CHAPTER XVII.
the end.
THROUGH all these later years Anne Bradstreet had made occasional records, in which her many sicknesses find mention, though never in any complaining fashion.
Now and then, as in the following meditation, she wrote a page full of gratitude at the peace which became more and more assured, her doubting and self-distrustful spirit retaining more and more the quietness often in early life denied her:
Meditations when my Soul hath been Refreshed
with the Consolations which the
World knowes not.
Lord, why should I doubt any more when thou hast given me such assured Pledges of thy Love? First, thou art my Creator, I thy creature; thou my master, I thy servant. But hence arises not my comfort: Thou art my father, I thy child. Yee shall [be] my Sons and Daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Christ is my brother; I ascend unto my Father and
