Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/47

 when we should attain to manhood, one of his most faithful and intelligent dependants. I enjoyed, equally with him, all the essential benefits of education: there were certain accomplishments from which I was excluded, from the belief that they were unsuitable to my rank and station; I was permitted to acquire others, which, had she been actuated by true discernment, she would perhaps have discovered to be far more incompatible with a servile station. In proportion as my views were refined and enlarged by history and science, I was likely to contract a thirst of independence, and an impatience of subjection and poverty.

"When the period of childhood and youth was past, it was thought proper to send her son to improve his knowledge and manners by a residence on the Continent. This young man was endowed with splendid abilities; his errors were the growth of his condition: all the expedients that maternal solicitude and wisdom could suggest were employed to render him an useful citizen. Perhaps this wisdom was attested by the large share of excellence which he really possessed; and that his character was not unblemished, proved only that no exertions could preserve him from the vices that are inherent in wealth and rank, and which flow from the spectacle of universal depravity.

"As to me, it would be folly to deny that I had benefited by my opportunities of improvement. I fulfilled the expectation of my mistress in one respect—I was deeply imbued with affection for her son, and reverence for herself. Perhaps the force of education was evinced in those particulars, without reflecting any credit on the directors of it; those might merit the name of defects which were regarded by them as accomplishments: my unfavourable qualities, like those of my master, were imputed to my condition; though, perhaps, the difference was advantageous to me, since the vices of servitude are less hateful than those of tyranny.

"It was resolved that I should accompany my master in his travels, in quality of favourite domestic. My principles, whatever might be their rectitude, were harmonious and flexible: I had devoted my life to the service of my patron; I had formed conceptions of what was really