It is well to dwell on the life and labors of so great and good a woman, who has now become historical.  But I select her especially as the representative of the grandest moral movement of modern times,—­that which aims to develop the mind and soul of woman, and give to her the dignity of which she has been robbed by paganism and “philistinism.”  I might have selected some great woman nearer home and our own time, more intimately connected with the profession of educating young ladies; but I prefer to speak of one who is universally conceded to have rendered great service to her age and country.  It is doubly pleasant to present Hannah More, because she had none of those defects and blemishes which have often detracted from the dignity of great benefactors.  She was about as perfect a woman as I have read of; and her virtues were not carried out to those extremes of fanaticism which have often marked illustrious saints, from the want of common-sense or because of visionary theories.  Strict and consistent as a moralist, she was never led into any extravagances or fanaticisms.  Stern even as a disciplinarian, she did not proscribe healthy and natural amusements.  Strong-minded,—­if I may use a modern contemptuous phrase,—­she never rebelled against the ordinances of nature or the laws dictated by inspiration.  She was a model woman:  beautiful, yet not vain; witty, yet never irreverent; independent, yet respectful to authority; exercising private judgment, yet admired by bishops; learned, without pedantry; hospitable, without extravagance; fond of the society of the great, yet spending her life among the poor; alive to the fascinations of society, yet consecrating all her energies of mind and body to the good of those with whom she was brought in contact; as capable of friendship as Paula, as religious as Madame Guyon, as charming in conversation as Recamier, as practical as Elizabeth, as broad and tolerant as Fenelon, who was himself half woman in his nature, as the most interesting men of genius are apt to be.  Nothing cynical, or bitter, or extravagant, or contemptuous appears in any of her writings, most of which were published anonymously,—­from humility as well as sensitiveness.  Vanity was a stranger to her, as well as arrogance and pride.  Embarking in great enterprises, she never went outside the prescribed sphere of woman.  Masculine in the force and vigor of her understanding, she was feminine in all her instincts,—­proper, amiable, and gentle; a woman whom everybody loved and everybody respected, even to kings and queens.

Hannah More was born in a little village near Bristol, 1745, and her father was the village schoolmaster.  He had been well educated, and had large expectations; but he was disappointed, and was obliged to resort to this useful but irksome way of getting a living.  He had five daughters, of whom Hannah was the fourth.  As a girl, she was very precocious in mind, as well as beautiful and attractive in her person.  She