h induced him voluntarily to seek
the abodes and intercourse of the rude beings he blessed and relieved.

We met at two or three places to which my weak and imperfect charity had
led me, especially at the house of a sickly and distressed artist: for
in former life I had intimately known one of that profession; and I have
since attempted to transfer to his brethren that debt of kindness which
an early death forbade me to discharge to himself. It was thus that I
first became acquainted with Mordaunt's occupations and pursuits; for
what ennobled his benevolence was the remarkable obscurity in which it
was veiled. It was in disguise and in secret that his generosity flowed;
and so studiously did he conceal his name, and hide even his features,
during his brief visits to "the house of mourning," that only one like
myself, a close and minute investigator of whatever has once become an
object of interest, could have traced his hand in the various works of
happiness it had aided or created.

One day, among some old ruins, I met him with his young daughter. By
great good-fortune I preserved the latter, who had wandered away from
her father, from a fall of loose stones, which would inevitably have
crushed her. I was myself much hurt by my effort, having received
upon my shoulder a fragment of the falling stones; and thus our old
acquaintance was renewed, and gradually ripened into intimacy; not, I
must own, without great patience and constant endeavour on my part; for
his gloom and lonely habits rendered him utterly impracticable of access
to any (as Lord Aspeden would say) but a diplomatist. I saw a great
deal of him during the six months I remained in Italy, and--but you know
already how warmly I admire his extraordinary powers and venerate his
character--Lord Aspeden's recall to England separated us.

A general election ensued. I was returned for ----. I entered eagerly
into domestic politics; your friendship, Lord Aspeden's kindness, my
own wealth and industry, made my success almost unprecedentedly rapid.
Engaged heart and hand in those minute yet engrossing labours for which
the aspirant in parliamentary and state intrigue must unhappily forego
the more enlarged though abstruser speculations of general philosophy,
and of that morality which may be termed universal, politics, I have
necessarily been employed in very different pursuits from those to which
Mordaunt's contemplations are devoted, yet have I often recalled his