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.

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proper to forbear exciting any hopes in me. Should his
darling purpose be defeated, he meant immediately to
return. Should he meet with success, and his present
views, as to the preference due to America as a place of
abode, continue, he meant to exert his influence with the
elder and younger Clara (for his cousin had left behind
him one child, a daughter, now in the bloom of youth) to
induce them to emigrate. In every case, however, he
was resolved the farmer-boy should not be forgotten.
His projects were crowned, though not immediately,
with all the success to be desired. The pair whom so
many years and so wide an interval had severed were
now united, and the picture which Mr. Howard drew of
the American climate and society obtained his wife's
consent to cross the ocean.
"My dear Philip," said Mr. Howard to me, after relating these particulars, "I have a pleasure in this meeting with you, that I cannot describe. You are the son,
not of my instincts, but of my affections and my reason.
Formerly I gave you my advice, my instructions and
company, only because I had nothing more to give. Now
I am rich, and will take care that you shall never be
again exposed to the chances of poverty. Though opulent, I do not mean to be idle. He that knows the true
use of riches never can be rich enough; but my occupation will leave me leisure enough for enjoyment; and
you, who will share my labour, shall partake liberally
of the profit. For this end, I mean to admit you as an
inseparable member of my family, and to place you, in
every respect, on the footing of my son.
"My family consists of my wife and her daughter.
The latter is now twenty-three, and you will be able to
form a just conception of her person and mind, when I
tell you that in both respects she is exactly what her
mother was at her age. There is one particular, indeed,
in which the resemblance is most striking. She estimates the characters of others, not by the specious but
delusive considerations of fortune or birth, but by the intrinsic qualities of heart and head. In her marriagechoice, which yet remains to be made, she will forget
ancestry and patrimony, and think only of the morals
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