indifference towards creeds and sects, Miss Mitchell was entirely ignorant of the peculiar phrases and customs used by rigid sectarians; so that she was apt to open her eyes in astonishment at some of the remarks and sectarian prejudices which she met after her settlement at Vassar College.

She was a good learner, however, and after a while knew how to receive in silence that which she did not understand.
"Miss Mitchell," asked one good missionary, "what is your favorite position in prayer ?" "Flat upon my back!" the answer came, swift as lightning.
In 1854 she wrote in her diary: "There is a God, and he is good, I say to myself.

I try to increase my trust in this, my only article of creed." Miss Mitchell never joined any church, but for years before she left Nantucket she attended the Unitarian church, and her sympathies, as long as she lived, were with that denomination, especially with the more liberally inclined portion.

There were always a few of the teachers and' some of the students who sympathized with her in her views; but she usually attended the college services on Sunday.
President Taylor, of Vassar College, in his remarks at her funeral, stated that all her life Professor Mitchell had been seeking the truth,--that she was not willing to accept any statement without studying into the matter herself,--"And," he added, "I think she has found the truth she was seeking." Miss Mitchell never obtruded her views upon others, nor did she oppose their views.

She bore in silence what she could not believe, but always insisted upon the right of private judgment.
Miss W., a teacher at Vassar, was fretting at being obliged to attend chapel exercises twice a day when she needed the time for rest and recreation, and applied to Miss Mitchell for help in getting away from it.