Serene thy day, and peaceful is thy night!
Thou nurse of innocence, fair virtue's friend,
Silent, tho' rapturous, pleasures thee attend.
Earth's verdant scenes, the all surrounding skies
Employ my wondring thoughts, and feast my eyes,
Nature in ev'ry object points the road,
Whence contemplation wings my soul to God.
He's all in all. His wisdom, goodness, pow'r,
Spring in each blade, and bloom in ev'ry flow'r,
Smile o'er the meads, and bend in ev'ry hill,
Glide in the stream, and murmur in the rill
All nature moves obedient to his will.
Heav'n shakes, earth trembles, and the forests nod,
When awful thunders speak the voice of God.

However, notwithstanding her love of retirement, and the happy
improvement she knew how to make of it, yet her firm belief that her
station was the appointment of providence, and her earnest desire of
being useful to her relations, whom she regarded with the warmest
affection, brought her to submit to the fatigues of her business, to
which, during thirty-five years, she applied herself with, the utmost
diligence and care.

Amidst such perpetual avocations, and constant attention to business,
her improvements in knowledge, and her extensive acquaintance with the
best writers, are truly surprising. But she well knew the worth of time,
and eagerly laid hold of all her leisure hours, not to lavish them away
in fashionable unmeaning amusements; but in the pursuit of what she
valued infinitely more, those substantial acquisitions of true wisdom
and goodness, which she knew were the noblest ornaments of the