p.

To Mrs E. Belfast May 12 '39

My Dear Lidian,
I can't "make good" as [Wats?]
says, the last letter - for it was written in the moment
of [ruining?] your favours and with an anxiety for your
situation it would have cheered your solitary humours
of [illegible] with a distant voice of sympathy. But
the [illegible] your safety & the birth of the little
Ellen remains.
Higher questions take the place of
body & children and times mixed motley retinue.
Where abouts are you in the ascending ladder?
Our first agreement and sympathys in Mrs [Neur's?]
parlour will ensure this freedom. You love to speak
of this within. And how deeply I repent that I was
not better acquainted with it. But from your inability
to [divine], I do believe you capable of enjoying
that best of all gifts above all others - communion
with God. And I think that (tho' I never knew a
woman so happily situated - as to love [strikethrough] what is lovely [/strikethrough]
as to condition - as yourself) [strikethrough] yet that [/strikethrough] you can say
there were in your lonely life hours of devotion
as bright as these w'h are kindled by mere gratitude.
Yes you are a wittness, I trust, that there
is that power in the relation of a spirit to its God