med to stir
within it; and the bitter streams which it discharged had spread
a moral desolation around him, and left him the solitary victim
of his own corroding temper.

Such an ascendant had these evil qualities over the other
faculties of his mind as in a great measure to dim the light of
reason, and render him as a subject of the colonial government,
no less perverse and untractable, than he was debased and
wretched, as a man.

Several times have the laws, which guard the peace of our little
community, been called in, to check the excesses of his turbulent
passions, by supplying the weakness of more ingenuous motives.
Still this person discovered, in the midst of this wreck of
moral excellence, a few remaining qualities, on which charity
might fix the hope of his recovery to virtue, usefulness and
happiness. But these were few, and mostly of a negative kind. He
was not addicted to profane discourse. He allowed himself in no
intemperate indulgences. He observed towards sacred institutions
a cold, but still an habitual respect. And, strange as the fact
may seem, he was laborious in his avocations, even to severe
drudgery, and equally a stranger to avarice, and a passion for a
vain ostentation. Whether these relieving traits of his character
were the effects of habit, produced by the influence of former
piety; or whether they were the result of constitutional
temperament, or of education, is not for me to decide. But such
was L. C., until the autumn of 1824; when not only a reform but
an absolute reversal, of every perverse disposition and habit in
the revolting catalogue of his character took place. A more
obliging and affectionate husband I am convinced is not to be
found on the Cape, few in the world! And there is no appearance
of constraint, or affection in this display of tenderness. It is
uniform, untiring, cordial, and increasing, as far as it is
permitted to any one, except the Searcher of hearts, to judge. In
all his intercourse with his family, and neighbors, he carries
with him, an inimitable air of sweet and profound humility. You
would pronounce it to be the meekness of the heart springing from
some deep-felt sentiment of the interior of the mind. But so far
from abasing the possessor, in the estimation of others, this