Hannah More

The enormous working-class sale of Paine's Rights of man Part I was met on the right both by censorship and by the promotion of popular literature dedicated to political stability. Village politics urges the working man: 'study to be quiet, work with your hands, and mind your own business'. The Cheap repository tracts, which began to appear two years later, had similar aims but in the framework of religious renewal. The shepherd of Salisbury Plain, celebrating piety, poverty and simplicity, was one of the most popular; first published in 1795, it is here reproduced in a more legible text of the 1820s.

David Sanders was a shepherd who tended his flocks on Salisbury Plain, England, during the eighteenth century. Mr. Johnson, who was Hannah More's friend Dr. Stonhouse, found him to be an intriguing man of faith because of his humble and peaceful attitude about life, while having modest material wealth. This true narrative was very popular when written and is filled with the thoughtful insights of a simple man with an old family Bible. This edition includes a biography of Hannah More by Henry Johnson, short memoirs of both David Sanders and Dr. Stonhouse, and a letter written by David Sanders. It also includes the short story "'Tis All for the Best," by Hannah More. He delighted in his occupational counterparts like Moses, David and other shepherds. A quote from the book: "It was to shepherds keeping their flocks by night, that the angels appeared in Bethlehem, to tell the best news, the gladdest tidings, that ever were revealed to poor sinful men; often and often has the thought warmed my poor heart in the coldest night, and filled me with more joy and thankfulness than the best supper could have done."

"Hannah More (1745-1833) was a precociously intelligent child. Educated first by her father at home, then in a predominantly female environment, she was a born proselytist who set about reforming the behaviour of women in poverty-striken and fashionable societies alike. If her arguments appear confrontational to late twentieth-century readers, there is no disputing their popularity in her own day."--BOOK JACKET. "Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education with a view of the Principles and Conduct prevalent among Women of Rank and Fortune was published in 1799 and sold over 19,000 copies; by 1826 it had run into thirteen editions. The work presents a lively critique of the way fashionable women of society wasted their time and talents, attacking the ideas of the French Enlightenment and German romanticism and the representation of women in the novels and plays which these inspired; it argues that women have an important role to play in reforming the morals and manners of society."--BOOK JACKET. "Also included here is a selection of Hannah More's Letters from London in the 1770s, reflecting the fashionable world of the Garrick set and the 'Blue Stockings' circle; her poem 'The Bas Bleu', describing the literary circle of Mrs Vesey; a satirical essay 'The White Slave Trade' which ridicules women enslaved to fashion; her poem 'The Sorrows of Yamba', showing More's devotion to the anti-slave trade movement; three short fictional tales, teaching obedience and subservience, 'Betty Brown', 'Tawney Rachel' and 'Sinful Sally'; and extracts from 'Mr Bragwell and his Two Daughters', which shows the dire consequences of daughters of the new middle class being misled by the representation of women in popular novels."--BOOK JACKET.