Page:Honest debtor, or, The virtuous man struggling with, rising superior to, and overcoming misfortune (1).pdf/7

( 7 ) beauty: but who can ever equal thy worth, thy tenderneſs, thy charming temper, thy good ſenſe and thy amiable candour?'

'In this addreſs, his eyes, raiſed to heaven, as if looking for her ſpirit, were ſuff- fed with tears. "Impute not, he continued, "impute not to her any thing that I have done. The innocent cauſe of my miſfortune, ſhe never even ſuſpected it. And in the midſt of the illuſions with which ſhe was ſurrounded, ſhe was far from perceiving the abyſs to which I was leading her over a path ſtrewed with flowers Enamoured of her before I married her, more enamoured after poſſeſſion, I thought I could never do enough to make her happy, and compared to my ardent love for her, her timed tenderneſs, and her ſenſibility, which were tempered by modeſty, had an appearance of coldneſs. To make myſelf beloved as much as I loved her-Shall I declare it? I wanted to intoxicate her with happineſs. Good heavens! what paſſion ought not a man to indulge with diſtruſt, if it be dangerous, to devote himſelf too much to the deſire of pleaſing his wife.

An elegant houſe, expenſive furniture, what ever faſhion and taſte could procure in the article of dreſs, to flatter in young minds the propenſities of ſelf-love, by affording new ſplendour or new attractions to beauty; all this anticipated my wife's deſires, and poured in upon her, as it were, ſpontaneouſ-