Clayton - CT3207 .C42 1860

ELIZABETH FRY, the teachings of Christianity. The impressionwhich he succeeded in making was deepened by conversa- tions with Marianne Galton-afterwards Madame Schemmlpennick -a Plain Quaker, and a highly-edu- cated woman of great ability. The " flirting, idle, worldly " Elizabeth, the gay belle and wit, listened attentively to these teachings. Slowly her thoughts began to turn to those subjects which she had heretofore neglected for the more agreeable employments in which she had been en- gaged. She began to desire to have loftier objects to attain, to be enabled to use the priceless gift of time aright, to be something better than a brilliant bubble which, when it falls to earth, leaves not a trace behind ; to be no longer " wrapt up in trifles," like the lazy sea playing with the pebbles on its beach. For she now felt too well that " if some kind and great circumstance " did not rescue her, the talents which she was conscious of possessing would be " devoured by moth and rust," would "lose their brightness, lose their virtue," and one day " prove a curse instead of a blessing." The adverse armies were met in the field; and the combat which ensued was a long and desperate one. Like a ship without a pilot, and her mind " in so dark a state " that she " saw everything through a black medium," the beautiful Elizabeth, as we find recorded in her Journal, was in her seventeenth year a prey to the most conflicting emotions. Now she would viewwith tearful regret her worthless condi-

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