Newton, Bishop Porteus and other clergy strengthened her with
their counsel and rendered her personal assistance; and at the close of
the eighteenth century, the neighbourhood of Cowslip Green wore a very
different aspect from what it had worn twenty years earlier.
If we were to judge of Hannah More's writings by their popularity, and
the undoubted effects which they produced, or by the testimony which men
of approved talents and discernment have borne to their value, we should
place her in the very first rank of eighteenth century writers. 'Her
style and manner are confessedly superior to those of any moral writer
of the age.' She is 'one of the most illustrious females that ever was
in the world. 'One of the most truly Evangelical divines of this whole
age, perhaps almost of any age not apostolic.' Bishop Porteus actually
recommended her writings both in a sermon and in a charge. A feeling of
disappointment will probably be raised in most readers who turn from
these extravagant eulogies to the works themselves. They are full of
somewhat vapid truisms, and their style is too ornate for the present
age.
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