refusal in relation to my sister, till hearing what
my uncle had done for me, I had the simplicity to request, speaking with
warmth of their situation, that he would give them a thousand pounds
a-piece, which seemed to me but justice. He asked me, giving me a kiss,
'If I had lost my senses?' I started back, as if I had found a wasp in a
rose-bush. I expostulated. He sneered; and the demon of discord entered
our paradise, to poison with his pestiferous breath every opening joy.

"I had sometimes observed defects in my husband's understanding; but, led
astray by a prevailing opinion, that goodness of disposition is of the
first importance in the relative situations of life, in proportion as I
perceived the narrowness of his understanding, fancy enlarged the
boundary of his heart. Fatal error! How quickly is the so much vaunted
milkiness of nature turned into gall, by an intercourse with the world,
if more generous juices do not sustain the vital source of virtue!

"One trait in my character was extreme credulity; but, when my eyes were
once opened, I saw but too clearly all I had before overlooked. My
husband was sunk in my esteem; still there are youthful emotions, which,
for a while, fill up the chasm of love and friendship. Besides, it
required some time to enable me to see his whole character in a just
light, or rather to allow it to become fixed. While circumstances were
ripening my faculties, and cultivating my taste, commerce and gross
relaxations were shutting his against any possibility of improvement,
till, by stifling every spark of virtue in himself, he began to imagine
that it no where existed.

"Do not let me lead you astray, my child, I do not mean to assert, that
any human being is entirely incapable of feeling the generous emotions,
which are the foundation of every true principle of virtue; but they are
frequently, I fear, so feeble, that, like the inflammable quality which
more or less lurks in all bodies, they often lie for ever dormant; the
circumstances never occurring, necessary to call them into action.

"I discovered however by chance, that, in consequence of some losses in
trade, the natural effect of his gambling desire to start suddenly into
riches, the five thousand pounds given me by my uncle, had been paid very
opportunely. This discovery, strange as you may think the assertion, gave
me pleasure; my husband's embarrassments endeared him to me. I was glad
to find an excuse for his conduct t