to make any reproaches to her daughter, thinking it was wisest to make the best of what could not be altered. On the contrary, she employed every possible means to raise and console her humbled child, and to enable her to bear her blighted hopes with courage and firmness.
“My dear child,” said she mildly, “as you have brewed so you must drink, you rejected fortune when it was offered, and you must now submit to lose it. Experience has taught me that the hope we regard as most certain is often delusive; follow my example, give no longer ear to its voice, that continual disappointment may not destroy thy peace. Do not expect a favourable change in thy fate, and thou wilt be contented. Let us honour the spinning-wheel, which procures us the means of subsistence, and care not for riches and greatness, since we can do without them. These philosophical observations came from the heart of the worthy matron. After the failure of her last hopes, she had so completely simplified her plan of life, that it was scarcely possible for
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