mona lisa painting

mona lisa painting
instead of bending to the decree, I defied it. Divine justice
pursued its course; disasters came thick on me: I was forced to pass
through the valley of the shadow of death. His chastisements are
mighty; and one smote me which has humbled me for ever. You know I was
proud of my strength: but what is it now, when I must give it over
to foreign guidance, as a child does its weakness? Of late, Jane-
only- only of late- I began to see and acknowledge the hand of God
in my doom. I began to experience remorse, repentance; the wish for
reconcilement to my Maker. I began sometimes to pray: very brief
prayers they were, but very sincere.
mona lisa painting
'Some days since: nay, I can number them- four; it was last
Monday night, a singular mood came over me: one in which grief
replaced frenzy- sorrow, sullenness. I had long had the impression
that since I could nowhere find you, you must be dead. Late that
night- perhaps it might be between eleven and twelve o'clock- ere I
retired to my dreary rest, I supplicated God, that, if it seemed
good to Him, I might soon be taken from this life, and admitted to
that world to come, where there was still hope of rejoining Jane.
'I was in my own room, and sitting by the window, which was open:
it soothed me to feel the balmy night-air; though I could see no
mona lisa painting