did not think Virgil the finest poet in the world. She blushed, and thus confirmed me in the opinion that her modesty was equal to her erudition. I repeated my question with a little circumlocution. She stared, and said she had never heard of the person I mentioned, but that she had read Tears of Sensibility, and Rosa Matilda, and Sympathy of Souls, and Too Civil by Half, and the Sorrows of Werter, and the Stranger, and the Orphan of Snowdon.

"Yes, Sir,' joined in the younger sister, who did not rise to so high a pitch of literature, and we have read Perfidy Punished, and Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, and the Fortunate Footman, and the Illustrious Chambermaid.' I blushed and stared in my turn; and here the conversation, through the difficulty of our being intelligible to each other, dropped; and I am persuaded that I sunk much lower in their esteem for not being acquainted with their favourite authors, than they did in mine for never having heard of Virgil.

finement, as her own had been; and that mind is left nearly as much out of the question in making an ordinary artist as in making a good cook.

CHAP. IV.

FROM my fondness for conversation, my imagination had been early fired with Dr. Johnson's remark that there is no pleasure on earth comparable to the fine full flow of London talk. I, who, since I had quitted college, had seldom had my mind refreshed, but with the petty rills and penurious streams of knowledge which country society afforded, now expected to meet it in a strong and rapid current, fertilizing wherever it flowed, producing in abundance the rich fruits of argument, and the gay flowers of rhetoric. I looked for an uninterrupted course of profit and delight. I flattered myself that every dinner would add to my stock of images; that every debate would clear up some diffiI arose from the table with a full convicculty, every discussion elucidate some truth; tion that it is very possible for a woman to be totally ignorant of the ordinary but indispensable duties of common life, without knowing one word of Latin; and that her being a bad companion is no infallible proof of her being a good economist.

that every allusion would be purely classical, every sentence abound with instruction, and every period be pointed with wit.

care to show my country-breeding, by going too early to incommode my friend, nor my town breeding, by going too late and spoiling his dinner. Sir John is a valuable, elegant minded man, and, next to Mr. Stanley, stood highest in my father's esteem for his mental accomplishments and correct morals. As I knew he was remarkable for assembling at his table men of sense, taste, and learning, my expectations of pleasure were very high. Here at least,' said I, as I heard the name of one clever man announced after another, here, at least, I cannot fail to find

On the tiptoe of expectation I went to dine with Sir John Belfield, in Cavendish-square. I looked at my watch fifty times. I thought I am afraid the poor father saw something it would never be six o'clock. I did not of my disappointment in my countenance, for when we were alone in the evening, be observed that a heavy addition to his other causes of regret for the loss of his wife, was her excellent management of his family. found afterwards that, though she had brought him a great fortune, she had a very low education. Her father, a coarse country Squire, to whom the pleasures of the table were the only pleasures for which he had any relish, had no other ambition for his daughter but that she should be the most famous housewife in the country. He glori ed in her culinary perfections, which he understood; of the deficiencies of her mind he had not the least perception. Money and good eating, he owned, were the only things in life which had a real intrinsic value; the value of all other things, he declared existed in the imagination only.

The feast of reason and the flow of soul: Here at least all the energies of my mind will be brought into exercise. From this society I shall carry away documents for the improvement of my taste; I shall treasure up hints to enrich my understanding, and collect aphorisms for the conduct of life.'

The poor lady, when she became a mother, At first there was no fair opportunity to and was brought out into the world, felt introduce any conversation beyond the topkeenly the deficiencies of her own educa- ics of the day, and to those, it must be contion. The dread of Scylla, as is usual, fessed, this eventful period gives a new and wrecked her on Charybdis. Her first reso-powerful interest. I should have been much lution, as soon as she had daughters, was that pleased to have had my country politics rec they should learn every thing. All the mastified, and any prejudices, which I might ters who teach things of little intrinsic use have contracted, removed, or softened, could were extravagantly paid for supernumerary the discussion have been carried on without attendance and as no one in the family was the frequent interruption of the youngest capable of judging of their improvements, their progress was but slow. Though they were taught much they learnt but little, even of these unnecessary things; and of things necessary they learnt nothing. Their wellintentioned mother was not aware that her daughters' education was almost as much calculated to gratify the senses, though in a different way, and with more apparent reVOL. II.

43

man in the company. This gentleman broke in on every remark, by descanting successively on the merits of the various dishes; and if it be true that experience only can determine the judgment, he gave proof of that best right to peremptory decision, by not trusting to delusive theory, but by actually eating of every dish at table.

His animadversions were uttered with

'

the gravity of a German philosopher, and bracelets are as blue as her eyes. Did you the science of a French cook. If any of his ever see a match? Surely, lady Bedfield,' opinions happened to be controverted, he cried a fourth, you carried the eyes to the quoted, in confirmation of his own judgment, shop, or there must have been a shade of difi Almanac des Gourmands, which he assur- ference.' I myself, who am passionately fond ed us was the most valuable work that had of children, eyed the sweet little rebels with appeared in France since the Revolution.- complacency, notwithstanding the unseasonThe author of this book he seemed to con- ableness of their interruption. sider of as high authority in the science of eating, as Coke or Hale in that of jurisprudence, or Quintilian in the art of criticism. To the credit of the company, however, be it spoken, he bad the whole of this topic to himself. The rest of the party were, in general, of quite a different caliber, and as little acquainted with his favourite author, as he probably was with theirs.

At last, when they were all disposed of, I resumed my inquiries about the resting place of the mummies. But the grand dispute, who should have oranges, and who should have almonds and raisins, soon raised such a clamour, that it was impossible to hear my Egyptian friend. This great contest was, however, at length settled, and I was returning to the antiquities of Memphis, when the The lady of the house was perfectly amia- important point, who should have red wine, ble and well bred. Her dinner was excel- and who should have white, who should have lent; and every thing about her had an air half a glass, and who a whole one, set us of elegance and splendour: of course she again in an uproar. Sir John was visibly completely escaped the disgrace of being uneasy, and commanded silence. During thought a scholar, but not the suspicion of this interval of peace, I gave up the catahaving a very good taste. I longed for the combs, and took refuge in the pyramids. removal of the cloth, and was eagerly anti- But I had no sooner proposed my question cipating the pleasure and improvement which awaited me.

about the serpent said to be found in one of them, than the son and heir, a fine little felAs soon as the servants were beginning to low, just six years old, reaching out his arm withdraw, we got into a sort of attitude of to dart an apple across the table at his sister, conversation; all except the eulogist of l'Al- roguishly intending to overset her glass, unmanac des Gourmands, who, wrapping him- luckily overthrew his own, brimful of port self up in the comfortable consciousness of wine. The whole contents were discharged his own superior judgment, and a little piqued on the elegant drapery of a white robed that he had found neither support nor oppo- nymph. sition, (the next best thing to a profound talker,) he seemed to have a perfect indifference to all topics except that on which he had shown so much eloquence, with so little effect.

All was now agitation and distress, and disturbance and confusion; the gentlemen ringing for napkins, the ladies assisting the dripping fair one; each vying with the other who should recommend the most approved specific of getting out the stain of red wine, and comforting the sufferer by stories of similar misfortunes. The poor little culprit was dismissed, and all difficulties and disas ters seemed at last surmounted. But you cannot heat up again an interest which has

The last tray was now carried out, the last lingering servant had retired. I was beginning to listen with all my powers of attention to an ingenious gentleman who was about to give an interesting account of Egypt, where he had spent a year, and from whence he was lately returned. He was just got to the cat-been so often cooled. The thread of converacombs,

When on a sudden open fly,

sation had been so frequently broken, that I despaired of seeing it tied together again. I sorrowfully gave up catacombs, pyramids, and serpent, and was obliged to content myself with a little desultory chat with my next neighbour; sorry and disappointed to glean only a few scattered ears, where I had expected so abundant a harvest; and the day from which I had promised myself so much benefit and delight, passed away with a very slender acquisition of either.

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, the mahogany folding doors, and in at once, struggling who should be first, rushed half a dozen children, lovely, fresh, gay, and noisy. This sudden and violent irruption of the pretty barbarians necessarily caused a total interruption of conversation. The sprightly creatures ran round the table to choose where they would sit. At length this great difficulty of courts and cabinets the choice of places, was settled. The little things were jostled in between the ladies, who all contended who should get possession of the little beauties. One was in raptures with the rosy I WENT almost immediately after, at the cheeks of a sweet girl she held in her lap. A invitation of Mr. Ranby, to pass a few days second exclaimed aloud at the beautiful lace at his villa at Hampstead. Mr. and Mrs. with which the frock of another was trimmed, Ranby were esteemed pious persons, but haand which she was sure mamma had given ving risen to great affluence by a sudden her for being good. A profitable, and doubt- turn of fortune in a commercial engagement, less, a lasting and inseparable association, they had a little self-sufficiency, and not a litwas thus formed in the child's mind between tle disposition to ascribe an undue importance lace and goodness. A third cried out, 'Look to wealth. This I should have thought more at the pretty angel!-do but observe-her pardonable under their circumstances, had I

CHAP. V.

not expected that religion would in this respect have more than supplied the deficiencies of education. Their religion, however, consisted almost exclusively in a disproportionate zeal for a very few doctrines. And though they were far from being immoral in their own practice, yet, in their discourse, they affected to undervalue morality.

This was, indeed, more particularly the case with the lady, whose chief object of discourse seemed to be, to convince me of her great superiority to her husband in polemical skill. Her chaste conversation certainly was not coupled with fear. In one respect she was the very reverse of those Pharisees who were scrupulously exact about their petty observances. Mrs. Ranby was, on the contrary, anxious about a very few important particulars, and exonerated herself from the necessity of all inferior attentions. She was strongly attached to one or two preachers, and discovered little candour for all others, or for those who attended them. Nay, she somewhat doubted of the soundness of the faith of her friends and acquaintance, who would not incur great inconvenience to attend one or other of her favourites.

quainted with the subject, and expressed herself with energy on many serious points. I could have been glad, however, to have seen her views a little more practical, and her spirit a little less censorious. I saw she took the lead in debate, and that Mr. Ranby submitted to act as subaltern; but whether his meekness was the effect of piety or fear, 1 could not at that time determine. She protested vehemently against all dissipation, in which I cordially joined her, though I hope with something less intemperance of manner, and less acrimony against those who pursued it. I began, however to lose sight of the errors of the daughters' dress in the pleasure I felt at conversing with so pious a mother of a family. For pious she really was, though her piety was a little debased by coarseness, and not a little disfigured by asperity.

I was sorry to observe that the young ladies not only took no part in the conversation, but that they did not even seem to know what was going on; and I must confess the manner in which it was conducted was not calculated to make the subject interesting. The girls sat jogging and whispering each other, and got away as fast as they could.

As soon as they were withdrawn-There, Mrs. Ranby's table was more than hos- sir,' said the mother, are three girls who pitably good. There was not the least sus- will make excellent wives.-They never picion of Latin here. The eulogist of female were at a ball or a play in their lives; and ignorance might have dined in comfortable yet, though I say it, who should not say it, security against the intrusion and vanity of they are as highly accomplished as any ladies erudition. She had three daughters, not un- at St. James's. I cordially approved the pleasing young women. But I was much concerned to observe, that they were not only dressed to the very extremity of the fashion, but their drapery was as transparent, as short, and as scanty; there was as sedulous a disclosure of their persons, and as great a redundancy of ornaments, as I had seen in the gayest circles.

former part of her assertion, and bowed in silence to the latter.

I took this opportunity of enquiring what had been her mode of religious instruction for her daughters; but though I put the question with much caution and deference, she looked displeased, and said she did not think it necessary to do a great deal in that way; all these things must come from above; it was not human endeavours, but divine grace which made Christians. I observed, that the truth appeared to be, that divine grace blessing human endeavours, seemed most likely to accomplish that great end. She replied, that experience was not on my side, for that the children of religious parents were not always religious. I allowed that it was too true. I knew she drew her instances from two or three of her own friends, who, while they discovered much earnestness about their own spiritual interests, had almost totally neglected the religious cultivation of their children; the daughters in particular had been suffered to follow their own devices, and to waste their days in company of their own choosing, and in the most frivolous manner. What do ye tnore than others?' is an interrogation which this negligence has frequently suggested. Nay, professing serious piety, if ye do not more than those who profess it not, ye do less.

'Expect not perfection,' said my good mother, but look for consistency. This principle my parents had not only taught me in the closet, but had illustrated by their de/portment in the family and in the world. They observed a uniform correctness in their general demeanor. They were not over anxious about character for its own sake, but they were tenderly vigilant not to bring any reproach on the Christian name by imprudence, negligence, or inconsistency, even in small things. Custom,' said my mother, 'can never alter the immutable nature of right; fashion can never justify any practice which is improper in itself; and to dress indecently is as great an offence against purity and modesty, when it is the fashion, as when it is obsolete. There should be a line of demarcation somewhere. In the article of dress and appearance, Christian mothers should make a stand. They should not be so unreasonable as to expect that a young girl will of herself have courage to oppose the united temptations of fashion without, and the secret I took the liberty to remark, that though prevalence of corruption within; and au- there was no such thing as hereditary holithority should be called in where admonition ness, no entail of goodness; yet the Almighty fails.' had promised in the scriptures many blessThe conversation after dinner took a reli-ings to the offspring of the righteous. He gious turn. Mrs. Ranby was not unac-never meant, however, that religion was to

332

THE WORKS OF HANNAH MORE.

be transferred arbitrarily like an heir-loom;
but the promise was accompanied with con-
ditions and injunctions. The directions were
express and frequent, to inculcate early and
late the great truths of religion; nay, it was
enforced with all the minuteness of detail,
'precept upon precept, line upon line, here
a little, and there a little'-at all times and
seasons, walking by the way, and sitting in
the house.' 1 hazarded the assertion, that it
would generally be found that where the
children of pious parents turned out ill, there
had been some mistake, some neglect, or
some fault on the part of the parents; that
they had not used the right methods. I ob-
served that I thought it did not at all dero-
gate from the sovereignty of the Almighty,
that he appointed certain means to accom-
plish certain ends; and that the adopting
these in conformity to his appointment, and
dependence on his blessing, seemed to be
one of the cases in which we should prove
our faith by our obedience.

I found I had gone too far-she said, with
some warmth, that she was not wanting in
any duty to her daughters; she set them a
good example, and she prayed daily for their
conversion. I highly commended her for
both, but risked the observation, that pray-
ing without instilling principles, might be as
inefficacious as instruction without prayer.
That it was like a husbandman, who should
expect that praying for sunshine, should
produce a crop of corn in a field where not
God, indeed,
one grain had been sown.
could effect this, but he does not do it; and
the means being of his own appointment, his
omnipotence is not less exerted, by his di-
recting certain effects to follow certain cau-
ses, than it would be by any arbitrary act.'
As it was evident that she did not choose to
quarrel with me, she contented herself with
saying coldly, that she perceived I was a le-
galist, and had but a low view of divine
things.

At tea I found the young ladies took no
more interest in the conversation than they
had done at dinner, but sat whispering and
laughing, and netting white silk gloves, till
they were summoned to the harpsichord.
Despairing of getting on with them in com-
pany, I proposed a walk in the garden. I
now found them as willing to talk, as desti-
Their conversa-
tute of any thing to say.
tion was vivid and frivolous. They laid great
stress on small things. They seemed to have
no shades in their understanding, but used
the strongest terms for the commonest occa-
sions, and admiration was excited by things
hardly worthy to command attention. They
were extremely glad and extremely sorry,
on subjects not calculated to excite affections
of any kind. They were animated about
trifles, and indifferent on things of impor-
tance. They were, I must confess, frank
and good-natured; but it was evident, that
as they were too open, to have any thing to
conceal, so they were too uninformed to have
any thing to produce; and I was resolved
not to risk my happiness with a woman who
could not contribute her full share towards

spending a wet winter cheerfully in the
country.

The next day, all the hours from breakfast
to dinner were devoted to the harp. I had
the vanity to think that this sacrifice of time
was made in compliment to me, as I had pro-
fessed to like music; till I found that all
their mornings were spent in the same man-
ner; and the only fruit of their education,
which seemed to be used to any purpose,
was, that after their family devotions in the
evening, they sung and played a hymn. This
was almost the only sign they gave of intel-
lectual or spiritual life. They attended
morning prayers if they were dressed before
the bell rang. One morning when they did
not appear till late, they were reproved by
their father; Mrs. Ranby said, she should
be more angry with them for their irregu
larity, were it not that Mr. Ranby obsti-
nately persisted in reading a printed form,
which she was persuaded could not do any
body much good.' The poor man, who was
really well disposed, very properly defended
himself, by saying, that he hoped his own
heart went along with every word he read
and as to his family, he thought it much more
beneficial for them to join in an excellent
composition of a judicious divine, than to at-
tend to any such crude rhapsody as he should
be able to produce, whose education had not
qualified him to lead the devotions of others.
I had never heard him venture to make use
of his understanding before; and I continued
to find it much better that I had at first given
him credit for. The lady observed, with
some asperity, that where there were gifts
and graces, it superceded the necessity of
learning.

In vindication of my own good breeding,
should observe that, in my little debates with
Mrs. Ranby, to which I am always chal
lenged by her, I never lost sight of that be-
when about to deliver sentiments which
coming example of the son of Cato. who,
might be thought too assuming in so young a
man, introduced his admonitions with this
modest preface,

Remember what our father oft has taught us.
I, without quoting the son of the sage of
Utica, constantly adduced the paternal an
thority for opinions, which might savour too
much of arrogance without such a sanction.
I observed in the course of my visit, that
self-denial made no part of Mrs. Ranby's re-
ligious plan. She fancied, I believe, that it
savored of works, and of works she was evi
dently afraid. She talked as if activity were
useless, and exertion unnecessary, and as if,
like inanimate matter, we had nothing to do
but to sit still and be shone upon.

I assured her that though I depended on
the mercy of God, through the merits of his
Son, for salvation, as entirely as she could
do, yet I thought that Almighty grace, so far
from setting aside diligent exertion, was the
principle which promoted it. That salvation
is in no part of scripture represented as at
tainable by the indolent Christian, if I might
couple such contradictory terms. That I

had been often awfully struck with the plain interrupting me with more spirit than I declarations, that the kingdom of heaven thought he possessed, said, 'General corrupsuffereth violence-strive to enter in at the tion, Sir, must be the source of particular strait gate-whatsoever thy hand findeth to Corruption. I did not mean that my wife do, do it with all thy might give diligence was worse than other women.' • Worse, to make your calling sure work out your Mr. Ranby, worse?' cried she. Ranby for own salvation.' To this labour, this watch- the first time in his life, not minding her, fulness, this sedulity of endeavour, the crown went on, As she is always insisting that the of life is expressly promised, and salvation is whole species is corrupt, she cannot help alnot less the free gift of God, because he has lowing that she herself has not quite escaped annexed certain conditions to our obtain- the infection. Now, to be a sinner in the ing it. gross, and a saint in the detail; that is, to have all sins, and no faults, is a thing I do not quite comprehend.'

The more I argued, the more I found my reputation decline; yet to argue she compelled me. I really believed she was sincere, After he had left the room, which he did as but she was ill-informed, governed by feel the shortest way of allaying the storm, she ings and impulses, rather than by the plain apologized for him, and said, 'he was a well express rule of scripture. It was not that meaning man, and acted up to the little light she did not read scripture, but she interpret- he had ; but added, that he was unacquainted it in her own way; built opinions on in-ed with religious feelings, and knew little of sulated texts; did not compare scripture the nature of conversion.' with scripture, except as it concurred to Mrs. Ranby, I found, seems to consider strengthen her bias. She considered with Christianity, as a kind of free-masonry, and a disproportionate fondness, those passages therefore thinks it superfluous to speak on which supported her preconceived opinions, serious subjects to any but the initiated. If instead of being uniformly governed by the they do not return the sign, she gives them general tenor and spirit of the sacred page. up as blind and dead-She thinks she can She had far less reverence for the perceptive only make herself intelligible to those to than for the doctrinal parts, because she did whom certain peculiar phrases are familiar; not sufficiently consider faith as an operative and though her friends may be correct, deinfluential principle; nor did she conceive vout, and both doctrinally and practically that the sublimest doctrines involve deep pious; yet if they cannot catch a certain practical consequences. She did not con- mystic meaning, if there is not a sympathy sider the government of the tongue, nor the of intelligence between her and them, if they command of her passions, as forming any do not fully conceive of impressions, and material part of the Christian character. cannot respond to mysterious communicaHer zeal was fiery, because her temper was tions, she holds them unworthy of interso; and her charity was cold, because it was course with her. She does not so much inan expensive propensity to keep warm sist on high moral excellence as the criterion Among the perfections of the Redeemer's of their worth, as on their own account of character, she did not consider his being their internal feelings. 'meek and lowly' as an example, the influence of which was to extend to her. She considered it indeed as admirable, but not as imitable; a distinction she was very apt to make in all her practical dissertations, and in her interpretation of scripture.

In the evening Mrs. Ranby was lamenting, in general and rather customary terms, her own exceeding sinfulness. Mr. Ranby said, You accuse yourself rather too heavily, my dear; you have sins, to be sure.' And pray what sins have I, Mr. Ranby?' said she, turning upon him with so much quickness that the poor man started. Nay,' said he meekly, 'I did not mean to offend you; so far from it, that hearing you condemn yourself so grievously, I intended to comfort you, and to say that, except a few faults,

·

She holds very cheap, that gradual growth in piety which is in reality no less the effect of divine grace, than those instantaneous conversions which she believes to be so common. She cannot be persuaded that, of every advance in piety, of every improvement in virtue, of every illumination of the understanding, of every amendment in the heart, of every ratification of the will, the spirit of God is no less the author, because it is progressive, than if it were sudden It is true, Omnipotence can, when he pleases, still produce these instantaneous effects, as he has sometimes done; but as it is not his established or common mode of operation, it seems vain and rash, presumptuously to wait for these miraculous interferences. An implicit dependence, however, on such interferences, is certainly more gratifying to the genius of enthusiam, than the anxious vigilance, the fervent prayer, the daily struggle, the sometimes scarcely perceptible, though constant progress of the sober-minded Christian. Such a Christian is fully aware that his heart requires as much watching in the Here, fearing matters would go too far, I in- more advanced as in the earliest stages of terposed, and softening things as much as I his religious course. He is cheerful in a could for the lady, said, I conceived that well-grounded hope, and looks not for ecstaMr. Ranby meant, that though she partook cies, till that hope be swallowed up in frui of the general corruption Here Ranby tion. Thankful if he feel in his heart a

And pray what faults? interrupted she, continuing to speak however, lest he should catch an interval to tell them. I defy you, Mr. Ranby, to produce one." My dear,' replied he, as you charged yourself with all, I thought it would be letting you off cheaply by naming only two or three, such as