captive to his prison-house, his tenement of clay, when life and immortality shine upon the ravished view? Love and fortune, both, you would persuade me, are now mine. Yet however within my reach, however tempting they may appear, when I think upon the contrarieties, the restraints, the uncertainties that in this sublunary temporary sojourn would interpose their bane, the scene appears joyless, and I fly, rejoicing fly, to rest my hopes, faith, confidence on that base which is immutable, never-changing, never-ending; in a word, I fly to repose myself on the bosom of my God."
He sunk back, his eyes closed, and Dr. Lovesworth feared the sublime energy with which he had spoken might again have diffused its exhaustion over him. In closing, therefore, the curtains, he withdrew, leaving him to the care of his mother; and in the interval pursued the train of his own reflections.
"It was the love Philimore has borne Oriana," thought he, "operating upon a feeble frame, which has reduced him to the state we now behold him. And yet, had he power to revive, and to share with her ease, content, and all the enjoyments an elegant competency can afford, he would not! What more than this can better prove the real emptiness of earthly happiness! The mind when once detached from nature never feels the most distant bias to return to it, but, progressive in its states, looks onward to a kingdom whose joys are not, like these, ephemeral, but unfading and everlasting,—where no shadows mock the view!"
It was not long ere the Doctor was recalled to the
