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It may be said that no human being can have any adequate idea of God's attributes, and that therefore all we have to do is to give Laura such ideas of Him as pious christians form from the study of natural and revealed religion; but, I know not what others may do, I cannot do this. Every man sees God according to his own capacities, and his own nature; the power of poor Laura's God must be weakness compared to the strength of Newton's, who saw Him guiding the huge planets along in their eternal course; the love of her God must be selfishness compared to the love of the God of Howard the philanthropist, who embraced in the arms of his affection the whole human family; but, so must the power and the love of the God of Newton and of Howard, be weakness and selfishness compared to those attributes as seen by the cherubim and seraphim, each of whom see Him with a vision transcending that of the other, all of whom see Him with power transcending human, but none of whom can see Him as He is.

I might long ago have taught the Scriptures to Laura; she might have learned, as other children do, to repeat line upon line, and precept upon precept; she might have been taught to imitate others in prayer; but her God must have been her own God, and formed out of the materials with which her mind had been stored. It was my wish to give her gradually such ideas of His power and love as would have enabled her to form the highest possible conception of His divine attributes. In doing this, it was necessary to guard as much as I could, against conveying impressions which it would be hard to remove afterwards, and to prevent her forming such notions as would seem unworthy to her more developed reason, lest the renouncement of them might impair her confidence in her own belief.

But various causes have combined to prevent what seemed to me the natural and harmonious developement of her religious nature; and now, like other children, she must take the consequences of the wise or unwise instruction given by others. I did not long hold the only key to her mind; it would have been unkind and unjust to prevent her using her power of language as fast as she acquired it, in conversation with others, merely to carry out a theory of my own, and she was left to free communication with many persons even before my necessary separation from her of more than a year.

During my absence, and perhaps before, some persons more zealous than discreet, and more desirous to make a proselyte than to keep conscientiously their implied promise of not touching upon religious topics, some such persons talked to her of the Atonement, of the Redeemer, the Lamb of God, and of some very mystical points of mere speculative doctrine. These things were perhaps not farther beyond her comprehension than they were beyond the comprehension of those persons who assumed to talk to her about them; but they perplexed and troubled her, because, unlike such persons she wished that every word should be the symbol of some clear and definite idea.

She could not understand metaphorical language; hence the Lamb of God was to her a bona fide animal, and she could not conceive why it should continue so long a lamb, and not grow old like others and be called a sheep.

I must be supposed to mention this only as her faithful chronicler, and to do it also in sorrow. If the poor child spoke inadvertently on such topics, it was without consciousness of it, and she was made to do so by indiscreet persons, not by any communications of mine or of her teacher; we shall never speak to her of Jesus Christ but in such a way as to impart a portion at least of our own reverence, gratitude, and love.

During my absence in Europe, I received from her several letters, and among others the following:

24TH OF MARCH, 1844.

MY DEAR DR. HOWE:

I want to see you very much, I hope that you will come to South Boston in May, I have got a bad cough, for I got cold when I came home, in much snow with Miss Swift, but my cough is little better. When you come home I shall be very happy to have you teach me in the Psalms Book, about God and many new things I read in the Harvey Boy's Book every Sunday. I am learning Asia now, I will tell you all about new things to please you very much. Why do you not write a letter to me often? Do you always pray to God to bless me. I think of you often. I send a great deal of love to you and Mrs. Howe. I shall be very happy to see you and her when you come home. I always miss you much. All the girls and I and Lurena had a very pleasant sleighing seven miles to a hotel. We had nice drink of lemon and sugar and mince pie and sponge cake. Governor Briggs came twice to see us and the blind scholars. We are all well and happy and strong. I have not seen you for ten months, that is very long. I wrote a letter to Governor and he wrote a letter to me long ago. Mr. Clifford is a Dr. now to cure his wife. I wrote a letter to her. I want you to write a letter to me. Miss Swift sends her love to you. Are you in a hurry to see me and J. again? I would like to live with you and your wife in a new house, because I love you the best. All folks are very well and happy. I want you to answer my last letter to you about God and Heaven, and souls and many questions.