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. 9
openly oppose my father's wishes, held m.yself entirely
free to obey any new impulse which circumstances might
produce. My mother (so let me still call Mrs. Fielder)
fully concurred in my views.
You are acquainted, my friend, with many events of
my early life. MAost of those not connected with my
father and his nephew, I have often related. At present,
therefore, I shall omit all collateral and contemporary
incidents, and confine myself entirely to those connected
with these two persons.
My father, on the death of his wife, retired from business, and took a house in an airy and secluded situation.
-Iis household consisted of a housekeeper and two or three
servants, and apartments were always open for his son.
~My brother's temper grew more unmanageable as he
increased in years. My father's views with regard to
him were such as parental foresight and discretion commonly dictate. I1e wished him to acquire all possible
advantages of education, and then to betake himself to
some liberal profession, in which he might obtain honour
as well as riches. This sober scheme by no means suited
the restless temper of the youth. It was his maxim
that all restraints were unworthy of a lad of spirit, and
that it was far more wise to spend freely what his father
had painfully acquired, than, by the same plodding and
toilsome arts, to add to the heap.
I scarcely know how to describe my feelings in relation
to this young man. My affection for him was certainly
without that tenderness which a good brother is sure to
excite. I do not remember a single direct kindness that
I ever received from him; but I remember innumerable
ill offices and contempts. Still, there was some inexplicable charm in the mere tie of kindred, which made me
more deplore his errors, exult in his talents, rejoice in his
success, and take a deeper interest in his concerns than
in those of any other person.
As he advanced in age, I had new cause for my zeal
in his behalf. My father's temper was easy and flexible;
my brother was at once vehement and artful. Frank's
arguments and upbraidings created in his father an unnatural awe, an apprehension and diffidence in thwart