vain, and how
worthless, are those things we name pleasures, and enjoyments.

"Besides, the attainment of your wishes might have been the death of
your hopes. If my reasoning is correct, the ardency of your passion
might have closed with the pursuit. An every day suit, however rich and
costly the texture, is soon worn threadbare. On your part, indifference
would consequently succeed: on the part of your partner, disappointment,
jealousy, and disgust. What might follow is needless for me to
name;--your soul must shudder at the idea of conjugal infidelity!

"But admitting the most favourable consequences; turn the brightest side
of the picture; admitting as much happiness as the connubial state will
allow: how might your bosom have been wounded by the sickness and death
of your children, or their disorderly and disobedient conduct! You must
know also, that the warmth of youthful passion must soon cease, and it
is merely a hazardous chance whether friendship will supply the absence
of affection.

"After all, my young friend, it will be well for you to consider,
whether the all-wise dispensing hand of Providence, has not directed
this matter which you esteem so great an affliction, for your greatest
good, and most essential advantage. And suffer me to tell you, that in
all my observations on life, I have always found that those connections
which were formed from inordinate passion, or what some would call pure
affection, have been ever the most unhappy. Examine the varied circles
of society, you will there see this axiom demonstrated; you will there
see how few among the sentimentally refined are even apparently at ease;
while those, insusceptible of what you name tender attachments, or who
receive them only as things of course, plod on through life, without
even experiencing the least inconvenience from a want of the pleasures
they are _supposed_ to bestow, or the pains they are sure to create.
Beware, then, my son, beware of yielding the heart to the effeminacies
of passion. Exquisite sensibilities are ever subject to exquisite
inquietudes. Counsel with correct reason, place entire dependence on the
SUPREME, and the triumph of fortitude and resignation will be yours."

Franklin paused. His reasonings, however they convinced the
understanding, could not heal the wounds of Alonzo's bosom.--In Melissa
he looked for as much happiness as earth could afford, nor could he see
any prospect in life which could repair the loss h