Ilauuah Murc's Cutt;u
coarse, brutal, ferocious, utterly neglected by their clergy, without any means of education or hopes of improvement" (Perry). Determined to elevate these downtrodden and forlorn people, the tliree sisters at- tempted the appalling task of alleviating all suffering and of educating the laboring classes. They devised various schemes of benevolence and usefidness, not the least of which was the erection of schools, which, though at first confined to the children of their immediate sur- roundings, soon extended their operations over no less than ten parishes where there were no resident clergy- men, and in which upwards of 1200 children were thus provided with the benefits of a moral and religious edu- cation. Miss Hannah More's numerous writings, which produced her upwards of $150,000, enabled licr to do much, but she was by no means dependent upon her own resources. Her liigh character had imprcsstd it- self on her friends and associates, and these freely ] inur- ed out their treasures for the promotion of the i\l()re schemes. Bibles were distributed, prayer-books given away, and instruction provided for all who came to study, whether adult or child. In short, so unmitigating were they in their labors and measures that what had been a moral desert was clianged into a garden, which brought forth in rich abundance the excellent fruits of wide-spread intelligence, of elevated morality, and gen- uine religion. But at last age came upon Hannah More, and brought along some of its infirmities. In 1828 she was moved therefore to quit Barleywood, the place in which many years had been spent, and she now took up her abode at Clifton. Here she continued amid a painful and protracted illness until relieved by death on the 7th of September, 18o3, surrounded by many to honor her and many also to love her; who looked up to her as one of the great reformers of the manners of English society ; one who had asserted verj' successfully the right of (.'hristianity, or, in other words, the right of the Christian Scriptures to have a larger share than it had been the wont to allow them in form- ing the character and directing the course of human beings while in this state of their probation. She be- queathed £10,000 for pious and charitable purposes. The best edition of lier works is in 11 vols. IGmo (Ltmd. 1853), See The Memoirs and Correspondence of Hannah More, hy William Koberts (Lond. 18.)4, 4 vols. 8vo; N.Y. 183G, 2 vols. 12mo, abridged in "Christian Family Library"); Life, by Bev. II. Thonijison (Ix)nd. 1838, 8vo) ; Cori-espondence of Hannah More with Zachary Macaulay (Loud. 1800)"; Mrs. Hall's visit to Mrs. Han- nah Jlorc in l^ilgrimage to English Shrines; Lives of Bishop Wilberforce; Perrj-, Hint. Church of England, iii, 480 sq.; Clissold, /,«myM of the Church (Lond. 1803, r2mo),p. 1G7 sq.; Jamieson, Cyclop. litligious Biog. s.v. ; and the literature appended to the excellent article in Allilxme, hirt. Jirit. and A mer. A nth. s. v.
More, Henry, an English Arminian divine and moralist, noted as a leader of that class of English phi- losojihers who arose in the 17th century to exorcise the spirit of Calvinism from the English high schools, was born at Grantham, Lincolnshire, Oct. 12. 1G14. He was
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educated at Eton, where, aside from his regular studies, he bestowed much time on the reading of the philosoph- ical works of Aristotle, Julius Scaliger, etc., poring, im- mature as he was, over the doctrine of predestination. His parents were Calvinists, and they had reared him with like notions, but he early became distrustfid as to the real ground of Calvinism, and finally turned scep- tic. In 1631 he went to Christ College, Cambridge, and graduated in 1635. More all his years at college was most diligently employed in metaphysical studies. He says himself, " I immersed myself over head and ears in the study of philosophy, promising a most wonderful happiness to myself in it." Dissatisfied with all other systems, he fouiid rest for his mind only when he came to the writings of the Platonic school ; whence, as he tells us, he learned that something better and higher than the knowledge of human things constitutes the supreme happiness of man, and that this is attainable only through that purity of mind and divine illumina- tion which raise man to a union with God, But yet, he adds himself, that though the Platonic writings at- tracted and benefited him, there was " among all the writings of this kind none which so pierced and affect- ed" him " as that golden little book with which Luther is also said to have been wonderfully taken, viz. Tkeo- lur/ia Germanica. This book ]More prized next to the Bible, and studied it until he could say that he was free from all scepticism, and once more truly devoted to Christian interests. He had taken his M.A. in 1639, and had been made also a fellow of his college. With these honors he contentedly rested, and, insisting upon refusal of all Church preferments, he withdrew to retire- ment for a course of " spiritual discipline." He in short gave himself up to a life of most devout spiritual exer- cise, and would suffer nothing to stand in his way to eter- nal happiness as it had been taught him by the mystical work he so fondly read. " From this time," says More's biographer, " he had a wonderful sense of God, sacred and ineffable, and of his unconceivable attributes, and he soon found all things to his satisfaction, and himself not unsuitable to them. And that there may be a ' turning after righteousness' (as he speaks) as well as a ' running after knowledge,' More now actually came forward to demonstrate with great care the principles both of re- vealed and natural religion, and to recommend to all at the same time, with the greatest seriousness possible, the practice of morality and virtue ; or, rather, what is justly called the Christian or divine life." "It would seem, therefore," adds his biographer, " that Hen- ry More was raised by a special Providence in those days of freedom, as a light to those that may be fitted or inclined to high speculations, and a general guide to all that want it, how they are to mix the Christian and philosophic genius together, and make them rightly to accord in one common end, viz. the glory of God with the highest felicity and perfection of man." The depth and originality of his metaphj'sical theories, and the re- markable combination of great argumentative abilities, extensive learning, and ardent piety with which he set them forth, occasioned his being looked up to as a per- son of an extraordinary character by the greatest and best of his contemporaries. Indeed, he himself admit- ted, with frankness and simplicity natural to his tem- per, that the talents and dispositions lavished upon him were such as brought him into singular responsibilities ; that, to adopt his own expression, he had " as a fiery arrow been shot into the world, and he hoped that it had hit the mark." After his election to a fellowship by his college he took charge of several pupils, some of them persons of rank, whose studies he directed with great fidelity and application — his management of them being distinguished from that of ordinary tutors chiefl}' by unusual gentleness, and by the deep tone of piety which pervaded his instructions. He has recorded his opinion that " the exercise of love and goodness, of hu- manity and brotherly kindness, of prudence and dis- cretion, of unfeigned religion and devotion, in the plain