we together sang thy praises, oh my God! The stones of my prison looked in my eyes like rubies. I esteemed them more than all the gaudy brilliancies of a vain world. My heart was full of that joy which thou givest to them who love thee, in the midst of their greatest crosses. THIS peace was wounded for a short space, by an infidelity which I fell into. It was in premeditating one day on what answers I should make at an examination which was to be the next day. I answered badly. GOD, who had so often caused me to answer difficult and perplexed questions, with much facility and presence of mind, punished me now, even by stopping me short on easy matters with confusion. It served to shew me the inutility of our arguments on such occasions, and the safety of trusting in GOD. They who depend on human reason say, "it is necessary to look "before us, and to make our preparations; that "it is to tempt GOD, and expect miracles to act "otherwise." I leave others to think what they will. As to me I find no safety but in resigning myself to God. All scripture abounds with texts enforcing such a resignation. WHEN things were carried to the greatest extremities, being then in the Bastile, I said to thee, "oh my God, if thou art pleased to render me a "new spectacle to men and angels, thy holy will "be done! All I ask is that thou wilt save thine, "so that neither principalities, nor powers, nor the "sword, may ever separate them from the pure love "in JESUS CHRIST. As for me, what matters "it what men think of me, or make me suffer, "since they cannot separate me from thee? Were "I to please all men and displease thee, wretch"ed would be the consequence. Let all men "then despise and hate me, so I may but be "agreeable to thee. Their strokes will polish "what may be defective in me, that I may be "presented to him for whom I die daily." I saw all men united as it were to surprize and to torment me, all the subtilty of wit employed for it, by people who had abundance of it; and poor me alone without succour, sometimes also feeling the heavy hand of GoD upon me, who seemed to abandon me to myself, and to my own obscurity; all my own vivacity having been so long mortified, having laboured all my life long to submit myself to JESUS CHRIST, and my reason to his conduct. I voluntarily underwent, as long as my health permitted it, very rigourous fastings and austere penances: But all this looked only like the burning of straw. One moment of the exercises of GOD is of a thousand times more efficacy than all that we can inflict upon ourselves. [BEFORE I enter on her conclusive Chapter, it be proper to exhibit a view of her poetry. may In her long imprisonment, she composed, as she has informed us, many Hymns; with Poems on all sorts of Spiritual Subjects, filling. five octavo volumes. Her poetic vein was free, flowing with warm devotion and gratitude. Specimens thereof have already been exhibited in several Translations, but in a manner inadequate both to the subject and to her compositions.] CANTIQUE M. GUION's POEMS. I. CANTIQUE I. Thee singly to please. Yet shelter'd from rage: Oh listen and smile on the lay! II. From sorrow releas'd, All toil here untry'd, A language in heav'n understood; "Tis a feast to the taste Of the soul that is chaste, As it flows from the fountain of good. IV. Tho' my foes have combin'd, And my body comfin'd, Yet my soul is with liberty blest: I am humbly content, O pleasure divine, And thee will I love and The more piercing my pain Accept then, I pray, I sing as a bird full of joy, Grant my hymns utter'd here, Melodious to chear, Tho' tend'rer and softer than fine: And the strength everdeign Of that durable life Thy wondrous defence It It sheds so peculiaragrace All my foes I behold, CONTIQUE II. Addressed to her Dungeon.. I. LOV'D solitude, Where happiness greets; And nothing that's rude Embitters her sweets; Where all the long day Is a banquet divine! Can torments allay Such affection as mine? II. No, welcome to love, My pains are delights: No torture can move, No terror affrights. Let 'em smite with a spear, Or pierce with a dart, The worst they can rear The wish of my heart. III. Immur'd in a fort, My sole exercise, While without a support, Is my love and my sighs: For meekness in harms My glory will prove; And Sovereign Charms Should have Sovereign CANTIQUE III. I. MY dearest Protector, sees how they detain II. No thought in my heart dare, to lift up its head, But the thought which to love and to serve thee is led. III. I wish'd to be thine from my tenderest age: No lovers beside have I sought to engage, No No slender supports of the loftiest reeds, No trust in their words, and no hope in their deeds. In every probation to thee the recourse V. When my hair shall grow white, and infirmity shake This old shatter'd fabrick thou wilt not forsake. VI. LOVE perfect and pure goes farther than thought: None knows, till he proves it, how dear 'twill be bought. Yet 'tis well worth its price, and a thousand times more, Since is brings us to Heav'n when our labours are o'er. THE four following pieces are extracted from many of her's promiscuously taken. The two first give a brief review of some of the former part of her life. The third, of the excellencies of divine love. The fourth of her universal concern for all mankind. I. PERMIT me, my GOD For thy bounty bestow'd To render oblations of O gracious to grant To blast with the wind Its duteous flow, The LORD of my life |