was in full consonance with her own ideas of christian truth. Whilst these questions were agitating her mind, she produced, as a kind of index to her spiritual state, a series of "Sacred Dramas," which were even more favourably received than any of her former publications. In the meanwhile her scruples acquired greater force and consistency; and in 1786, when past the fortieth year of her age, she withdrew from what she called "the world," into the pleasant villages of Gloucester and of Somerset. Here she laboured diligently and lived a life of active benevolence. The somewhat prim and demure reputation which attaches itself to her name, should not persuade nor allow us to forget her many very admirable qualities. If her range of vision was somewhat limited, at least she endeavoured to perform all the duties which came within her ken; nor was the endeavour fruitless. The first work which fully indicated the change which had taken place in her habits of thought, was that which she published in 1788 under the title of "Thoughts on the Manners of the Great." Three years afterwards she published "An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World;" and in 1799 appeared her "Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education." This latter work attracted so much notice that there was an intention, stated to have been greatly promoted by Porteus, then bishop of London, to commit to her the education of the Princess Charlotte of Wales. This plan was never realized, but it induced Hannah More to publish in 1805 her "Hints towards forming the Character of a young Princess." Her next work, which is that by which she is still best remembered, was her novel, "Cœlebs in Search of a Wife." Shrewd and caustic, it was by no means unworthy of the wide popularity which it speedily attained, and which it long continued to enjoy. In 1811 she published "Practical Piety;" in 1812 her "Christian Morals" appeared; and in 1815 her "Essays on the Character and Writings of St. Paul." Among the other claims of Hannah More to remembrance may be mentioned the fact that she was one of the earliest writers of tracts adapted for popular circulation, and that her "Shepherd of Salisbury Plain" is still regarded as one of the best of the class to which it belongs. By this time age had come upon her. In 1828 she left Barleywood, the village in which she had long lived, and established herself at Clifton, where she continued to reside until her death. This event occurred on 7th September, 1833, when, she had attained the ripe old age of eighty-seven. Overrated in her own day, and often undervalued in ours, she will nevertheless be long remembered as a woman of much talent, of blameless life, and of honest piety. To original genius, or even to any high intellectual faculty at all, it would be foolish to assert her claim; but in an age when the worst kind of scepticism, the scepticism of the heart, was but too widely prevalent, she endeavoured with the full energy of such powers as were given her, to check its progress. For this, if for nothing more, she is entitled to our grateful remembrance, feeble as the weapons she employed may now appear. Her collected writings were published in 11 vols., 8vo, and the Memoirs and Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah More, by William Roberts, appeared in 4 vols., 8vo, in 1834.—W. J. P.
MORE, Henry, a theological and metaphysical writer of the seventeenth century, was born at Grantham in Lincolnshire in the year 1614. He was educated at Eton, and Christ's college, Cambridge, where, after passing with distinction through the academical course, he deliberately fixed his abode in order to lead the retired life of a scholar. The problems of the higher philosophy were what especially commanded his interest, and exercised his faculties. At first he studied Aristotle and his adherents, as Cardan, Julius Scaliger, and others; but, receiving no satisfaction from them in the particular line of inquiry which he preferred, the investigation namely of the connecting links between the material and spiritual worlds, he turned to Plato and the Platonists, and soon found, or thought that he found, relief from his perplexity. The first product of his metaphysical studies was a work published in 1640, entitled "Psychozoia, or the first part of the Song of the Soul, containing a Christiano-Platonical display of life." About this time he was elected fellow of his college. He had several young men of rank among his pupils, one of whom. Sir John Finch, had a sister. Lady Conway, with whom More formed a close philosophical friendship, and at whose request he wrote his "Conjectura Cabbalistica;" and the "Philosophiæ Teutonicæ Censura." After taking his doctor's degree, he secluded himself still more within the college walls; and when in 1654 the fellows wished to elect him to the mastership, he refused to accept the office, which then fell to Dr. Cudworth. When the victorious puritans imposed their shibboleth on the two universities. More, like Crashaw, refused to subscribe the covenant, but was more fortunate than the poet, in that his contumacy was connived at, and he was left undisturbed in his beloved retreat. When the Royal Society was established after the Restoration, More was nominated among the fellows—a clear proof that his philosophical reputation stood high, since he had no acquaintance with the particular scientific studies of which the new society was to take cognizance. In 1662 he published several of his philosophical works in one volume, prefixing to the collection an interesting preface. He refused all the preferment that was offered him, including the deaneries of Christ church and St. Patrick's, and the provostship of Trinity college, Dublin. At one period of his life he carried on a correspondence with Descartes, of whom he professed himself a warm admirer. He was a member, and not the least distinguished, of the school which rose into notice towards the close of the reign of Charles II., under the name of the Platonizing or Latitudinarian divines. Of the leading thinkers of this school—Cudworth, Wilkins, Leighton, and Henry More—Burnet has given us graphic, if perhaps partial sketches, in his History of his Own Times. More's philosophy, which attracted great attention in his own day, is now little esteemed, chiefly, it would seem, because he thought fit to interweave with his sounder speculations much of the mysticism, not only of the new Platonists, but even of the cabalistic writers. In the "Preface General" to the collective edition of his works above referred to, he says that the reason why he treats the reader so often to Platonizing and Cartesian hypotheses, is, that it is the great aim of his philosophy to draw an esoteric fence round theology, to keep back the atheist and the sceptic even from its outermost defences, by showing that even by means of these hypotheses (keeping all purely christian arguments in reserve), any objections they may raise against the great doctrines of the existence of God and retribution in the world to come, can be easily confuted. Again, in the "Antidote to Atheism," when he undertakes to prove the existence of spirits from the "history of things miraculous," he purposely omits all consideration of scripture miracles, and is, he says, scrupulously careful in the selection of his instances from uninspired sources. But, in spite of this caution, objectors urge that in this part of his system More has given way to excessive credulity, and has admitted as facts a vast number of ghost-stories and other records of the supernatural, which rest upon totally insufficient evidence. Among his other works, the most important are the "Mystery of Godliness;" the "Mystery of Iniquity;" "Enchiridion Ethicum," and an "Apology for Descartes." More died in his seventy-fourth year, in 1687.—T. A.
MORE, Sir Thomas, Lord Chancellor of England, and one of the most pleasing figures in English history, was born in London in 1480, in Milk Street, Cheapside, "the brightest star," says Fuller, "that ever shone in that Via Lactea." He was the son of Sir John More, a judge of the court of king's bench, whose turn for pleasantry he inherited. He received his early education at the free school of St. Anthony in Threadneedle Street, an establishment famous for the proficiency of its alumni. At fifteen he entered as a page the household of Cardinal Morton, archbishop of Canterbury, lord chancellor, and Henry VII.'s prime minister. Morton appreciated the boy's intelligence and ready wit, and is said by Roper to have uttered the prediction to his guests:—"This child here, waiting at the table, whosoever shall live to see it, will prove a marvellous rare man." It was from Morton, personally cognizant of the transactions and secret history of the time, that More received much of the material for his life of Richard III., and it was by Morton that he was sent to Oxford. There he studied hard the classical languages under Linacre and Grocyn, acquired fame as a versifier both in Latin and English, and there he formed his lifelong friendship with Erasmus, then resident at Oxford, and of a disposition the most congenial to More's. Leaving the university to follow his father's profession, he was called to the bar. The love of theology which never forsook him, was thus early displayed by the young barrister, who "for a good space" read lectures in one of the city churches on St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei. Indeed, at this time, he resolved to turn monk, and became a lay brother of the Carthusian monastery (out of which sprang the Charterhouse), practising the austerities of that strictest of orders. He
