Page:Modern Literature Volume 3 (1804).djvu/62

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  • man, the industrious supporter of her

widowed and infirm mother, but had unfortunately been seized with this maddening enthusiasm, and fancying herself deficient in the requisite grace, had become hypocondriac, and conceived an attention to her business, exercised from filial duty, as too worldly, and an encroachment on the time that ought to be exclusively devoted to spiritual concerns. But natural affection still operating, notwithstanding theological perversion, she wished to find from the preacher, if industry, for the relief of a parent, was compatible with religious duty. O'Rourke expecting from her very little consultation fee, wanted to dispatch her as soon as possible, to make room for more profitable and agreeable customers; and being still enraged, he gave her a most dreadful description of her condition, and told her, that if she did not give herself entirely up to the new