I like neither her letters, nor her books, nor her character. She was that most disagreeable of all monsters, a blue-stocking--a monster that can only exist in a miserably false state of society, in which a woman with but a smattering of learning or philosophy is classed along with singing mice or card-playing pigs. GEORGE ELIOT: _Letter to J. Sibree_, 1848, in ‘Life,’ edited by J. W. Cross. New York: Harper & Bros., 1885. * * * * * [Sidenote: Opinion of Sara Coleridge.] Though I think that Mrs. More’s[3] very great notoriety was more the work of circumstances, and the popular turn of her mind, than owing to a strong original genius, I am far from thinking her an _ordinary_ woman. She must have had great energy of character, and a spritely, versatile mind, which did not originate much, but which readily caught the spirit of the day and reflected all the phases of opinion in the pious and well-disposed portion of society in a clear and lively manner. SARA COLERIDGE: _Letter to Miss E. Treveren_, 1834, in the former’s ‘Memoir and Letters,’ by her daughter. New York: Harper & Bros., 1874. * * * * * [Sidenote: Hannah More’s earnings.] Mrs. More and her sisters had accumulated by their industry handsome competencies; by her pen alone she had realized £30,000.... Much of her property was bequeathed to public institutions. HENRY THOMPSON: ‘Life of Hannah More.’ FOOTNOTES: [1] David Garrick used to call her “Nine,” and “Your Nineship,” deriving the title from the Nine Muses. [2] It is not stated which of the sisters wrote the letter from which this extract is taken; Hannah was too ill to attend on the opening night of ‘Fatal Falsehood.’ [3] In later life she was always called _Mrs._ More. FRANCES BURNEY (MME. D’ARBLAY). 1752-1840. FRANCES BURNEY (MME. D’ARBLAY). Frances Burney was born at Lynn Regis, Norfolk. She was the daughter of Dr. Charles Burney, a well-known professor of music, and the admiring friend of Samuel Johnson. Her early associations are sufficiently described in Macaulay’s lively essay, from which we have freely drawn. In 1778, at twenty-six, she published her first novel, EVELINA, which took the town by storm. Four years later it was followed by CECILIA. In 1786 Frances was appointed Second Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte. She resigned the position in 1791. In 1793 she married M. D’Arblay, a French refugee, an officer of noble family.