herself. And the promises from which she might have
derived reasonable consolation, she overlooked as designed for others.

"Her piety, though sincere, was a little tinctured with superstition. If
any petty strictness was omitted, she tormented herself with causeless
remorse. If any little rule was broken, she repaired the failure with
treble diligence the following day; and labored to retrieve her
perplexed accounts with the comfortless anxiety of a person who is
working out a heavy debt. I endeavored to convince her, that an inferior
duty which clashed with one of a higher order, might be safely postponed
at least, if not omitted.

"A diary has been found useful to many pious Christians, as a record of
their sins, and of their mercies. But this poor lady spent so much time
in weighing the offenses of one day against those of another, that
before the scruple was settled, the time for action was past. She
brought herself into so much perplexity by reading over this journal of
her infirmities, that her difficulties were augmented by the very means
she had employed to remove them; and her conscience was disturbed by the
method she had taken to quiet it. This plan, however, though distressing
to a troubled mind, is wholesome to one of a contrary cast.

"_My_ family, as you have seen, are rather exact in the distribution of
their time, but we do not distress ourselves at interruptions which are
unavoidable: but _her_ arrangements were carried on with a rigor which
made her consider the smallest deviation as a sin that required severe
repentance. Her alms were expiations, her self-denials penances.

"She was rather a disciple of the mortified Baptist, than of the merciful
Redeemer. Her devotions were sincere but discouraging. They consisted
much in contrition, but little in praise; much in sorrow for sin, but
little in hope of its pardon. She did not sufficiently cast her care and
confidence on the great propitiation. She firmly believed all that her
Saviour had done and suffered, but she had not the comfort of
practically appropriating the sacrifice. While she was painfully working
out her salvation with fear and trembling, she indulged the most
unfounded apprehensions of the divine displeasure. At Aston Hall the
Almighty was literally feared, but he was not glorified. It was the
obedience of a slave, and not the reverential affection of a child.

"When I saw her denying herself and her daughters the most innocent
enjo