Fry, Elizabeth Gurney, 1780-1845; Prison reformers -- Biography
Her own account of the impressions made upon her reads just a little
quaintly, possibly because of the unfamiliar Quaker phraseology.
"To-day I have felt that _there is a God!_ I have been devotional, and
my mind has been led away from the follies that it is mostly wrapped up
in. We had much serious conversation; in short, what he said, and what I
felt, was like a refreshing shower falling upon earth that had been
dried for ages. It has not made me unhappy; I have felt ever since
_humble_. I have longed for virtue: I hope to be truly virtuous; to let
sophistry fly from my mind; not to be enthusiastic and foolish but only
to be so far religious as will lead to virtue. There seems nothing so
little understood as religion."
Good resolutions followed, and determined amendment of life, as far as
she conceived this amendment to be in accordance with the Bible. While
in this awakened state of mind, a journey to London was projected. Mr.
Gurney took her to the metropolis and left her in charge of a
trustworthy attendant, in order that she might make full trial of "the
world" which she would have to renounce so fully if she embraced plain
Quakerism. Among the good resolutions made in view of this journey to
London, we find that she determined not to be vain or silly, to be
independent of the opinion of others, not to make dress a study, and to
read the Bible at all available opportunities. It was perhaps wise in
her father to permit this reasoning, philosophical daughter of his to
see the gayeties of London life before coming to a final decision
respecting taking up the cross of plain Quakerism; but had her mind been
less finely balanced, her judgment less trained, and her principles less
formed, the result might have been disastrous.
She went, and mingled somewhat freely with the popular life of the great
city. She was taken to Drury Lane, the Covent Garden theatres, and to
other places of amusement, but she could not "like plays." She saw some
good actors; witnessed "Hamlet," "Bluebeard," and other dramas, but
confesses that she "cannot like or enjoy them"; they seemed "so
artificial." Then she somewhat oddly says that when her hair was dressed
"she felt like a monkey," and finally concluded that "London was not the
place for heartful pleasure." With her natural, sound common sense, her
discernment, her intelligence and purity of mind, these amusements
seemed far below the level of those fitted to satisfy a rational
being--so far that she almost looked down on them with contempt. The
truth was, that having tasted a little of the purer joy of religion, all
other substitutes were stale and flat, and this although she scarcely
knew enough of the matter to be able correctly to analyze her own
feelings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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