Memoirs of Anne C.L. Botta,: written by her friends. With selections from her correspondence and from her writings in prose and poetry.

Selections tfrom lber Utters
had copied over his chimney-piece in Richmond
prison. "One adequate support for the calamities
of mortal life exists-one only; an assured belief
that the procession of our fate, however sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being of infinite benevolence
and power, whose everlasting purposes embrace all
accidents, converting them to good."
What a consoling and tranquilizing thought, and
what a truth!...
Sincerely yours,
NEW-YORK, May i 9, 1852.
Dear Mr. Butler:... This day is the anniversary
of our first acquaintance, and I cannot let it pass by
without at least one line in commemoration of what
to me is one of the most pleasant incidents of my
life, and which I am certain you do not regard with
indifference, for you have given me too many kind
assurances to the contrary.
It was my destiny, perhaps my misfortune, to be
born with some peculiarities-I might perhaps say romantic peculiarities - of character. My standard was
high, and I have used the word misfortune because
it seems to express faintly the unhappiness I have
felt almost all my life in finding most every one fall
short of it. I demanded something more benevolent,
more disinterested, more magnanimous, more Christian than I found; and my unsatisfied, disappointed
sympathies and affections came back to my wounded
heart and brought desolation and almost despair.
It was in such a state of mind as this that one
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A. C. L.
245