orriforth. After knowing his, I never sought acquaintance with
another--I did not wish to lessen the exalted estimation of human nature
which he had inspired. In this moment of trembling apprehension for
every thought which darts across my mind, and more for every action
which I must soon be called to answer for; all worldly views here thrown
aside, I act as if that tribunal, before which I every moment expect to
appear, were now sitting in judgment upon my purpose. The care of an
only child is the great charge that in this tremendous crisis I have to
execute. These earthly affections that bind me to her by custom,
sympathy, or what I fondly call parental love, would direct me to study
her present happiness, and leave her to the care of those whom she
thinks her dearest friends; but they are friends only in the sunshine of
fortune; in the cold nipping frost of disappointment, sickness, or
connubial strife, they will forsake the house of care, although the very
house which they may have themselves built."

Here the excruciating anguish of the father, overcame that of the dying
man.

"In the moment of desertion," continued he, "which I now picture to
myself, where will my child find comfort? That heavenly aid which
religion gives, and which now, amidst these agonizing tortures, cheers
with humbler hope my afflicted soul; that, she will be denied."

It is in this place proper to remark, that Mr. Milner was a member of
the church of Rome, but on his marriage with a lady of Protestant
tenets, they mutually agreed their sons should be educated in the
religious opinion of their father, and their daughters in that of their
mother. One child only was the result of their union, the child whose
future welfare now occupied the anxious thoughts of her expiring father.
From him the care of her education had been with-held, as he kept
inviolate his promise to her departed mother on the article of religion,
and therefore consigned his daughter to a boarding-school for
Protestants, whence she returned with merely such ideas of religion as
ladies of fashion at her age mostly imbibe. Her little heart employed in
all the endless pursuits of personal accomplishments, had left her mind
without one ornament, except such as nature gave; and even they were not
wholly preserved from the ravages made by its rival, _Art._

While her father was in health he beheld, with extreme delight, his
accomplished daughter, without one fault which taste or