Women -- Biography; Women -- Social and moral questions
Genius is not often combined with a strong physical constitution. Mrs.
More was no exception to this rule; for although her general health was
about the average, she often composed under aches and pains which would
have entirely deterred others from the use of the pen. Her figure was
graceful, and her manners captivating. The eye, which her sisters
called “diamond,” and which the painters complained they could not put
upon canvas, coruscated, and her countenance sparkled, when engaged in
conversation. She knew that in all companies, she was a principal
object of attention, yet she never wore a jewel or trinket, or anything
of the merely ornamental kind, during her whole life, though much of
that life was spent in the society of the great and high-born.
In glancing at her intellectual character, the first thing that strikes
us is its versatility—a fact proved by this, that she frequently
appears in different compartments. Thus she was at once a poetess, a
dramatist, a fictionist, a moralist, a religious writer, and a
conversationalist. No wonder that she often received messages from His
Majesty King George the Third, from the Queen, and other members of the
royal family; and that her friendship was eagerly sought by coronets
and mitres. Mr. Roberts, one of her biographers, says:—“All the powers
of her mind were devoted to the solid improvement of society. Her aims
were all practical; and it would be difficult to name another who has
laid before the public so copious a variety of original thoughts and
reasonings, without any admixture of speculation or hypothesis.”
The moral capacity is the imperial crown of humanity. Veneration,
benevolence, conscientiousness, hope, faith, are the brightest jewels
of this crown. In Mrs. More, the moral sentiments were superior even to
the intellectual faculties. She exactly discerned the signs of the
times, and adroitly adapted her writings to the necessities of her
generation. All of them are more or less calculated to benefit society,
and never did personal example more strongly enforce preceptive
exhortation, than in the instance of this eminent and excellent woman.
_SECTION II.—ANNE GRANT._
“We have no hesitation in attesting our belief that Mrs. Grant’s
writings have produced a strong and salutary effect upon her
countrymen, who not only found recorded in them much of national
history and antiquities, which would otherwise have been forgotten, but
found them combined with the soundest and best lessons of virtue and
morality.”
SIR WALTER SCOTT.
_LETTER-WRITERS._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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