ssesses a slave who never will quit her side."

Although I have been travelling out of Europe to furnish some striking
illustrations of the powerful emotion of domesticity, it is not that we
are without instances in the private history of families among ourselves.
I have known more than one where the servant has chosen to live without
wages, rather than quit the master or the mistress in their decayed
fortunes; and another where the servant cheerfully worked to support her
old lady to her last day.

Would we look on a very opposite mode of servitude, turn to the United
States. No system of servitude was ever so preposterous. A crude notion of
popular freedom in the equality of ranks abolished the very designation of
"servant," substituting the fantastic term of "helps." If there be any
meaning left in this barbarous neologism, their aid amounts to little;
their engagements are made by the week, and they often quit their domicile
without the slightest intimation.

Let none, in the plenitude of pride and egotism, imagine that they exist
independent of the virtues of their domestics. The good conduct of the
servant stamps a character on the master. In the sphere of domestic life
they must frequently come in contact with them. On this subordinate class,
how much the happiness and even the welfare of the master may rest! The
gentle offices of servitude began in his cradle, and await him at all
seasons and in all spots, in pleasure or in peril. Feelingly observes Sir
Walter Scott--"In a free country an individual's happiness is more
immediately connected with the personal character of his valet, than with
that of the monarch himself." Let the reflection not be deemed extravagant
if I venture to add, that the habitual obedience of a devoted servant is a
more immediate source of personal comfort than even the delightfulness of
friendship and the tenderness of relatives--for these are but periodical;
but the unbidden zeal of the domestic, intimate with our habits, and
patient of our waywardness, labours for us at all hours. It is those feet
which hasten to us in our solitude; it is those hands which silently
administer to our wants. At what period of life are even the great exempt
from the gentle offices of servitude?

Faithful servants have never been commemorated by more heartfelt affection
than by those whose pursuits require a perfect freedom from domestic
cares. Persons of sedentary occupations, and undisturbed habits,
a