mpressed me most, of those urged by Channing, was
that sorrow--however considered by us, individually, as a shocking
accident,--in God's providence, was a large part of the appointed
experience of existence: no blot, no jar, no sudden violent visitation
of wrath; but part of the light, and harmony, and order, of our
spiritual education; an essential and invaluable portion of our
experience, of infinite importance in our moral training. To all it is
decreed to suffer; through our bodies, through our minds, through our
affections, through the noblest as well as the lowest of our attributes
of being. This then, he argues, which enters so largely into the
existence of every living soul, should never be regarded with an eye of
terror, as an appalling liability or a fearful unaccountable disturbance
in the course of our lives.

I suppose it is the rarefied air our spirits breathe on great heights
of achievement; as vital to our moral nature as the pure mountain
element, which stimulates our lungs, is to our physical being. In
sorrow, faithfully borne, the glory and the blessing of holiness become
hourly more apparent to us; and it must be good for us to suffer, since
our dear Father lays suffering upon us. If we believe one word of what
we daily repeat, and profess to believe, of His mercy and goodness, we
must needs believe that the pain and grief which enter so largely into
His government of and provision for us are all part of His goodness and
mercy.... I pray that you, and I, and all, may learn more and more to
accept His will, even as His Son, our perfect pattern, accepted it....

J---- B---- has already returned home from the South, weary of the heat,
and the oppressive _smell of the orange flowers_ on Butler's Island....

The tranquillity of my outward circumstances has its counterweight m the
excitability of my nature. I think upon the whole, the task and load of
life is very equal, its labors and its burdens very equal: they only
have real sorrow who make it for themselves, in their own hearts, by
their own faults; and they only have real joy who make and keep it there
by their own effort....

Katharine Sedgwick writes in great disappointment at your not being in
Italy this winter, and so does her niece, my dear little Kate. Those are
loving hearts, and most good Christians; they have been like sisters to
me in this strange land; I am gratefully attached to them, and long for
their return. God bless you, dear. Giv