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
"My first attempt at journeying alone was a very encouraging
one. A good old clergyman was my companion, and after three
weeks in France, I assure you, I enjoyed any thing like serious
conversation; though he happened to be a Methodist, he was a
rational and learned one, and I believe I learned much that was
useful from him. I had apprised my good cousin of my intended
descent upon her family, and was received with open arms and
much kind greeting by all her flock. Here I am, then, at last,
and I know you are impatient to know all about them, and the
place in which they live. Mrs. S---- is in appearance but the
shadow of what she was when her picture was taken. Trouble and
age have made her thin and pale. But the perfect symmetry of
her pretty little figure, and the brightness of her still
beautiful eyes, enable one to see in her the remains of one of
nature's fairest works. Her naturally good spirits are almost
wholly subdued by the trials and perplexities which have
followed her in constant succession for many years, and ill
health and an anxious mind have created a disposition to
despondency which even her piety cannot at all times overcome.
This has unfitted her for great exertion, and, not possessing
much natural force of character, it is impossible for her to
make much effort even for herself. She is all gentleness, and
full of affectionate feeling, and I often think, in looking at
her in her happiest moments, that she would be a good
personification of Shakspeare's Patience smiling at Grief. Her
situation here is that of matron to the hospital, but it is
almost a nominal office, a perfect sinecure, for she has
scarcely any duty, and a comfortable income. She is now
peculiarly tried, and seems to consider it an especial mercy
that she has one to whom she can turn in her loneliness with
something like a claim for sympathy.
"... There is a small Unitarian chapel here, and cousin N----
will say, 'Why do you not go to that?' Merely because I found
out but yesterday that there was such an one; hearing a lady
say, 'We ought to tolerate all denominations but those
dangerous enemies to religion, the Unitarians,--I cannot pass
their chapel without shuddering,'--next Sunday I shall endeavor
to ascertain the grounds of this pious hatred. But in truth,
if I had not learned liberality before, I have had experience
enough to teach it to me since I have been in this country, I
have met with so many good Christians, of such a variety of
sects; and found that the bond of union created by a mutual
desire to aid in the cause of benevolence was sufficient to
excite interest, without any regard to different creeds or
doctrinal points.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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