Strona 494 z 817

This is not the sort of happiness which a man would in general

wish to owe to his wife; but where other powers of entertainment

are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such

as are given.

Elizabeth, however, had never been blind to the impropriety of

her father's behaviour as a husband. She had always seen it with

pain; but respecting his abilities, and grateful for his

affectionate treatment of herself, she endeavoured to forget what

she could not overlook, and to banish from her thoughts that

continual breach of conjugal obligation and decorum which, in

exposing his wife to the contempt of her own children, was so

highly reprehensible. But she had never felt so strongly as now

the disadvantages which must attend the children of so unsuitable

a marriage, nor ever been so fully aware of the evils arising

from so ill-judged a direction of talents--talents which, rightly

used, might at least have preserved the respectability of his

daughters, even if incapable of enlarging the mind of his wife.