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.

THIIE ENTIIUSIAS OF LOVE.

10'9

is unattainable and what you have voluntarily given up,
is contemptible, and, indeed, criminal. You have profited but little by the lessons of that religion you profess,
if you see not the impiety of despair, and the necessity
of changing your conduct. You have indeed fallen into
a very gross error with regard to your friend. In some
respects you have treated him in an inhuman manner."
"Good Heavens, Mrs. Valentine! in what respect have
I been inhuman?"
" Have you not detailed to me the contents of the letter
which you left behind you at Abingdon? In that letter
have you not assured him that your heart was broken?
that you expected and wished for death?-wishes that
sprung from the necessity there was of renouncing his
love. Have you not given him reason to suppose that
you are enduring all the evils of penury and neglect?
That you are languishing in some obscure corner, unknown, neglected, forgotten, and despised by all mankind? Have you not done this?"
"Alas! it is too true."
"Not to mention that this picture was by no means
justified by the circumstances in which you left Abingdon,
and in which you could not but expect to pass the winter,
amidst all the comforts which my character, my station
in society, my friends, my fortune, and my friendship,
must bestow; not to mention these things, which rendered
your statement to him untrue, what must have been the
influence of this picture upon the feelings of that generous
youth? Can you not imagine his affliction?"
" Oh. yes, indeed I can. I was wrong; I now see my
error. I believed that I should not have survived to this
hour; I wanted to cut off every hope, every possibility,
of his union with me."
"And do you think that by that letter this end was
answered? Do you not perceive that Stanley's sympathy for you must have been infinitely increased by that
distressful picture? that his resolution to find you out
in your retreat, and compel you to be happy, would receive tenfold energy? You imagine yourself to have
resigned him to Miss Howard; but your letter and your
flight could only bind him by stronger ties to yourself.