ritable purposes; he would seek for Allan
Neville and his daughter; were they alive, he would make them happy, or
at least place them in affluence; he would erect a monument to the
gallant Eustace; he would employ his future life in pious duties; in
fine, if restored to the enjoyment of the unrighteous Mammon, he would
use it in securing an everlasting inheritance. No angel whispered,
"Begin the mighty labour now;" no renovating change took place in his
desires. The hour of contrition and repentance was deferred with
procrastinating insincerity. Can we then wonder that the man who, in his
youth, sacrificed honour and friendship to purchase worldly grandeur,
should, in his age, again impawn his conscience for liberty and ease? or
that, though he had indeed often deplored the supposed necessity of
murdering Eustace Evellin, he should basely yield to become a Tyrant's
instrument to cut off that Eustace's uncle on a charge, which, from what
he knew of the Doctor's conduct, bore improbability and ingratitude in
its aspect. Let those who condemn Lord Bellingham beware how they yield
to the first temptations of guilt. The emulation of an aspiring mind,
unchecked by principle, degenerated into envy, hatred, malice,
injustice, falsehood, and cruelty. Love for a beautiful woman was
polluted by an insatiable craving to rise to the same sphere of life in
which she moved; and as it was her exterior loveliness, not her inward
graces, that inflamed his desires, he scrupled not to become the
instrument of her bad passion; that "love might revel on the couch of
state," he performed actions which stamped ignominy on his name, and
destroyed his peace for ever; and now, in the decline of life, though
satiety had taught him the little value of all temporal enjoyments, his
imagination clung to the dispersing shadows which even experience would
not convince him were only phantoms of happiness. Even while he wept the
offences he had committed, he yielded to the first temptation to repeat
his crimes.

On the morning fixed for his trial, Dr. Beaumont exhibited an
illustration of the scriptural precept, by combining the wisdom of the
serpent with the innocence of the dove. Serene, mild, thoughtful, acute,
and penetrating, he was capable of using every fair occasion to elude
his enemies, and was able also to submit to the will of Heaven, provided
their malice should be permitted to triumph. He prepared Constantia for
the worst, by assuring her tha