l its existence in its
effects, rejoice in the acknowledgment of a power which nothing can
exhaust, and take to our bosoms the high consolation, that the good of
man is the supreme principle of the system.

* * * * *

Men actively employed in public life, are strangely apt to think that
there is no progress outside their circle. But, on my return to
Mortimer Castle, I found this conception amply confuted. The world had
moved as rapidly in those shades, as in the centre of cabinets and
courts. Time had done its work, in changing the condition of almost
every human being whom I had known in my early days. The brothers and
sisters, whom I had left children, were now in the full beauty of
their prime; my brothers showy and stirring youths; my sisters fair
and gentle girls, just reaching that period of life when the
countenance and mind are in their bloom together, and the highborn
woman of England is the loveliest perhaps in the world. The
extravagance of my elder brother had dilapidated the provision
intended for the younger branches of his house. My habits, learned in
a sterner school, enabled me to retrieve their fortunes, and I thus
secured a new tie to their regards. Justice is essential to all
gratitude, and I found them ready to pay the tribute, to the full.

Among my first visits was one to my old friend and tutor, Vincent. I
found him still resident on his living; and with spirits, on which
time had wrought no change. Years had passed lightly over his head.
His eye was as vivid, and his mind as active as ever. He perhaps
stooped a little more, and his frame had lost something of that
elasticity of step which had so often tried my young nerves in our
ramblings over the hills. But he was the same cordial, animated, and
high-toned being, in all his feelings, that I had seen him from the
first hour. I found him in his garden, arranging, selecting, and
enjoying his flower-beds with all the spirit of a horticulturist. But
he apologised for what he termed, "its disorder." "For," said he, "I
have lost all my gardeners." On my looking doubtful, "All my girls,"
said he, "are gone; all married; all wedded to one neighbour or
another. Such is the way in which I have been left alone." I made my
condolences on his solitude, in due form. "Yet I am not quite
solitary," added the gay old man, "after all; or my solitude depends
upon myself. My girls are all married to our squires, honest fellows,
a