DEPRESSION. 103 



affluent sunshine of Mr Wilson's later life could imagine 

 that it once had to struggle up from such a sea of sorrow. 



TO MISS ISABELLA KEITH. 



" Largs, August 1823. 

 "Every day convinces me of the irremediable imbe- 

 cility of my own mind, and every attempt to throw it off 

 overthrows myself. It has been with the greatest diffi- 

 culty for some days past that I have been able to under- 

 stand the slightest thing Pain, weakness, and 



misfortune may distract the mind, and render it insen- 

 sible to the purest and holiest enjoyments ; and of the 

 decree of blame attachable in such cases, God alone can 

 judge, because He alone knows all; and I believe you 

 will find it admitted in some of your own favourite 

 authors, that it may certainly please God to permit a 

 diseased or morbid sensibility of frame, whether corporeal 

 or mental, to mar Christian joy even to the very grave. 

 Why I should be as I am, I cannot say, — because at pre- 

 sent we ' see through a glass darkly ; ' though the time 

 will come when we shall know even as we are known. 

 In the meantime, let us judge each other in charity: 

 ' faith, hope, charity, these three ; but the greatest of 

 these is charity.' 



" I have been here since last Thursday, and although 

 everything within doors is just as I would wish it, I have 



