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Were it not the fear of disgracing the "religion " of good will," and the honour of the family of the Sarcasms, my pride would lead me to say something she would not like to read; but I will not expose my family's temper, for, as my brother Sir A. Elton said, while he was writing a book, "I do not defend myself," I will not defend christianity with any other weapon than the tongue or the pen I will rather, as I really do, for a hundred reasons, pity her. This lady seems perfectly prepared for a crusade, and to erect the labarum as a signal of blood. This she has already attempted, by imputing disaffection to her system to a liege son of the church as a crime, and appointed "a disciple of her own in his place."

But pride is frequently the motive to many a good action; and it often suggests bad ones. Pride, an honest pride, the pride of maintaining the reputation of integrity, induced Mr. Bere to present her and Sir Abraham Elton, her good and faithful ally in persecution and cruelty, before the tribunal of the public; and it was pride, a mistaken, ignorant, and wicked pride, that has rendered her contumaciously mute, yet indefatigably diligent in privately directing her runners, and by her friends influencing others, to " contradict "and give the lie to him in public advertise

ments;" when if it were possible to palliate her guilt, she ought herself to have come forward and defended that factitious, literary, and religious character, she had acquired by the rhime-and-proseambling-nag, as it appears, of others.

The last chap. of vol. 7, is occupied by a Scheme of Prayer. Respectable mention is made of the liturgy of the church of England; but the forma, here proposed, is that of the directory of the assembly of divines at Westminster and its division is that into which prayer naturally resolves itself. The heads are, as usual, adoration, confession, petition, thanksgiving, intercession. By storing up in the memory the phrases and texts of scripture, the child, in time, is expected to be able to pray, I suppose extempore, i. e. without any prepared form. The word extempore is not used in this chapter, but the object evidently is to learn to pray without a pre-conceived form. I mention this so particularly, on account of the Blagdon controversy, wherein the word extempore has been much bandied about, brought as a criminal charge against her, and denied by her organs, her creatures under her eye, for she is herself contumaciously mute. Now, although I am myself of the church, I confess, I think repeating a pre-conceived form of prayer no just charge against a christian or a heathen. To hear a learned, judicious, and pious minister pray, which every minister in the church who knows his duty and profession ought to be able to do, when circumstances make it convenient & necessary, from his store" of old things and new," is delightful to the heart of every truly pious person. Are there not respectable protestant churches established by law who use no liturgy? Were there not various missals used in different dioceses, in times of

popery? We had them in usum Sarum, &c. &c. The exercises of that sort, sometimes pre-conceived, and by long and constant practices generally extemporaneous, performed by a Doctor Robertson, a Blair, a Campbell, a Leechman, a Dalrymple, a Doddridge, a Lardner, a Kippis, a Rees, and a Hunter, all of them an honour to their country, and ornaments to their profession, being elegant, pure, and pious, can be an object of derision only to the ignorant or the impious. That man, or minister, who cannot pray without book, is not only ignorant of his profession, be he in or out of the church, but of genuine religion. I conceive every man prays several times a day; and I imagine he will not wait till a book is brought. There is not an hour of the day passes but I put up some prayer. "Sursum corda!" When I open my eyes, it is my heaven to pray; when I dress, eat, drink, stand, or sit, I put up some petition, or return thanks for some mercy; and I always fall asleep perhaps in the middle of some secret prayer. And I confess, I am far from thinking myself one of the best christians, or without many faults and infirmities, and this poor Lady Mac Sarcasm very well knows, and often reminds me of it. But it is when I walk or ride out alone, or climb some fair hill, and prospects delightful as Elysian arise to my view, that I enjoy the raptures of the blessed : I am all praise and adoration, and I seem to long for the day when I shall call the treasures of eternity my own, form a juster idea of the universe and the attributes of God,

and revel in the plenitude of bliss. Sometimes viewing his works, lost in wonder, I say with the poet,

"Come then, expressive silence, muse his praise." Now my reader

reader may call me an enthusiast if he likes; but I deny it; I read the liturgy according to authority; but there is no oath of conformity that does, or can, or shall forbid me this secret converse with my God.

Now to this right I think every man is entitled, and this I think the wise and the humblest may and ought to practise individually. But if a member of the church will publicly pray to a congregation by extemporaneous, or rather without any forms, I think such a person ought to secede, take a license, and, as a dissenter, be protected by law. I do not approve of ignorant persons praying to a congregation without a form committed to memory. When this is the case, there is danger of enthusiasm and extravagance. It was H. More's fault, while she declared herself of the church, to encourage these practices in an injudicious manner. King Charles the martyr, in Eikon Basilikon, ascribed to him, allowed of private devotion in the manner I have described, but was a steady friend to the liturgy in public, for which he died a martyr under the axe of the ancient non-descripts, whose system Mrs. Hannah is most indefatigably resuscitating.

VOL. VIII.

THE 8th vol. contains observations to ladies on the management of their household, and on practical affairs. Arithmetic is recommended, as necessary to œconomy, and her opinion is enforced by the authority of Dr. Johnson, who said that "a woman cannot have too much arithmetic." Young ladies are warned against becoming authors, until they have read much and studied long; as thereby, instead of coming forward too soon, vainly boasting of their early genius, their works will prove less defective, and they themselves more humble and diffident! Study is more earnestly recommended, because the more learned the woman, the more nearly will they approximate an equality with the men. Smatterers, therefore, have no pretensions to this rank; it is "higher "minds" (such as herself!) who are worthy of co-operation and competition with the male sex.

Mrs. More draws a parallel between the woman of personal beauty, and the woman who possesses beauties of the mind. The beautiful woman exerts herself to be a beauty, a queen, for life; whilst the female of wit and learning, combats patriotically for the whole sex, destroying all distinction, and abrogating every Salique law, which renders man superior to and head of the woman; and enthroning women, every where making them queens, to govern the men.

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