t? Why all this wondrous waste, this prodigality of
bounty, if the mere animal senses of sight and hearing (by which he is
not distinguished from the brutes that perish) would have answered the
end as well? and yet I find the same people are seen at the opera every
night--an amusement written in a language the greater part of them do
not understand, and performed by such a set of beings!... Conscience had
done its office before; nay was busy at the time; and if it did not dash
the cup of pleasure to the ground, infused at least a tincture of
wormwood into it. I _did_ think of the alarming call, 'What doest thou
here, Elijah?' and I thought of it to-night at the opera."

The attractions of wealth and fame had not blinded her to the need of
seeking satisfaction from a higher source. "For my own part, the more I
see of the 'honoured, famed, and great,' the more I see of the
littleness, the unsatisfactoriness of all created good; and that no
earthly pleasure can fill up the wants of the immortal principle
within."

She was much troubled by the extravagances of fashion in dress and
adornments; and, although conforming to some extent to prevailing modes
in order to avoid singularity, which she abhorred, she always dressed
neatly and decorously, and never, through the whole of her life, wore an
article of jewellery simply for ornament.

The following extract from a letter written by one of Hannah's sisters
shows the cordial relationships with Dr. Johnson, and his interest in
the five sisters. "Tuesday evening we drank tea at Sir Joshua's with Dr.
Johnson. Hannah is certainly a great favourite. She was placed next him,
and they had the entire conversation to themselves. They were both in
remarkably high spirits; it was certainly her lucky night! I never
heard her say so many good things. The old genius was extremely jocular,
and the young one very pleasant. You would have imagined you had been at
some comedy had you heard our peals of laughter. They, indeed, tried
which could 'pepper the highest,' and it is not clear to me that the
lexicographer was really the highest reasoner."

III.

CHARACTERISTICS, FRIENDSHIPS, AND EARLY LITERARY WORK.

Hannah More's flattering reception in London society, and the lively
impression which she so quickly created, will give rise to some
astonishment in the minds of many readers. She had not yet won
reputation as an authoress; she did not possess the influence of wealth
or of noble