Not without immediate reward was their service of love. The mind of
the girl, originally bright and pure, was quickened and wrought up to
the finest susceptibility by the nervous exaltation that often ensues
upon affection of the spine. The soul, which had taken an upward
impulse from its first act of resignation, grew daily more and more
into communion with the higher regions of life, permanent and pure.
Perhaps she was instructed by spirits which, having passed through a
similar trial of pain and loneliness, had risen to see the reason why.
However that may be, she grew in nobleness of view and purity of
sentiment, and, as she received more instruction from books also than
any other person in her circle, had from many visitors abundant
information as to the events which were passing around her, and
leisure to reflect on them with a disinterested desire for truth, she
became so much wiser than her companions as to be at last their
preceptress and best friend, and her brief, gentle comments and
counsels were listened to as oracles from one enfranchised from the
films which selfishness and passion cast over the eyes of the
multitude.
The twofold blessing conferred by her presence, both in awakening none
but good feelings in the hearts of others, and in the instruction she
became able to confer, was such, that, at the end of five years, no
member of that society would have been so generally lamented as
Caroline, had Death called her away.
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