work which was daily becoming more insufficient to her intellectual and spiritual needs.  Her chief pleasure was her correspondence with her brother Thomas, with whom she discussed controversial Bible questions, and various moral reforms, including prison discipline; but only once does she seem to have touched the question of slavery, which absorbed the public mind to such a degree that there was scarcely a household throughout the length and breadth of the land, that did not feel its influence in some way.

In 1832 the most intense excitement prevailed throughout the South, especially in South Carolina, where Mr. Calhoun had just thrown down the gauntlet to the Federal government.  In this Angelina expresses some interest, though chiefly from a religious point of view, as she regards all the important events then taking place as “signs of the times,” and congratulates herself and her brother that they live in “such an important and interesting era, when the laws of Christianity are interwoven with the system, of education, and with even the discipline of prisons and houses of refuge.”  In one of her letters we find the following:—­

“I may be deceived, but the cloud which has arisen in the South will, I fear, spread over all our heavens, though it looks now so small.  It will come down upon us in a storm which will beat our government to pieces; for, beautiful as it may appear, it is, nevertheless, not built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.  We may boast of this temple of liberty, but oh, my brother, it is not of God.”

In this letter she speaks of being much interested in “Ramsey’s Civil and Ecclesiastical Polity of the Jews,” and mentions that they were studying together, in the family, “Townsend’s Old Testament, chronologically arranged, with notes, a work in twenty-eight volumes.”  She adds:—­

“Will not the study of the Bible produce a thirst for the purest and most valuable literature, as, to understand it, we must study the history of nations, natural history, philosophy, and geography.”

In another letter she says:—­

“I am glad of thy opinions, but I cannot see that Carolina will escape.  Slavery is too great a sin for justice always to sleep over, and this is, I believe, the true cause of the declining state of Carolina; this the root of bitterness which is to trouble our republic.  I am not moved by fear to these reflections, but by a calm and deliberate consideration of the state of the Church, and while I believe convulsions and distress are coming upon this country, I am comforted in believing that my kingdom is not of this world, nor thine either, I trust, beloved brother.”

To this letter Sarah adds a postscript, and says:  “My fears respecting you are often prevalent, but I endeavor not to be too anxious.  The Lord is omnipotent, and although I fear His sword is unsheathed against America, I believe He will remember His own elect, and shield them....  Do the planters approve or aid the Colonization Society?  There have been some severe pieces published in our papers about it.”