Lamberto speaks of, you cannot but despise, when you compare them with the character of our Exemplar. The law of enjoyments and the law of goodness come from the same source, and are inextricably conjoined; when we break the one, we break the other. A good man's enjoyments do not hurt his goodness; his goodness regulates but does not lessen his enjoyments. I am not, I hope, out of the pale of the Church; but as such is your belief, it is reasonable that you should, sometimes, be suspicious of my opinions. doubt, I advise you to go to the doctor, in whose honour, at least, we may confide. But, Alfonso, beware of evil counsellors, and evil companions, and evil habits. I remember that an English poet (Cowper) has said :—

"Habits are soon assumed; but when we strive

To strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive."

And an older poet said :

*

"(The gates of Sin) are open night and day,
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way;

But to return to heaven's pure light again,
This is a work of labour and of pain."*

In any

Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras,

facilis descensus Averni:

Hoc opus, hic labor est.

Eneidos, Lib. IV. 126.

"I shall come as before," said the lad, "to see you. I knew that Señor Lamberto was not quite

right: I could not make it out.

And I felt that

lives, and as he

to live as I know Lamberto believes one ought to live, Our Lord must be shut out."

Lamberto was a man who had left Maturin some years before in disgrace, and had just then returned with his vices hardened, and nothing, not even the agreeable manners of a gentleman, but only the prestige of a good family connexion to recommend him. He was trying (and I am sorry to say he succeeded) to seduce Alfonso's mother, while his conversations were tending to corrupt the youth's mind. But his stay in Maturin was not of long duration; for he was placed in carcel and banished from the town, according to a good Maturin law, for the abduction of a girl from her parent's house :

"The purest treasure mortal times afford,

Is spotless Reputation; that away,

Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay."

SHAKESPEARE.

Alfonso's mind was too pure not to resent the

gross wickedness of the man; and we became more than ever attached to each other. He stood God-Father for my little son, and promised, if I died, to teach my boy in the way I taught him.

He went to study in a seminary at Ciudad Bolivar, for the Roman Catholic priesthood, and when I last heard of him, he was a hard-working, zealous priest. Laus Deo.

CHAPTER XIV.

REBELLION.

THERE is not, I think, a more mischievous government than that of a republic. Utopia, perhaps, might safely be republican. Greece was never more at peace with herself than when she merged into the Macedonian Empire. For ignorance and vice, a despotic monarchy and a strong loyal army are best suited; for a millennial state, a republic may be harmless; but a constitutional monarchy with more or less stringency is best adapted to a people of mixed morals.

Republicanism, other than merely provisional, is especially unfortunate for a country that has fought for, and obtained its independence; for heroic patriotism can truly exist only while its liberties are at issue: but a republic presupposes a free country.

The curse of Venezuela is her form of govern

ment.

The approach of every quadrennial election of a president is the signal for political intrigues, ending invariably in bloodshed, and often in organised rebellion and civil war. And "civil wars," says Burke, "strike deepest of all into the manners of the people. They vitiate their politics; they corrupt their morals; they pervert even the natural taste and relish of Equity and Justice."

It appears, according to article 70 of the Constitution, that "the president cannot be elected for the period immediately following his term of office." But for a series of years the law was virtually disregarded. A president who determined to rule as long as he could, had two brothers whom, by the influence of his position, he successively placed in the presidential chair to keep it warm for him, he meanwhile manipulating the strings of government.

The time had now arrived for one of these elections. A powerful opposition had arisen to counteract this breach of the spirit of the law, and to frustrate the re-election of the triumvirate brothers.