Page:The works of Anne Bradstreet in prose and verse.djvu/66

 Iviii INTRODUCTION.

her various maladies as tokens of the divine displeasure at her thoughtlessness or wrong-doing. She says that her religious belief was at times shaken ; but her doubts and fears were soon banished, if, indeed, they were not exag- gerated in number and importance by her tender con- science. Her children were constantly in her mind. It was for them that she committed to writing her own re- ligious experiences, her own feelings of joy or sorrow at the various changes which brightened or darkened her life. Her most pointed similes are drawn from the familiar incidents of domestic life, especially the bringing-up of children. From some of these references it would seem as if she had found among her own children the most diverse traits of character ; that some of them were obedi- ent and easily governed, while others were unruly and headstrong ; and that she derived an intense satisfaction from contemplating the virtues of some, while she deplored the failings of others. Notwithstanding the comfort she took in her children, notwithstanding the happiness of her married life, she continually dwells on the vanity of all worldly delights, the shortness of life, and the great ills to which humanity is subject. She found, however, a never-failing solace for all her troubles in prayer. " I have had," she writes, "great experience of God's hear- ing my Prayers, and returning comfortable Anfwers to me, either in granting y^ Thing I prayed for, or elfe," she adds, with a charming frankness, "in fatiffying my mind without it." *

In November, 1657, her son Samuel, her eldest child, sailed for England. f He graduated at Harvard College


 * See page 7. t See page 24.

�� �