With respect to the individual next introduced, the writer appears to
have been conscious how much delicacy was required, and seems to have
distrusted his own ability in the management of his subject.
He commences thus:—As the comet is invariably accompanied by its blazing
appendix, so are malignant envy and the bitterest enmity, everlastingly
found in attendance upon eminent virtue and splendid talents.
To contemplate these four qualities, virtue and talent, enmity and envy,
in their fullest force and energy, it is only necessary to take a view of
the life and character of H⸺ M⸺.
If the esteem and friendship of the wise and good, limited to no
gradation of rank or pre-eminence, denote virtue, piety, and those
more amiable endowments which improve and adorn society, then may the
friends of this excellent female, boldly claim for her every honourable
appellation. At the same time, it must be reluctantly acknowledged, that
envy has been busily employed in ascribing to her, various failings and
imperfections, much at variance with the lofty pretensions asserted in
her behalf. Truth, however, unsupported but by itself, its own firmness,
and its own excellence, boldly defies surmise, insinuation, and falsehood.
With respect to intellectual distinction and superiority, there can be no
occasion for discussion. The catalogue of H. M.’s works speaks a language
which all comprehend, and whose beauties and excellence all without
hesitation, acknowledge. She exhibited claims to popular admiration
and applause at a very early period of life, nor has she written or
published any thing which had not the cause of religion, morality, and
virtue, as its immediate and avowed object. To enumerate them all, with
a concise estimate of the value of each and of the whole, would be a
pleasing occupation, but would unavoidably extend this narrative beyond
the proposed limits[5]. The last of her labours may perhaps be pronounced
the most extensively important, and the most generally useful. By much
practice, she has obtained a style which classes her very high amongst
our best writers of English prose. It is strong without being pedantic,
forcible yet exceedingly perspicuous, elegant but not too elaborate.
Is it not to be seriously lamented, that an individual, so endowed, so
confessedly entitled to the applauses of her countrymen, so constantly
exercised for their benefit, and so perpetually engaged in the most
amiable and useful occupations of social life, should have had active
and zealous adversaries, who have disputed the sincerity of her piety,
and maliciously and injuriously impugned the accuracy of her conduct?
What was termed the Blagden Controversy, can hardly be forgotten; but
notwithstanding the tricks and artifices which were made use of, it
terminated most highly to her honour.
Among other stratagems, the following is not the least curious. One of
her great adversaries published a pamphlet against her, to which he gave
the title of “H. M.’s Controversy on Sunday Schools,” which drew in many
to buy and to read it, thinking it to be written by her. The book was
printed for Jordan, who was the publisher of the notorious Tom Paine’s
works, and at the end were stitched advertisements of all the well-known
Jacobinical publications.
H. M. has moreover been accused of fanaticism and jacobinism, of
disaffection to church and state. Now it must be acknowledged to be a
little hard, that an individual should be accused of failing in those
very points and objects, which it has been the study of a laborious and
protracted life, to vindicate and promote.
How unjust and unfounded these imputations are, any one may be easily and
effectually convinced, who will be at the pains to examine the edition
of H. M.’s works, published in eight volumes, in 1801. Let him but pay
attention to the story of Fantom, in the beginning of the fourth volume,
or to the first chapter of the Fashionable World, vol. 6, with the answer
to Dupont, in this same volume, and he will require no other evidence
or argument, to convince him of the absurdity and falsehood of such
imputations.
Further than this, to impress on the lower classes of people a reverence
for the clergy, this excellent writer has laboured with no ordinary
sedulousness. This must be obvious from the Fictitious Tales in the 4th
and 5th volumes of the edition above-mentioned, where a parish minister
is almost constantly introduced as an example of every virtue. It may be
expedient also to refer to “Village Politics,” at the end of the first
volume.
But this discussion apparently leads to the path which it was determined
to avoid. It may therefore be sufficient to terminate this article, by
the memorandum of our friend, expressed to this effect in the margin of
the manuscript, that he reckoned (he observes) among the most agreeable
circumstances of his life, his personal introduction to H. M. He was
pleased with the unaffected simplicity of her manners, the spirit of her
conversation, which, though instructive, was modest and unobtrusive.
He had also the occasional honour of her correspondence, and he felt
justified in speaking in the highest terms of her knowledge, sagacity,
and judgment.
It ought, however, to be observed, that, during all the virulent attacks
made upon her, in the above-mentioned controversy, H. M. preserved a
dignified and inviolable silence; never suffering herself to be provoked
into contention with those, who so ardently desired to involve her in
it. By this prudence, no less than by her real innocence, she finally
obtained the victory.
Non ego illam mihi dotem duco esse quæ dos dicitur
Sed pudicitiam, et pudorem et sedatum Cupidinem.