Page:Life memoirs & pedigree of Thomas Hamilton Dickson.pdf/26

 for it was not man's original purpose to employ his time in this world like a mud-rake to pull all into him, and endeavour, to the utmost of his power, to gain, it matters not who are the losers. Society, or the base of society, is formed mutually: the one depends on the other. I believe all the evils proceed from our selfish nature, and a great many wish to be happy at the expense and misery of millions.

When I had just emerged into my teens, being healthy and of a warm temperament, lisping love stole gently o'er my soul, while my heart heaved with emotions soft and tender as the evening zephyrs that gently wipes the tear from the flowerets fair, when the goddess of night gladdens up the vale with joy and delight, while rapture lends the magic wand to every object all around. Beauty then has charms doubly attractive to those that are of a contemplative disposition. I being rather of a reflective and retired habit, the more I pondered how to escape from the silver fetters of love, I found my fetters more rivetted and secure, and I languished in pain, if not in despair, without one of the dear creatures to set me at liberty. Wherever I turned my attention every pretty face made a deep impression upon me, and if they smiled, my bosom heaved with emotions that cannot be well described, and the blood rushed into my face. My countenance became cheerful, almost happy, and I was ready to exclaim, "O pity, pity, charming nymph, and wound the victim not again, with those eyes so full of darts, that penetrate my very heart―a