in a holy temper, and well-ordered life. Involving in its elements, as it does in every case where it really exists, love to God, faith in the Redeemer, benevolence towards men, a spirit of penitence, submission, prayer, and other fruits of the Spirit,-all proceeding from a renewed heart,-it shone, in Mrs. More, with unwonted purity, brightness, and constancy. It formed the basis of her activity, the incentive of her works of charity, the spring-head of her consolation, and the sheet-anchor of her hopes. Like the powers of her mind, her religion was well balanced; it possessed a fine, scriptural proportion; nothing was unsightly, distorted, or out of its place. She avoided, to a far greater extent than christians commonly do, those incongruities, those discrepancies, those shades, so ominous to religious character and influence, of which the history of piety, or its profession, has furnished so many examples. Her religion lived, and moved, and had its being, in principles drawn from the word of God, and rendered efficient by the Holy Spirit. It seemed to partake, in due mixture, of the opposite, yet compatible, properties of activity and study; of zeal and contemplation; of boldness and caution; of the use of means, and dependence on God. She exemplified, in a remarkable degree, her own doctrine of consistency, as inculcated particularly in Colebs,-a doctrine, which, though held by her in contra-distinction from sinless perfection, is yet a desirable approximation towards it. It appears, from the account of her life, that her religious feelings and principles began to operate at a period somewhat early, though we are uninformed respecting the circumstances connected with their commencement. But they did not assume, for a considerable length of time, that decided character which they afterwards assumed, and by which her name has been rendered so illustrious. She was, more than most others, tempted, by the adulation offered to genius, to mingle in scenes and company, ill calculated to promote eminent spirituality of mind, and undivided consecration to God. Yet, through the whole period of her literary triumphs, while she was in the habit of going the round of the refined and fashionable society of London, it is evident, that her soul aspired after a higher good, if she had not indeed at times a taste of it. She was distinguished, among her associates, by her chastened spirit, the avowal of her religious sentiments, attention to public worship, and observation of the sabbath. The theater she visited but a short time, having quitted it in the height of her success as a writer of plays; and, by degrees, the estimate which the gospel puts on all the objects of human pursuit, was admitted, in her own mind, as the criterion of truth, and the regulating principle of life. Portions of a diary which she kept, as selected by her biographer, are affecting sketches of a heart alive to every holy and benevolent work, and yet deeply sensible of native corruption, and con

stant need of divine grace. They show the humble, hidden, world-weaned life of a christian, amidst the thousand snares which are strewed in the path of worldly fascinations and literary fame. The feelings common to believers, alike in the humblest and most elevated walks of life; the sense of demerit and deficiency; the warfare within; the fear of temptation; the views of duty to God, and dependence on his grace; are depicted with entire simplicity, and prove, beyond a doubt, the reality of her deep and experimental knowledge of salvation. Mrs. More appears, from her writings and life, to have set her face against every sort of prevailing corruption. She kindly, yet fearlessly, reproved sin, and abounded in labors to reform the hearts and lives of the worldly and irreligious. She had a singular tact in pointing out, with unsparing fidelity, yet in a manner which could give no offense, the wrong schemes, and the fatal hopes, which the religious profession, particularly in high life, had too frequently embraced. Her vast opportunities in conversation, seem to have been worthily employed, in making religious impressions, even on the great; while the general drift of her remarks was more than commonly instructive to every class of minds. Her temper, she acknowledges, was more than naturally gay: she "carried," as she expressed herself, "too much sail." Yet the grace of God enabled her to consecrate her vivacity of mind to the best of purposes, in interesting those classes of people on the subject of religion, who would feel few attractions in it, except from its connection with the creations of genius. That her religion was eminently expressed in benevolent action; is sufficiently apparent, from what has already been said; nor was it less marked by features of genuine humility. Like every other believer, she felt, that salvation was eminently of grace, that she was a sinner, dependent on the mercy of God through the atonement of Christ,-that her best services, so far from justifying her in the sight of God, were sufficient, on account of their sinful imperfection, to condemn her at last. But it may exalt our conceptions of the christian humility of Mrs. More, knowing the tendency of the human heart towards self-complacency, that she retained her integrity, not only amidst the flatteries of the gay and noble, and the universal homage paid to talent; but amidst the more substantial rewards of merit, in the homage and esteem of the wise and good: for she became, in later life, as much the center of religious influence, as she had been, in early life, of literary taste. Her opinions, both in literature and religion, were regarded almost as oracular; her approbation was sought, as a passport to favor, or a reward of merit; the distinguished philanthropists of Great Britian consulted her, respecting their schemes of benevolence; candidates for the ministry looked to her for counsel and direction; she was a known patron of poor

but meritorious clergymen ; and even the rulers of the empire were not indifferent to the suggestions of her sagacity and wisdom. Nor was this all. In the opinion of some of the most enlightened men of the times, as has before been intimated, she was one of the principal instruments, under Providence, of perpetuating the constitution and liberties of Great Britain, and saving the nation from the vortex of French libertinism, by means of her popular tracts; and all were ready to admit, that the higher tone of morals and religion, among the various orders of people, for the last thirty or forty years, has been owing to her exertions. Or rather, perhaps, according to an opinion expressed by one of her correspondents, the credit of this moral and religious improvement, so far as human instrumentality is concerned, ought to be divided between Hannah More, as a writer, and Robert Raikes, as the projector of sabbath-schools. Once, then, in the history of human nature, we find an influence which we should naturally look for in one of the strongerminded, or, at least, the rougher sex, centered in a woman. The moral teachers of the age must yield the palm to her, who, like her own Urania, in the earliest of her compositions, and the prognostic of her greatness, issued the precepts of wisdom and piety, from her elegant retreat of Barley Wood.

The scheme of religion, which she adopted and maintained in her writings, was, in our view, essentially correct, and supported by a fair and liberal construction of the scriptures. In its doctrinal features, it coincided, or rather was identified, with the tenets of the English church, as put forth in its articles; for she was a devoted member and ardent friend of the establishment. She was, however, joined, in principle and affection, to the evangelical party, or rather to the piety which that party chiefly embodied and exemplified since it is not to be concealed, that she was most sincerely averse to the disputes which good men, in that church, carried on against each other, in regard to certain doctrinal sentiments. "Important as doctrines are," she observed to a friend, on one occasion," yet, except the leading ones, for which we ought to be ready to be led to the stake, they yield much with me to the purifying of the inward, hidden man of the heart. Conformity to God, a walking in his steps, spiritual-mindedness, a subduing of the old Adam within us,-here is the grand difficulty, and the acceptable offering to God." Her notion of the distinctive character of christianity, we find expressed to a correspondent, in a single sentence. "I mean a deep and abiding sense in the heart; of our fallen nature; of our actual and personal sinfulness; of our lost state, but for the redemption wrought for us by Jesus Christ; and of our universal necessity of a change of heart; and the conviction, that this change can only be effected by the influence of the Holy Spirit." This, by implication, may include whatever is dis

tinctive in the gospel; but more might have been expressed. Her sentiments on religious subjects, it is said, accorded very nearly with those of Dr. Thomas Scott, who was one of her favorite preachers. Perhaps Mrs. More manifested too great a dislike of discussions, which were designed to place the principles of truth in a clearer light, even though these might not involve the essentials of christianity. To the latter, she could not, and did not, feel indifferent; since it appears above, that she strongly held and maintained the vital, transforming doctrines of the gospel. Belief in these doctrines, and in Christ crucified, the sum of the whole, she every where inculcates; but she was fond of viewing it in its effects it was, with her, eminently the source and foundation of holy practice. She hated, as she remarked to one of her correspondents, the little names of Calvinist and Arminian. Christianity she considered as a broad basis, on which its common friends might meet without distrust, in the cultivation of personal holiness, and in the prosecution of benevolent objects. Her system, with its ramifications, might have shone with a brighter light, simply as a theory, had she oftener exhibited it by itself, and detached from its results in the life and conversation. But these she so identified in her mind with the system, that she could not long dwell on the speculative part. Indeed, she strenuously avoided the name and character of theologian and disputant, as unbecoming her station and sex. She hastened from the theory to the practice, from the doctrine to the effects or rather, in the view which she took of the theory and doctrines of religion, she included speculations, that were purifying, and principles, that were practical. As existing in the heart, if really there, she taught, that the true scheme of the gospel was essentially operative and transforming, from its earliest reception. Hence her biographer was led to remark, with singular beauty indeed, but with little caution, as to the impression which his remark might make on those who dwell much on the doctrines of christianity: "Her religion was all text; at once compendious and comprehensive,-in its creed a span long,—but in its moral dimensions as large as life, and all its charities." This also accords with what Mr. Jay, her Bath minister, has said, about "the moderation of her doctrinal sentiments," and her "dislike of the jargon of the schools, and whatever men had rendered metaphysical and exclusive, in the gospel of the God of all grace." She was no otherwise moderate in her doctrinal sentiments, we mean in an accommodating sense, than as she looked for the reality of religion, rather in the performance than in the speculation.

Her dislike of the names Calvinist and Arminian, arose, therefore, not from the slight importance which she attached to a correct belief, but from the conviction, that, whatever this belief might be,

even in its subordinate topics, it would be immediately manifested in the temper and life, by which the question of correctness must be more certainly determined. If these were unchristian, it mattered not with her, whether it was Calvinistic or Arminian irreligion. The venerable John Newton, who understood her religious sentiments perfectly well, told her, on one occasion, that she was a Calvinist, though she was not aware of it. What she, and also what he rejected, as Calvinism in England, was not the real system, as taught by the Genevan reformer, but an exaggeration, or perversion of it. With the known views of Mrs. More, respecting evangelical religion, had she been our own country woman, and seen the practical differences of the two schemes, as held here, there can be little doubt in which division her name would have appeared. As the matter was, it may be thought deserving of regret, that, agreeing as she did, virtually, with the genuine Calvinistic belief, she was yet almost willing to repudiate the name. While, therefore, the high-Calvinists of England found in her scheme of religion, too much moderation, and the advocates of a false liberality, with still more cause, complained of her excessive strictness; while the enthusiast was displeased with her sober piety, and the mere nominal christian with her enlightened zeal; she seems practically to have hit the exact medium, in which truth produces its greatest effect, and the heart is formed after the purest model. As human nature is constituted, and especially as the soul becomes enlightened from above, her scheme of religion will recommend itself to the greatest number of minds,-the moderate, the reflecting, and the unprejudiced.

The standard of piety which she inculcated in her works, was high. She taught her readers to aim at the perfect rule of scripture. To one of her correspondents, she remarked: "I invariably maintain the same principle, that the standard of religion should always be kept high. The very best of us are sure to pull it down a good many pegs, in our practice; but how much lower is the practice of those who fix a lower standard than the new testament holds out?" That christians fail to reach the proper scriptural mark, must surely evince the necessity of the atoning blood of the Savior :-a truth to which Mrs. More bore ample testimony, while she endeavored to bring up the practice of christians to as high a degree of perfection, as if there had been no atonement on which to place dependence. While, therefore, her principle was strict, according to the gospel; yet at the same time, like the gospel, it encouraged humble, earnest inquirers after truth, so far as they are led to appreciate the proper ground of acceptance. Hence it is, that in reading her works, the feeling of dissatisfaction with one's self, is common to most serious persons, who take the pains to compare their own attainments in religion, with her ele