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310 know, my dear, acknowledges none; and the circumstances under which he acted, the feelings he habitually cherished, were paramount, and the first and great commandment of life,, would in such a case have extinguished even the first dictate of nature, ."

"That may be", replied she; "in his individual case, I am inclined with all my heart to hope and believe; but I fear, lest in avoiding the fault of an uncharitable judgment, we incur a danger of an opposite kind."

"How or what danger can there be in an excess of charity? Often have I heard your reverend and truly venerable father maintain, that the whole of Religion was comprehended in that one word. And I have read also in his favourite book, the Bible,—to which he always referred in questions of this nature,—that 'Love is the fulfilling of the law.'"

"And well I remember", she replied, "how affectionately my dear father used to dwell upon those words; the sentence was indeed familiar to his lips, but not more so than the sentiment was manifested in his life. He felt, he thought, he feared, he practised it."

"True", responded De Brooke, "benevolence with him was beneficence; and indeed I also