Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/55

Rh plays. They were on the Finding of Moses, the Slaying of Goliath, Belshazzar's Feast, and a monologue of Hezekiah in his sickness.

Writers generally contrived to be at hand during the printing of their works, since the transmission of proofs by the post would have been too expensive, so she was in London at the critical moment. Bishop Porteus, then of Chester, called, and, she writes, "inquired very much when the book was to appear, to my no small confusion, for the reason I am going to give. The book lay on Mrs. Boscawen's table, and we had just discovered a most ridiculous blunder, for, by the misplacing of a single asterisk, the Bishop is made a painter and Sir Joshua Reynolds a Bishop. Neither Mrs. B——nor I had courage to mention this, so I very foolishly only said I could not tell when it would be published. I have sent the history of this blunder to Caddell, and with a dash of the pen it is tolerably rectified.

"After all, the kindest thing to my friends is not to send them a book, for a present from the author is very inconvenient, as I have often found to my cost, since it forces the person so distinguished to write against their conscience, and to praise what perhaps they secretly despise. Besides, as I have mentioned all my particular friends, it would be rather awkward, after offering the incense, to thrust the censer in their faces."

The book has gone through nineteen editions,