rade (1781.) Mrs. Hannah More has also written
several works of _religious fiction_, and above all, some charming poems;
Florio (1786,) and the Blue Stocking, or Conversation. The Blue Stocking
is a burlesque name given to a lady's coterie, in which several females
attempted to start a sort of _bureau d'esprit_ under the direction of
Mesdames Robinson and Piozzi, a coterie innocent enough, but which excited
the wrath of Mr. Gifford, the Editor of the _Quarterly Review_, who
fulminated against it several satires in excessively bad taste, and
written in a tone of disgusting pedantry. The verses of Mr. Gifford are
infinitely more ridiculous than those he pretends to correct. Amongst the
English ladies who have written romance, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Inchbald,
and Lady Morgan, are worthy of especial note. Several ladies, without
having written works of great importance, have still produced poetical
pieces of graceful beauty; in this number it is but justice to distinguish
Mrs. Opie. And lastly, in order to finish this hasty catalogue, we may
remark that there have appeared in England, in our days, several ladies of
a high order of literary, poetical, and at the same time, philosophical
talent. Lady Morgan herself has contrived to mix up history and romance
in her writings, with great ability; but among the ladies, who inscribed
their fame on monuments more durable than romantic stories, we must select
for honourable mention the names of Joanna Baillie, Aikin, Benger, and
Helen Maria Williams. Miss Baillie, sister of the celebrated Dr. Baillie,
the physician, is a woman of the highest talent. It is not your pretty
nothings, your elegant trifles, which occupy her genius; on the contrary,
she has attempted in a series of dramatic pieces, to paint the most
energetic passion of the human heart; and her pieces, written in the most
elevated and _Shakspearian_ tone, will always be regarded as the work of a
superior mind. John Kemble, in the part of _Montfort_, reached the sublime
of agony. In the writings of Miss Baillie there is a combination of the
solemn and the poetical, which is rarely observed in women. Miss Aikin has
written some charming poems, far more beautiful than any I have met with
in the writings of Miss Landon and Miss Mitford. The _Mouse's Petition_,
by Miss Aikin, is a _chef-d'oeuvre_. Miss Benger has published some
historical works of great interest, which place her in the same line with
Miss Aikin. Lastly, there is H