Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/255

 thoughts so serene pass over me, that I almost think I hear the voice of my Redeemer, saying through the silence of midnight, "when I sent ye forth without purse, or scrip, lacked ye any thing? and I answer, nothing Lord."

The gentle sufferer requested of her spiritual guide, that her history might not be mentioned among his acquaintance. Visits of curiosity, she remarked, would only interrupt the short space allotted her, which she wished to employ in preparations for her departure; and those of charity were unnecessary to a being, whose ties to the world were so broken that her dependence upon it was annihilated.

"It can now give me nothing," she said, "but it may take something away."

He perceived that she wished to detach her mind from surrounding objects, arid cultivate a deep acquaintance with her heart; as Cosmo de Medici, in his last sickness, closed bis eyes that he might see more clearly. He could understand a desire, which some would be in danger of mistaking for affectation, or perverseness, or enthusiasm. He could sympathize in the aspirations of a soul, desiring to be alone with its God. He prevailed on her, however, to admit the attentions of a physician, who came, and inquired minutely into the progress of her disease, and the mode of treatment to which it had been subjected. He approved the light nutriment of milk, and fruits, which she had adopted, examined the herbs, and plants;