ms on my
affection as her lord, I held as a moral impossibility. But with
all those lively impressions of early youth still engraved on my
heart,--impressions of the image of Fanny Trevanion as the fairest and
brightest of human beings,--could I feel free to love again? Could
I seek to woo, and rivet to myself forever, the entire and virgin
affections of another while there was a possibility that I might compare
and regret? No; either I must feel that if Fanny were again single,
could be mine without obstacle, human or divine, she had ceased to be
the one I would single out of the world; or, though regarding love as
the dead, I would be faithful to its memory and its ashes. My mother
sighed, and looked fluttered and uneasy all the morning of the day on
which I was to repair to Compton. She even seemed cross, for about the
third time in her life, and paid no compliment to Mr. Stultz when my
shooting-jacket was exchanged for a black frock which that artist had
pronounced to be "splendid;" neither did she honor me with any of those
little attentions to the contents of my portmanteau, and the perfect
"getting up" of my white waistcoats and cravats, which made her
natural instincts on such memorable occasions. There was also a sort of
querulous, pitying tenderness in her tone, when she spoke to Blanche,
which was quite pathetic; though, fortunately, its cause remained dark
and impenetrable to the innocent comprehension of one who could not see
where the past filled the urns of the future at the fountain of life.
My father understood me better, shook me by the hand as I got into the
chaise, and muttered, out of Seneca: "Non tanquam transfuga, sed tanquam
explorator" ("Not to desert, but examine").

Quite right.

(1) "Dingoes "--the name given by Australian natives to the wild dogs.

(2) Not having again to advert to Uncle Jack, I may be pardoned for
informing the reader, by way of annotation, that he continues to prosper
surprisingly in Australia, though the Tibbets' Wheal stands still for
want of workmen. Despite of a few ups and downs, I have had no fear of
his success until this year (1849), when I tremble to think what effect
the discovery of the gold mines in California may have on his lively
imagination. If thou escapest that snare, Uncle Jack, res age, tutus
eris--thou art safe for life!

(3) "Light of Nature,"--chapter on Judgment.--See the very ingenious
illustration of doubt, "whether the part is always greater