The novels of Charles Brockden Brown, consisting of Wieland;or, The transformation. Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the year 1793. Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a sleep-walker. Jane Talbot. Ormond; or, The secret witness. Clara Howard; or, The enthusiasm of love. With a memoir of the author.

JANE TALBOT. 221
deal of ridicule. But he did not mind it. I thought
him, and everybody else thought him, a most amiable and
engaging youth, though only twelve or thirteen years old.'Tis impossible to say what might have happened had
he not gone with his mother to Europe; or rather, it is
likely, I think, that our fates, had he stayed among us,
would in time have been united. But he went away when
I was scarcely fourteen. At parting, I remember, we
shed a great many tears and exchanged a great many
kisses, and promises not to forget. And that promise
never was broken by me. He was always dear to my
remembrance.
Time has only improved all the graces of the boy. I
will not conceal from you, Mary, that nothing but a preoccupied heart has been an obstacle to his wishes. If
that impediment had not existed, my reverence for his
worth, my gratitude for his tenderness, would have made
me comply. I will even go further; I will say to you,
though my regard to his happiness will never suffer me
to say it to him, that if three years more pass away, and
I am fully assured that your brother's absence will be
perpetual, and Cartwright's happiness is still in my hands,
-that then-I possibly may-But I am sure that, before
that time, his hand and his heart will be otherwise disposed of. Most sincerely shall I rejoice at the last event.
All are well here. My friend is as good-natured and
affectionate as ever, and sings as delightfully and plays
as adroitly. She humours me with all my favourite airs,
twice a day. We have no strangers; no impertinents
to intermeddle in our conversations and mar our enjoyments.
You know what turn my studies have taken, and what
books I have brought with me.'Tis remarkable what
unlooked-for harvests arise from small and insignificant
germs. My affections have been the stimulants to my
curiosity.'What was it induced me to procure maps and
charts and explore the course of the voyager over seas
and round capes? There was a time when these objects
were wholly frivolous and unmeaning in my eyes; but
now they gain my whole attention.
When I found that my happiness was embarked with
19*