Anne Steele, Broughton, to Mary Steele Wakeford, Andover, 31 October 1752.                                                                                                                                               

Dear Amira,

         Sometimes when I am in a thinking temper, reflecting in the evening on the talk of the day, I have borrow’d useful hints from conversation & endeavour’d to improve them in my thoughts to some valuable purpose, perhaps the communicating these short reflections (which you will find to be the product of our friendly chat since you have been here) may be agreeable to you.—

         You remember some of our topics were Reason & Prudence, patience, resentment, Benevolence and the force of example, each of these afford room to expatiate but I only after a remark or two, and desire you to enlarge, object, or reply as you please—How many excellent things conducive to the improvement of the human Mind, and the happiness of Social Life, have been effected by the force of Reason & Prudence consider’d as meer [sic] natural endowments, and has not Religion a diviner Art? and shall not we who read the Sacred Word, and are favour’d with nobler Lessons for the heart and Life than reason or prudence ever taught, and are assur’d of assistance far superior to all the powers of Nature, shall not we[3] press forward to a greater degree of excellence? Though the work be arduous, yet great is our encouragement. Did the Heathens sustain sufferings with undaunted firmness of Mind by the force of Moral Virtue, and shall we sink repining under sorrows who have all the promises of the Gospel to support us? Did the Heathens look down on injuries with a noble disdain and think resentment below a virtuous Mind, and shall we indulge the angry passions who have such engaging motives to forgiveness? forgive one another even as God for Christs sake forgiveth you, what an endearing argument is this! But how infinite the disparity! Who of my fellow Creatures can ever offend me as I have offended God? one would think if we cou’d get this one argument imprinted on our hearts it would be an unfailing guard against the encroachments of this unreasonable passion.—What noble instances of generous Benevolence, kind solicitude, and unweary’d endeavours for the good of others, do we find in some of those who are unacquainted with Jesus Christ & his Gospel? and shall we neglect these amiable virtues and confine our niggard wishes to little Self? No, rather let us under the influence of Divine Grace aspire to a Benevolence more disinterested and refin’d, and remember the precept of our blessed Saviour, Love your Enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.  Let us remember the endearing reason to enforce this sacred injunction, That ye may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven, for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just & on the unjust.

         The Force of Example has an almost resistless influence on the human Mind, it appears in Children with the first dawn of Reason, through the depravity of Nature evil examples have a fatal prevalence, but in general we find a propensity in all to imitate those whom they Love, and we can hardly avoid borrowing in some measure the manners, the sentiments, the inclinations, and even the foibles of our Friends with whom we constantly converse.—shall not this consideration lead our thoughts to our great Example Jesus Christ? do we love him, and shall we not desire and endeavour to be like him in all his imitable excellencies?—do we converse with him and shall not our hearts and lives feel the sacred influence, and confess something of his likeness? with what heavenly luster do these lovely virtues Patience, forgiveness, and Benevolence shine in the history of his Life on Earth! and in its awfully glorious Period!—while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us—but here I must stop—If I pursue the meditation I shall exceed my present purpose which is only to give you some short hints for a Letter to

                                                         Your affectionate

                                                                     Silviana

Oct.r 31. 1752.

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 2 (ed. Julia B. Griffin), pp. 282-83 (edited version); STE 3/13/viii, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regent's Park College, Oxford. No address page. Anne Steele is offering encouragement and perhaps a gentle reproof to her sister, still grieving over her two dead infant sons.