ncerns of the never-dying soul, endangered by his thus
cherishing implacable resentment. The termination of the struggle proved
Neville a true hero. He not only confessed but abjured his errors. "I
have," said he, "brooded too deeply over my injuries, and thus have
added to my plagues by inflicting on myself more torments than even my
enemies designed I should feel. Born with too exquisite sensibility of
ill-treatment, proceeding possibly from inordinate self-esteem, disposed
to ardent attachment and unbounded confidence, I measured the hearts of
others by my own, and supposed that they equally revered the claims of
generosity and friendship; for never did I expect a service, which in a
change of situations, I would not have rendered unasked; never have I
condemned a fault but those so abhorrent to my nature that, I would have
died rather than have committed them. Condemned by the triumphant
treachery of a man, in all things my inferior, to indigence and
obscurity; all the liberal feelings I so dearly cherished palsied by my
inability to expand the social charities beyond the narrow limits of my
own family, I ruminated on the glorious indulgences resulting from, the
possession of that power and affluence I was born to inherit. But,
instead of enjoying the means of patronising merit, raising the
oppressed, or succouring calamity, I beheld myself doomed to the anxious
routine of a life consumed in the care of procuring a sufficiency for
its own support, pondering how the claims of a creditor could be
discharged, and the disgrace of injustice averted by the sacrifice of
every generous gratification--I passed my days in a silent sacrifice of
my wishes and comforts, in concealing my own wants, and steeling my
heart to those of others, and it was during this mental torture of
restrained liberality that I nourished in my soul a deadly thirst for
revenge, an extreme desire of seeing the arm that smote me to the earth
withered and powerless as my own. Oh, my children! there is guilt and
danger in an excessive indulgence of even the most laudable feelings,
and my crime brought on its punishment.--The loss of reason; the death
of your adored mother, deserving infinitely more than the highest
earthly honours, and therefore early translated to an angelical throne;
these were my chastisements. In respect to what I have since suffered
for my King, the testimonies of a good conscience were my support and my
reward. And may the favours of