Grace Aguilar was extremely fond of music; she had learned the piano
from infancy, and in 1831 commenced the harp. She sang pleasingly,
preferring English songs, and invariably selecting them for the beauty
or sentiment of the words; she was also passionately fond of dancing,
and her cheerful lively manners in the society of her young friends,
would scarcely have led any to imagine how deeply she felt and
pondered upon the serious and solemn subjects which afterwards formed
the labor of her life. She seemed to enjoy all, to enter into all, but
a keen observer would detect the hold that sacred and holy principle
ever exercised over her lightest act, and gayest hour. A sense of duty
was apparent in the merest trifle, and her following out of the divine
command of obedience to parents, was only equalled by the unbounded
affection she felt for them. A wish was once expressed by her mother
that she should not waltz, and no solicitation could afterwards tempt
her. Her mother also required her to read sermons, and study religion
and the Bible regularly; this was readily submitted to, first as a
task, but afterwards with much delight; for evidence of which we
cannot do better than quote her own words in one of her religious
works.

"This formed into a habit, and persevered in for a life, would in
time, and without labor or weariness, give the comfort and the
knowledge that we seek; each year it would become lighter, and more
blest, each year we should discover something we knew not before, and
in the valley of the shadow of death, feel to our heart's core that
the Lord our God is Truth."--_Women of Israel_, Vol. II, page 43.

Nor did Grace Aguilar only study religion for her own personal
observance and profit. She embraced its _principles_ (the principles