of the temptation, laboured for a
mitigation of his doom.--He never saw the unfortunate Maria
afterwards, but heard she was in a condition little different from
madness, which making her parents think it improper she should return
to England, they conveyed her to Liege, where they placed her as a
pensioner in the convent of English nuns, there to remain till time
and reflection should make a change in her, fit to appear again in the
world; which proceeding in them shewed, that whatever aversion some
people have to _this_, or _that_ form of religion, they can
countenance, nay, pretend to approve it, when it happens to prove for
their convenience to do so.

Natura was now intirely cured of his passion, but could not avoid
feeling a very tender commiseration for her, who had been the unhappy
object of it; he found also, on meditating on every passage of this
adventure, that she was infinitely less to blame, in regard to him,
than her parents had been; and that what he had accused, as cruel in
her, was much more kind than the favour they had pretended for
him.--When he reflected on the gulph of misery he had so narrowly
escaped, he was filled with the most grateful sentiments to that
Providence which had protected him; and also made sensible, that what
we often pray for, as the greatest of blessings, would, if obtained,
prove the severest curse:--a reflection highly necessary for all who
desire any thing with too much ardency.

CHAP. V.

Shews that there is no one human advantage to which all others
should be sacrificed:--the force of ambition, and the folly of
suffering it to gain too great an ascendant over us;--public
grandeur little capable of atoning for private discontent; among
which jealousy, whether of love or honour, is the most tormenting.

The desire of being well settled in the world is both natural and
laudable; but then great care ought to be taken to moderate this
passion, in order to prevent it from engrossing the mind too much; for
it is the nature of ambition, not only to stop at nothing that tends
to its gratification, but also to be ever craving new acquisitions,
ever unsatisfied with the former.--One favourite point is no sooner
gained, than another appears in view, and is pursued with the same
eagerness:--what we once thought the _summum bonum_ of our happiness,
seems nothing when we have attained to the possession of it, while
that which is unaccomplished, fires us with impati