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 SECRET WITNESS.

77

place, the attributes of his mind. His professional and
household maxims were not of inconsiderable importance, but they were subordinate considerations. In the
poverty of his discoursecand ideas, she quickly found
reasons for determining her conduct.
Marriage she had but little considered, as it is in itself. What are the genuine principles of that relation,
and what conduct with respect to it is prescribed to-rational beings by their duty, she had not hitherto investigated. But she was not backward to inquire what were
the precepts of duty in her own particular case. She
knew herself to be young; she was sensible of the daily
enlargement of her knowledge: every day contributed
to rectify some error or confirm some truth. These
benefits she owed to her situation, which, whatever were
its evils, gave her as much freedom from restraint as is
consistent with the state of human affairs. Her poverty
fettered her exertions and circumscribed her pleasures.
Poverty; therefore, was an evil, and the reverse of poverty to be desired. But riches were not barren of constraint, and its advantages might be purchased at too
dear a rate.
Allowing that the wife is enriched by marriage, how
humiliating were the conditions annexed to it in the present case! The company of one with whom we have
no sympathy, nor sentiments in common, is, of all species of solitude, the most loathsome and dreary. The
nuptial life is attended with peculiar aggravations, since
the tie is infrangible, and the choice of a more suitable
companion, if such a one shoul.d offer, is forever precluded. The hardships of wealth are not incompensated
by some benefits; but these benefits, false and hollow
as they are, cannot be obtained by marriage. Her
acceptance of Balfour would merely aggravate her indigence.
Now she was at least mistress of the product of her
own labour. Her tasks were toilsome, but the profits,
though slender, were sure, and she administered her little
property in what manner she pleased. Marriage would
annihilate this power. Henceforth she would be bereft
even of personal freedom. So far from possessing pro7*