THE WORKER IN CHRIST'S VINEYARD. as a powerful lever of the heart, and hoped to meta- morphose the theatre into a school of virtue. Seeing that " this utopian good could not be produced, until not only the stage itself had undergone a complete purification, but until the audience was purified also," she abandoned her fallacious anticipations. The sudden deaths of several of the members ofthe coterie in which she was especially intimate made a deep impression on Hannah More's mind ; but the fearfully unexpected demise of Mr. Thrale, in 1781, was the most startling shock. With Mrs. Garrick, she was dressing for that large party in Grosvenor Square to which " half the fashion in London had been invited," when, " just as my hair was dressed," she writes, " in came a servant to forbid our coming, for that Mr. Thrale was dead ! " From this time she devoted herself to reading many religious works ; and Johnson, calling on her one morning, taking both her hands in his, with a tear running down his cheek, said, " Child, I am heartily glad that you read pious books, by whomsoever they be written." In 1782, the "SacredDramas" appeared, together with the poem on " Sensibility," and produced com- pliments from royalty and from several of the bench of bishops. The good Jonas Hanway told her that he began the Dramas " with fear and trembling, fearing it was an undue liberty with the Scriptures," bùt no sooner had he finished them than he ran off to the bookseller, bought three or four copies, and 26
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