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.

THE SECRET WITNESS.

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real, his intents were too lofty and comprehensive, as
well as too assiduously shrouded from profane inspection, for them to scan. In the latter, appearances were
merely calculated to mislead and not to enlighten.
In his youth he had been guilty of the usual excesses
incident to his age and character. These had disappeared and yielded place to a more regular and circumspect system of action. In the choice of his pleasures
he still exposed himself to the censure of the world.
Yet there was more of grossness and licentiousness in
the expression of his tenets, than in the tenets themselves. So far as temperance regards the maintenance
of health, no man adhered to its precepts with more
fidelity; but he esteemed some species of connection
with the other sex as venial, which mankind in general
are vehement in condemning.
In his intercourse with women he deemed himself
superior to the allurements of what is called love. His
inferences were drawn from a consideration of the physical propensities of a human being. In his scale of
enjoyments, the gratifications which belonged to these
were placed at the bottom. Yet he did not entirely disdain them, and, when they could be purchased without
the sacrifice of superior advantages, they were sufficiently acceptable.
His mistake on this head was the result of his ignorance. I-e had not hitherto met with a female worthy
of his confidence. Their views were limited and superficial, or their understandings were betrayed by the tenderness of their hearts. He found in them no intellectual energy, no superiority to what he accounted vulgar
prejudice, and no affinity with the sentiments which he
cherished with most devotion. Their presence had been
capable of exciting no emotion which he did not quickly
discover to be vague and sensual; and the uniformity of
his experience at length instilled into him a belief that
the intellectual constitution of females was essentially
defective. He denied the reality of that passion which
claimed a similitude or sympathy of minds as one of its
ingredients.
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