I would not use
it to every one, but I think thou knowest that words are
feeble rather than strong to express what may be the
real portion of one whom spectators look on as very
happy; and I do feel sure that not a grief that can befall
us even in this hidden world of ours, but _may_ be the
stepping-stone to a joy with which also a stranger doth
not intermeddle; and how shall we sooner find it than
by "casting all our care on Him who careth for us"?
"He knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are
dust, and is touched with a feeling of our infirmities."
_3d Mo. 14th_.--Letter to M.B.
* * * I am abundantly convinced that if we can
find the right place and keep it, and endeavor to fulfil
its duties, whatever they may be, _there_ is our safety, and
_there_ is our greatest peace; and what a blessing to know
in any degree where the knowledge and the power are
both to be obtained! * * *
_6th Mo. 21st_. After a fortnight's visit to my dear
aunts, I followed Louisa to Tottenham. Many an
occasion of deep instruction was offered to us at the
Yearly Meeting; and yet from all this what remains?
A solemn inquiry for all; and how much so for me,
now that every principle of the heart and mind
must prepare to encounter unwonted exercise and
trial, now that I daily need all that I can have in
a peculiar manner, and now that the future, amid
the hopeful calm which it sometimes assumes, will
sometimes almost frown upon me with lowerings of
fear? Fear it is, not of others, but of myself, and
fear of the ignorance or precipitancy of my yet but
very partially regulated mind.
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