Jewsbury, Maria Jane (1800-1833). - Letter, from Leamington, to Dora Wordsworth (1804-1847), at Rydal Mount, dated 24 October 1826. WLMS A / Jewsbury, Maria Jane / 8.

Leamington

October 24th 1826

My dearest Dora

I antedate my letter, because the 24th will be my birthday, and I think it will be near that day before you receive this parcel. I fear notwithstanding my earnest desire I shall not be able to write to you either so fully, or so much to the purpose, as I have long intended; - under present circumstances you will however overlook phraseological errors, and inelegancies & as the letter is written, so will it be read - "in love and in charity." The enclosed books are for you - if you will gratify me so far as to accept them. The smaller one, is a great favourite of mine;- however humble in appearance, & deficient in poetry[[-?-?-?-] ] - it is a little work which has been one of my constant friends during my long

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sickness - it has been my companion thro' many a midnight watch - & you will perhaps look at value the pencil marks which I have traced in this copy on its margin - as establishing a tacit tho' silent communication between us. There are three hymns in particular, which I have repeated to myself times without number - I leave you to find them out. The Memoirs of Wolfe, will I trust interest you; - at least they do me;- as illustrating the power of spiritual, enlightened piety; - as proving that religion does is not in reality a gloomy, unintelligible thing - a principle which where admitted into the human mind is destructive of either intellect or true happiness. You will perceive that it was in him the direction of natural energy, into a worthy channel; - the devotion of mind to subjects immortal as itself; -His sermons,

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(unfinished sketches as they are) greatly please me, because they introduce the divine Truth without technicalities, and [[-?-] ] bring religion home to our "business & our bosoms," - & shew us how it aught to mingle with, & circulate thro', the our daily life and [[-?-] ] habitual feelings;- shew us that it is not so much a thing of Sundays & sermons - creeds & commentaries -[[-?-] ] separate acts, & distinct observances - as a life-giving - life-pervading spirit which is to exercise over our motives, our desires, our pleasures, & our pursuits, just that guiding, controlling, quickening influence which the mind exerts over the body. Here again I think you will feel additional interest in reading the marked passages - as they are

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those which especially interested me. We are reading these sermons now in our little circle. I have lately my dearest Dora written to you in a strain of [[?]] - purposely to shew you - that my increased & habitual impression of the importance of eternal things, has not sombred my spirits, and destroyed my zest for any of the rational pursuits, & innocent pleasures of this world. - and If I now write to you in a more serious strain I do it also purposely to shew that I desire to remember myself, I remind one I love as I do you, that there are pursuits & pleasures which refer to another world - & that to these should be given the main strength of our minds - the first place in our hearts. My dearest Dora - I feel embarrassed to write on these topics - I fear lest I should [serve] to arrogate to myself superior wisdom & worth by so doing - Fall - interesting

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as the subject is to myself to me - [[-?-]] I fear thro' the cold medium of letters that I may weary or even give offence. Both these intentions are far from my heart - I have lain awake many hours seeing "acceptable words" - wherein I might most agreeably embody serious observations - & I seldom feel a more than ordinary degree of pain or lassitude that I do not earnestly desire, that you, in the full possession of health, & earthly happiness, & unbroken spirits, may prepare for the time when they must fall off like withered leaves:- that you may ask of Him who giveth liberally & upbraideth not, that Wisdom which is from above - that Holy Spirit which God is more willing to give than we are to ask - that Holy Spirit who will be life & light within your heart - helping you when weak - quickening when dull - who will help you in prayer both for matter & manner - and you in duty - strengthen you in weakness - comfort you in sorrow;- who will

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remove the snare from your enjoyments & the sting from your sorrows - who will reveal to you the one good God - the one great Redeemer - will be to you - a stay & support when all earthly blessings have proved themselves broken reeds - "a well of water springing up into everlasting life" - where the best gifts & fairest gifts of this world have turned out but a mirage of the desert. Dora - I do not dream - I do not speak poetic fancies - still less enthusiastic visions - I speak "the words of truth & soberness" - the word of God - the words of Him, of whom "Moses in the Law, & the Prophets did write" You may tell me you are happy - admitted - joyfully admitted - but if the things in wh which

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you now delight were removed - where is your happiness? - You are happy - but have you made a bond with Time, & Death, that you shall continue to be so? What is Religion - (& I define that word as the habit of mind which seeks & finds & enjoys God in all things) to do with you? - It will give stability to your mind from the supreme contemplation of the gifts, into filial love of the finer - it will lead you not merely to feel a glow of thankfulness, beautiful but transient, when you look upon the works of Nature - you will look for him God in his Word - not [[?]] much as a mere duty - a cold duty - a dull lesson - the Bible will become to you a new, a precious, a pleasant book, because you will peruse it with enlightened eyes - you will feel

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what now you acknowledge of its precepts, its promises, its leading doctrines, its divine histories, - that "they are spirit, & they are life" - And now my dear dear Dora - I can well fancy that by the time you have read thus much of my letter, a feeling of strangeness will gather over your mind, & you will say to yourself - "What does all this mean? - what does she want me to do? - how am I to[[-?-?-]] acquire these habits of thinking? - what is the meaning of this being very religious? - am I to give up my innocent delight in natural objects am I to banish smiles from my face - mirth from my heart? to immerse myself in my character for hours together - deprive myself of the elegancies of life? - of literature? - of society? - & familiarize myself only with thoughts of death & the grave & judgment to come? - to immerse myself in my character for hours together & read sermons & learn hymns - & then come out looking miserable?" - Stay Stay my dear friend this "This is no saint - throw paint & brush away -

True piety is cheerful as the day" - & whilst its highest joy is to study God in his Works - his Word - his Ways - in his threefold character of Creator - Redeemer - & Pre:

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server; - while it feels that He, & He only has a right, because he & he only is worthy, to be loved with all our hearts , our minds & our strength. - True piety - infringes upon no duty due to our fellow creatures; - no pleasure which accords with right reason; - If you brought me a catalogue of things which tasks, habits, pursuits, & enjoyments, which Religion really did command to be surrendered, renewed, or moderated, I would undertake by arguments [[-?-] ] not one of which should be a of a religious one nature, that Reason commanded the same. But my dear Dora I think that another feeling will I knew a being, (& you know her too) who struggled long & resolutely against this conviction - & she was wretched - more wretched than the beggar who has not where to lay his head! Every desire of her mind was gratified as soon as she formed it - she made herself idols after her own heart, & when she had made she worshipped them - she set before her specific attainments - she desired certain good things - it was now gaiety, & now friendship, & now power, & now

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ambition, - & she grasped them all - & it was not in the hour of disappointment - & of chagrin - it was always in the moment of full unalloyed success - that she was most wretched? - And why? - Because this misguided being sought not to satisfy the immortal spirit within her, with mortal & therefore perishing objects - she sought to fill an infinite gulf - with finite matter! - the eternal with the temporal! - she gave her heart to the world & the heart that God only could was able to satisfy it fully & for ever! But there came a time when the [[-?-] ] sickening strife ceased - the tempest became a calm - the veil was rent from the heart - the scales dropped from the eyes - & this vain misguided being came to her "right mind" - and tho' since then long painful wearying sickness has been her lot - many & real afflictions - yet now for the first time in her life now

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can she say solemnly & with truth - "I have found peace - I am happy - the things of the world which I idolized have forsaken me - & its pleasures even the most refined & intellectual can no longer have often no power to please - I am weak - I am oppressed - flesh & heart full often fail - but in the midst of all, I can say - It is well - I have still something left which neither disease nor languor can invade - that satisfying something which for five & twenty years I vainly sought - "God - the same yesterday today & for ever" - God - sought by prayer - God found in the Bible - the Jehovah of the Old Testament, softened down to human apprehension in the Jesus Christ of the New.- "

I know well that man was made for action; that life was never intended to be devoted to contemplation; I know that if I were restored to health, it would be necessary for me to follow a thousand occupations - & lawful for me to indulge a thousand tastes - which in themselves have entire & simple reference to this world.

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But however unconnected with Religion in the Act – there is nothing which ought not to be connected with it – by the motive & personally speaking, it is here, that I chiefly feel the value & comfort – of life Religion as a new principle of action – Religion I feel that I have now, what I never had previously a sufficient motive - [[-?-]] all that ever actuated me before were inadequate, not merely to the satisfying of my judgment, but to the animating my heart for any length of time. Self-aggrandisement – emolument – gaining friends – abstracted ideas of duty – desire of self – complacency - & even desire to please – were wrong at the time, & really induced sorrow in their re-action & retrospect – because Self – was their grand centre – the pivot on which all turned – the sun round which they revolved at a greater or smaller distance – Self – in some shape or other was the root from which all my actions grew – I admit that a person may, even after Religion is

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received into his heart as a rejuvenating principle, do many precisely similar things, in a precisely similar manner as he would have done before time -[[-?-?-]] the difference - will consist in the new motive - & that motive will be a hearty, honest, constant desire to glorify & serve - God - & his fellow creatures for the sake of God;- a constant reference to the declared will of God as a standard of duty - & a constant eye to the approbation of God, in the place of his former seeking for the approbation of his own heart or his fellow men;- there may, & will generally ensue in the present case but they are no longer the grand objects of his regard - they are secondary considerations - if they do ensue well & good - if not - as "Thou God seest me" - which was his motive - so is it his consolation. General as this statement is, it the argument may be drawn out & applied

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to the points of conduct, seemingly most removed from its influence. It by no means follows that a person thus influenced in will consequently be for ever engaged in religious duties; - If you will look to page 318 - "The Elixir" - of Herbert's poems beginning "Teach me my God & King"- you will see what I mean - quaintly but forcibly expressed. But it is in the character & life of the Redeemer that we shall find the a perfect illustration of this sanctifying of common actions by divine motives - things indifferent ennobled by the purpose to which they are converted. He came eating & drinking, distinguished by no outward austerity or repulsive peculiarities - conforming to established [[-?-]] laws, & sanctioning the outward usages of society - in every thing not as a destroyer but a fulfiller. But look through the outer texture of his history, & behold him every

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instant intent upon his father's work. Behold him wh making every exist movement however trivial however human, [[-?-]] tend to the one great purpose for which he was manifested - & having his eye equally fixed on the salvation of sinners - whether spending the whole night in prayer - or con & tempted in the wilderness - or sitting at meat with a rich Pharisee - or feeding a way worn & hungry multitude. We may be inclined sometimes to say "Why did Jesus do this? why did so great did Deity come in such close contact with the meannesses of every day life?" - look again - I find the answer in his Oneness of purpose - & in that oneness of purpose find also our example and our Guide.

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My dearest Dora - I fear I have wearied you - but look amongst your letters for an early one written to you from Lancaster - it is as long as this - re-read it - after this, & then say whether if you bore with that mass of froth vanity & folly you will not equally bear with these words of truth & faithful if token affection. I know you will feel strange after the perusal of this, to you strange letter - but I do trust that with that feeling will arise desire to understand & love for yourself, the things where of I speak. I can do nothing towards forming that inclination - even you yourself my beloved girl can do far less than you imagine - but one thing you may - & by the many hours of anxious desire for your welfare, I have known lately - do this one -

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- You are now alone - Just offer for yourself that prayer I have often offered up for you - "Send out thy Light & thy Truth - let them lead me - Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law- Shew me thy ways - teach me thy statutes - remember me with the favour thou bearest unto thy people - O visit me with thy salvation" - There may be dimness of apprehension - there may be fear - disinclination - a thousand painful & conflicting emotions - but this I know, as I know that I exist, that none ever yet took up the Scriptures, steadily & humbly & with prayer

- There may be dimness of apprehension - there may be fear - disinclination - a thousand painful & conflicting emotions - but this I know, as I know that I exist, that none ever yet took up the Scriptures, steadily & humbly & with prayer

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for an understanding heart - who did not in the end find & feel in himself the fulfilment of that promise - "I will shew there great & mighty things which thou knowest not."

But fatigue has overpowered me - May God without whose blessing nothing is strong, nothing is holy, - lead you to think of these things - to desire & seek their accomplishment in your own soul. Farewell. MJ. Jewsbury.

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Will my dear Dora oblige me so far, as to read this letter when quite alone & at leisure. - In my present state I should not have thought it right to write at such a length - but I felt it a duty - & however weakly I may have performed it - as a duty I have done it. - Your faithful & most affectionate MJJ

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Object summary: WLMS A / Jewsbury, Maria Jane / 8