Page:Duty and Inclination 1.pdf/260

252 away, With a despondent sigh, she could not divest herself of the melancholy conviction, that the canker-worm of mortality was making rapid inroads to deprive her of that young blossom; carrying her fears still further, she thought if her beloved husband could yet be pronounced safe? and her little daughters at Mrs. Herbert's, what might not be their situations? It was then that Mrs. De Brooke exerted that fortitude, that noble energy of soul so peculiarly her own; it was upon such great and trying occasions that she manifested the superior usefulness of a religious education. The father's precepts, the mother's example, as impressed upon her heart and mind, gave sublimity and energy to her thoughts more than human, diffusing a holy trust in Providence over her affections, and beaming in heavenly lustre from eyes destined to behold scenes of the most touching, awful, and heart-rending description, connected and interwoven with the tenderest sympathies of her existence! Natural feeling, if not to be subdued, was yet, she was well persuaded, capable of moderation, and if, in her occasional sinkings, she felt its triumphs over the lessons she had taught herself, again Divine consolations imparted renewed strength to sustain her. Thus, awaiting in dread suspense, although with mingled feelings of hope