THE WORKER IN CHRIST'S VINEYARD. sight of the purpose of his visit. Suddenly recol- lecting himself, when half-way down stairs, he cried out, " Bless me ! I forgot to ask the girl how she is," and, returning to the room, he exclaimed, sympathisingly, " How are you to-day, my poor child ?" The first distinguished person with whom she became acquainted was the elder Sheridan, who came to deliver lectures on eloquence in Bristol, in 1751. A copy of verses which Hannah addressed to him, through a mutual friend, led to an intro- duction. About the same time she formed an acquaintance also with Ferguson, the astronomer, then engaged at Bristol in giving lectures. So much was this eminent man impressed with her taste and genius that he is said to have submitted the revisal of his compositions to her judgment. Among the strange contradictions of female edu- cation at that time was the cultivation of a passion for dramatic representations ; young ladies com- mitted to memory portions of plays, and constantly performed private theatricals. With the object of imparting a correct and elegant elocution, the pupils at the Misses More's establishment were encouraged to act little dramaticpieces, whichwere not always of a nature calculated to improve either the mind or the heart. Hannah, anxious to substitute something of a more harmless kind, wrote, when but seventeen years old -in 1762 -a little pastoral drama, called " The Search after Happiness," in which was inculcated 12
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=