Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 2).djvu/146

 thoroughly of the Lady's motives for secluding herself from the world, and advise her to commune with her own heart deliberately and seriously, and not from a temporary disgust seek to find peace and happiness in a Convent; the mind should have shaken off worldly considerations, and have no objects to regret before it is fitted to devote all its faculties to religious duties. For yourself, you have dear connexions, you are a father, you have no right to quit the station in which Providence has placed you, and I hope are determined by active duties to deserve, if you cannot obtain, happiness. The one is in your own power, and if you are disappointed in your wishes and expectations, be assured it is for wise and good reasons calculated for your real benefit, though short-sighted mortals judging only of the present, ungratefully repine in those moments when they ought to be most thankful."

"My good Father," said Ferdinand, with a sigh, "I bow to the justice of your observations; but the human heart is refractory,