My social sentiments were indebted to their alliance with devotion for all their value.

All passions are base, all joys feeble, all energies malignant, which are not drawn from this source.
"For a time, my contemplations soared above earth and its inhabitants.
I stretched forth my hands; I lifted my eyes, and exclaimed, O! that I might be admitted to thy presence; that mine were the supreme delight of knowing thy will, and of performing it! The blissful privilege of direct communication with thee, and of listening to the audible enunciation of thy pleasure! "What task would I not undertake, what privation would I not cheerfully endure, to testify my love of thee?
Alas! thou hidest thyself from my view: glimpses only of thy excellence and beauty are afforded me.

Would that a momentary emanation from thy glory would visit me! that some unambiguous token of thy presence would salute my senses! "In this mood, I entered the house of my sister.

It was vacant.

Scarcely had I regained recollection of the purpose that brought me hither.
Thoughts of a different tendency had such absolute possession of my mind, that the relations of time and space were almost obliterated from my understanding.