Letter X. To a Man op the World

Consolations on the death of his wife.

Annccy, Jth August. 162 1. Sir, — I have just learnt from Doctor Grandis the painful yet happy decease of Madam, your dear spouse.

Truly, my heart has been as much touched by it as any loss I have experienced for a long time; for the goodness, the piety, and the virtue which I had seen in that beautiful soul had so far obliged me to honour her, that I had made a solemn profession to do so henceforward. How happy she is, this dear lady, to have preserved, amid so many pains and labours, the fidelity she owed to her God! And what a consolation has it been to me, to have known some of the words of charity which her spirit ejaculated with her last sighs into the bosom of the Divine mercy!

But, sir, ought I not to have an immortal obligation for the favour she did me, when in this extremity of her mortal life she so often testified that she had memory of me, as of him whom she knew to be altogether devoted to her in our Lord? Never will this remembrance depart from my soul; and not being able to offer her the very faithful service I had sworn to her virtue and devotion, I beg you, sir, to accept it, and receive it with that which the honour of your goodness had already demanded from my affections. Meantime, on this occasion employ the greatness of your heart in moderating the greatness of the pain which the greatness of your loss has given you. Let us acquiesce, sir, in the decrees of the sovereign Providence, decrees which are always just, always holy, always adorable, although obscure and impenetrable to our understanding.

This beautiful and devout soul has died in a state of conscience, in which, if God gives us the grace to die, we shall be too blessed to die, at whatever time it may be. Let us acknowledge this grace which God has shown her, and quietly have patience for the little time we have to live here below without her, since we have hope of living with her eternally in heaven, in an indissoluble and invariable society. Sir, I will pour out blessings ail my life on Madam, your dear departed, and I will be invariably yours, &c.