FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>  
Every thing, every thing-- except that I am still dear to you. _Vice._ Officers, you know your prisoners! remove them, their sight is painful, (_the prior is conducted away by the guards; Veronica is leading off when Josepha addresses her_) _Jose._ Lady-- you felt for me-- you pitied me; I too can pity and feel for you-- if I have influence, you shall find mercy. _Ve._ Josepha!-- angel, your prayers-- oh! pray for me: pray for me! [Exit with guards. _Venoni._ My joy-- my amazement-- but oh! let me fly to rescue-- follow me, my friends-- there is a poor old man-- a captive.---- _Vice._ Be calm, dear youth; Lodovico is in safety: in guiding us to your dungeon, this worthy friar discovered and released him. _Venoni._ My friend, my preserver! how can I reward---- _Vice._ If my power-- if my whole fortune can recompense---- _Mi._ I have preserved innocence, I have detected vice, I have served the cause of humanity: I find a sufficient reward in the feelings of my own heart. But, my good lords, let us quit this scene of horror: suffer me, my son, to unite your hand with Josepha's at the altar; then retiring to some more virtuous fraternity---- _Vice._ What, father? after such experience of a convent's interior will you again---- _Mi._ Ah! forbear, my lord, nor brand a whole profession with disgrace, because some few of its professors have been faulty-- tis not the habit but the heart; tis not the name he bears but the principles he has imbibed, which makes man the blessing or reproach of human nature. Virtue and vice reside equally in courts and convents; and a heart may beat as purely and as nobly beneath the monk's scapulary, as beneath the ermine of the judge, or the breast-plate of the warrior. _Venoni._ The good friar says right, my friend; then let us scorn to bow beneath the force of vulgar prejudice, and fold to our hearts as brethren in one large embrace men of all ranks, all faiths, and all professions. The monk and the soldier, the protestant and the papist, the mendicant and the prince; let us believe them all alike to be virtuous till we know them to be criminal; and engrave on our hearts, as the first and noblest rule of mortal duty and of human justice, those blessed words. "BE TOLERANT!" * * * * * * * * * Errors and Inconsistencies: The Novice Spellings were changed only when there was an unambiguous error
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   >>  



Top keywords:
beneath
 

Josepha

 

Venoni

 
reward
 

virtuous

 

friend

 

hearts

 

guards

 

reside

 

nature


Errors

 
blessing
 

reproach

 
TOLERANT
 
equally
 

Virtue

 

convents

 

purely

 

blessed

 

courts


imbibed

 

professors

 

faulty

 

changed

 

profession

 
disgrace
 

Novice

 

Spellings

 

principles

 

Inconsistencies


scapulary

 

embrace

 
criminal
 

brethren

 

unambiguous

 

prince

 

soldier

 

mendicant

 

papist

 

professions


faiths
 
prejudice
 

mortal

 

warrior

 

breast

 
protestant
 

ermine

 
vulgar
 
engrave
 

noblest