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[centred] Pi

what gladness means in my own
experience ... This world's trials
will soon be over ... May the 'fires'
purify. I thought to have more
influence in my family. They seem
to think of my life's experience
of no rule or weight ... Is this my
fault ... How intensely they err
who neglect true religion.

[three blank lines]

Impossible to be happy when
all that I have held most dear
so utterly set at naught. How
happy for those parents who in
their old age are supported and
cheered by the piety of their chil-
dren ... Errors in the old Orthodoxy
there may be but the beautiful
piety (with all its unimportant
mistakes) that it has ever produced
is a sure proof of its holy origin ...
nothing has on this earth been
of so elevating a character ...
religious association is life and
health ... it is my true element ...
It is religion alone that can give
sweetest pleasure while we live ...
this I know, but I must I sup-
pose bear the reproach that my
religion does not make me hap-
py ... Other persons' (who are so dear to
me) want of it makes me in-
deed intensely unhappy.