r hearts that loved too well,
and memories all too faithful. God help such!--for this
is no place to forget. And it may be, that after years
of painful self-control and depressing experience, some
here have gradually attained the conviction that their
efforts are vain, their yearnings not here to be
fulfilled--what, then, must solitude be to them but an
enduring sorrow? It is too late to retrieve the
past--the fatal vows have been spoken--those frowning
walls are impassable--and the dark folds of that solemn
veil are evermore between the penitents and human
sympathy. Never may their footsteps tread the free
earth again, save within those still and mocking
limits; never will the bright, rewarding world of
social ties dawn upon their languid gaze, though, alas!
its beauty will flash upon their thoughts, through the
loneliness of the silent cell, perhaps even amid
penance and prayer. I look with profound, inexpressible
interest on these sisters, in their ungraceful, but
romance-hallowed costume, and wish, as I watch them,
that I could read something of what the past has been
to each, and trace the various motives that led to this
irrevocable fate. This monotonous life has all the glow
of novelty for me; and I ponder with inexhaustible
interest, and blended reverence and pity on the hidden
moral conflict, continually occurring among beings who
strive to taste angels' pleasures while escaping human
duties, and are reminded of the folly of such attempts,
by the perpetual presence of temptation, and all the
self-reproach, regret, and disappointment which, Heaven
be thanked! the angels never feel. I can scarcely tell,
as yet, how I shall like learning here. My studies have
always been such a pleasure to me, with you, that it
appears strange to associate them with strangers. I am
resolved to devote much time to drawing and miniature
painting, for which you know I had always a _penchant_,
and in the course of a month or two I shall commence
the study of German. What a world of pleasure is before
me. Will you not love me better, if I return to you an
artist, brim full of German legends? All that I hope
and aspire to, leads to that question--will these
acquisitions render me more beloved?"

"Theresa is too ambitious, too res