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companions in their sport and laughter,and they will join the throng of other beings like themselves, -and thus will they go down to the grave, and perceive the goal of existence only when they stand on the brink of it.

I left the bridal party immediately after Hartley and his beautiful Matilda set off on their purposed excursion. My heart was full of pity for Camilla, and I hastened to Mr. Aubertin's, in the hope of being able to occupy her mind with thoughts that would divert her from the too close contemplation of her final disunion with her lover.

I have seen enough of the action of the human mind to be aware, that of all the passions that agitate it, love clings the most closely to hope. Hartley himself had represented the attachment of Camilla as a feeling of no ordinary strength. Who can penetrate the unreal delusion which she may unconsciously have suffered to operate on her imagination?

She may have had a secret persuasion, that something would intervene to prevent the occurrence of the event, which this morning has actually witnessed. — If any such delusion has existed, now it must be abandoned for ever. The irrevocable deed is done; -Aubertin is a husband, and Camilla must, in the pride of her purity, separate his idea from that strong attachment with which, hitherto, it has always been associated in her mind.

She was not in the house when I returned to Mr. Aubertin's. I am told that she is walking out. Perhaps she is even now striving to acquire the mastery of herself, by that help which is from on high. Sweet, gentle, unaffected Camilla! - how ignobly wert thou undervalued by him on whom the treasure of thy affections was bestowed! - Deems he not, that " he has thrown a pearl away richer than all its tribe ?"- What, in the estimate of a rational being,

would be the empire of the world, compared to the domestic hearth, blessed by the companionship of intellect, and the devotedness of affection such as hers?

How will she meet me? - Will she be calm and tranquil, and thus afford another evidence of her power of selfcommand? Will she appear as if this morning had completed no important page of her destiny? -To preserve the keeping of her character, as the painters call it, she should be somewhat paler than usual. She is always pale.

There is a visible increase of paleness -a tender air of resignation, occasionally elevated by a momentary look of lofty heroism, indicating the consciousness that she has made a sacrifice, and also indicating the resolution of subduing any regret that that sacrifice was accepted. The claims of others have been heard ; she has now to consider, that she is accountable for the proper application of

every means of happiness to herself, of which her circumstances admit.

She converses as usual, and thus furnishes me with an intellectual banquet of the most attic excellency. Her serenity visibly augments every moment. Perhaps this is the result of the irremediable certainty with which she finds herself encompassed. The fluctuations of hope and fear have terminated. No regret can alter the character of the past, or affect the reality of the present. Hartley Aubertin is married, and endurance is enforced. To endure well, is an effort to be made by herself. If I mistake not, Camilla is advancing beyond patience ;there is an occasional radiance of eye, which seems to result from feelings of thankfulness. That every ordinance of God is holy, just, and most calculated to produce essential benefit to his creatures, she cannot have to learn. There is a gratitude to be felt for chasten

ing mercies. Will she evince this feeling?

20th. In reviewing every moment of this day, and comparing it with those spent in the most brilliant periods of my existence, I decidedly pronounce the happiness I have enjoyed during its lapse, to be infinitely superior to any ever before enjoyed by me during an equal time. There has been no splendour in its accompaniments -no turbulence in the emotions excited. A calm and holy serenity has diffused over my soul a sense of gladness, that seems to flow from its divine original. And what have been the events that have led me to pronounce on the vast ascendancy of a grave and sacred felicity, such as I now experience, over the rapturous excitement which once exhilarated the imagination almost to delirium ?

I have been the companion of a desert

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