Differ opus livida turba tuum.
CHAPTER L.
With respect to the individual next introduced, the writer appears to have been conscious how much delicacy was required, and seems to have distrusted his own ability in the management of his subject.
He commences thus:—As the comet is invariably accompanied by its blazing appendix, so are malignant envy and the bitterest enmity, everlastingly found in attendance upon eminent virtue and splendid talents.
To contemplate these four qualities, virtue and talent, enmity and envy, in their fullest force and energy, it is only necessary to take a view of the life and character of H⸺ M⸺.
If the esteem and friendship of the wise and good, limited to no gradation of rank or pre-eminence, denote virtue, piety, and those more amiable endowments which improve and adorn society, then may the friends of this excellent female, boldly claim for her every honourable appellation. At the same time, it must be reluctantly acknowledged, that envy has been busily employed in ascribing to her, various failings and imperfections, much at variance with the lofty pretensions asserted in her behalf. Truth, however, unsupported but by itself, its own firmness, and its own excellence, boldly defies surmise, insinuation, and falsehood.
With respect to intellectual distinction and superiority, there can be no occasion for discussion. The catalogue of H. M.’s works speaks a language which all comprehend, and whose beauties and excellence all without hesitation, acknowledge. She exhibited claims to popular admiration and applause at a very early period of life, nor has she written or published any thing which had not the cause of religion, morality, and virtue, as its immediate and avowed object. To enumerate them all, with a concise estimate of the value of each and of the whole, would be a pleasing occupation, but would unavoidably extend this narrative beyond the proposed limits[5]. The last of her labours may perhaps be pronounced the most extensively important, and the most generally useful. By much practice, she has obtained a style which classes her very high amongst our best writers of English prose. It is strong without being pedantic, forcible yet exceedingly perspicuous, elegant but not too elaborate.
Is it not to be seriously lamented, that an individual, so endowed, so confessedly entitled to the applauses of her countrymen, so constantly exercised for their benefit, and so perpetually engaged in the most amiable and useful occupations of social life, should have had active and zealous adversaries, who have disputed the sincerity of her piety, and maliciously and injuriously impugned the accuracy of her conduct? What was termed the Blagden Controversy, can hardly be forgotten; but notwithstanding the tricks and artifices which were made use of, it terminated most highly to her honour.
Among other stratagems, the following is not the least curious. One of her great adversaries published a pamphlet against her, to which he gave the title of “H. M.’s Controversy on Sunday Schools,” which drew in many to buy and to read it, thinking it to be written by her. The book was printed for Jordan, who was the publisher of the notorious Tom Paine’s works, and at the end were stitched advertisements of all the well-known Jacobinical publications.