Aug. 11. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



lal 



MBS. HANNAH MORE ON FEMALE POETICAL GENIUS. 



I believe that many of the readers of " N. & Q." 

 will be pleased with the inclosed letter, which 

 might be termed an essay. I believe it never has 

 been published ; and ladies who are curious to 

 know what a great lady thought of encouraging 

 poetical tastes in young ladies, may thank me for 

 transcribing this, which has found a place among 

 other autographs. E. W. J. 



To Lady 



Dear Madam, 



You ask me whether I should think it right to 

 encourage a propensity to poetry in a very young 

 daughter ; I think I may answer without hesita- 

 tion that I should not. Perhaps you will say 

 " She talks to me who never had a child ; " and 

 indeed it is very easy to decide with an air of un- 

 feeling wisdom upon affections one has never 

 known, and circumstances in which one has never 

 been. In the present case, as far as I am able to 

 judge, it appears to me that wit and poetry are, of 

 all the propensities of the human intellect, those 

 which require to be most counteracted in our sex. 

 Wit is scarcely less perilous than beauty ; like 

 beauty too, it is as full of attractions as of perils. 

 A bright and strong imagination has a natural 

 tendency to make the mind fly off from the plain 

 path and sober rectitude of common life ; it is a 

 sort of centrifugal force which requires to be acted 

 upon by opposite powers, to keep the mind in due 

 equipoise. 



A lively Imagination carries a great deal of sail, 

 to which a severe education ought to oppose con- 

 siderable ballast. By severity I do not mean 

 harshness but care ; not unkindness but attention ; 

 not rigour but discipline ; a sort of mental drill, 

 which is, by habitual exercise, to train the heart 

 for the combat of human life. Imagination, like 

 all other gifts of Providence, Is desirable and de- 

 lightful ; but like all other great gifts it exposes 

 the possessor to difficulties and trials, from which 

 less brilliant characters are exempt. Yet the 

 temperate use and abstinent enjoyment of this 

 shining talent adds dignity to its possessor ; for to 

 use with discretion and modesty any talent com- 

 mitted to us, is perhaps a still higher attainment 

 of virtue than even to submit contentedly to the 

 want of it. 



A lively Imagination Is naturally, though not 

 necessarily, connected with strong passions ; what- 

 ever encourages the one will Inflame the other ; 

 light books feed and cherish this spark ; praise 

 and admiration set It in a blaze. Intemperate 

 wit seeks for praise as Its natural aliment; it de- 

 mands it as its daily bread. Hence arise the 

 inordinate hunger and the insatiable claims of 

 variety. She is the veriest beggar that ever con- 

 descended to live on casual alms, for she exists but 

 on the charity of flatterers. She grows greater 



No. 302.] 



by Indulgence, and, like the vulture In the Grecian 

 fable, she finds that "increase of appetite doth 

 grow with what It feeds on," for every gratifica- 

 tion creates a fresh desire ; plain truth will soon 

 become cold and tame and insipid to the vitiated 

 palate long accustomed to the delicious poignan- 

 cies of exaggerated commendation. 



Do not be afraid that real talents will be 

 quenched ; to do this. If it were possible, would be 

 barbarous ; If the mind be animated with the true 

 flame of genius, discretion will not extinguish it. 

 If it be only an artificial warmth, kindled by a 

 wrong education, and foster'd by undue flattery, 

 that false fire which might have gone out of Itself, 

 Is kept alive by heaping on It matter full of igneous 

 particles ; and will destroy the little tenement 

 which it should only warm and light. The liveliest 

 parts should be chastis'd by a sober and rational 

 education. The most elegant superstructure al- 

 ways grows out of a foundation of solid usefulness, 

 and all accomplishments which are not raised on 

 the basis of sense and virtue, are like pyramids 

 built with the point downwards. 



There is a levity in all human, I had almost said 

 in the female mind, which naturally disposes It to 

 whatever delights the fancy and gratifies the pas- 

 sions. Instructing young girls therefore to cast 

 down high imaginations. Is not less the business 

 of prudence than the injunction of piety. I mean 

 not to speak with the gravity of a divine, or to 

 bring any arguments of the more serious sort ; I 

 only aim to use the language of common human 

 prudence, which wishes to promote the happiness 

 of the object in view ; and this I take it will 

 never be effected by whetting her appetites for 

 praise or pleasure : to point her naturally too 

 keen sensibilities still more acutely, certainly will 

 not add to her comfort, whatever it may do to her 

 ingenuities, and genius will always be bought too 

 dear, when purchas'd at the expense of happiness I 

 A parent will generally see more merit In a child's 

 performance than it really possesses ; a friend Is 

 expected to acknowledge more than he really 

 sees ; and one can't help trembling for the virtue 

 of a little creature when one sees her greedily 

 swallowing down the applauses which the fondness 

 of the mother extorts from the politeness of the 

 guest. Thus, between the tenderness of nature 

 and the complaisance of friendship, the poor little 

 wit Is likely to hear as little truth as a beauty or a 

 prince ; and of course to grow up with a deceitful 

 estimate of her own merit, with a train of false 

 views, fantastic desires, and craving passions. 

 After all I doubt not I should be delightfed with 

 the discovery of any agreeable talent in a child, 

 and probably should not have a grain of that 

 exaction which It is so easy to recommend to 

 others. But your own admirable sense and exact 

 judgment stands In no need of any poor sugges- 

 tions of mine. In throwing together these hasty 



