er may be surprised that a man who had so long practised on the
foibles of his species, should have so much confidence in a mere
shopman, as to leave his whole estate so completely in his power; but,
it must be remembered, that human ingenuity has not yet devised any
means by which we can carry our personal effects into the other world;
that "what cannot be cured must be endured"; that he must of necessity
have confided this important trust to some fellow-creature, and that it
was better to commit the keeping of his money to one who, knowing the
secret by which it had been accumulated, had less inducement to be
dishonest, than one who was exposed to the temptation of covetousness,
without having a knowledge of any direct and legal means of gratifying
his longings. It has been conjectured, therefore, that the testator
thought, by giving up his trade to a man who was as keenly alive as
my ancestor to all its perfections, moral and pecuniary, he provided a
sufficient protection against his falling into the sin of peculation, by
so amply supplying him with simpler means of enriching himself. Besides,
it is fair to presume that the long acquaintance had begotten sufficient
confidence to weaken the effect of that saying which some wit has put
into the mouth of a wag, "Make me your executor, father; I care not to
whom you leave the estate." Let all this be as it might, nothing can be
more certain than that my worthy ancestor executed his trust with the
scrupulous fidelity of a man whose integrity had been severely schooled
in the ethics of trade. Little Betsey was properly educated for one in
her condition of life; her health was as carefully watched over as if
she had been the only daughter of the sovereign instead of the
only daughter of a fancy-dealer; her morals were superintended by a
superannuated old maid; her mind left to its original purity; her person
jealously protected against the designs of greedy fortune-hunters; and,
to complete the catalogue of his paternal attentions and solicitudes, my
vigilant and faithful ancestor, to prevent accidents, and to counteract
the chances of life, so far as it might be done by human foresight, saw
that she was legally married, the day she reached her nineteenth year,
to the person whom, there is every reason to think, he believed to be
the most unexceptionable man of his acquaintance--in other words, to
himself. Settlements were unnecessary between parties who had so long
been know