From many passages in the diaries, it is evident that, as the agitating questions of the time were forced upon the notice of Sarah and Angelina, their thoughts were diverted from the narrow channel to which they had so long been confined; and, in proportion as their interest in these matters increased, the cords which bound them to their religious society loosened.  Angelina, as we have before remarked, never stood in the same attitude as Sarah towards the Society.  To the latter, it was as the oracle of her fate, whose decrees she dared not question, much less disobey.  It represented to her mind the divine will and purposes, which were wisdom entirely, and could only fail through the pride or disobedience of sinners like herself.  Angelina, on the contrary, regarded it as made up of human beings with human intellects, full of weakness, and liable to err in the interpretation of the Lord’s will, and, while praying for guidance and strength, believed it wise to follow her own judgment to a great extent.  She could not be restrained from reasoning for herself, and would often have acted more independently, but for her affection for Sarah.  The scales, however, were slowly falling from Sarah’s eyes, though it was long before she saw the new light as anything but a snare of Satan, who she felt sure was bound to have her, in spite of all her struggles.  Against the growing coolness towards her Society she did struggle and pray in deepest contrition.  At one time she writes,—­

“Satan is tempting me strongly with increased dissatisfaction with Friends; but I know if I am to be of any use it is in my own Society.”

And again:  “I beseech thee, O God, to fill my heart with love for the Society of Friends.  I shall be ruined if I listen to Satan.”

But all this was of no avail.  Angelina was growing in knowledge, and was imparting to Sarah what she learned.  The evidence is meagre, but there is enough to show that the ruling topics claimed much of their attention during that summer, and that Angelina, especially, drew upon herself more than one reproof from Catherine Morris for the interest she manifested in “matters entirely outside of the Society.”  In the spring, she writes in a letter to Thomas:—­

“The following proposition was made at a Colonization meeting in this city:  is it strictly true?  ’No two nations, brought together under similar circumstances with those under which the Africans have been brought into this country, have amalgamated.’  Are not the people in the West Indies principally mulatto?  And how is it in South America?  Did they not amalgamate there?  Did not the Helots, a great many of whom were Persians, etc., taken in battle, amalgamate with the Grecians, and rise to equal privileges in the State?  I ask for information.  Please tell me, also, whether slavery is not an infringement of the Constitution of the United States.  You Southerners have no idea of the excitement existing at the North on the subjects of abolition and colonization.”