Mother, I can’t lie down without telling you of the very beautiful,
soothing influence one thing has (perhaps unexpectedly) over me. I
mean the perfect lovingness and charity in which we all of such
opposite faiths live together, and have just knelt and prayed
together. There seems to me something so inexpressibly touching and
happy in it,—everyone seems so loving to the rest, so far from
cavilling for ‘words and names’: each so absolutely free and all so
far from seeking to proselytize. At meals we stand round the table,—
‘Nous voulons prier, mesdemoiselles,’ and in silence everyone together
thanks God ‘in his own tongue’,—one marking only that some cross
themselves silently and some do not. Then at night we kneel together,—
we have a fine loving German hymn, and a text for us all,—words
lovingly pronounced by our Roman Catholic head that yet every
Presbyterian minister might say. There seems to me something so
inexpressibly soothing in this union,—so far stronger than all
differences. I can hardly tell you the rest and refreshment it is to
me now, worn and weary as my spirit is. It struck me very much in its
beauty tonight as Miss von Palaus pronounced,—‘There is but one name
given under heaven among men whereby we may be saved’, and we all
received it on our knees,—Protestants and Romanists, Unitarians and
Trinitarians,—each ‘in his own tongue.’ Was it not beautiful how just
that name bound us all together,—Christians,—seeking at least the
spirit of Christ who loved us all,—our Master,—that we might ‘love one
another’....
I am charmed to learn the Scotch girl, Janet McDonald, has learned
both Latin and Algebra,—both wonderful acquirements here,—and I look
forward to perhaps doing some work with her, if she gets on well
enough with other things.
2 p.m. Tuesday. The politeness of these girls is really quite
refreshing. Last night, going up to my room after dark, there were
several girls at the candle-stand, and, when I asked for a candle, one
of them lighted one, and, with a reverence and ‘Permettez-moi,
mademoiselle,’ carried it the whole way upstairs for me in spite of my
efforts to get hold of it,—it being quite out of her way.... 7 p.m.
Well, Mother darling, I wonder if you can sympathize in my intense
exaltation and delight at the—for the first time in my life—literally
_earning my bread_,—something like ‘My First Penny’, you know. I have
had my ‘surveillance de musique’, but am longing quite childishly for
the commencement of my special work,—I see teaching all around, and am
just wild to be at it. Can Mother understand and sympathize?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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