Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/270

 affair, which afforded much room for observation and conjecture.

"Lord have mercy on us!" cried Francis, "how could they two poor souls live so for twelve years, naked and starving? O, dear me, I used to think my lot hard, but to be sure, Sir, it was Paradise to what they had. What a shame for me to think of trouble!"

"True, Francis," replied Ferdinand, "if we could, when afflicted, but examine into many circumstances that tend to lighten our own calamities, and compare them with the more painful disadvantages which others labour under, we should learn patience and resignation under the evils we suffer; but the human mind is too apt to view their own situation, and that of others under the medium of error, make partial comparisons, and draw unjust conclusions to increase their own misery.

"It appears to me that the Gentleman and Lady are the owners of this Castle, and had their persecutor died before I came here, doubtless they must have been starved in that