In short, there was an
admixture of seeming charity with an exclusiveness of hope, an unweariness
of exertion with a coolness of exterior, a disregard of self with the most
complaisant security, and an uncomplaining submission to temporal evils
with the loftiest spiritual pretensions, that in some measure rendered him
a man as difficult to comprehend as to describe.
At an early hour in the forenoon, a little bell, that was suspended in an
awkward belfry perched on the roof of the meeting-house, began to summon
the congregation to the place of worship. The call was promptly obeyed,
and ere the first notes had reached the echoes of the hills, the wide and
grassy street was covered with family groups, all taking the same
direction. Foremost in each little party walked the austere father,
perhaps bearing on his arm a suckled infant, or some child yet too young
to sustain its own weight; while at a decent distance followed the equally
grave matron, casting oblique and severe glances at the little troop
around her, in whom acquired habits had yet some conquests to obtain over
the lighter impulses of vanity.
Pages:
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491