For the latest news on Judith Sargent Murray, please "Friend" her on Facebook!
_______________________________________________________________


This essay appeared in the May 1793 edition of the Massachusetts Magazine under the name "Constantia."


The Repository. No. IX.

What a censorious world says of me, cannot offend or permanently hurt me. Was it to commend me, it would do me no real service. I had rather have an unspotted conscience (I may be allowed the expression as far as it is relative to my fellow creatures) I had rather I say be possessed of an unspotted conscience, the acquitting plaudit of my own breast, and the rational award of a serene mind, than to have worlds for my admirers: Without the honied influence of this complacency, I could not but be miserable, nor with it, for any length of time wholly unhappy; and while I am fully resolved to act rightly, the rectitude of my intention cannot but fill my bosom with the most solacing reflexions. I despise then the low manners of an injurious multitude -- it is poor, poor indeed, and I will shield myself in the fair asylum of conscious innocence.

CONSTANTIA

______________________

2007 © Bonnie Hurd Smith

Independent scholar and author Bonnie Hurd Smith is the president and CEO of History Smiths, a marketing company that works with businesses to incorporate history -- their own and their community's -- into their branding, marketing, and community outreach to attract customers, boost customer loyalty, and secure a high status reputation in the communities they serve.