At first she appears to have done little to enforce religious teaching amongst her acquaintances.  Her moral and religious principles were known by the firm stand she took against common incentives to dissipation and irreligion—­such as card-playing and Sunday entertainments—­against the introduction of questionable topics, unseemly language, and vacuous frivolity into conversation.  Her religious influence, thus far, was almost a silent or negative one; but it had its effect on others, and laid the foundation of that direct searching and far-reaching influence, which, under the Divine blessing, she wielded in later years.

Her interest in young people was notably illustrated by her efforts to foster the intellectual tastes of Lord Macaulay when a lad.  She supplied him with standard books, which formed the nucleus of an excellent library, and advised him in his studies.  To the child of six she thus writes:—­“Though you are a little boy now, you will one day, if it please God, be a man; but long before you are a man I hope you will be a scholar[1].”

[Footnote 1:  See Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, by George Otto Trevelyan, M.P., vol. 1. pp. 35, 36]

When Hannah More began to produce books her reputation rose to literary fame.  In 1775 she wrote a romantic poem, entitled Sir Eldred of the Bouer, with which was published another poem, written earlier, The Bleeding Rock.  In the first the element of religion was not forgotten; and both works met with a flattering reception.  Though, as we have seen, a woman of high Christian tone, with what we should consider strange inconsistency, she both wrote plays, which were acted, and attended the theatre herself.

In 1777 her tragedy, Percy, was brought out at Covent Garden Theatre.  One of the results of this venture was a shower of invitations to the author of the play from a new circle of titled and distinguished people.  The play was afterwards translated into German, and performed at Vienna with notable success.

On the death of Garrick in 1779, Hannah More broke off attendance at the theatre.  Garrick’s widow sought relief and solace in Hannah’s company, and for many years a close friendship was kept up between the two ladies, although there could be but little intercourse on religious matters, Mrs. Garrick being a Roman Catholic.  Before the actor’s death Miss More had completed another play, The Fatal Falsehood, which was afterwards performed, and which elicited almost as much applause as Percy.

Miss More’s experience of fashionable life had now lasted about six years.  As her fame increased, her taste for society declined.  The constant round of dinner-parties, conversation-parties, and assemblies of intellect and wealth, though at first full of attraction to one of her disposition, had begun to lose its charm.  Her depth of character and her recognition of the claims of religion demanded a more satisfactory mode of spending her time and utilising her talents.  For the next five years we find her often the guest of Mrs. Garrick, but gradually detaching herself from fashionable circles, studying theology, history, and science, writing poems, and engaged in other literary work.