from nature, which was favoured by education, I feel now more strongly than ever; and a spacious drawing-room, with a large window, through which I walk into a garden of roses, seems to give me everything worth possessing in this world. I live with the birds and the butterflies, under the shade of tall elms, and the blue of a serene sky overhead. Thus fixed, as by magic power, to one spot, my mind knows no restraint, and is much more free than in the fetters of society. I am intimately acquainted with many worlds besides this, and wander through them again and again, with Homer, and Milton, and Dante. My early education, which has unfitted me for plodding life, has given me strength in suffering, and, through a very long and severe illness, has enabled me to extract pleasures unseen by others. . . . . "Happy I am That can translate the stubbornness of fortune "Come and see me, and I will show you all my haunts, and recesses, and sofas, that are actually planted in little retired nooks secured from the rain, where I talk to the echoes, and listen to the blackbird or the hum of the bee. But summer songs and summer sounds are now almost over; the leaves are embrowned, and begin to fall, and the robin, with a prophetic note, tells us that winter is near. . . . "Come and see me, out of the world, and returned, in my old age, to poetic, and almost to a romantic life. "It is nothing new for a young girl of fifteen to enjoy the romance of the poets, but I enjoy it still, nor shall I ever grow old! That is to say, I have a youthful mind in s shattered body; and the ruin that is crumbling to pieces seems to give its inhabitant gayer prospects: she looks through rainbow tints, and enjoys, in her imprisonment, an enchanted world. I consider that I am a curiosity, compounded of January and May; - a kind of Centaur not fabulous,' and totally unfitted, as I ever was, for common life. "Were it still the fashion to deify those who have lived before us, I should certainly erect an altar to my aunts, for having blessed me with so many internal resources, of which I feel the advantage from hour to hour; and I shall ever feel its advantage, I am persuaded, to the very last sand. My husband considers all my singularities as perfections, and endeavours to realise all my tastes. He supplies me, too, with every comfort that such a state as mine can enjoy. "You will see by my handwriting the infirmity of my eyes, and besides, I have been several days travelling through this long letter, for continued attention to anything fatigues me extremely; but I could not resist the opportunity of enjoying once more the pleasure of talking with an old friend. Whilst I am writing, I fancy you here. "I do, indeed, my dear cousin, sympathise in your happiness. I enjoy the idea, that you leave every trouble behind you when you shut your garden gate. "Your eldest son, you tell me, is serious and sedate. I congratulate you upon it. The longer I live, the more convinced I am that religion is the strongest hold, and the safest anchor in life. And besides, to use the expression of a cheerful parson whom we know, 'It is getting the cream of both worlds!' "My dear cousin, farewell. And now I take leave in the words of Hamlet's ghost, Remember me!' "L. GALTON." CHAP. VI. 1808-1811. "Thou who hast still a father and a mother, thank God for it in the day when thy soul is full of joyful tears and needs a bosom on which to shed them." "O, fear not, in a world like this, RICHTER. LONGFELLOW. "How little can we love men, till we love Thee!" Mrs. Schimmel Penninck says, in her journal of 1808; and to love God above all things, and devote herself wholly to His service, had long been, as we have seen, the first desire of her heart. But the more God designs to make use of any particular instrument, the more carefully He forms and polishes it by suffering; and thus it was with the subject of this Memoir. She deeply suffered from conflicts in her own soul. She had yet to suffer, as we shall see, by trials from without; but seasons of refreshment were now vouchsafed to her from the presence of the Lord, which, to use her own words, "made up for all." It was at this time that Mrs. Schimmel Penninck first became acquainted with the Wesleyan Methodists, of "After my which event she gives the following account. first acquaintance with the Moravians at Bath, there was a time, on my return home, when I had no opportunity of enjoying the society of religious people; and, not having many religious books, I was compelled the more to search the Scriptures, which at every line sent me to the Saviour Himself. A few books, however, now and then fell into my hands, just enough to show me that in various parts of the Good Shepherd's fold are those who love Him in sincerity and truth; and, in my solitude, many were the refreshing hours I owed to Christian brethren, who, on earth distinguished by various appellations, are all, I am assured, now unitedly rejoicing before the throne of their common Saviour in Heaven. Yet, amidst all, the little flock of the Brethren who were first sent to me by our Lord was most dear to me. When, therefore, I married, and settled in Bristol, and was at liberty, through my husband's kindness, to join what society I pleased, I much wished to join the Church of the United Brethren.' Some things, however, stood in my way. I knew the congregation could only be joined by lot;' and, not being convinced of its Divine appointment, I could not solicit a decision as a Divine appeal, which I should in truth be submitting to as a human institution. I, however, earnestly wished to join them; for about this time I began to feel extremely uneasy at my own incomplete views. lieving the Brethren might be a help, I went to Mr. West (their minister), and, opening my mind fully to him, I asked to join the Moravian Church (as a society member), Be A peculiarity, and a most honourable one, of the Church of the United |