errors that create so much misery
in life; that, for instance, of supposing that one must ascend through
certain orders of society, and reach a particular elevation before they
can enjoy happiness. This notion, so much at variance with the goodness
and mercy of God, who has not confined happiness to any particular
class, she herself rejected; but, at the same time, the modest estimate
which she formed of her own capacity to reason upon or analyze all
speculative opinions, led her to suppose that she might be wrong,
and her father right, in the inferences which they respectively drew.
Perhaps she thought her reluctance to see this individual case through
his medium, arose from some peculiar idiosyncrasy of intellect or
temperament not common to others, and that she was setting a particular
instance against a universal truth.

That, however, which most severely tested her fortitude and noble
sense of what we owe a parent, resulted from no moral or metaphysical
distinctions of human duty, but simply and directly from what she must
suffer by the contemplated sacrifice. She was born in a position of
life sufficiently dignified for ordinary ambition. She was surrounded
by luxury--had received an enlightened education--had a heart formed for
love--for that pure and exalted passion, which comprehends and brings
into action all the higher qualities of our being, and enlarges all our
capacities for happiness. God and nature, so to speak, had gifted her
mind with extraordinary feeling and intellect, and her person with
unusual grace and beauty; yet, here, by this act of self-devotion to her
father, she renounced all that the human heart with such strong claims
upon the legitimate enjoyments of life could expect, and voluntarily
entered into a destiny of suffering and misery. She reflected upon
and felt the bitterness of all this; but, on the other hand,
the contemplation of a father dying in consequence of her
disobedience--dying, too, probably in an unprepared state--whose heart
was now full of love and tenderness for her; who, in fact, was in grief
and sorrow in consequence of what he had caused her to suffer. We say
she contemplated all this, and her great heart felt that this was the
moment of mercy.

"It is resolved!" she exclaimed; "I will disturb him for a little. There
is no time now for meanly wrestling it out, for ungenerous hesitation
and delay. Suspense may kill him; and whilst I deliberate, he may
be lost. Father,