Should you be made the means of accomplishing this, in only a very few instances, it will be worth all your trials and sufferings.  And again, you must consider that, in the performance of your duty, seed may be sown even unknown by you, which may take root, and grow, and bring forth fruit to the praise of the Great Husbandman, though you may never hear of it.  Be encouraged therefore, dear friends, to go on from day to day in simple reliance on your Divine Master, without undue anxiety for consequences; for depend upon it, when he has no more work for you to do, he will make you sensible of a release.

The passage to Ancona was tedious.

We embarked at noon, and had a long passage to Ancona of twelve days.  We landed on the 29th, and soon found ourselves occupying an empty room in the Lazaretto, without even the accommodation of a shelf or closet.  The term of quarantine is fourteen days, but four days are remitted by the Pope.  The heat is oppressive, and the mosquitoes annoy us much, but we are preserved in a tolerable degree of health; and in taking a review of our visit to Greece and the Ionian Islands, we are still sensible of a very peaceful feeling, under a belief that we have followed the pointings of the Great Master, and a hope that the day is not far distant when the way will be more fully opened in those countries to receive the gospel.  The preaching of John in the wilderness has often appeared to us to be applicable to this people,—­Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

7 mo. 6.—­We left Ancona, and took the route through Foligno and Arezzo to Florence.  That part of the Pope’s dominions through which we have passed is highly picturesque; hill and dale continually, and the whole country cultivated absolutely like a garden.  Most of the towns are on the hills, and nothing can exceed the beauty of their situation.  But as to vital religion, the spirit of those who desire the promotion of the Redeemer’s kingdom, on the broad and sound basis of common Christianity, must be clothed with mourning in passing through this superstitious and illiberal country.  What we have seen of Tuscany is not so fine, but the appearance of the peasants is much superior.  The inns are much more agreeable than we found them on the road from Geneva to Ancona.

We arrived at Florence on the 10th.  The persons to whom we had recommendations were absent, on account of the heat of the season, except the Abbot Valiani, a spiritually-minded man, who showed us great kindness.  He has refused many advantageous offers of promotion, choosing to be content with a little, rather than to be hampered with fetters which I believe he thinks unscriptural, and not for the good of the Church; he is of the opinion that it would be better for the common people to have the Bible, and to be more acquainted with its contents.  He conducted us to see the School for Mutual Instruction, founded under the patronage of the Grand Duke, about twelve years ago.  The