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Rh an issue so precarious! A superintending Providence! he scoffed at the idea; it involved, in his opinion, the utmost absurdity. Religion he affirmed to be nothing more than a code of reasoning calculated to frighten children and awe the weak-minded.

When acting in concert with each other, the natural volatility of Sir Howard was moderated by the sly, designing circumspection of Melliphant. Sir Howard possessed ingenuity and cleverness, but his understanding was superficial, light, and frivolous; Melliphant united a vivid fancy to strong conceptions. The one was too deficient in depth of judgment to conceal his artifices; the other by the most consummate art could completely act the hypocrite.

Though it was the aim of Sir Howard ever to appear the polished gentleman, yet he was often betrayed into a littleness of thought, an illiberality, the offspring of narrow prejudice; whilst the other, in his apparent humility and disengagedness from the affairs of life, manifested at times an enlargement and comprehension of intellect unbounded.

Manifold was the superiority of Melliphant over Sir Howard, whose predominating foibles, to sum them up, evidently originated in an inordinate self-conceit.

In his frequent visits to the De Brookes, after the introduction to them of Melliphant, who usually accompanied him, when Rosilia, reflective as was her disposition, was involuntarily led to draw comparisons between them with respect to their general