Quotes:More, Hannah

Zirkoff, Boris

More, Hannah. English poet, playwright and religious writer, b. at Fishponds, Gloucestershire, near Bristol, Feb. 2, 1745; d. at Clifton, near Bristol, Sept. 7, 1835, leaving an estate of £30,000. Precocious child; received very fine education, becoming fluent in French and competent in Latin. Until 22, taught in her sisters’ lady’s academy. Engaged to an elderly Mr. Turner who, after six years of engagement, settled on her £200 per annum. Went to London where she became a writer of tragedies, and a close friend of David Garrick and his wife. Until 1802 spent at least part of the year in London, but gradually withdrew from the society circles. At the instigation of Wm. Wilberforce, she and her sisters began a school in the Mendip Hills for the poor and lowly. Even that small beginning of education was bitterly opposed by landowners and clergy. Played important role in the development of workaday ethics and philanthropy, but became somewhat disappointed in her educational work in later years. Minutely described customs of the time which she excoriates. Much of her writing is of an evangelical kind. Chief works: The Fatal Falsehood (play), 1779.—Poetry: Bas Bleu, 1786; Florio, 1786; Slavery, 1788.—*Daniel: A Sacred Drama, 1782.—Moral Sketches, 1819.—Cheap Repository Tracts, 1795-98.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 9, p. 445