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once congratulating a friend, who had around him ing family, knit together in the strongest affection. wish you no better lot," said he, with enthusiasm, › have a wife and children. If you are prosperous, ey are to share your prosperity; if otherwise, there to comfort you." And, indeed, I have observed arried man, falling into misfortune, is more apt to his situation in the world than a single one; partly, he is more stimulated to exertion by the necessities elpless and beloved beings who depend upon him for ice; but chiefly, because his spirits are soothed and by domestic endearments, and his self-respect is kept finding, that though all abroad is darkness and ion, yet there is still a little world of love at home, of e is the monarch. Whereas a single man is apt to run and self-neglect; to fancy himself lonely and abanand his heart to fall to ruin, like some deserted manwant of an inhabitant.

: observations call to mind a little domestic story, of was once a witness. My intimate friend, Leslie, had a beautiful and accomplished girl, who had been up in the midst of fashionable life. She had, it is fortune; but that of my friend was ample, and he in the anticipation of indulging her in every elegant and administering to those delicate tastes and fancies, ead a kind of witchery about the sex. "Her life," "shall be like a fairy tale."

ery difference in their characters produced a harmoombination: he was of a romantic, and somewhat cast; she was all life and gladness. I have often the mute rapture, with which he would gaze upon her any, of which her sprightly powers made her the and how, in the midst of applause, her eye would ■to him, as if there alone she sought favor and ac5. When leaning on his arm, her slender form ed finely with his tall, manly person. The fond, gair, with which she looked up to him, seemed to

a flush of triumphant pride and cherishing tenderif he doated on his lovely burthen for its very ness. Never did a couple set forward, on the flowery

path of early and well suited marriage, with a fairer prospect of felicity.

It was the misfortune of my friend, however, to have embarked his property in large speculations; and he had not been married many months, when, by a succession of sudden disasters, it was swept from him, and he found himself reduced to almost penury. For a time, he kept his situation to himself, and went about with a haggard countenance, and a breaking heart. His life was but a protracted agony; and what rendered it more insupportable was, the necessity of keeping up a smile in the presence of his wife; for he could not bring himself to overwhelm her with the news.

She saw, however, with the quick eyes of affection, that all was not well with him. She marked his altered looks and stifled sighs, and was not to be deceived by his sickly and vapid attempts at cheerfulness. She tasked all her sprightly powers and tender blandishments to win him back to happiness; but she only drove the arrow deeper into his soul. The more he saw cause to love her, the more torturing was the thought that he was soon to make her wretched. A little while, thought he, and the smile will vanish from that cheek; the song will die away from those lips; the lustre of those eyes will be quenched with sorrow; and the happy heart, which now beats lightly in that bosom, will be weighed down, like mine, by the cares and miseries of the world.

At length he came to me, one day, and related his whole situation in a tone of the deepest despair. When I had heard him through, I inquired, "Does your wife know all this?" At the question, he burst into an agony of tears. "For God's sake!" cried he, "if you have any pity on me, don't mention my wife; it is the thought of her that drives me almost to madness!"

"And why not?" said I. "She must know it, sooner or later you cannot keep it long from her, and the intelligence may break upon her in a more startling manner than if imparted by yourself; for the accents of those we love soften the harshest tidings. Besides, you are depriving yourself of the comforts of her sympathy; and not merely that, but also endangering the only bond that can keep hearts togetheran unreserved community of thought and feeling. She will

erceive, that something is secretly preying upon your and true love will not brook reserve: it feels underand outraged, when even the sorrows of those it loves cealed from it."

! but, my friend, to think what a blow I am to give to future prospects! how I am to strike her very soul to th, by telling her that her husband is a beggar! that to forego all the elegances of life, all the pleasures of to shrink with me into indigence and obscurity! her that I have dragged her down from the sphere, ch she might have continued to move in constant ess-the light of every eye-the admiration of every -How can she bear poverty? She has been brought all the refinements of opulence. How can she bear t? She has been the idol of society. art-it will break her heart!" w his grief was eloquent, and I let it have its flow; for relieves itself by words. When his paroxysm had ed, and he had relapsed into moody silence, I resumsubject gently, and urged him to break his situation, e, to his wife. He shook his head mournfully, but ely.

Oh! it will break

it how are you to keep it from her? It is necessary ould know it, that you may take the steps proper to eration of your circumstances. You must change your

f living-nay,” observing a pang to pass across his nance,“ don't let that afflict you. I am sure you have placed your happiness in outward show; you have yet 3, warm friends, who will not think the worse of you ng less splendidly lodged: and surely it does not rea palace to be happy with Mary-" "I could be happy er," cried he, convulsively, "in a hovel!-I could vn with her into poverty and the dust!-I could-I -God bless her!-God bless her!" cried he, bursting transport of grief and tenderness.

nd believe me, my friend," said I, stepping up and ng him warmly by the hand, " believe me, she can be me with you. Ay, more: it will be a source of pride iumph to her; it will call forth all the latent energies rvent sympathies of her nature; for she will rejoice to

prove that she loves you for yourself. There is, in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant. in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes, in the dark hour of adversity. No man knows what the wife of his bosom is- no man knows what a ministering angel she is until he has gone with her hrough the fiery trials of this world."

There was something in the earnestness of my manner, and the figurative style of my language, that caught the excited imagination of Leslie. I knew the auditor I had to deal with; and, following up the impression I had made, I finished by persuading him to go home, and unburthen his sad heart to his wife.

LESSON XXVI.

The same,-concluded.

I MUST Confess, notwithstanding all I had said, I felt some little solicitude for the result. Who can calculate on the fortitude of one, whose whole life has been a round of pleasures? Her gay spirits might revolt at the dark, downward path of low humility, suddenly pointed out before her, and might cling to the sunny regions in which they had hitherto revelled. Besides, ruin, in fashionable life, is accompanied by so many galling mortifications, to which, in other ranks, it is a stranger. In short, I could not meet Leslie, the next morning, without trepidation. He had made the disclosure. "And how did she bear it?"

"Like an angel! It seemed rather to be a relief to her mind; for she threw her arms round my neck, and asked if this was all, that had lately made me unhappy.-But, poor girl," added he, "she cannot realize the change we must undergo. She has no idea of poverty but in the abstract: she has only read of it in poetry, where it is allied to love. She feels, as yet, no privation: she suffers no loss of accustomed conveniences or elegances. When we come practically to experience its sordid cares, its paltry wants, its petty humiliations-then will be the real trial."

"said I. "now that you have got over the severest hat of breaking it to her, the sooner you let the world e secret the better. The disclosure may be mortiout then it is a single misery, and soon over; whereas erwise suffer it, in anticipation, every hour in the day. E poverty, so much as pretence, that harasses a ruined he struggle between a proud mind and an empty the keeping up a hollow show, that must soon come ad. Have the courage to appear poor, and you disarm of its sharpest sting." On this point I found Leslie y prepared. He had no false pride himself, and, as to e, she was only anxious to conform to their altered

5.

e days afterwards, he called upon me in the evening. disposed of his dwelling-house, and taken a small in the country, a few miles from town. He had been all day in sending out furniture. The new establishequired few articles, and those of the simplest kind. splendid furniture of his late residence had been sold, ng his wife's harp. That, he said, was too closely ted with the idea of herself; it belonged to the little their loves; for some of the sweetest moments of ourtship were those when he had leaned over that ent, and listened to the melting tones of her voice. not but smile at this instance of romantic gallantry ating husband.

vas now going out to the cottage, where his wife had 1 day, superintending its arrangement. My feelings come strongly interested in the progress of this family nd, as it was a fine evening, I offered to accompany

was wearied with the fatigues of the day, and, as we out, fell into a fit of gloomy musing.

or Mary!" at length broke, with a heavy sigh, from

d what of her?" asked I; "has any thing happened to

hat?" said he, darting an impatient glance; "is it nothbe reduced to this paltry situation? to be caged in a

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