re not most of
the troubles that fall to the lot of common mortals brought upon
themselves either by their too large desires, or too little deserts?--
Cases, both, from which you stood exempt.--It was therefore to be some
man, or some worse spirit in the shape of one, that, formed on purpose,
was to be sent to invade you; while as many other such spirits as there
are persons in your family were permitted to take possession, severally,
in one dark hour, of the heart of every one of it, there to sit perching,
perhaps, and directing every motion to the motions of the seducer
without, in order to irritate, to provoke, to push you forward to meet
him.

Upon the whole, there seems, as I have often said, to have been a kind of
fate in your error, if it were an error; and this perhaps admitted for
the sake of a better example to be collected from your SUFFERINGS, than
could have been given, had you never erred: for my dear, the time of
ADVERSITY is your SHINING-TIME. I see it evidently, that adversity must
call forth graces and beauties which could not have been brought to light
in a run of that prosperous fortune which attended you from your cradle
till now; admirably as you became, and, as we all thought, greatly as you
deserved that prosperity.

All the matter is, the trial must be grievous to you. It is to me: it is
to all who love you, and looked upon you as one set aloft to be admired
and imitated, and not as a mark, as you have lately found, for envy to
shoot its shafts at.

Let what I have written above have its due weight with you, my dear; and
then, as warm imaginations are not without a mixture of enthusiasm, your
Anna Howe, who, on reperusal of it, imagines it to be in a style superior
to her usual style, will be ready to flatter herself that she has been in
a manner inspired with the hints that have comforted and raised the
dejected heart of her suffering friend; who, from such hard trials, in a
bloom so tender, may find at times her spirits sunk too low to enable her
to pervade the surrounding darkness, which conceals from her the hopeful
dawning of the better day which awaits her.

I will add no more at present, than that I am
Your ever faithful and affectionate
ANNA HOWE.

LETTER XXIV

MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE, TO MISS HOWE
FRIDAY, MAY 12.

I must be silent, my exalted friend, under praises that oppress my heart
with a consciousness of not deserving them; at the same time that the
generous design