deign most wonderfully to strengthen the hearts of those to whom I
was so very dear! Grant thou that I may cease to be such to them
now; and that not the life of the least of them may be shortened by
their care for me, even by a single day!"

Strange! wonderful power of prayer! for several hours my mind was
raised to a contemplation of the Deity, and my confidence in His
goodness proportionately increased; I meditated also on the dignity
of the human mind when, freed from selfishness, it exerts itself to
will only that which is the will of eternal wisdom. This can be
done, and it is man's duty to do it. Reason, which is the voice of
the Deity, teaches us that it is right to submit to every sacrifice
for the sake of virtue. And how could the sacrifice which we owe to
virtue be completed, if in the most trying afflictions we struggle
against the will of Him who is the source of all virtue? When death
on the scaffold, or any other species of martyrdom becomes
inevitable, it is a proof of wretched degradation, or ignorance, not
to be able to approach it with blessing upon our lips. Nor is it
only necessary we should submit to death, but to the affliction
which we know those most dear to us must suffer on our account. All
it is lawful for us to ask is, that God will temper such affliction,
and that he will direct us all, for such a prayer is always sure to
be accepted.



CHAPTER XVI.