Puslapio vaizdai
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perhaps injudicious zeal, to lend my feeble aid to stop the torrent of enthu fiaftic fentiment which daringly menaces that heaven-erected edifice that is predicted to furvive the wreck of worlds.

Impreffed with this idea, I conceive it poffible to serve the caufe of principle, by fhewing through what devious unfufpected paths the human heart may be led to error; how eafily it may, by youthful indifcretion, be hurried down the steep defcent, till, Hazael-like, it finks into the infamy which it once fhuddered to name. Yet, retaining too much native purity to be reconciled to its degraded state, and too much fenfibility to ftifle reflection, it fhrinks from life as from an infupportable burden; and the morning which rofe in fplendour is clouded by infuperable gloom before it attains its meridian brightness.

If in the execution of this defign the pencil fhould fail, let Candour remember the intention, and excufe the unfkilful painter. Perhaps the imperfect outline may induce fome fuperior genius, more converfant with life and manners, to execute the inftru&tive fubject with all the glowing energy that its importance requires.

I fhall gratify my own tafte by dwelling a little longer on that part of lady Monteith's hiftory, when, unaffailed and happy, fhe fpread delight and comfort all around her, and her own heart derived an allowable gratification from the confciousness of deferved applaufe. The first four years of her married life were unembittered by reftlefs anxiety, corroding difappointment, or the ftill keener pangs of felf-accufation. But, left my readers fhould fuppofe that I am now falfifying my own maxims, I fhall ex

hibit a curfory view of that period which, though it did not include any great forrows or marked deviations from reftitude, ftill bore fome fainter marks of the penalty of Adam..

When the young countefs arrived at Monteith, fhe was aftonished at the cruel ravages which time and negligence had made in that venerable pile. Its native magnificence, the fublime features of the adjacent scenery, every fpot of which feemed by fome traditionary anecdote connected with her lord's family, and the attachment which the peafantry, notwithstanding their extreme wretchednefs, expreffed for the defcend ants of their old mafters, kindled in her mind an agreeable enthusiasm, and the rejoiced in a diftinction which feemed capable of uniting her own individual happiness with the general good. Though fhe continued to think that lady Made

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lina carried her ideas of hereditary confequence to a ridiculous extent, a ge nerous heart would find a fair field to gratify its nobleft paffions in the supremacy of a wide domain. She feemed never weary of wandering through the romantic scenery. "Here," faid fhe, as the one day rested on the flope of a green hill, over-hung by a pine-clad precipice, "I will build a neat little "village. The houses fhall all be white; "there fhall be a garden to each, and a "refidence in this agreeable fpot fhall "be the reward conferred upon fuch of ec my lord's tenants as feem to fulfil "their duties with marked propriety. "I will frequently vifit them; I will be "their legiflator, their inftructor, their phyfician, and their friend. They "fhall look up to me with gratitude, " and my own heart fhall enjoy the pure "recompence of conscious beneficence."

In the improvements which fhe planned at the caftle, the fame focial and benevolent fpirit prevailed, though here perhaps it received a more worldly teint from the dangerous approximation of vanity. "These rooms," said she, "if " embellished in the grand Gothic style, "will fhame the feeble glitter of mo"dern frippery. Every article of fur"niture shall be maffy and substantial, " and convey an idea of general useful"nefs rather than a felfifh defire of ex

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hibiting the cold enjoyments of unim"parted wealth. My lord's fortune is "ample; I have made to it a confiderable "addition: how infir.itely fhall I prefer fpending it upon this spot, which has "a local claim to our preference, to fquandering it in the unvarying round " of a London life! Here, without feeling the pain of competition, expence

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may be juftified by the motive of em

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