Diplomatic Text
Bristol 2 Nov: 84[1]
My dear Friend
Will the excellent Ducheʃs
dear Mrs. Delany, and Yourself, forgive me for
not instantly obeying Your commands in sending
some Verses of my poor Poeteʃs? I staid out a
[w]eek longer than I design'd, of course did not get
Your letter in time. The more I see of this
Heaven-taught Genius the more I am charmed
[a]nd astonished with her. It is with grief I perceive
that her bitter sorrows have tinged her Soul with
- melancholy; the terrible circumstance of seeing
[a] beloved Mother die of hunger is ever before
[h]er Eyes, and her Verses continually allude to
[i]t -- My present plan is, if Heaven bleʃses
my endeavours, to put her into a small Farm;
she implores not to be put into any employment
which must make her mix with the World,
and rob her of her beloved Solitude. I have
no wish to make her an idle or a useleʃs
Being; she has duties to fill the smallest of which
is of more importance in the Eyes of Heaven
than the best Couplet that ever Dryden made.
One day I found her in a state of despondency
I expostulated on the sinfulneʃs of it; soon
after she sent me a long Poem, the conclusion
I which I send you without any Alteration
-- To Stella --
“Believe me, gentle friend, I cou'd complain;
“But what avails the deep repining Sigh?
“When Heav'n afflicts none shou'd oppose the Plea,
“For who shall hold the Arm that thus has wreck'd me?
“Say, bright Instructreʃs, Soother of the Soul!
“Whose flowing Numbers, strong as Jeʃse's Harp,
“Despair ne'er heard, but loathing left the Soul,
“Dire Fiend, whom sounds of joy cou'd ne'er allure.
“O say, for strong-ey'd Faith has borne You far,
“Beyond the gloomy Chambers of the Grave,
“Speak loudly to my late-corrected Soul,
“That sure reward awaits the blameleʃs Mind,
“Else will I give the strenuous struggle o'er,
“Throw up your Angel Mind as painted Shade,
“Or notion strong from early precept caught,
“Rove thro' the Maze of all-alluring Sense,
“And this side Jordan every hope shall fix;
“Mere ravings all -- these crude Ideas die
“As Faith to Calvary's Mount directs my view,
“Nor will I lose, thus humbled as I am,
“My dear bought claim to Immortality.
“Excuse me, Stella! lo! I guideleʃs stray,
“No friendly hand aʃsists my wilder'd thought;
“Uncouth, unciviliz'd, and rudely rough,
“Unpolish'd as the form thrown by by Heav'n,
“Not worth completion, or the Artist's Hand,
“To add a something more. -- Such is the Mind
“Which Thou may'st yet illumine; tis a task
“For Angels thus to raise the groveling Soul,
“And bid it pant for more than earthly bliʃs.
“Then shew Heav'ns op'ning glories to my ------ Eyes,
“And I will view Thee as the Fount of Light
Which pierc'd old Chaos to his depth profound,
While all his native horrors stood reveal'd.
My dear friend if you are not all wonder,
my Enthusiasm has exceedingly misled me
She has a bright and glowing Imagination and
so exact a Taste that her Epithets are as happily
chosen as those of our best Poets. I shall be
impatient to know, if the Admirable judges you
are with, and Yourself think of her as I do.
Take another Paʃsage
“Blest Pair! O had not Souls like Yours been given
“The dubious Atheist well might doubt a Heav'n;
“Convinc'd, he now deserts his gloomy stand,
“Owns Mind the noblest proof of a creating Hand.[2]
Many thanks for Your friendly communication
about the State of your Affairs; You account
very prudently for the delay. Let me hear
from You soon and believe me ever
most affectionately Yours H M
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The ‘8’ has been retraced, possibly by Mary Hamilton.
2. These two couplets are lines 35-38 from a piece called ‘To Stella, on a Visit to Mrs. Montague’, published in the Bath Chronicle (24 February 1785, p.3). An extended version published later in the same year in book form (‘To Stella, on a Visit to Mrs. Montagu’, in Ann Yearsley, Poems on several occasions, 3rd edn., T. Cadell, London, 1785, pp.51-54) has ‘The ſtupid Atheiſt’ in the second quoted line.
Normalised Text
Bristol 2 November 1784
My dear Friend
Will the excellent Duchess
dear Mrs. Delany, and Yourself, forgive me for
not instantly obeying Your commands in sending
some Verses of my poor Poetess? I stayed out a
week longer than I designed, of course did not get
Your letter in time. The more I see of this
Heaven-taught Genius the more I am charmed
and astonished with her. It is with grief I perceive
that her bitter sorrows have tinged her Soul with
melancholy; the terrible circumstance of seeing
a beloved Mother die of hunger is ever before
her Eyes, and her Verses continually allude to
it -- My present plan is, if Heaven blesses
my endeavours, to put her into a small Farm;
she implores not to be put into any employment
which must make her mix with the World,
and rob her of her beloved Solitude. I have
no wish to make her an idle or a useless
Being; she has duties to fill the smallest of which
is of more importance in the Eyes of Heaven
than the best Couplet that ever Dryden made.
One day I found her in a state of despondency
I expostulated on the sinfulness of it; soon
after she sent me a long Poem, the conclusion
I which I send you without any Alteration
“Believe me, gentle friend, I could complain;
“But what avails the deep repining Sigh?
“When Heav'n afflicts none should oppose the Plea,
“For who shall hold the Arm that thus has wreck'd me?
“Say, bright Instructress, Soother of the Soul!
“Whose flowing Numbers, strong as Jesse's Harp,
“Despair ne'er heard, but loathing left the Soul,
“Dire Fiend, whom sounds of joy could ne'er allure.
“O say, for strong-ey'd Faith has borne You far,
“Beyond the gloomy Chambers of the Grave,
“Speak loudly to my late-corrected Soul,
“That sure reward awaits the blameless Mind,
“Else will I give the strenuous struggle o'er,
“Throw up your Angel Mind as painted Shade,
“Or notion strong from early precept caught,
“Rove through the Maze of all-alluring Sense,
“And this side Jordan every hope shall fix;
“Mere ravings all -- these crude Ideas die
“As Faith to Calvary's Mount directs my view,
“Nor will I lose, thus humbled as I am,
“My dear bought claim to Immortality.
“Excuse me, Stella! lo! I guideless stray,
“No friendly hand assists my wilder'd thought;
“Uncouth, unciviliz'd, and rudely rough,
“Unpolish'd as the form thrown by by Heav'n,
“Not worth completion, or the Artist's Hand,
“To add a something more. -- Such is the Mind
“Which Thou may'st yet illumine; tis a task
“For Angels thus to raise the grovelling Soul,
“And bid it pant for more than earthly bliss.
“Then shew Heav'ns op'ning glories to my Eyes,
“And I will view Thee as the Fount of Light
Which pierc'd old Chaos to his depth profound,
While all his native horrors stood reveal'd.
My dear friend if you are not all wonder,
my Enthusiasm has exceedingly misled me
She has a bright and glowing Imagination and
so exact a Taste that her Epithets are as happily
chosen as those of our best Poets. I shall be
impatient to know, if the Admirable judges you
are with, and Yourself think of her as I do.
Take another Passage
“Blest Pair! O had not Souls like Yours been given
“The dubious Atheist well might doubt a Heav'n;
“Convinc'd, he now deserts his gloomy stand,
“Owns Mind the noblest proof of a creating Hand.
Many thanks for Your friendly communication
about the State of your Affairs; You account
very prudently for the delay. Let me hear
from You soon and believe me ever
most affectionately Yours Hannah More
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: Houghton Library Repository, Harvard University
Archive: Elizabeth Carter and Hannah More letters to Mary Hamilton
Item title: Letter from Hannah More to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: MS Eng 1778 154
Correspondence Details
Sender: Hannah More
Place sent: Bristol
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 2 November 1784
Letter Description
Summary: More, Hannah, 1745-1833. Autograph manuscript letter (signed) to Mary Hamilton; Bristol, 1784 November 2.
Length: 1 sheet, 614 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First transcribed for the project 'The Collected Letters of Hannah More' (Kerri Andrews & others) and incorporated in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).
All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.
Acknowledgements: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Kerri Andrews, Senior Lecturer, Edge Hill University (submitted 11 August 2020)
Cataloguer: Bonnie B. Salt, Archivist, Houghton Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 17 October 2022