THE VINE. 119 



of her garden. Who has not attached the distinc- 

 tion of exquisite gracefulness, combined with noble 

 simplicity, to the vine ? Who has not acknow- 

 ledged its beauty, its full, overspreading growth, its 

 rich abundance of delicious fruit ? Painters will 

 tell us, that, to study the perfection of form, colour, 

 light and shade, united in one object, we must place 

 before us a bunch of grapes. Scripture refers us 

 to their juice, as " wine that maketh glad the heart 

 of man," selecting it also as an emblem of that 

 choice blessing, a loving, faithful wife. Now, in 

 Hannah More's renewed and ripened character, 

 those who know her best will be the most eager to 

 assert that all these qualities were clearly percep 

 tible ; to me, who had not much personal inter- 

 course with her, the trait of grateful simplicity, 

 evidently emanating from an humble, peaceful 

 mind, shone paramount, as it does in the beautiful 

 tree. There was an exquisite modesty, deprecat- 

 ing in every look the homage that all were prepared 

 to render. There was something that shrunk from 

 admiration, while it courted the love, I could al- 

 most say the countenance and encouragement, of 

 those who could only have thought of raising her to 

 the eye of reverential observance. Yet, amid all 

 this humbleness of mind, that asked a prop from 

 what, in comparison, was but a bundle of dry sticks, 

 rich clusters were perpetually looking out — thoughts 

 that drew their being from the sap of the True 



