity, as a writer, was more particularly indicated by those tracts, published under the title of the Cheap Repository, which have probably influenced more minds for their good, than is the case with any other series of modern christian writings. The mind of Mrs. More, originally so superior, was disciplined, and if not with all the exactness of genuine scholarship, was yet effectually disciplined. It was highly and richly cultivated, with whatever might seem befitting to a female understanding, whether as to ornament or use, in the common walks of life, or in literary composition. She ever modestly estimated her learning, strictly speaking, at a low rate; and though it was not considerable in the classics, and in mathematical science, it was not otherwise small. What she was capable of attaining, even in these branches, may be inferred from the fact, as recorded by her biographer, that her father, who had "a strong dislike of female pedantry, having begun to instruct his daughter in the rudiments of the Latin language and mathematics, was soon frightened by his own success." With the Latin classics she continued to cultivate her acquaintance; nor was her knowledge of mathematics without a sensible benefit to her intellectual progress. Of several modern languages she had a good knowledge. The French she understood perfectly, and spoke with admirable grace. The Spanish and Italian she translated with ease. Her acquaintance with English literature, particularly with criticism and poetry, was uncommonly extensive and accurate. Indeed, her general information was extremely rich and various; derived, as it was, not only from books, but from the living world. Few persons have been more conversant with different modes of life, and mingled to a greater extent among the various ranks of mankind, than Mrs. More. For the charms of her intellect, she was courted by the learned and noble; while her christian benevolence drew around her, for their relief and instruction, the children of poverty and ignorance. As she ranged through the region of fancy, sentiment, and taste, or walked the thorny way of benevolent self-denial, her observant and reflecting mind noticed all the forms of conduct, and every shade of character, and gathered from a thousand sources the lessons of wisdom and propriety. From her London excursions of recreation, and her Cheddar travels of charity, she returned laden with the ripest fruits of experience, to her own Cowslip Green, or Barley Wood; the latter, above all other spots on earth, the modern mount of the muses. From this varied manner of passing her time, she learned every thing connected with life and manners, and the springs of human action; and this important knowledge she consecrated to the best of purposes. It qualified her for writing on the immense variety of subjects which she undertook, and points of illustration, or proprieties of allusion, which none could furnish, who had not been favored with her advantages, she brought to bear with great effect on the creations of her genius. Her learning, on the whole, connected with her native strength of mind, disciplined taste, and habits of observation, was amply sufficient for the purposes she sought to answer, in the moral productions of her pen. The superiority of the intellect of Hannah More, was particularly indicated by its fair proportions. It possessed both strength and grace. The reader of taste and discernment, perceives a sort of perfection in its structure and developments. Like the Grecian architecture, it unites the qualities of the greatest stability, with the greatest beauty. It possessed an elegant simplicity, and just balance of the different faculties. No one power so predominated, as to mar the appearance, or impede the operations, of the others. All, as they were separately or unitedly called into exercise, seemed to perform their part with perfect ease, and according to the object contemplated, in the highest style of excellence. Whatever it elaborated, was chaste, neat, elegant, and finished. Ardor of feeling, richness of imagery, and facility of composition, seldom betrayed her into carelessness, into faulty constructions, or confused, indefinite, and over-wrought descriptions. If her power of amplification, and her vast materials of thought, tempted her not unfrequently into an unusual variety of views, she was able to make the line of demarkation between them perfectly distinct, and to give to each an appropriate significance and grace. Without descanting, here, upon the particular features of her style, we may advert to this general quality of it, which every one discerns, as an illustration of the fair and elegant proportions of her mental powers. This characteristic beauty of her intellect was strikingly displayed, if not essentially constituted, by her lively admiration of genius, and the beauty of other minds; by its congeniality with every kind of excellence, natural, intellectual, and moral; and by its capacity of molding every thing which was admitted into it, into pure and enchanting forms of sentiment and fancy. Her admiration of genius, as her biographer remarks, belonged to the structure and constitution of her mind; and we may add, that we have always thought it incident to fine minds, to relish keenly the beauty of other minds. It is one of its earliest, most natural, and spontaneous manifestations. How animated was Mrs. More's participation of the beauties of thought, as they are elicited in the works of elegant genius, we need not tell. Her writings have always evinced the fact; and now, her correspondence with her intimate friends, in their mutual, unrestricted effusions of taste and feeling, brings it more fully into view. The congeniality also of her mind with every kind of excellence, shows it in its features of loveliness, in no ordinary degree. Nature and art, mind and morals, in their characteristic perfection, found, in the deep recesses of her soul, a lively feeling mingling itself with that perfection, an associating principle, by which the most delightful trains of thought were evolved. Her biographer again remarks, that "the fairest forms of truth and sentiment were beautifully inscribed on her mind." And not only so, but we say further, as another evidence or instance of the beauty of her intellect, that it was capable of molding every thing which was admitted into it, both of sentiment and fancy, into peculiar shapes of loveliness. Every thing on which her mind ruminated, came forth from it sparkling with light: it seemed to be transmuted, as by a moral alchymy, into elemental purity and grace. There were, indeed, other intellectual characteristics in Mrs. More, such as the refinement of her taste, the exuberance of her fancy, and the sprightliness of her wit; modes, we may rather say, in which her mental power was developed, that might furnish the basis of extended remarks: but we can only add a thought respecting the last named particular. In regard to the powers of wit, and indeed the general vivacity of her mind, we have received impressions from her correspondence, much in advance of those we have before entertained. It appears, however, that the dangerous faculty of wit was perfectly controlled, by a judgment of the soundest kind, and rendered innoxious, by distinguished good-nature. Indeed, so entirely did she get the better of the propensity to employ it in its severity,-in the form of sarcasm and raillery, that the first attempt in which she openly and professedly gave utterance to it, in a review of a cotemporaneous publication, became her last; since she found so much pleasure which she deemed of a wicked kind, in indulging such a vein, that she determined never again to offend in that manner: a magnanimous determination, to which she rigidly adhered! Her general vivacity of mind, while it imparted an indescribable charm to her social intercourse and correspondence, and furnished many of the lighter beauties of her writings, was tempered and corrected by a well |