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194 which, if timely fanned, gave promise of emitting a light such as, if cherished, would continually gather strength, and, with increasing lustre, diffuse the rays of virtue over his future days.

Saddened and afflicted, overcharged with one prevailing sentiment, he repaired to the capital, and soon after embarked for India.

In the pious and timid fears of Rosilia, how blamable did she conceive herself to be for that involuntary predilection for one, whose character could not stand unimpaired the test of a virtuous scrutiny. Douglas, on the contrary, swayed by feelings widely opposite, by the ideas he entertained of the transcendant merit of the object he loved, far from seeking to abate the fire that consumed him, sought by every effort to keep it alive in all its force.

Temporary difficulties, he reflected, might have opposed him, such as his want of fortune; but what seemed to be the most probable, and, with a compunction amounting to anguish, he felt self-convicted, were the irregularities of his past life, represented, doubtless, to Rosilia, under circumstances of exaggeration. These, combined with her unconquerable timidity, he felt assured had influenced her conduct towards him, and had presented obstacles which he feared no time could