The same hyperbolical style is to be found in the letters intended only for the eyes of her sisters. "Mrs. Montagu is not only the finest genius, but the finest lady, I ever saw; she lives in the highest style of magnificence; her apartments and tables are in the most splendid taste; but what baubles are these when speaking of a Montagu! Her form--for she has no body--is delicate to fragility; her countenance the most animated in the world; she has the sprightly vivacity of sixteen, with the judgment and experience of a Nestor. Mrs. Carter has in her person a great deal of what the gentlemen mean when they speak of a 'poetical lady:' independently of her great talents and learning, I like her much: she has affability, kindness, and goodness; and I honor her heart more than her talents; but I do not like one of them better than Mrs. Boscawen; she is at once learned, polite, judicious, and humble." At a party at which all these and other luminaries were collected, Dr. Johnson asked Miss More her opinion of the new tragedy of "Braganza." "I was afraid," says she, "to speak before them all, as I knew there was a diversity of opinion: however, as I thought it a less evil to dissent from a fellow-creature than to tell a falsity, I ventured to give my sentiments, and was satisfied with Johnson's answering, 'You are right, madam.'" Stimulated by the approbation of such judges, Miss More turned to literature with redoubled energy; and from this period, the important part of her personal history may be read in that of a succession of works, all in their season popular; all commendable for moral tone; considerably above mediocrity in literary execution; and some of them worthy to survive their age. After her return home, she one day laughingly said to her sisters, "I have been so fed with praise, that I think I will try what is my real value, by writing a slight poem, and offering it to Cadell." Accordingly she wrote and sent him "Sir Eldred of the Bower," a ballad in the style which Dr. Percy had rendered popular. Cadell offered her a price far exceeding her idea of its worth; adding that, if she would ascertain what Goldsmith received for the "Deserted Village," he would make it up to the same sum. With the public the poem met with a success which its merits by no means justify. At a tea-visit in her own lodgings, where she had Johnson all to herself,--and as she tells us he ought always to be had, for he did not care to speak in mixed companies,--the new poem was discussed. The leviathan of letters, instead of expressing his contempt for compositions of this class, and treating her to a new stanza,--like "I put my hat upon my head, And walked into the Strand, And there I met another man With his hat in his hand,"-- indited the following, which she proudly engrafted on the original in the second edition, no doubt receiving the compliment as paid to the author, rather than to the heroine:--