Secondly, it seems to me that such views of God would have an effect
on our own minds in lessening that reverence and fear which is one of
the greatest motives to us for action. For, although to a generous
mind the thought of the love of God would be a sufficient incentive to
action, there are times of coldness when that love is not felt, and
then there remains no sort of stimulus. I find as I adopt these
sentiments I feel less fear of God, and, in view of sin, I feel only a
sensation of grief which is more easily dispelled and forgotten than
that I formerly felt."
A letter dated January 3, 1828, shows us that Harriet had returned to
Hartford and was preparing herself to teach drawing and painting,
under the direction of her sister Catherine.
MY DEAR GRANDMOTHER,--I should have written before to assure you of my
remembrance of you, but I have been constantly employed, from nine in
the morning till after dark at night, in taking lessons of a painting
and drawing master, with only an intermission long enough to swallow a
little dinner which was sent to me in the school-room. You may easily
believe that after spending the day in this manner, I did not feel in
a very epistolary humor in the evening, and if I had been, I could not
have written, for when I did not go immediately to bed I was obliged
to get a long French lesson.
The seminary is finished, and the school going on nicely.
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