ART. I. Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah More. By WILLIAM ROBERTS, ESQ. In 2 vols. New York. Harper & Brothers. 1834. 12mo.
HAPPILY for his readers, the compiler has left Mrs. More in these pleasant volumes to speak chiefly for herself. And if in books, as in law, the maxim holds " Quod facit per alium facit per se," what we get done by another is as if done by one's self, Mr. Roberts is entitled to no small commendation for furnishing a biography, more than usually interesting and instructive, composed of letters, journals, and sayings of that distinguished personage, to whom the world has been indebted for more than half a century for no small share of its edification and pleasure. Of the extent of their obligation for his good sense in adopting this method, our readers may form an idea from the specimen of what the work might have been, had the worthy compiler thought proper frequently to introduce himself. Indeed, we owe him much for his forbearance in this regard, seeing that he has found it in his heart to offer the following as a meet introduction to the work.
"In the twilight of the old, and in the dawn of the new era, Mrs. More accomplished her date here, succeeded, it may be, by ladies more talking and talked about, but probably by none so capable of making the voice of instruction echo from the cottage to the saloon, from the house of clay to the hall of cedar. To embody the likeness and perpetuate the remembrance of such a person is to preserve the best specimen of the past to be contrasted with the present generation, and in some