LIFE

OF

MRS CHAPONE.

HESTER MULSO, afterwards Mrs Chapone, was the daughter of Thomas Mulso, Esq. of Twywell in the county of Northampton, and born on the 27th of October 1727. At a very early age she exhibited proofs of a lively imagination and superior understanding. Being deprived of her mother when young, she found herself called upon to exercise her own judgment, and cultivate her own talents: this arduous undertaking she entered upon with a resolution, a perseverance, and a success, that has ultimately placed her in the first rank of female writers, and furnished posterity with an admirable instance of the degree of improvement to which the female mind may be carried by the unassisted energy of its own exertions.

Her studies were useful as well as elegant. She not only read, but reflected. That she read the Holy Scriptures both with delight and benefit to herself, her excellent directions for the study of them in her Letters is a sufficient testimony.

In 1749 Miss Mulso commenced an intimate friendship with Miss Elizabeth Carter, the elegant and classical translator of Epictetus, which conti

nued through the long remaining period of her life, affording a noble instance of constancy and elevated attachment, equally honourable to both parties. Their correspondence exhibits a fund of vivacity and sound sense, with much acute remark, and many valuable sentiments and instructive observations. On the part of Miss Mulso we discover all that happy ease and lively freedom which charm in epistolary writing. Her letters manifest a zeal for truth and virtue; her religion is that of practical Christianity, and her sentiments upon it are those of a woman of sense and piety.

Miss Mulso's first production appears to have been an "Ode to Peace," written during the Rebellion in 1745, and a Poem prefixed to her friend Miss Carter's translation of Epictetus. The interesting story of " Fidelia," which forms Nos. 77, 78, and 79. of the Adventurer, was written some time previous to the year 1753.

Soon after she had attained the age of twenty, Miss Mulso was introduced to Mr Richardson, author of Clarissa, Pamela, &c. with whom she soon entered into a friendly controversy on the subject of parental authority. The ideas of the Novelist on this subject, as expressed in the character of Clarissa Harlowe, almost degenerate into tyranny, and therefore Miss Mulso's " Three Letters on Filial Obedience," will not only be highly instructive to the admirers of that work, but also to every female who bears either the relation of mother or of daughter.

Her intimacy with the family of Richardson introduced her to Mr Chapone, a young gentleman of good family, then practising law in the Temple, and destined eventually to be her husband. After several years' duration of mutual attachment, their union took place in 1760; but in less than ten

months after they were married, Mr Chapone was seized with a fever, which was from the beginning pronounced fatal, and terminated his existence after about a week's illness. At first Mrs Chapone seemed to bear this calamity with fortitude, but it preyed on her health, and for some time her life was despaired of. She recovered, however, gradually, and resigned herself to a state of life in which she yet found many friends and many consolations.

Most of her time was spent in London, or in occasional visits to her friends, among whom she had the happiness to number many distinguished characters. Her predilection for rural scenes, and her love of tranquil pleasures, led her continually into the country, whenever opportunity offered for the gratification of her wishes.

Several months of the year 1766 were passed by Mrs Chapone at the parsonage of her second brother, John, at Thornhill, near Wakefield in Yorkshire it was there she conceived that partiality for her niece, his eldest daughter, to which the world is indebted for her admirable "Letters on the Improvement of the Mind."

In 1770 she accompanied Mrs Montagu, who had long honoured her with her friendship, into Scotland; a tour from which she derived both information and amusement, and which her pen has described with fidelity and interest.

In 1773 Mrs Chapone gave to the world her “Letters on the Improvement of the Mind,” written for the private instruction of her favourite niece. This work was followed in 1775 by a volume of "Miscellanies," and soon after her " Letter to a new married Lady," both of which have a considerable degree of merit.

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Many years in a feeble state of health, Mrs Chapone was latterly deeply affected by the loss of the niece to whom her Letters had been addressed, and by the death of a beloved brother, to whom she was united by ties of the tenderest friendship, and by congeniality of taste. She had also to deplore the loss of the greater part of the friends of her youth. In proportion as her trials increased, her mind seemed to gain additional strength. Though her nerves were injured, and her peace broken, her fortitude remained unsubdued. Resignation to inevitable evils she considered as the duty of a Christian, and what she considered as a duty she never shrank from performing. Those solid principles which taught her implicitly to believe in a reunion with those she loved in a better world, made her long rise superior to the calamities of this, and she "mourned not as those that have no hope."

In the autumn of 1800 Mrs Chapone, with her youngest niece, retired to Hadley in Middlesex, where, in connexion with the family of the Rev. Mr Cottrell, the rector of that place, she found the daughter of her early friend, the Rev. Mr Burrows. To the kindness of this amiable family, and the attentions of Miss Burrows, she was indebted for that assistance which the helplessness of infirmity irresistibly demands. The functions of life at length gradually failed, and on Christmas day 1801, without one apparent struggle or sigh, she breathed her last, having just completed the 74th year of her age.

From her natural talents, and elegant acquirements, Mrs Chapone was peculiarly well qualified to shine in society, and her company was courted by all who had ever shared in the charms of her conversation. She was a perfect mistress of the

French and Italian languages, and made some proficiency in the Latin. In her youth she had a fine voice, and sung delightfully. Her manners,

by an early association with the best company, were polished and elegant. To personal charms she is allowed to have had no pretensions; there is, however, a certain physiognomy of beauty, a candour and sweetness of aspect, an emanation of the soul, that sometimes illumines the countenance, of which, if any credit may be given to the testimony of such a judge as Richardson, she was by no means destitute.

What her talents were, and how highly cultivated, the following work, which has been productive of the most extensive good, affords a brilliant example. Mrs Barbauld, a lady highly and justly esteemed in the republic of letters, gives the following character of it :-" It is distinguished by sound sense, a liberal as well as a warm spirit of piety, and a philosophy applied to its best use, the culture of the heart and affections. It has no shining eccentricities of thought, no peculiarities of system; it follows experience as its guide, and is content to produce effects of acknowledged utility, by known and approved means. On these accounts it is perhaps the most unexceptionable treatise that can be put into the hands of female youth. These letters are particularly excellent in what relates to regulating the temper and feelings. Their style is pure and unaffected, and the manner grave and impressive."

The present age is honourably distinguished by the variety and the excellence of productions from the pen of females, the mere mention of whose names will, we are satisfied, awaken within our readers recollections of delight:-Miss Aikin, Miss Joanna Baillie, Mrs Barbauld, Miss H. Bowdler,