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DUTY AND INCLINATION.
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would be promoted by an union. It is true he possesses moral worth, but the higher intellectual faculty in him is incapable of improvement: a being suited to plod on in that humble mediocrity alone, to which he is by inheritance destined. Indeed, there admits of no comparison between him and my child, who is his superior in every respect: to great natural parts, she adds some cultivation, afforded by myself and her excellent mother; she is all warmth, energy and brilliancy; he is cold, phlegmatic, dull. It is impossible that natures so opposite can assimilate. However, Angelina, unaccustomed to gallantry, has not been till hitherto greatly sensible to the want of ardour in her lover, who, I am now persuaded, paid his addresses to her more through the instigation and advice of his friends, than from any preconceived, unbiassed sentiment of his own. He has been urged and pushed on in this affair, and has not courage in himself to pursue it. The superiority and refinement of Angelina awe and keep him from approaching her; notwithstanding the poor child, who by all his family has been ever much prepossessed in his favour, tries to encourage him by the really genuine kindness and affability of her manners. Some months have elapsed since she has been taught to consider him as the object destined for her future partner; it being her mo-