Anne Steele, [Broughton], to [Anna Attwater], 24 November 1741.

My dear Cousin,

         In what manner shall I express my concern for you without awaking your grief’s. Friendship bids me try to sooth your cares & alleviate your affliction but alas! Perhaps I shall only renew the remembrance of the mournfull scenes you have beheld – the melancholy circumstance you are in is often present to my mind  I pity you I sympathize with you sincerely I imagine your distresses and bear a part in them. But ah what a vain relief is this! ’tis only the divine consolations of Religion can support the sinking mind amidst such cares as yours.  Its heavenly dictates teach us a humble submission to the Almighty in all his providences: whether smiling or afflictive they are all the effect of Infinite Wisdom & Goodness: his tender mercies are over all the works of his hands but a paternal tenderness accompanies his dealings with those that fear him and his divine favour and compassion through the merit of a blessed Redeemer is an unfailing refuge in all their distresses he will proportion their strength to their day his hand dispenses their comforts and their cares and all will certainly terminate in their present or eternal good

         Happy state! O cou’d I say assuredly this God is my God cou’d I experience the bright evidences of faith in a crucified Saviour and of pardon and reconciliation to God purchas’d by his attoning blood then wou’d the dismal gloom of uneasiness and slavish fearswhich so often oppress my spirit vanish like mists before the rising sun,  dangers diseases and even death it self wou’d no more appear dreadfull   may this blessed hope bear up your soul and mine through all the accidents of Life may we securely fix’d upon the rock of ages firm and unmov’d by the storms of trouble or temptation look beyond the period of this mortal life with comfort and rejoice in the views of a glorious immortality when our few uncertain moments here are ended and O may the powerful influence of the divine Spirit raise our contemplations and our hopes above this world of pain and sorrow to those blissful regions where no miseries nor afflictions nor sin the direful cause of them can ever enter but perfect joy and felicity in the presence of God and of the Lamb shall fill the Soul with pleasures immortal and refin’d infinitly beyond what the utmost reach of the thought in this frail existance [sic] can concieve and inspire the tongue with the most exalted praises through the endless ages of Eternity    Here I must conclude my thoughts is unequal to and my expressions are unequal to the Subject if my Letter imperfect as it is will help to relieve your melancholy in your confinement I shall have my wish  I am my dear Cousin your affectionate and sincere Friend A Steele Junr

24 Nov.r 1741

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 2 (ed. Julia B. Griffin), pp. 269-70 (edited version); STE 3/12/i, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. No address page. The recipient of this letter is Anna Attwater of Bodenham. The death of Elizabeth Manfield the year before is still lingering with these two women.