Page:Honest debtor, or, The virtuous man struggling with, rising superior to, and overcoming misfortune (2).pdf/2

 THE

HONEST DEBTOR.

An honest Man's the noblest Work of God.

With Pleasure Heaven itself surveys, A brave man struggling with the storms of fate.

To overcome adversity and brave death itself, is the effort of a noble resolution But there is still a species of courage which I think less frequently to be met with in the world, but not less admirable. I shall give an instance of it. "In a journey to Holland, I was recom mended to a rich merchant of the name of Odelman; a man as liberal in his house as he was avaricious in his commerce. I his counting house, and at his table, I found a young Frenchman of a prepossessing ap- pearance and uncommon modesty of deport ment, He was known in Holland by n other name than that of Oliver. ' In vain Odelman, who was a man of plain manners, treated him like a friend and al most as an equal; the young man, with certain respectful dignity, always kept at proper distance: you would have said, a that of a son ever attentive to the will d his father, who was serving for love.