pose the poems would have affected me so deeply as they did, had I met with them, as those who will read this description will meet with them, in a printed book. But I must confess, that, when I considered the place, the seclusion from almost all the world, in which the family have lived, the few advantages, even of a common school education, which their daughter had enjoyed, and then remembered the manner in which it has pleased God to wound her spirit, and to bow down her soul, I could not but consider them as remarkable productions. Probably the verses may be liable to criticism; but one thing is certain,—they are a faithful picture of deep sorrow and suffering. The sufferer had lain, for nearly half her life, where we saw her. Through how many weary, restless days and nights had she passed! Is it not strange that we, who are blessed with health and strength, should ever murmur at the allotments of Providence, when, compared with such sorrows as these, our afflictions seem trifling and momentary?
When you conversed with her, she expressed her resignation to the will of God; but, though patient under her sufferings, her heart seemed almost broken with hope deferred. She had passed most of this long period of affliction in the expectation that she should one day be raised again to health and strength; and this disappointment had imparted a deep melancholy to her thoughts. Her views of herself were most humble; and she seemed unwilling by her answers to lead you to suppose, that she was more at peace with herself and her Maker, than was really the case.
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