and a lively
fancy to the best and noblest of purposes.--After giving one extract
from the most vigorous of her poems, "Slavery," written to aid the
efforts which Clarkson and Wilberforce were making in behalf of the
African slave, and in which she heartily sympathized, we will pass on
to new scenes, in which Miss More's benevolent spirit exhibits itself
in a yet more active manner.

"O thou sad spirit, whose preposterous yoke
The great deliverer, death, at length has broke!
Released from misery, and escaped from care,
Go, meet that mercy man denies thee here.
And if some notions, vague and undefined,
Of future terrors, have assailed thy mind;
If such thy masters have presumed to teach--
As terrors only they are prone to preach;
For, should they paint eternal mercy's reign,
Where were the oppressor's rod, the captive's chain?--
If, then, thy troubled soul has learned to dread
The dark unknown thy trembling footsteps tread,
On Him who made thee what thou art depend;
He who withholds the means accepts the end.
Thy mental night thy Savior will not blame;
He died for those who never heard his name.
Nor thine the reckoning dire of light abused,
Knowledge disgraced, and liberty misused:
On thee no awful judge incensed shall sit,
For parts perverted or dishonored wit.
When ignorance will be found the safest plea,
How many learned and wise shall envy thee!"

In withdrawing herself from general society, Miss More had cherished
the hope of devoting herself to meditation and literary leisure. But
there was no rest for her but in the consciousness of being useful. In
the course of her rambles in the neighborhood of her residence, she
was shocked to find the same vices, against which she had lifted up
her voice in high places, existing in the peasant's cottage, in a
different form, but heightened by ignorance, both mental and
spiritual. Though in a feeble state of health, she could not withhold
herself from the attempt to effect a reformation.

In this she had no coadjutors but her sisters, who, having acquired a
competency, had retired from school-keeping, and had, with her, a
common home. Provision was made by law for the support of clergymen;
but the vicar of Cheddar received his fifty pounds a year, and resided
at Oxford; and the rector of Axbridge "was intoxicated about six times
a week, and was very frequently prevented from preaching by two black
eyes, honestly acquired by