ear
sister-in-law, I must tell you, as well as the others, that you are
too liberal towards me in dispensing your esteem and praises, and your
exaggeration has cast me back face to face with my inmost judge, who has
shown me in the mirror of my conscience the image of my every weakness.

"You, kind Julia, you desire nothing else but to save me from the fate
that awaits me; and you assure me in your own name and in that of you
all, that you, like the others, would rejoice to endure it in my place;
in that I recognise you fully, and I recognise, too, those sweet and
tender relations in which we have been brought up from childhood. Oh, be
comforted, dear Julia; thanks to the protection of God, I promise you:
that it will be easy for me, much easier than I should have thought,
to bear what falls to my lot. Receive, then, all of you, my warm and
sincere thanks for having thus rejoiced my heart.

"Now that I know from these strengthening letters that, like the
prodigal son, the love and goodness of my family are greater on my
return than at my departure, I will, as carefully as possible, paint for
you my physical and moral state, and I pray God to supplement my words
by His strength, so that my letter may contain an equivalent of what
yours brought to me, and may help you to reach that state of calm and
serenity to which I have myself attained.

"Hardened, by having gained power over myself, against the good and ill
of this earth, you knew already that of late years I have lived only for
moral joys, and I must say that, touched by my efforts, doubtless, the
Lord, who is the sacred fount of all that is good, has rendered me apt
in seeking them and in tasting them to the full. God is ever near me, as
formerly, and I find in Him the sovereign principle of the creation of
all things; in Him, our holy Father, not only consolation and strength,
but an unalterable Friend, full of the holiest love, who will accompany
me in all places where I may need His consolations. Assuredly, if He had
turned from me, or if I had turned away my eyes from Him, I should now
find myself very unfortunate and wretched; but by His grace, on the
contrary, lowly and weak creature as I am, He makes me strong and
powerful against whatever can befall me.

"What I have hitherto revered as sacred, what I have desired as good
what I have aspired to as heavenly, has in no respect changed now. And
I thank God for it, for I should now be in great despair if I w