The Down Easters Volume 1

I had seen her in my youth, I knew her when the war of 1812 broke out, and I knew her at the close of that war, when it began to be considered a very proper thing for people to go to church twice a day–rain or shine–provided they were not able to keep a carriage. I knew her at a period when fire and earth-quake had made it rather fashionable to pray–and when very respectable and very genteel people, were known to pray–and when the most beautiful women of New-York were to be seen at church, though Broadway, the Battery, and both rivers were open at the time; and she appeared to me to grow younger and younger every year.