Part 4 (1/2)
'As good temper is the basis of connubial felicity, means must be taken by which it may be cultivated and preserved Froe, beware of tooliberties Be as circuer were present, and dread deviating from that respect which is due frole state This does not iood sense Behave as you would to a person from whom you are happy to receive a visit, and hose coe those ebullitions of passionate fondness which lose sight of these limits, it is ilected, or supposed to be neglected, a kiss not returned with the like warmth, or a fond pressure not answered with equal ardour, may poison a mind which applauds itself for the delicacy of its sensations
'Do not expect to find your wife all perfection I know the roination has been exhausted, to depict ena; and they are convinced that, above all others, the object of their own particular choice has never yet been equalled Such fanciful and silly people, when ti allayed their ardour, will often find their dainty taste offended at discovering a mole on the boso bodily blee as after, had they looked with the sa every eust Never permit a choleric or bitter expression to escape you; for wedded love is but too often of a tender and perishable nature, and such rude potions are its poison
'I look back at what I have been writing, and am astonished at the subject I have chosen But the torrent of hts is irresistible: they hurry , it is yet possible you may hereafter remember me, and at a time when perhaps you shall have arrived at the exercise of many of those noble virtues which are now only in the bud I have a great affection for you, lad that, if you then cannot think kindly, you should at least think justly; and that you should possess sos Could you but know all the emotions of my heart, you would bear witness to its honesty; and would own that its efforts have been strenuous, unreh unfortunate
'Years pass quickly away: yet a little while and you will be an actor in this busy world, of which at present your knowledge is small I am doomed never to see you et you
W ELFORD'
CHAPTER VIII
_My father becomes a bankrupt: Flies the country: Lists for an East India soldier, and dies on shi+p-board: Distress ofof my misfortunes: I am bound apprentice: Characteristic traits of o; andas I was, I perfectly ree departure of my uncle Elford produced a very sensible effect uponwas more mature, the perusal of this affectionate letter, and the recollection of his kindness to me in my days of childhood, excited no little emotion
As for my aunt, prepared as she had been for so, she was either so struck by the letter and the remembrance of past follies, or so fearful of the cohbourhood, that within ashe quitted the country, and went to reside at the city of , where in less than a year she died Her departure was private, and the place of her retreat was not known till her last illness; when intelligence was sent to the rector, to whom she bequeathed such property as she possessed
The absence of my uncle contributed to hasten the approach of that cloudy reverse at which I have already hinted For some time the ruin of my father's affairs had been prevented by the su Mr Elford Hugh was no contemptible orator on these occasions Hope seldoht co had already happened Such convenient races of fortune would but have kept pace with his expectations, England would not have afforded a allant yeoeneral, he was apt to speculate a little too deeply Eager to enjoy, he was impatient to obtain theup of the jack at all fours was to ! it happened to be the ten: at another it depended on a duck-wing cock, which (who could have foreseen so strange an accident?) disgraced the best feeder in the kingdo away: and itrealized by a favourite horse; yet was lost, contrary to the most accurate calculations which, as the learned in theseCalendar
Thus to repeated disappointlect of his far that, in anno do expended the property hich he had been supplied, and incurred debts to the amount of little less than a thousand pounds, ht in the basket of the stage coach for London And prudent it certainly was, for his effects had not only been seized in execution of a bond and judgment, but the bailiffs from all quarters were at his heels
My nant; the sister I have mentioned was dead; but I had a fine healthy brother about three years old, and it was agreed that we should follow to the great city, as soon as he had found e to his notions, was the inable
It so happened, however, that he had not been there a fullsum he and my mother had collected for his immediate existence was lost, by the turn of a die; contrary to his certain conviction that he had discovered, at a hazard table, the ready way to repair all past mistakes
To send for wife and children was now out of the question Destitute of support, without thea day and a half, his courage, that is his appetite, could hold out no longer, and he enlisted for an East-India soldier; having first convinced hiuments, that he should immediately be made a serjeant; which perhaps was no iet a co officer, or general in chief, to the surprise of his friends and the utter confusion of the rector, and all those whoreat events ht not actually have happened who shall pretend to say? Miracles of old were plentiful; and even in these unbelieving days strange things have come to pass But all his unbounded hopes, many of which he had stated in his last letter to my mother, were unexpectedly subverted, by an accident to which it appears ht a fever, while the shi+p in which he was to be a passenger lay waiting in the Downs for a wind; and, in spite of the surgeon and his whole chest of medicines, died: of all which events there was a circumstantial account, transmitted by one of his comrades to my mother
The ruin of prospects so fair, the desolation of a house and honant of a third, and the loss of a husband, who at the worst of times had always kept hope alive, were sufficient causes of affliction to htly wailings were indulged
Every resource was soon exhausted, and immediate relief became necessary To whom could she apply? To who, the ination could suggest But in vain: no prayers, no tears, no terrors, of this world or of the next, could move him The father, and the divine, were equally inexorable He pleaded his oath, but he ree After the first letter he would receive no ain, with the direction in a different hand, and using other little stratagems, he returned no answer
Frorace, ason the parish, ere relieved, to the best of her ability, by a poor oman with four children; who had formerly lived a servant in the Trevor family, and who, after her husband's death, maintained herself and her orphans with incredible industry, and with no other aid but the produce of a cow, that she fed chiefly on the coood sense hich she did every thing that was entrusted to her, was the cause that she never wanted employment; and she exerted her utrew up, as useful as herself
By this wo; and it was agreed that I should either drive the plough or be put apprentice, as soon as I could find a master