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196 as it were, upon existence, to look to the past with sorrow, the present with weariness, the future with loathing? and when has such pause been made but in youth? The difference between past grief and past joy is this—that if the grief recurred again to-day, we should feel it as bitterly as ever; but if the joy returned, we should no longer have the same delight in it.

There are many paths to lead to this (as the little matrimonial maps call it) rock of disappointment. Emily had trodden but one—it was short and bitter enough—that of unrequited affection. Early solitude had increased the power of imagination—early indulgence had weakened her moral, as much as delicate health had relaxed her physical energy. Love, to a girl who has lived secluded from the world, is a very different thing from love to a girl who has lived in society: sentiment will be the Scylla of the one, as vanity will be the Charybdis of the other. The keen feeling, the high-toned romance of Emily's character, had she been more accustomed to the harsh realities of life, or been placed in circumstances where exertion was a necessity, would have been sweet and kindly