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.

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ORMOND; OR,

to improve the advantage which his anti-nuptial creed
derived from the unsettled state of her opinions. He
was not unaware, likewise, of the auspicious and indispensable co-operation of love. If this advocate were
wanting in her bosom, all his efforts would be in vain.
If this pleader were engaged in his behalf, he entertained
no doubts of his ultimate success. He conceived that
her present situation, all whose comforts were the fruits
of his beneficence, and which afforded her no'other subject of contemplation than himself, was as favourable
as possible to the growth of this passion.
Constantia was acquainted with his wishes. She
could not fail to see that she might speedily be called
upon to determine a momentous question. Her own
sensations and the character of Ormond were, therefore,
scrutinized with suspicious attention. Marriage could
be justified in her eyes only by community of affections
and opinions. She might love without the sanction of
her judgment; but, while destitute of that sanction, she
would never suffer it to sway her conduct.
Ormond was imperfectly known. What knowledge
she had gained flowed chiefly from his own lips, and was
therefore unattended with certainty. What portion of
deceit or disguise was mixed with his conversation could
be known only by witnessing his actions with her own
eyes and comparing his testimony with that of others.
He had embraced a multitude of opinions which appeared to her erroneous. Till these were rectified, and
their conclusions were made to correspond, wedlock was
improper. Some of these obscurities might be dispelled,
and some of these discords be resolved into harmony, by
time. Meanwhile, it was proper to guard the avenues
to her heart and screen herself from self-delusion.
There was no motive to conceal her reflections on this
topic from her father. Mr. Dudley discovered, without
her assistance, the views of Ormond. His daughter's
happiness was blended with his own. He lived but in
the consciousness of her tranquillity. Her image was
seldom absent from his eyes, and never fiom his thoughts.
The emotions which it excited sprung but in part from the
relationship of father. It was gratitude and veneration