Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/162

This page needs to be proofread.

less unmindful of local attachments, nor less anxious for the fate of my friend, when contemplating the fall of empires; but it proves to a thinking mind, that sorrow is the lot of man, in some stage or other of his life: And if he loves his country, he must dread, that the same vices, luxury, ambition, licentiousness, and discontent, too prevalent in most countries, must at length terminate in the destruction of that nation, where their growth is encouraged by faction, and nursed by the countenance of superior abilities."

Heli nodded his head, but whether in approbation of the justice of those observations, or because he did not comprehend them, and could make no reply, cannot be determined; but he had received so little pleasure from the walk, that he stretched his inclination to make the utmost speed back, that the gravity of the Turkish movements would allow of.

Ferdinand, whose mind had found much relief from the novelty of the morning's ramble, after his return, seemed to have re-