Page:Women of distinction.djvu/203

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WOMEN OF DISTINCTION.
149

of public action. Long had she waited for moral and intellectual recognition from the world. Too long had the vail of obscurity, like the gall of death, shut out the knowledge of her existence from the sisterhood of earth. Her patience and sacrifice in trials and her fortitude and heroism in adversity had never been recorded by the pen of a writer that others might read and admire her virtue, her patriotism and her piety. Her soul had never been stimulated by the genial influences of fraternity and hope of honor to grasp after higher attainments and that moral elevation which enables her to look above the common things of life to a nobler and more exalted existence. Though her capabilities for intellectual expansion and mental development were as ample as were those of the more favored daughters of earth, yet was every bud of hope which expanded in ' her soul blighted by the withering blast of scorn, and when fancy spread its wings for an exalted flight the chilling winds of adversity brought her to the earth, where it drooped in sadness and pined in solitude. But she was not altogether discouraged with outward circumstances with which she was surrounded. She prayed, and trusted and waited until the "day spring from on high visited her" and through the rifted cloud she could discover a brighter era. In religion she had always found a solace for a wounded heart and the ordinances of the Church had been precious to her soul; but even in these sacred rights she had been made unwelcome, and though willing and ready to perform the most arduous duties, with contempt she was pushed to the background. But when