Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/202

190 In the letter that follows this effusion Mrs. More speaks of fears that her head might not last out her body, but there are no signs of decay in the composition. There is plenty of vigour in a letter to Daniel Wilson, bearing date August 2, 1826.

"As to their reproaching you with being a Calvinist, I wish, as Bishop Horsley said in his incomparable charge, that before they abuse Calvinism they would just take the pains to inquire what it is. I hope to make you smile for a moment when I tell you this story. A little party was sitting at a comfortable game of whist, when one of the set, having a slight headache, turned about and asked a lady who was sitting by to take her cards for a few minutes. The lady excused herself by saying that really she could not play; on which the other exclaimed, 'Now that is what I call Calvinism!' It is a pity that Bishop Horsley could not have been by to have heard this satisfactory exposition of the doctrine, and so practical too!

"The only one of my youthful fond attachments which exists still in its full force is a passion for scenery, raising flowers, and landscape gardening, in which I can still indulge in some measure, as far as opening a walk from my chamber window among a little grove of trees which I planted twenty-four years ago. . ..

"But I am running away from my object, which is