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MONTHLY REVIEW OP LITERATURE AND ART. 



MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF MRS. HANNAH 

 MORE. BY WM. ROBERTS, ESQ. 4 VOLS, 8vo. LONDON, 1834. 



WE must confess that we have been egregiously disappointed in these 

 four bulky octavo volumes. We think we had a right to expect although 

 our private opinion is that the world is not at present inclined to exhibit 

 any remarkable interest about the matter a somewhat more connected 

 and perfect view of the life and works of Mrs. Hannah More. The reader 

 shall judge whether we were not justified in looking for a somewhat care- 

 ful and elaborate performance, after reading the conclusion of the editor's 

 preface. 



" Having endeavoured," he says, " with as much assiduity as pressing 

 occupations of a very different kind would allow, to do justice to the cha- 

 racter and merit of the distinguished person he has brought before the 

 public, and having anxiously studied to avoid offending the feelings or 

 delicacy of any of those whose names occur in the course of the ensuing 

 correspondence, if the editor cannot say with Johnson that he dismisses the 

 work * with frigid indifference,' he can at least say with truth, that so 

 long as neither the fame of Mrs. Hannah More, nor the cause with which it 

 stands connected, has suffered detriment by passing through his hands, he 

 dismisses the work without any unbecoming anxiety (unbecoming at his 

 time of life) as to the result of his trial before the dispensers of critical 

 justice." 



The allusion to the apathy with which Johnson presented his Dictionary 

 to the world, and the sight of Mr. Roberts's four volumes, led us, perhaps 

 unreasonably, to infer that tht editor had exercised a degree of labour akin 

 to that of the great lexicographer in the compilation of his dictionary ; but 

 we find that we were mistaken. The editor has devoted a few pages of 

 his first volume to a meagre account of Mrs. More's life before her first ap- 

 pearance in London, and then proceeds to insert her voluminous correspon- 

 dence, occasionally putting in a line or two here and there for the purpose 

 of making fresh pegs, lest the whole machinery should break down to- 

 gether. Again, although the editor informs us, that " his difficulty has 

 consisted in reducing his materials within the present compass," we cannot 

 but think that had he, in the first place, devoted sufficient time to the 

 biographical portion of his work, and set it apart from the correspondence, 

 he would have found no difficulty in rejecting at least one half of the letters 

 now published. He appears to have whispered to himself" pressing oc- 

 cupations of a very different kind will not permit me to digest these vast 

 materials; I shall, therefore, retain all that may give any account of the 

 movements of Mrs. More from year to year, which will be a very conve- 

 nient substitute for a biography. I have it. Her correspondence shall in- 

 clude her life." 



The consequence is, that we have a great deal too much of the corres- 

 pondence of Mrs. Hannah More. Indeed, so small a portion of labour has 

 been bestowed, or so little discretion has been exercised with regard to 

 this correspondence, that we are frequently presented with almost dupli- 

 cate copies of the same letter that is to say, Mrs. More having, perhaps, 

 written two letters in one day, expresses the same sentiments in almost the 

 same language ; and Mr. Roberts, on a principle of selection accordant 

 with the modern system, has chosen to give us both. 

 There are, however, a great many letters in this collection well worthy 



