except such as were of pure necessity and charity. I did not wish to speak of my troubles to others, or to make them known in any way. God had taught me to go to him alone. There is nothing, which makes nature die so deeply and so quickly, as to find and to seek no earthly support, no earthly consolation. I went out, therefore, from my mother-in-law in silence. In winter, in the cold of mid winter, when it was difficult to obtain suitable accommodations elsewhere, I went out to seek another habitation, with my three surviving children, and my little daughter's nurse."

21. We leave her mother-in-law here. The Scripture says in language, which has a true and mighty meaning to the holy heart, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." There is a God above us, who is not ignorant of those weaknesses, temptations, and sorrows, existing in every heart, which are known to him only. Until we have the attribute of omniscience, which is requisite for a perfectly just judgment, let us never condemn others, however defective their characters may be, without leaving a large place for pity and forgiveness. Such, I think, were obviously the feelings of Madame Guyon in relation to this unhappy matter. For more than twelve years her mother-in-law had embittered her domestic life. But she did not fail to recognize the hand of the Lord in it. She was led to see, that God, who accomplishes his purposes by instruments, made use of the jealousy and fierceness of her mother's temper to humble and purify her own lofty spirit. God educed her good out of another's evil. It was a mystery which she could adore and love, although she could not fully understand it. She went out, therefore, in silence; with tears, but without rebukes.

CHAPTER XVI.

Her outward charities. Incident illustrative of her benevolence. Her interest in the education of her children. Attempts to improve her own education. Study of the Latin language. Continuance of her sad state of inward desolation. Her temptations. Writes to La Combe. Receives a favorable answer. July 22d, 1680, the day of her deliverance and of the triumph of sanctifying grace, after nearly seven years of inward privation. Reference to her work, entitled the Torrents. Remarks. Poem illustrative of her state, translated by Cowper.

ESTABLISHED once more in her own residence, with her little family around her, she lived a life more retired than ever. "I went," she says, "after no fine sights or recreations. When others went, I staid at home. I wanted to see and know nothing but Jesus Christ. My closet, where I could contemplate on divine things, was my only diversion. The queen of France was at one time in my neighborhood; but my mind was so taken up with other things, that she had not attraction enough to draw me out with the multitude to see her."

2. But retirement from the world is not necessarily retirement from duty. In her state of widowhood and of seclusion from wordly society, she did not cease to sympathize with the poor and the afflicted. Her own heart was desolate; but it was not in the power of her personal afflictions to make her forget, that others also had their sorrows. As she turned her mind upon her own situation, and as she

looked upon her fatherless children, she remembered the widow and the orphan. Still she gives us to understand, that she had less energy and made less effort in works of outward benevolence than at some former periods. But it is proper to add, that this diminished degree of external activity, so far as it existed, (which certainly was not to a very great extent,) was not owing to a change of principle or a want of pity; but is to be ascribed partly to feebleness of health, and partly to that state of inward desolation, of which we have spoken. Her strength, not only her physical vigor but her energy of purpose, was in some degree broken; but the true life, which burns without being consumed, still remained in it. And if in her weakness she was unable to do all that might have been desired, I think it can be said with truth, in the language which the Saviour applied to the woman, who poured the ointment of spikenard on his head, that she "did what she could." *

3. One day she relates, that one of the domestics connected with the family came in, and told her that there was a poor soldier, lying in the public road, sick, and apparently unable to help himself. She gave orders, that he should be brought in. He was one of those wrecks of humanity, ragged, unclean, and debased, who appear to be without home and without friends, and whom no one pities but that God who watches all men, and who inspires pity in the hearts of those who are like himself. For fifteen days she watched over him personally, with all the care and assiduity of a mother or sister; performing offices which, independently of the principle of benevolence which inspired them, must have been repugnant to a person of her refinement of feelings and manners. This was his last earthly habitation. He died at her house.

*Mark xiv. 8.

4. At this period she felt herself called to give some special attention to the education of her children. On the subject of early education, and especially on the influence of mothers in the forming of the intellectual and moral habits of children, she had bestowed much thought. To a reflecting mind like hers, this important subject would be very likely to suggest itself; especially when she recollected, as she often did, the loss and injury which she herself had experienced in early life, from some degree of inattention in this respect. At that time the subject of early education, especially in its relation to those of her own sex, was comparatively new; a subject, which since her time, beginning with the valuable and interesting work of Fenelon on Female Education has been discussed, analyzed, and applied with the most successful results. In her Autobiography, in the second chapter, she has given some views on the treatment of children, particularly of daughters, views characterized by close observation and sound judgment, which it would be well worth while to repeat here, were not the subject so well understood at the present day.

5. She embraced the opportunity, which Providence now seemed to afford her, to revise and extend the elements of her own education. Light literature, as it is sometimes termed, including romances and those works of poetry which are addressed chiefly to the natural, in distinction from the religious tastes, she had laid aside years before. Her reading was limited, for the most part, to the Bible, and to those works by various authors which are designed to elucidate the Bible, and to throw light upon man's character, his continual need of divine grace, and his growth in the religious life. Many of the works on these subjects, which from her position in the Catholic church she would be inclined to consult, were originally written in the Latin language; a language which to this day is the sole repository of many

valuable works of this kind. It was under these circumstances that she commenced and prosecuted the study of the Latin, without perhaps distinctly foreseeing how much benefit it would be to her in her future inquiries and writings. But it was here, as everywhere else, that God, who guides us in a way we know not, always has an eye, in his present dispensations and discipline, to future results; results which are known to him, though hidden from us. He was preparing her, in what she was called to do, as well as in what she was called to suffer, to accomplish his own will. The same individual who taught her the Latin language, taught also her eldest son, both in Latin and other branches of knowledge. But who he was, and what claims more than a simple knowledge of the Latin language, he had to be employed in her family, we find no mention, except the single remark that he was an ecclesiastic, and came highly recommended by M. Bertot, in whom she continued to place great confidence.*

6. During the period of which we are now speaking, embracing the three years immediately preceding the death of her husband, and something more than the three years immediately subsequent to it, namely, from 1673 to 1680, she endured without cessation, but with some variations in the degree of severity, the pains of inward and of outward crucifixion. One source of the suffering which she experienced, in this season of privation or desolation as she terms it, we have not as yet particularly mentioned. We refer to the fact, that, notwithstanding the consecration she had made of herself to God, to be wholly and forever his, she experienced heavy and direct temptations to commit sin. With a resolution into which she had thrown the whole power of her

* Relation de l'Origine du Progrés, et de la Condemnation du Quiêtisme, p. -La Vie de Madame Guyon, Pt. I, ch. 24.

5.