But for mere physical suffering they would have no fine sympathies.

The cruel things they have seen and undergone have helped to blunt them; and if I ordered them to put to death a dozen prisoners, I think they would do it without remonstrance.
Yet their religious spirit grows more beautiful to me in living longer with them; it is certainly far more so than at first, when it seemed rather a matter of phrase and habit.

It influences them both on the negative and the positive side.

That is, it cultivates the feminine virtues first,--makes them patient, meek, resigned.

This is very evident in the hospital; there is nothing of the restless, defiant habit of white invalids.