mine, with an air of infinite
modesty, she said, "I have been betrayed, sir, into saying too much. It
will, I trust, however, have the good effect of preventing you from
thinking better of me than I deserve. In general, I hold it indiscreet
to speak of the state of one's mind. I have been taught this piece of
prudence by my own indiscretion. I once lamented to a lady the fault of
which we have now been speaking, and observed how difficult it was to
keep the heart right. She so little understood the nature of this inward
corruption, that she told in confidence to two or three friends, that
they were all much mistaken in Miss Stanley, for though her character
stood so fair with all the world, she had secretly confessed to her that
she was a great sinner."

I could not forbear repeating though she had chid me for it before, how
much I had been struck with several instances of her indifference to the
work, and her superiority to its pleasures. "Do you know," continued
she, smiling, "that you are more my enemy than the lady of whom I have
been speaking? She only defamed my principles, but you are corrupting
them. The world, I believe, is not so much a place as a nature. It is
possible to be religious in a court, and worldly in a monastery. I find
that the thoughts may be engaged too anxiously about so petty a concern
as a little family arrangement; that the mind may be drawn off from
better pursuits, and engrossed by things too trivial to name, as much as
by objects more apparently wrong. The country is certainly favorable to
religion, but it would be hard on the millions who are doomed to live in
towns if it were exclusively favorable. Nor must we lay more stress on
the accidental circumstance than it deserves. Nay, I almost doubt if it
is not too pleasant to be quite safe. An enjoyment which assumes a sober
shape may deceive us by making us believe we are practicing a duty when
we are only gratifying a taste."

"But do you not think," said I, "that there may be merit in the taste
itself? May not a succession of acts, forming a habit, and that habit a
good one, induce so sound a way of thinking that it may become difficult
to distinguish the duty from the taste, and to separate the principle
from the choice? This I really believe to be the case in minds finely
wrought and vigilantly watched."

I observed that however delightful the country might be a great part of
the year, yet there were a few winter months when I feared