de Staël, Germaine
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 04 August [1817]
How my heart thanks you for your considerate kindness, (under such accumulated anxieties) in remembering me and causing me so frequently to hear of your goings on. I received ’s letter from Falmouth very soon after that from dated Gibraltar. But tho to hear of you was a great comfort to me, I lament that no account of comfort to yourself has reached me. Mr. Hodson’s report indeed of dearest Millicents Attack was a fresh source of regret and sorrow. Most heartily do I beseech our Merciful Father that the occasion of this additional affliction may be totally removed, /&/ that you may not as the Apostle says, have sorrow upon sorrow.* To the all Wise Dispenser of our sufferings as well as our blessings, I am however deeply thankful that ‘your Soul prospers and is in health.’* May the Holy Spirit the Blessed, indeed the only Substantial Comforter, continue to support, console, and strengthen you. These troubles tho not joyous but grievous, will I trust multiply upon you the peaceable fruits of Righteousness. In the mean time your health is the Object of my extreme solicitude. Be as careful of it as you can, for you have much more to do in this world. Did I mention in my last that our dear friend , with and two converted Jews spent a day here lately on their road to Petersburgh where this noble, romantic, heroic being is going on a Jewish Mission with the above named Companion* The Polish Jew had been ordained the day before by our beloved the other Jew a German, the next day sent me a very pretty English Sonnet, correct and rather elegant.* Way proposes shutting up these Converts for six Months to study the Russian and other Northern languages that they may preach in those frozen climates. Mrs. Way generously consents to this Crusade. Before we parted Marsh concluded the visit with a very fine affecting prayer. May God bless them and their enterprize! The amiable Enthusiast has heard of some little /white/ stone Church in the Crimea in which he has set his heart on preaching.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 04 August [1817]
Last Week we had our Annual Bible Meeting. It was a very good one, good collection, & good speaking We had 29 Clergymen of the Establishment. Poor was not able to attend, but notwithstanding her bad health, we supported the good cause by inviting about 60 to dinner and 120 to tea. We had a good many Clifton friends. the ’s , (who looked woefully) and her brother who made a speech. I have had a very pious letter from poor Lord Edward* who feels his loss deeply, but submits to the hand which inflects [sic] it [tear] You will have felt for poor Made. de Staël.* W[hat] [tear] good might she not have done with those super eminent talents! May she have found Mercy! and came to us last week H[e is] [tear] a fine noble minded creature, and I hope will be an instrument of much good.
Hannah More to Marianne Thornton, November 5th 1823
You gave me some hope in the Summer that I might get a sight of you and the dear [unclear], in a little visit you thought of making at Blaise Castle.* I should have much rejoyced to have seen you both. The however have been very little there, * delicate health requiring the Sea Coast. It must be a great sacrifice to leave their Elysium for so long a time. There are so many interesting things about which I should like to talk with you, that I wish I could dilate upon some of them The Protestant Church however which is erecting over the very Ashes of that Archfiend * is too wonderful not to be just hinted at. That /he/ whose constant way it was, il faut ecrasez l’Infame,* should have the Gospel of the Saviour he vilified and whose very name he swore he would exterminate /should be preached over his Grave;/ that the printing press which was for so long the fountain whence his abominations were published, is an instance of the Antidote following the poison the most striking!!* How I honour the Had his unhappy Mother employ’d her talents, unrivalled by any Woman certainly, in the way her Son is doing, she would have been as much the object of love and esteem, as she always must be, of admiration.* A propos of illustrious Women, I have lately had a visit from the .* We were ready to devour each other. Greatly as I honour the memory of Howard*, I think she is as superior to him as the Soul is to the body.
To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 18 October 1825
Have you seen L’Angleterre by the ?* I hear it highly commended but tho I have had it a good while, have not time to read a page. How gratifying that both the children of that brilliant but unprincipled Woman should convert talents resembling her own, to the best purposes