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But let Harriet “take courage in her dark sorrows and melancholies,” as
Carlyle says:
Samuel Johnson too had hypochondrias; all great souls are apt to have, and to be in thick darkness generally till the eternal ways and the celestial guiding stars disclose themselves, and the vague abyss of life knits itself up into firmaments for them.
At the same time (the winter of 1827), Catherine writes to Edward concerning Harriet:
If she could come here (Hartford) it might be the best thing for her, for she can talk freely to me. I can get her books, and Catherine Cogswell, Georgiana May, and her friends here could do more for her than any one in Boston, for they love her and she loves them very much.
Georgiana's difficulties are different from Harriet's: she is speculating about doctrines, etc. Harriet will have young society here all the time, which she cannot have at home, and I think cheerful and amusing friends will do much for her. I can do better in preparing her to teach drawing than any one else, for I best know what is needed.
It was evidently necessary that something should be done to restore Harriet to a more tranquil and healthful frame of mind; consequently in the spring of 1827, accompanied by her friend
Georgiana May, she went to visit her grandmother
Foote at
Nut Plains,
Guilford.
Miss May refers to this visit in a letter to
Mrs. Foote, in January of the following winter.
Dear
Mrs. Foote:-- . . I very often think of you and the happy hours I passed at your house last
