Should dread no blame but that which crimes impart,
The cenfures of a felf-condemning heart.

Heaven's minift'ring angel! fhe fhould feek the cell
Where modeft want and filent-anguifh dwell;
Raife the weak head, fuftain the feeble knees,
Cheer the cold heart, and chaie the dire disease;
The fplendid deeds which only feek a name,
Are paid their juft reward, in prefent fame.
But know the awful all-difclofing day,
The long arrear of fecret worth fhall pay ;
Applauding faints fhall hear with fond regard,
And HE who witness'd kere-fhall there reward."

A performance of this kind, at the tender age of eighteen, promifed much, nor have the public been difappointed. Many pieces have proceeded from her pen, both in profe and poetry, all of which have been honoured with warm commendations.

She has produced three tragedies, Percy, Fatal Falfehood, and the Inflexible Captive, founded on the ftory of Regulus, in the Roman hiftory. The two former were performed at Covent Garden. They all contain beautiful fentiments and excellent morality. Sir Eldred of the Bower, and the Bleeding Rock, two legendary tales-Ode to Dragon-Florio and the Bas Bleu, together with Slavery, a poem, are poffeffed of merit, and may be read with pleasure and improvement. Her profe works confift of Effays for Young Ladies, Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great An Eftimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World-Remarks upon the Speech of Mr. DupontVillage Politics, by Will Chip, and Strictures on Female Education. In each of these we might point out many admirable paragraphs, happily expreffed, and calculated to ferve the beft interefts of mankind. They have undergone feveral editions, and are entitled, both from their defign and execution, to a very confiderable degree of approbation.

Nor

Nor must we forget to mention her Sacred Dramas, a charming work, and the most popular of all her productions. They are infcribed to the Dutchess of Beaufort, and are adapted to benefit effentially the rifing generation. They contain Mofes in the Bulrushes, David and Goliah, Belshazzar, and Daniel, to which are added Reflections of King Hezekiah, and an exquifite poem on Senfibility. In David and Goliah occurs the following fine paffage on WAR:

O War! what art thou;
After the brighteft conqueft what remains
Of all thy glories! For the vanquish'd, chains!
For the proud victor, what? Alas! to reign
O'er defolated nations! a drear waste

By one man's crime, by one man's luft of pow'r
Unpeopl'd! naked plains and avag'd fields
Succeed to fmiling harvests, and the fruits
Of peaceful olive, lufcious fig and vine!
Here rifled temples are the cavern'd dens
Of savage beasts, or haunt of birds obfcene;
There pop'lous cities blacken in the fun,
And in the gen'ral wreck proud palaces
Lie undiftinguifh'd, fave by the dun (moke
Of recent conflagration. When the fong
Of dear bought joy, with many a triumph fwell'd,
Salutes the victor's ear and fooths his pride!
How is the grateful harmony prophan'd
With the fad diffonance of virgin cries,

Who mourn their brothers flain! of matrons hoar,
Who clafp their wither'd hands, and fondly ask,
With iteration fhrill, their slaughter'd fons!
How is the laurel's verdure ftain'd with blood,
And foil'd with widows' tears!

The poem, Senfibility, is enriched with many beauti fut paffages, and discovers a truly feeling heart. The following lines cannot be read without fenfible emotions of pleasure :

Let not the vulgar read this pensive strain,
Their jefts the tender anguifh would prophane;
Yet these fome deem the happiest of their kind,
Whofe low enjoyments never reach'd the mind;
Who ne'er a pain, but for themselves have known,
Nor ever felt a forrow but their own;

Who call romantic ev'ry finer thought,

Conceiv'd by pity, or by friendship wrought.
Ah! wherefore happy where's the kindred mind!
Where the large foul that takes in human kind?
Where the best paffions of the mortal breast?
Where the warm bleffing when another's bleft?
Where the foft lenitives of other's pain,
The focial fympathy, the, fenfe humane?
The figh of rapture, and the tear of joy,
Anguith that charms and transports that deftroy?
For tender forrow has her pleasures too,
Pleafures which profperous dullness never knew;
She never knew in all her coarser blifs,
The facred rapture of a pain like this!
Nor think the cautious only are the juft,
Who never was deceiv'd I would not truft.
Then take, ye happy vulgar! take your part
Of fordid joy, which never touch'd the heart.
Benevolence, which seldom flays to chufe,
Left paufing prudence teach her to refuse;
Friendship, which once determin'd, never fwerves,
Weighs e'er it trufts, but weighs not e're it ferves
And foft ey'd Pity and Forgiveness bland,
And melting Charity with open hand;
And artless Love, believing and believ'd,
And gen'rous Confidence, which ne'er deceiv'd;
And Mercy ftretching out e'er want can fpeak,
To wipe the tear from pale affliction's cheek;
Thefe ye have never known!-then take your part
Of fordid joy, which never touch'd the heart."

The Senfibility which MISS MORE thus eloquently defcribes, is, we understand, the prominent feature of her own difpofition. Attentive to the wants and diftreffes of others, the is ever ready to relieve them. She

even feeks out opportunities of inftructing and confoling her fellow creatures. This is worthy of herself, and will be ultimately crown'd with an abundant reward.

It was this amiable principle which induced her to patronife Mrs. Yearfley, the famous Bristol MilkWoman, whose native ftrains have been admired by the genuine lovers of poetry. She wrote an elegant Prefatory Addrefs to her poems, procured her a large lift of fubfcribers from amongst the first characters in the kingdom, and exerted every nerve to promote her interefts. This woman, however, afterwards repaid all this kindness by abuse and calumny! We must not enter into this difagreeable affair; but we will fay that MISS MORE ftands fully exonerated; and Lord Orford juftly remarks, in a letter to her, fpeaking of Mrs. Yearfley's condu&t: "That the foil of her heart could never have produced the rank weed of ingratitude, had it not been previously dunged with gold!"

Some time after the became chiefly instrumental in relieving the Maid of the Haystack, an unfortunate young woman, apparently deranged, found under a ftack of hay, at Hanham, near Bristol. Her origin is unknown, and her hiftory is extremely myfterious, MISS MORE wrote a fhort account of her, which ex-' cited the public commiferation. She is fuppofed to have been of an high family, but reduced by misfortune to this deplorable condition. Be this as it may, her patronefs manifefted the pureft benevolence, in procuring a comfortable afylum for this melancholy child of affliction. Such acts carry with them their own reward. To diminish the fum of private and public mifery, is a most divine deed; it is imitating him who went about doing good, and will be crowned by the Deity with the ampleft tokens of approbation.

MISS MORE, together with her fifters, have retired to a very pleasant fpot, which is denominated Cowflip Green, fituated near the Mendip Hills, about ten miles from Bristol. Here the has established a Sunday School,

and

and fhewn a very commendable concern for the wel. fare of the poorer claffes of fociety. With this view the published many excellent fmall tracts, under the gene ral title of the Cheap Repository. The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain was particularly admired.

The prefent Bishop of London, and other celebrated characters of the age, are in habits of acquaintance with Miss MORE. We have been affured, on good authority, that she spends, occafionally, a few months at Fulham, the well-known refidence of the Bishops of London, fince the period of the Reformation, In one

of her vifits, the penned fome very pleafing lines, entitled Bonner's Ghost; but which her modefty would not fuffer to be published. Bonner was the bloody bishop, in the reign of Mary; he ufed to fcourge the Proteftants with his own hand, in his garden, and various other acts of brutality ftand on record against him. MISS MORE, we are informed, has finely con trafted the tolerating fpirit of the prefent Prelate, with the cruelty and favage ferocity of his predeceffor, who has drawn upon him the execrations of pofterity.

In the works of the late Lord Orford, the most pleafing part of the Epiftolary Correspondence, is that be tween his Lordship and MISS MORE. We were gra tified by the perufal of it, and think it honourable to both parties. The British peer feems apprifed of the real excellence of his friend, and pays her those compliments to which the may be pronounced juftly entitled.

The writer of this curfory Narrative, had once the pleafure of paffing a few days with the fifters of Miss MORE, at the houfe of a very refpectable family, in Caerleon, Monmouthshire, and well remembers the good fenfe and amiable temper which they discovered in con verfation on a variety of fubjects. Nor does he deem it the leaft of the favours which he enjoyed beneath that hospitable roof, that he was there first introduced to an acquaintance with MISS MORE's writings, which

he