of kindness, like the Graces, inarmed. Too much stress must not be
laid on the style of this correspondence; Clarinda survived, not
far away, and may have met the ladies on the Calton Hill; and many
of the writers appear, underneath the conventions of the period, to
be genuinely moved. But what unpleasantly strikes a reader is,
that these devout unfortunates found a revenue in their devotion.
It is everywhere the same tale; on the side of the soft-hearted
ladies, substantial acts of help; on the side of the
correspondents, affection, italics, texts, ecstasies, and imperfect
spelling. When a midwife is recommended, not at all for
proficiency in her important art, but because she has 'a sister
whom I [the correspondent] esteem and respect, and [who] is a
spiritual daughter of my Hond Father in the Gosple,' the mask seems
to be torn off, and the wages of godliness appear too openly.
Capacity is a secondary matter in a midwife, temper in a servant,
affection in a daughter, and the repetition of a shibboleth fulfils
the law. Common decency is at times forgot in the same page with
the most sanctified advice and aspiration. Thus I am introduced to
a correspondent who appears to have been at the time the
housekeeper at Invermay, and who writes to condole with my
grandmother in a season of distress. For nearly half a sheet she
keeps to the point with an excellent discretion in language then
suddenly breaks out:

'It was fully my intention to have left this at Martinmass, but the
Lord fixes the bounds of our habitation. I have had more need of
patience in my situation here than in any other, partly from the
very violent, unsteady, deceitful temper of the Mistress of the
Family, and also from the state of the house. It was in a train of
repair when I came here two years ago, and is still in Confusion.