256 The Duchess of Newcastle 



THE SPIRITUAL SISTER 



Madam, — ^Yesterday Mrs. P. I. was to visit me, 

 who prayed me to present her humble service to you, 

 but since you saw her she is become an altered woman, 

 as being a sanctified soul, a spiritual sister, she hath 

 left curling her hair, black patches are become 

 abominable to her, laced shoes and galoshoes are 

 steps to pride, to go bare-necked she accounts worse 

 than adultery; fans, ribbons, pendants, necklaces, 

 and the like, are the temptations of Satan, and the 

 signs of damnation ; and she is not onely transformed 

 in her dress, but her garb and speech, and all her dis- 

 course, insomuch as you would not know her if you 

 saw her, unless you were informed who she was ; she 

 speaks of nothing but Heaven and purification, and 

 after some discourse, she asked me what posture I 

 thought was the best to be used in prayer? I said, 

 I thought no posture was more becoming, nor did fit 

 devotion better, than kneeling, for that posture did 

 in a manner acknowledge from whence we came, and 

 to what we shall return, for the Scripture says from 

 earth we came, and to earth we shall return; then 

 she spoke of prayers, for she is all for extemporary 

 prayers, I told her, that the more words we used in 

 prayer, the worse they were accepted, for I thought 

 a silent adoration was better accepted of God than 

 a self-conceited babbling; then she asked me if I 

 thought one might not be refined, by tempering their 

 passions and appetites, or by banishing the worst 

 of them from the soul and body, to that degree, as to 

 be a deity, or so divine as to be above the nature of 

 man; I said no, for put the case that men could turn 

 brass or iron, or such gross metals, into gold, and 

 refine that gold unto its height of purity, yet it would 



