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 ENTHUSIASM OF LOVE.

33

him again. The first request he made me ashamed of
ever having urged, by showing me that I had sisters who
needed my protection, and for whose sake I ought to
labour to attain independence. His own destiny would
be regulated by future events, but he deemed it most
probable that we should never see each other more.
The melancholy inspired by this separation from one
who was not only my best but my sole friend was not dissipated, like other afflictions of youth, by the lapse of a
few months. Being accompanied with absolute uncertainty as to his condition and place of residence, it produced the same effect that his death would have done.
This melancholy, though no variety of scene could have
effaced it, was, no doubt, aggravated by the cheerless
solitude in which I was placed. The rustic life was
wholly unsuitable to my temper and taste. My active
mind panted for a nobler and wider sphere of action;
and, after enduring the inconveniences of my sequestered
situation for some time, I at length bound myself apprentice to a watchmaker in the city. My genius was always
turned towards mechanics, and I could imagine no art
more respectable or profitable than this.
Shortly after my removal to this city, I became acquainted with a young man by the name of Wilmot.
There were many points of resemblance between us. We
were equally fond of study and reflection, and the same
literary pursuits happened to engage our passions. Hence
a cordial and incessant intercourse took place between us.
I suppose you know nothing of Wilmot. Yet possibly
you have heard something of the family. They were of
no small note in Delaware. Not natives of the country.
The father was an emigrant, who brought a daughter and
this son with him, when children, from Europe. He purchased a delightful place on the Brandywine, built a house,
laid out gardens, and passed a merry life among horses,
dogs, and boon-companions. He died, at length, by a
fall from his horse, when his daughter Mary was sixteen
years of age and the son four or five years younger.
These children had been trained up in the most luxurious manner. The girl had been her own mistress, and
the mistress of her father's purse, from a very early age.