Those affectionate critics, whose estimate is what an author values far more than any external opinion, had become sadly thinned in numbers, but Sir William Pepys wrote with hearty admiration, that he thought Practical Piety the best of all Mrs. H. More's performances, and calculated "to terrify the wicked, to rouse the negligent, and to keep the most watchful on their guard"; but he added that some of the best and most religious people he knew, thought the rule too strict and almost deterrent. Hannah's reply was that "The standard of religion should always be kept high. The very best of us are sure to pull it down a good many pegs in our practice, but how much lower is the practice of those who fix a lower standard than the New Testament?"
On the other hand, she tells Mrs. Kennicott, "I hear the high Calvinists declare war against Practical Piety. Is it not a little hard that one must not write one's own sentiments, but the sentiments of others? We have many opinions in common, but if I adopted their peculiar opinions, I must write against my conscience. One of their criticisms will make you smile. They say that my having called the sun he is idolatrous, as if I believed in Phœbus Apollo. If this be true, both David and St. John were guilty of idolatry."
The book was followed up by Christian Morals in 1813, carrying the principles of Practical Piety farther into details of common life, and, towards the end,
