PREFACE.

VERY few words by way of preface can be necessary to a work that sufficiently explains itself, and requires no apology for its appearance. It may be satisfactory, however, to apprize the reader that, as Mrs. H. More could not but foresee that an account of her life, in this age of biography, must inevitably, with or without authority, come before the public after her death, it was natural for her to be desirous that the care of her memory should be committed to those whose intimate knowledge of her opinions, principles, and connections would secure her character from misrepresentation and mistake.

In a letter to Sir W. W. Pepys, after expressing herself concerning her two friends to whom this trust had been committed, and into whose hands her sister Mrs. Martha More had consigned her large collection of letters, in terms which it is not of importance to repeat in this place, Mrs. Hannah More makes the following communication: "I have made them my executrixes. My dear sister (unknown then to me) committed to them my posthumous reputation. I should be happy to think that nothing would be said of me when I was for ever out of hearing; but I believe it was the only way to stop less qualified persons. I will always remain entirely ignorant of all that has been done even by them.” In page 382 of the second volume of this work may be seen Sir W. W. Pepys's answer to this communication.

It pleased the Great Ruler of events to take to himself one of the executrixes a few months before the death of Mrs. More, and the survivor thought proper to request the editor to undertake the task of recording to the world the particulars of a life to which the world had been so greatly indebted.

It may be as well to add, that so great has been the mass of letters and papers which, in consequence of the above-mentioned designation of this important trust, has come to the

hands of the editor, that no pains were necessary, had it been his object, to extend this work to an unreasonable or inconvenient length. His difficulty has consisted in reducing his materials within the present compass. And it may not be improper to take this opportunity of stating, for the sake of obviating any suspicion of mercenary motives in the publication of so voluminous a collection, that all the proceeds of the sale of the copyright, beyond the costs and charges incident to the preparation of the work for the press, are destined to charitable purposes, and will be so applied.

Having endeavoured, with as much assiduity as pressing occupations of a a very different kind would allow, to do justice to the character and merit of the extraordinary person he had brought before the public, and having anxiously studied to avoid offending the feelings or delicacy of any person whose name occurs in the course of the ensuing correspondence, if the editor cannot say with Johnson that he dismisses the work "with frigid indifference," he can at least say with truth, that so long as neither the fame of Mrs. Hannah More, nor the cause with which it stands connected, has suffered detriment by passing through his hands, he dismisses the work without any unbecoming anxiety (unbecoming at his time of life) as to the result of his trial before the dispensers of critical justice.