392 
GREENLAND VOYAGE. 
of friends, their approach and reunion is general¬ 
ly intimated, and the most momentous events 
that may have takeu place during their separa¬ 
tion made known, by letter, or other means of 
communication;—but in our case, no such har¬ 
bingers of joy or sorrow can be dispatched, so that 
if loss and distress, and domestic affliction, be the 
portion of the returning mariner, the intelligence 
reaching him, without the softening action of dis¬ 
tance, of preparation, or of rumour, comes with 
awful suddenness and violence. Hence, it is a 
matter of prudence, as well as of Christian pre¬ 
paration and resignation, to keep the expectations 
low, by which, blessings, if in store, become en¬ 
hanced ; and trials, if such be ordered by Unerring 
Wisdom, are disarmed, in some degree, of their 
overwhelming severity \ 
Wednesday, 18 tli September. —The wind de¬ 
clined and scanted during the night, so that we 
could not fetch our port; but succeeded in reacli- 
* The striking applicableness of these reflections to the 
circumstances that personally concerned me, in the loss, 
during my absence, of a beloved wife. Whose affection was 
unbounded, and whose chief enjoyment was to promote my 
happiness, might seem to be an interpolation. But I con¬ 
ceive it right to mention, that this was not the case; these 
reflections being taken entirely, and very nearly verbatim 
from my Journal- 
