Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/65

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THE BAS BLEU AND THE BAS BLANC.
53

home, but for three weeks never went out of doors, even to walk round the garden; though when, in March, Mrs. Garrick went to her house at the Adelphi, she seems to have gone out as usual. Meeting Johnson, "our conversation ran very much on religious opinions, particularly those of the Roman Catholics. He took the part of the Jesuits, and I declared myself a Jansenist. He was very angry because I quoted Boileau's bon mot upon the Jesuits that they had lengthened the Creed and shortened the Decalogue; but I continued sturdily to vindicate my old friends of Port Royal."

Johnson was much better at this time. He dined at Mrs. Garrick's, and there met, besides Hannah, Fanny Burney and Mrs. Elizabeth Carter. "Three such women," he afterwards said to Boswell, "are not to be found."

A notable acquaintance made at this time was with Sir William Jones, who was chiefly interesting to her as about to marry the daughter of the Bishop of St. Asaph, but of whom she pronounces—"He is a very amiable as well as learned man, and possesses more languages, perhaps, than any man in Europe."

It was at this time that Hannah was shocked by hearing "a dignified ecclesiastic propound in a charity sermon that the rich and great should be extremely liberal in their charities, because they were happily exempted from the severer virtues."