Hannah More to Mr. and Mrs. Huber-Genius not Exempt from the Duties of Religion.

seau, Bolingbroke, Lord Byron, and a hundred others, would be happy to take shelter, for the use to which they applied their talents, under the wing of so admirable a woman as Madame Necker. Perhaps, had I as much personal interest in defending genius as she has, I might have been tempted to treat it with greater lenity. Again, I am a passionate admirer of whatever is beautiful in nature, or exquisite in art. These are the gifts of God, but no part of His essence; they proceed from God's goodness, and should kindle our gratitude to Him; but I cannot conceive that the most enchanting beauties of nature, or the most splendid productions of the fine arts, have any necessary connexion with religion. You will observe that I mean the religion of Christ, not that of Plato; the religion of reality, and not of the beau ideal. Adam sinned in a garden too beautiful for us to have any conception of it. The Israelties selected fair groves and pleasant mountains for the peculiar scenes of their idolatry. The most exquisite pictures and statues have been produced in those parts of Europe where true religion has made the least progress. These decorate religion, but they neither produce nor advance it. They are the enjoyments and refreshments of life, and very compatible with true religion, but they make no part of religion. Athens was at once the most learned and the most polished city in the world—so devoted to the fine arts, that it is said to have contained more statues than men; yet in this city the eloquent apostle's preaching made but one proselyte in the whole Areopagus.

I am happy to learn from her elegant biographer, that the close of life of her illustrious cousin was so eminently pious. The best Christians must look with envy at the passage in which

Hannah More to Mr. and Mrs. Huber-Genius not Exempt from the Duties of Religion.

she describes herself as not spending a quarter of an hour without thinking of God.

Though I have already said too much, I cannot help adding a word on what appears to me to be the distinctive character of Christianity. 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 the 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 is not a splendid, but it is a saving religion; it is humbling now that it may be elevating hereafter. It appears to me, also, that the requisition which the Christian religion makes of the most highly gifted, as well as of the most meanly endowed, is, that after the loftiest and most successful exercise of the most brilliant talents, the favored possessor should lay his talents and himself at the foot of the Cross with the same deep abasement and self-renunciation as his more illiterate neighbor, and this from a conviction of who it is that hath made them to differ. I give Madame Necker high credit for the exact pencil with which she has drawn Madame Necker la mére. It is precisely the picture I drew in my own mind more than forty years ago. I saw much of both these distinguished parents, as they were in familiar intimacy with Mr. Garrick, at whose house I was then staying; with great abilities, I thought her too studiously ingenious to be agreeable, and too recherchée to seem uneasy; in short, she seemed to have been formed to be the admiration of Mr. Gibbon.

I am sorry you insisted so much on my real opinion of the excellently written volume in question. I feel that I have exposed myself to the charge of injustice to distinguished merit,

Sir W. W. Pepys to Hannah More-Spirit of Prayer. Saying of Bowdler.

and of ingratitude for the entertainment I have received from the living lady, as well as from her to whom human opinion, even of much higher order than mine, is now of no value. I have no room for other subjects. May the Almighty grant us all the benefits and consolations of the late gracious season!

H. MORE.

I must add, that in sallies of imagination and happiness of illustration, Madame Necker is frequently not inferior to her admirable relative.

XXII.-SPIRIT OF PRAYER-SAYING OF BOWDLER-FEELINGS AND STUDIES OF THE OLD.

Sir W. W. Pepys to Hannah More.

POTTERELLS, January 7th, 1825.

MY DEAR FRIEND: I have just finished your "Spirit of Prayer," for which I give you my sincerest thanks. I have told my family what, if said only to you, might savor too much of compliment, that I do not recollect to have ever risen from a book which gave me greater pleasure; I said actual pleasure, not merely instruction or useful exhortation, but positive delight. There is such an animated spirit of piety running through the whole of it, that not to have greatly relished it would have impeached one's taste even more than one's principles. Mrs. Montagu and I used always to agree that you had more wit in your serious writings than other people had when they meant to be professedly witty; and I used to tell her that whenever I should see you, I should plague you by complimenting you upon the wit of your writings, and not upon the good which I thought they would do. As to this last treatise, I hope to have it always

Sir W. W. Pepys to Hannah More-Spirit of Prayer. Saying of Bowdler.

upon my table, and to read it over and over again, as long as I shall wish to cherish the spirit of piety; which I pray to God may be as long as I live.

Mrs. H. Bowdler writes me word that she saw you lately, and you were still in your chamber. She says "I left her with feelings of respect and admiration which I cannot describe. I never saw her more agreeable or more animated than on this last visit." Though you have long since been raised above the praise of us poor mortals, yet if any such can give you pleasure, it must be when it comes from such a person as Mrs. Bowdler.

We are just now reading of an evening a "Memoir of Mr. John Bowdler," her brother, written by his son, which shows him to have been worthy of that excellent family to which he belonged. I have long known and highly respected Thomas Bowdler, but of John I knew nothing, except an admirable saying which I remember was attributed to him some years ago, when the fashion was to lament over the state of this unhappy country. "If," said he, "a man were to go from the northern to the southern extremity of this island, with his eyes shut and his ears open, he would think that this country was sinking into an abyss of destruction; but if he were to return with his ears shut and his eyes open, he would be satisfied that he had the greatest reason to be thankful for our prosperity." As we have not finished the “Memoir," I can only hope that this observation has been preserved in it. What would he have said had he lived to see the present state of this country?

We hope to return to our winter quarters on Friday next, the 14th, and, blessed be God, in the same state of health and spirits as though Tuesday next would not complete my eightyfifth year. I will not fill my paper with any effusions of that ·

Sir W. W. Pepys to Hannah More-Spirit of Prayer. Saying of Bowdler.

gratitude which the most obdurate heart must feel for such unmerited kindness. I wonder whether I shall ever see that young lady in whose favor you have so highly prepossessed me by the account which you gave of her kindness and attentions to you. If that false sentiment be so applauded,

"My friend must hate the man who injures me,"

surely it is equally fair that your friend should like (I suppose I must not say love) the young lady who has shown such attachment to you; pray remember me to her, and tell her that I think she has much more reason to value herself upon the conquest of an old man who has never seen her than of any young man who has.

We have been of late very much pleased on an evening by the "Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Clarke," the traveller, which we thought an acquisition, as it is so difficult to find any book that will suit equally the taste and ages of a whole family circle. For my part, when I am alone I feel that I have so little concern with this world, and so much with the next, that I am apt to reproach myself if I bestow much time on any book that has not some tendency at least to prepare me for the awful change I must expect soon to undergo. Dr. Doddridge, on the words, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" recommends that answer to those who lose their time on the curiosities of literature, and quotes the last words of a great scholar: “Heu! vitam perdidi operose nihil agendo," instead of being about their heavenly Father's business." This, my dear friend, will never rise up, I trust, as a just accusation against you, who have employed those brilliant talents which God has bestowed on you so much to His glory and the good of your fel