all
hear him say unto you, 'Inasmuch as ye shewed kindness to my
afflicted handmaiden, ye did it unto me.'"

This is to Jean; but the same afflicted lady wrote indifferently to
Jean, to Janet, and to Mrs. Smith, whom she calls "my Edinburgh mother."
It is plain the three were as one person, moving to acts of kindness,
like the Graces, inarmed. Too much stress must not be laid on the style
of this correspondence; Clarinda survived, not far away, and may have
met the ladies on the Calton Hill; and many of the writers appear,
underneath the conventions of the period, to be genuinely moved. But
what unpleasantly strikes a reader is that these devout unfortunates
found a revenue in their devotion. It is everywhere the same tale: on
the side of the soft-hearted ladies, substantial acts of help; on the
side of the correspondents, affection, italics, texts, ecstasies, and
imperfect spelling. When a midwife is recommended, not at all for
proficiency in her important art, but because she has "a sister whom I
[the correspondent] esteem and respect, and [who] is a spiritual
daughter of my Hon^d Father in the Gosple," the mask seems to be torn
off, and the wages of godliness appear too openly. Capacity is a
secondary matter in a midwife, temper in a servant, affection in a
daughter, and the repetition of a shibboleth fulfils the law. Common
decency is at times forgot in the same page with the most sanctified
advice and aspiration. Thus I am introduced to a correspondent who
appears to have been at the time the housekeeper at Invermay, and who
writes to condole with my grandmother in a season of distress. For
nearly half a sheet she keeps to the point with an excellent discretion
in language; then suddenly breaks out:

"It was fully my intention to have left this at Martinmass, but the
Lord fixes the bounds of our habitation. I have had more need of
patience in my situation here than in any other, partly from the very
violent, unsteady, deceitful temper of the Mistress of the Family,
and also from the state of the house. It was in a train of repair
when I came here two years ago, and is still in Confusion. There is
above six Thousand Pounds' worth of Furniture come from London to be
put up when the rooms are completely finished; and then, woe be to
the Person who is Housekeeper at Invermay!"

And by the tail of the document, which is torn, I see she goes on to ask
the bereaved family to seek her a