pany, than
to the children, who I am sure will be gainers in point of enjoyment;
liberty, I perceive, is to them positive pleasure, and paramount to any
which our false epicurism can contrive for them."

"Well, Charles," said Sir John, as soon as he saw me alone, "now tell us
about this Lucilla, this paragon, this nonpareil of Dr. Barlow's. Tell
me what is she? or rather what is she not?"

"First," replied I, "I will as you desire, define her by negatives--she
is _not_ a professed beauty, she is _not_ a professed genius, she is
_not_ a professed philosopher, she is _not_ a professed wit, she is
_not_ a professed any thing; and, I thank my stars, she is _not_ an
artist!" "Bravo, Charles, now as to what she is." "She is," replied I,
"from nature--a woman, gentle, feeling, animated, modest. She is by
education, elegant, informed, enlightened. She is, from religion, pious,
humble, candid, charitable."

"What a refreshment will it be," said Sir John, "to see a girl of fine
sense, more cultivated than accomplished--the creature, not of fiddlers
and dancing-masters, but of nature, of books, and of good company! If
there is the same mixture of spirit and delicacy in her character, that
there is of softness and animation in her countenance, she is a
dangerous girl, Charles."

"She certainly does," said I, "possess the essential charm of beauty
where it exists; and the most effectual substitute for it, where it does
not; the power of prepossessing the beholder by her look and manner, in
favor of her understanding and temper."

This prepossession I afterward found confirmed, not only by her own
share in the conversation, but by its effect on myself; I always feel
that our intercourse unfolds, not only her powers, but my own. In
conversing with such a woman, I am apt to fancy that I have more
understanding, because her animating presence brings it more into
exercise.

After breakfast, next day, the conversation happened to turn on the
indispensable importance of unbounded confidence to the happiness of
married persons. Mr. Stanley expressed his regret, that though it was
one of the grand ingredients of domestic comfort, yet it was sometimes
unavoidably prevented by an unhappy inequality of mind between the
parties, by violence, or imprudence, or imbecility on one side, which
almost compelled the other to a degree of reserve, as incompatible with
the design of the union, as with the frankness of the individual.

"We have ha