“You were right respecting the nature of my support under this affliction; there is but one source of consolation, and of that source I have drunk largely. When you shall see how I had spoken of my happiness but a few weeks ago, you will read with tears of sorrow what I wrote with tears of joy. And little did I think how soon and how literally another part of this mournful poem was to be fulfilled, when I said in it—
‘To earth I should have sunk in my despair, Had I not claspt the Cross, and been supported there.’ |
“I thank God for the strength with which we have borne
this trial. It is not possible for woman to have
| 168 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 42. |
“At present it would rather do me hurt than good to see you. I am perfectly calm and in full self-possession; but I know my own weakness as well as my strength, and the wholesomest regimen for a mind like mine, is assiduous application to pursuits which call forth enough of its powers to occupy without exhausting it. It is well for me that I can do this. I take regular exercise and am very careful of myself.
“Many will feel for me, but none can tell what I have lost: the head and flower of my earthly happiness is cut off. But I am not unhappy.
“God bless you!
