me to fetch it next day at eleven. I now perceived there had been a mistake as to my person; and telling the fellow, somewhat angrily, that I was no mantua-maker, desired him to carry to his lady a slip of paper, on which I wrote with a pencil the well-known name of Leonora. On his going up stairs, I heard a loud peal of laughter above, and soon after he returned with a message, that Lady was sorry she was particularly engaged at present, and could not possibly see me. Think, sir, with what astonishment I heard this message from Hortensia. I left the house, I know not whether most ashamed or angry; but afterwards I began to persuade myself that there might be some particular reasons for Lady -'s not seeing me at that time, which she might explain at meeting; and I imputed the terms of the message to the rudeness or simplicity of the footman. All that day and the next, I waited impatiently for some note of explanation or inquiry from her ladyship, and was a good deal disappointed when I found the second evening arrive, without having received any such token of her remembrance. I went in rather low spirits to the play. I had not been long in the house, when I saw Lady enter the next box. My heart fluttered at the sight; and I watched her eyes, that I might take the first opportunity of presenting myself to her notice. I saw them soon after, turned towards me, and immediately curtsied with a significant smile to my noble friend, who being shortsighted, it would seem (which however, I had never remarked before), stared at me for some moments, without taking notice of my salute, and at last was just putting up a glass to her eye, to point it at me, when a lady pulled her by the sleeve, and made her take notice of somebody on the opposite side of the house. She never afterwards happened to look to that quarter where I was seated. Still, however, I was not quite discouraged, and, on an accidental change of places in our box, contrived to place myself at the end of the bench next her ladyship's, where there was only a piece of thin board between us. At the end of the act, I ventured to ask her how she did, and to express my happiness at seeing her in town, adding that I had called the day before, but found her particularly engaged. Why yes, said she, Miss Homespun, I am always extremely hurried in town, and have time only to receive a very few visits; but I will be glad if you will come some morning and breakfast with me, but not to-morrow, for there is a morning concert; nor next day, for I have a musical party at home. In short, you may come some morning next week, when the hurry will be over, and if I am not gone out of town, I will be happy to see you. I don't know what answer I should have made; but she did not give me an opportunity; for a gentleman in a green uniform coming into the box, she immediately made room for him to sit between us. He, after a broad stare full in my face, turned his back my way, and sat in that posture all the rest of the evening. I am not so silly, Mr. Mirror, but I can understand the meaning of all this. My lady, it seems, is contented to have some humble friends in the country, whom she does not think worthy of her notice in town; but I am determined to show her that I have a prouder spirit than she imagines, and shall not go near her either in town or country. What is more, my father shan't vote for her friend at next election if I can help it. 2 What vexes me beyond everything else is, that I had been often telling my aunt and her daughters of the intimate footing I was on with Lady and what a violent friendship we had for each other; and so, from envy perhaps, they used to nick-name me the Countess, and Lady Leonora. Now that they have got the story of the mantua-maker and the play-house (for I was so angry I could not conceal it), I am ashamed to hear the name of a lady of quality mentioned, even if it be only in a book from the circulating library. Do write a paper, sir, against pride and haughtiness, and people forgetting their country friends and acquaintance, and you will very much oblige, yours, etc., ELIZABETH HOMESPUN. P.S. My uncle's partner, the young gentleman I mentioned above, takes my part when my cousins joke about intimates with great folks; I think he is a much genteeler and better bred man than I took him for at first. (From The Mirror.) MACKENZIE ON BURNS THE power of genius is not less admirable in tracing the manners, than in painting the passions, or in drawing the scenery of nature. That intuitive glance with which a writer like Shakespeare discerns the characters of men, with which he catches the many changing hues of life, forms a sort of problem in the science of mind, of which it is easier to see the truth than assign the cause. Though I am very far from meaning to compare our rustic bard to Shakespeare, yet whoever will read his lighter and more humorous poems, his Dialogue of the Dogs; his Dedication to GH-- Esq.; his Epistles to a young Friend, and to W. S -n, will perceive with what uncommon penetration and sagacity this heaven-taught ploughman, from his humble and unlettered station, has looked upon men and manners. Against some passages of these last mentioned poems it has been objected that they breathe a spirit of libertinism and irreligion. But if we consider the ignorance and fanaticism of the lower class of people in the country where these poems were written, a fanaticism of that pernicious sort which sets faith in opposition to good works, the fallacy and danger of which a mind so enlightened as our poet's would not but perceive; we shall not look upon his lighter muse as the enemy of religion (of which in several places he expresses the justest sentiments), though she has sometimes been a little unguarded in her ridicule of hypocrisy. In this, as in other respects, it must be allowed that there are exceptionable parts of the volume he has given to the public, which caution would have suppressed, or correction struck out; but poets are seldom cautious, and our poet had, alas! no friends or companions from whom correction could be obtained. When we reflect on his rank in life, the habits to which he must have been subject, and the society in which he must have mixed, we regret perhaps more than wonder, that delicacy should be so often offended in perusing a volume in which there is so much to interest and to please us. Burns possesses the spirit as well as the fancy of a poet. That honest pride and independence of soul, which are sometimes the muse's only dower, break forth on every occasion in his works. It may be, then, I shall wrong his feelings, while I indulge my own, in calling the attention of the public to his situation and circumstances. That condition, humble as it was, in which he found content, and woed the muse, might not have been deemed uncomfortable; but grief and misfortune have reached him there; and one or two of his poems hint, what I have learnt from some of his countrymen, that he has been obliged to form the resolution of leaving his native land, to seek under a West Indian clime that shelter and support which Scotland has denied him. But I trust means may be found to prevent this resolution from taking place; and that I do my country no more than justice, when I suppose her ready to stretch out her hand to cherish and retain this native poet, whose woodnotes wild possess so much excellence. To repair the wrongs of suffering or neglected merit; to call forth genius from the obscurity in which it had pined indignant, and place it where it may profit or delight the world. These are exertions which give to wealth an enviable superiority, to greatness and to patronage a laudable pride. (From The Lounger.) HANNAH MORE In [Hannah More, the daughter of a village schoolmaster, was born at Stapylton in 1745. She learnt Latin and a little mathematics from her father, French from her sisters, and Spanish and Italian at a later stage. 1772 she made the first of the annual visits to London which were continued throughout the greater part of her long and busy life. Here, among those who had the best right to be critical, she seems to have been a favourite from the first. few tragedies. After some epigrams, compliments, and ballads, she wrote a Florio and Bas Bleu. Two years later she began to work vigorously for the abolition of slavery, and was thus brought into contact with a certain religious set of persons who may be considered as the earliest of the Evangelical school, and under this influence she published: Thoughts on the Manners of the Great, 1788; An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World, 1790; Strictures on Female Education, 1799; and Calebs in search of a Wife, 1809. She published Remarks on Mr. Dupont's Speech, 1794; the Cheap Repository Tracts, 1795-1798; and Hints towards forming the Character of a Princess, 1805, for the benefit of the Princess Charlotte. Practical Piety followed in 1811; Christian Morals, 1813; Essay on the Character and Writings of St. Paul, 1815; patriotic songs and leaflets, 1817; Moral Sketches, 1819; The Spirit of Prayer, 1825. She spent the last five years of her life at Clifton, where she died in 1833, aged eighty-eight.] THE dream of Hannah More's childhood was to go to London and see the bishops and the booksellers; her earliest ambition to possess a quire of paper which she might fill with letters of exhortation to sinners and their repentant answers. She regretted the absence of practical precepts in the Waverley novels, and stands herself convicted of some moral intention in almost every one of even her most trifling and artificial productions. She never became a slave to the brilliant society that flattered and caressed her, while its vagaries moved her to righteous indignation. The missionary spirit was strong in her, and she did not possess the artistic sense which had enabled Fanny Burney to look on these things as an irresponsible outsider and turn them to comedy. The chief aim, indeed, of her literary activity, after her apprentice VOL. IV 2 L |