"retired, studious, peaceful, religious, useful "life" LARDNER'S only preferment was a morning lecture, which after some time he resigned, but persevered to old age in collecting testimonies to the truth of Christianity, with labour, and candour, and enlightened zeal. His sequestered life was soothed by the love of his kindred: upon surviving them, he writes, "Now all worldly friendships fade, "and are worth little! I cannot expect any "more such tenderness and affection, as have "been shown me by my father, mother, 66 brother, and sister, now no more in this " world." "I have discovered a thing very little "known, (said Gray the poet), which is, "that in one's whole life he can have but "one mother." It was kind in his biographer to publish the discovery to sons and daughters. THERE is a radical difference in the lot of those who have parents, and of orphans. * Charge by the Lord Bishop of St. David's, at his primary visi tation, 1804. Marmontel was happy in having for the guide of his youth a mother, whose wisdom and love he has gratefully recorded. Rousscau was unfortunate in losing the infantine openness, and confidence, and delight in loving and being beloved, which he tasted for a short time in his father's house. Cowper represents the early loss of a parent. Me the howling winds drive devious. Compass lost. Poor Savage thus bemoaned himself. No mother's care Shielded my infant innocence with prayer; The mind of a bashful orphan is as a fountain sealed, whose waters, in proper channels, might have become clear and fructifying, but sealed by bashfulness, they stagnate and putrify. Early affection, meeting with no correspondent object, is repressed and lost. He sees parental caresses and filial confidence, but never tastes them. A father's house—a child of the family, are words which he cannot appropriate. Of things. communicated by parents he is ignorant, and his ignorance makes him ashamed. He falls into habits of constraint, and silence, and withdrawment, and of musings tinged with envy. Repulsed and alienated, he wanders in dry places, like the unhappy spirit in the parable, seeking rest, and findeth none. A stranger in the land which gave him birth, but where he has not been rooted and domesticated, he hardly presumes to identify himself with his country, or to view its high mountains and surrounding ocean with the mind of a native poet. The portrait of a parent may for a moment the void in the mind of an orphan. fill up And while that face renews my filial grief, A momentary dream that thou art she*. The orphan is at times reminded of his parents in forms more impressive. In a dream he is admitted to communion with them. When fear and trembling have subsided, the soul expands as in a new element; her bands are loosed, the fountain is unsealed, filial affection flows in joy unutterable, and rests in love. He reveals all his secrets, and is humbled under parental regret for his wanderings, mild rebuke, needful advice, and solemn warning: and is at last consoled with Cowper's Poem on his Mother's Picture. a parent's blessing. Terrestrial passions drop, the heart is purified, and a purpose formed to be good, and to do good. He awakes with increased faith in things unseen. 66 BASHFULNESS, though repulsive, may become a bond of union. Isolated globules of quicksilver, when brought into contact coalesce, and the bashful when brought into contact with the like-minded, feel a mutual attraction: artless, unambitious, undesigning, and without coveteousness, they enjoy an easy, careless, unsuspicious intercourse. "Etre " avec les gens qu'on aime, cela suffit : rever, "leur parler, ne leur parler point, penser a "eaux, penser a des choses plus indifferentes " mais aupres d'eux, tout est egal*." "I loved "Mr. Somerville, (said Shenstone), because he "knew so perfectly what belonged to the flocci-nauci--nihili-pilification of money." Doctor Sanderson regretted that he had not gone to Venice as chaplain to the embassy, "For by that means I might have known 66 66 66 Father Paul, who, (the author of his life says), was born with a bashfulness as invin❝cible as I have found my own to be." * La Bruyere. THERE is a predilection for the writings as well as for the company of congenial minds. The perusal of bashful authors*, and of their lives, as that of Cowper by Hayley, makes readers of a similar temperament better acquainted with themselves. Acquainance with themselves will suggest the studies and the virtues which they are most likely to cultivate with success. A bashful man, whose mind is cultivated, thinks patiently on what he has read, and observed, and felt. He marks and ponders characters of virtue. He searches the Scriptures, not to display polemical or critical acumen, but to nourish the hidden life of the soul. He peruses a few evangelical authors, as Leighton, and Leechman, and Paschal, and Fenelon, to inhale divine love, and brotherly-kindness, and humility. He converses confidentially with a few Christians whose religion rests on God is love. On theories of redemption he does not speculate, * A friend remarked that Horace seems to have been bashful. He seems to have examined and known himself. He refused preferment. He indulged retirement. He was often very angry with himself, and with others. He liked easy and familiar company. |