Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 4).djvu/225

 Nursed in vice and dissipation, the seeds of virtue were never nourished in her bosom, and the wretch, to whose care she had fallen at an early age, had doubtless taught her but one lesson, 'to make the most of her beauty," yet it is certain (thought he) that she loved me; that she bore adversity with sweetness and patience, and but for the insidious arts of a cruel spoiler, the dormant passions, which accelerated her ruin, for gaiety and dress, might have been buried in the duties of a wife and mother:

But a weak mind, and the taint of early dissipation, aided the work of a cruel enemy; and the progressive vice that marked his conduct, led him at last to the commission of the most horrid crimes.

From those dreadful objects he turned his eyes to contemplate and admire the exemplary conduct of his amiable friends, and most fervently offered his prayers to Heaven, that they might enjoy the happiness their virtues so well deserved; to those friends he returned,