Page:Elizabeth Fry (Pitman 1884).djvu/148

 people are—with the fear and consciousness that her duties were not half done. How few of this class ever contemplate themselves or their works with anything like satisfaction! A short extract from her journal penned during the first years of her wedded life affords the key to this self-examination, a self-examination which was strictly continued as long as reason held her sway. The entry is entitled “Questions for Myself.”

“First.—Hast thou this day been honest and true in performing thy duty towards thy Creator in the first place, and, secondly, toward thy fellow-creatures; or hast thou sophisticated and flinched?

“Second.—Hast thou been vigilant in frequently pausing, in the hurry and career of the day, to see who thou art endeavouring to serve; whether thy Maker or thyself? And every time that trial or temptation assailed thee, didst thou endeavour to look steadily at the Delivering Power, even to Christ who can do all things for thee?

“Third.—Hast thou endeavoured to perform thy relative duties faithfully; been a tender, loving, yielding wife, where thy own will and pleasure were concerned, a tender yet steady mother with thy children, making thyself quickly and strictly obeyed, but careful in what thou requirest of them; a kind yet honest mistress, telling thy servants of their faults, when thou thinkest it for their or thy good, but never unnecessarily worrying thyself or them about trifles, and to everyone endeavouring to do as thou wouldst be done unto?”

A life governed by these principles, and measured by these rules, was not likely to be otherwise than strictly, severely, nervously good. We use the word