live in the above-mentioned style of "moderation" in his rank in society, and devote all the remainder of his income to the claims of religion and charity.

As soon as his business would permit, Mr. D'Arcy hastened to leave London, and return to a home where reciprocal efforts to promote mutual happiness were interwoven with all the domestic relations, like a golden thread, that in its brightness held and bound them firmly together.

Mr. D. had much to communicate to his children in relation to their projected removal to Ireland, as well as respecting various vicissitudes which had occurred among the families of his acquaintance. "I have been much affected," he said, "to hear that my amiable young friend, Emily Benson, is left a widow. You have heard me speak of her marriage to Major G-a few years since ; and as his character furnishes another illustration of selfishness, I will describe it to you in detail, Frederick, as a warning. He was an only and idolized son, to whose pleasures and interests, from infancy to manhood, his parents made sacrifices of almost every thing but their pride; but this they indulged, while they bore with the faults of their son, because he was theirs, and were anxious to give him wealth and consequence, because it would extend and perpetuate their own. He was articled to his father, who was a lawyer, and who, notwithstanding his son's want of application to his profession, continued to indulge those expectations with which hope often cheats reason, that as he grew older, and consequently wiser, he would yield less

CHAPTER VI.

SYSTEMATIC LIBERALITY-THE SELFISH DUELLIST.

JUST about this time Eliza received a letter from her aunt in London, Mrs. Cecil, renewing the invitation she had often sent her before to visit the metropolis, and pressing it most earnestly now as a necessary relaxation and change, after the close confinement which the protracted illness of her beloved mother, and her devoted attentions to her widowed father, had imposed upon her. This affectionate daughter could not, however, find it in her heart to seek her own pleasure, while she perceived the state of her father's spirits required the presence and soothing attentions of each of his children. She therefore decidedly gave up this visit, at the same time requesting her aunt not to name it to her father, whose disinterested regard to his children's enjoyment would, she knew, induce regret, if he heard they had made a sacrifice on his account; and it was her wish not to get his thanks, but to promote his happiness. Some months afterwards, however, when business called him to town, he heard of it, and rejoiced in his daughter's delicate kindness. What this business was, it will be necessary for us to explain.

A few years after Mr. D'Arcy's marriage, he became

entitled, by the death of an uncle, to a considerable estate in Ireland, an accession of property in which himself and his excellent companion chiefly rejoiced, because it would afford them the means of extending their beneficence. But this delightful expectation met with an unexpected check;-another relative disputed the validity of the Will, and instituted a Chancery suit, through which Mr. D. was led by the rugged, though perhaps the only safe, road of disappointment and delay, to ultimate success. The expenses in which it involved him rendered it necessary he should either make a considerable change in his style of living, or lessen his charities; and he did not hesitate where to make the sacrifice; and consequently their carriage, though it was a convenience which both himself and Mrs. D. had always enjoyed, was cheerfully relinquished. Their benevolence was self-denying, founded upon Christian principles, and regulated by scriptural precept. It was not feeling led by impulse into extravagance, but love guided by discretion in the path of consistency. They did not gratify self by ostentatious display, nor by ostentatious sacrifices, but they “set apart" from their income a certain fixed sum, and scrupulously confined their own expenses within the remaining amount. This sum they regulated by the number of their family, considering that persons possessing their property ought to consider the claims of religion and charity as at least equal to that of each of their household; and, having four children, consecrated a seventh of their income to these objects. They were

the youthful pair stood before the altar, that the shadow of a pillar, which fell upon Emily, would be too just an emblem of bright hopes obscured by disappointment. Without a warm reciprocation of attachment, an affectionate heart cannot be happy; and such a heart, when it is bestowed upon a cold and selfish character, is chilled and shut up, just like the wintry rose-bud you have been painting, Sophia, closed and weighed down by the snow with which it is incrusted."

Poor Emily had unconsciously chosen for herself one of the best means of dissipating those day-dreams o perfect earthly felicity, whose illusions, in spite of the accumulated testimony of the wise of all ages, will yield only to our own experience. She had once appeared to feel the influence of religion, which exhibits life in its proper aspect, and leads those who possess it, by a pathway, narrow indeed, and self-denying, but one in which peace is a constant, and joy a frequent companion. But this proved, by its transient effects, to be emotion, and not principle. God did not yet hold the first place in her heart, which still retained its chosen object of worship; and though it was not the most common or vulgar species of idolatry, for it was the bestowment of supreme affection on an earthly object, yet, though this may be called a household deity, it is an idol still; and when the development of her husband's character demolished this long-cherished hope, her heart was almost broken.

As Captain G

was now in possession of an ample fortune, which gave him the full means of self-indul

gence any where, he was not unwilling to gratify Emily's wishes, that he should leave the army; but before he could complete his arrangements, the regiment was suddenly ordered upon foreign service-and he thought his character involved in repairing to his post. During a tedious voyage, from the effects of which Emily endured more than is common, she languished far more from the want of affectionate and sympathizing attentions, than from personal suffering. That assiduous regard to all her little wants and wishes, by which her affections had been won, Captain G seemed no longer to consider necessary, though they are a sort of natural compensation from those who receive submission, to those who render it in more important matters.

Emily was not herself perhaps wise, however kind her motive, in so readily paying minute attentions which she had a right to receive from her husband, for petted selfishness only grows more encroaching. To leave the society of his fellow-passengers to sit and cheer her lonely couch, was an act of self-denial he never thought of unasked, and then it was so evidently an onerous task, that Emily preferred suffering alone to receiving such an alleviation. Nor was he very desirous she should have the benefit of the air on deck, excepting on those days when her spirits and her appearance would do credit to his choice. When, however, she was at one time alarmingly ill, he was in deep distress, for she was too necessary to his own comfort for him to be able to afford to lose her; but, whoever is very anxious for the life of a friend, yet cares little about making that life