Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Wife of Henry Ware, Jr.Hall, Edward B. (Edward Brooks)
Religion
Memoir of Mary L. Ware, Wife of Henry Ware, Jr.
Hall, Edward B. (Edward Brooks)
Unitarians -- United States -- Biography; Ware, Mary L. (Mary Lovell), 1798-1849
Another year closed its record with similar expressions of thankfulness,
though we see that it brought sickness and discipline. But these are
not spoken of as trials; for Mrs. Ware appears in fact, as well as in
word, to have caused sickness to change its name and its face. It had
become to her a friend, whose absence she almost dreaded. "It is so long
since I have had the slightest physical drawback, that I had almost
forgotten that I could be other than strong. I am glad to be reminded
that I am not free from the common lot in this respect; in truth, that I
am to be subject to the salutary discipline which the prospect of
certain suffering and weakness, with all their possible consequences,
brings to the soul." She had great faith in the relation of events to
each other. She looked upon nothing in the providence of God as either
accidental or insulated; every thing had a design and a connection. "If
any one thing more than any other strikes me powerfully as I advance in
life, gaining confirmation from every day's experience, it is the
beautiful adaptation of circumstances to accomplish the great object of
existence, each succeeding event pointing to some end which the other
events of life have not particularly aimed at. It seems as if we had
only to keep our vision clear, to find around us all the teaching which
we can possibly need to bring us to perfection." She had not much
respect for the common view of "circumstances," as securing all the good
and accounting for all the evil in men's conduct and character. To her
mind, the responsibility was as great of turning adverse circumstances
to good account, as of using well the most favoring and prosperous
condition. Yet here she dealt more severely with herself than with any
one else; too severely sometimes, as may be the case with all
conscientious sufferers who are at the same time conscientious workers.
They exact too much of their own frames. They make too little allowance
for those natural limits and occasional weaknesses, for which many minds
allow too much. Most of us suffer the body to be master, where it should
be servant; while they of whom we speak are apt to forget that the body
_will_ sometimes rule, and affect the mind unfavorably yet helplessly.
There are various intimations, some of which we have seen already, that
Mrs. Ware was not free from all errors or dangers of this kind, though
she soon detected them. After a short visit to Mrs. Paine, in 1839, she
says of it: "I did enjoy my visit to you hugely; I do enjoy it now even
more; for I was fighting all the time with an evil demon within in the
shape of an uncommonly violent attack of 'Mary Pickardism,' making me
feel that I might as well be out of the world as in it. But that is
over; and I have learnt from it that our minds are more frequently under
the control of our _physique_, than we, in our pride, are very willing
to admit."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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