A LETTER FROM MISS BREMER. Ixiii 



St. John and St. Theresa, — I used to have a little pride 

 in my disdain of tlungs that the greater part of the world 

 look upon as most desirable. Still, I could not but believe 

 that things beautiful and refined — yea, even ihe luxuries 

 of life, .had a right to citizenship in the kingdom of God. 

 And I had said to myself, as the ydiing Quakeress said to 

 her mother, whep: teproached by her for seeking more the 

 gayeties of this world than the things made of Grod ; 



"fie made the flowers and the rainbow." 



But again, the saints and the Puritans after them, had 

 said, " Bieauty is Temptation," and' so it has been at all 

 times. J ?''. 



When I came to the New World, I wa^met on the 

 shore' by A. J. Downing, who had invited me. to his house. ' 

 i„ l^some of his books that I had seen, as well as by his let- 

 • ters, I knew him tobe ai man of a refined and noble tnind. 

 Wheii I saw him, I was struck, as we are by a natural ob- 

 ject of uncommon cast or beauty. He took me gently by 

 the hand, and led me to ffls home. That he became to me 

 as a brother, — that his discerning eye and mind guided my 

 uptutored sp^it with a careless grace, but not the.less im- 

 presswely, to lOok upon things and persons most influeiftial 

 and leadmg in the formation of the life and mind of the 

 people of the tlnited States, was much to me ; that he 

 became to me a charrhing friend, whose care and attention 

 followed me e^ery where during my pilgrimage,-^that he 

 •made a new summer life, rich .with the. charm of America's 

 Indian summer, come in ' my heart, though the affection 

 with which he inspired me, was much to me ; yet what was 

 still more, was, that in him I learned to understand a new 

 nature, and through him, to ajipreciate a new realm of 

 life. ^ * ■ ■ ' 



