Wesley Corpus

To Mrs. Pendarves Source: The Letters of John Wesley (1731) Author: John Wesley --- September 28 [1731]. I could not be unmindful of Aspasia in the stormy weather we had at the beginning of this month; though I did not receive your last till near three weeks after, when you too, I hope, had ended your journey. 'Tis not strange that one who knows how to live should not be afraid to die; since the sting of death is sin. Rather it would have been strange if Aspasia had been afraid, if either her nature or her faith had failed her: as well knowing that where death is the worst of ills there it is the greatest of blessings. I am very sensible of the confidence you repose in me, in telling me the whole of your friend's case-illness. The symptoms you mention are these: (1) the expecting great civilities from her acquaintance, with an aptness to think herself neglected by them; (2) a deep sadness upon the apprehension of their unkindness and the supposed loss of their affections, which often carries her to such a length as to believe that God will forsake her too; (3) a desire to be equally well dressed with her companions, though she has not an equal fortune. The first question is, therefore, what disorder it is that is the cause of these effects. One person I knew who had every one of these symptoms: she expected great civilities, and was extremely apt to think her acquaintance neglected her and showed less respect to her than to other people; the apprehension of whose unkindness, joining with ill-health, sometimes made her deeply melancholy. I have often known her pained at being worse dressed than her companions, and have heard her say more than once that few trials she had met with in her life were harder to be borne.