So singular, indeed, are my
feelings, and I have endeavoured not to catch factitious ones, that
after having been fatigued with the sight of insipid grandeur and
the slavish ceremonies that with cumberous pomp supplied the place
of domestic affections, I have turned to some other scene to relieve
my eye by resting it on the refreshing green every where scattered
by nature. I have then viewed with pleasure a woman nursing her
children, and discharging the duties of her station with, perhaps,
merely a servant maid to take off her hands the servile part of the
household business. I have seen her prepare herself and children, with
only the luxury of cleanliness, to receive her husband, who
returning weary home in the evening found smiling babes and a clean
hearth. My heart has loitered in the midst of the group, and has
even throbbed with sympathetic emotion, when the scraping of the
well known foot has raised a pleasing tumult.
Whilst my benevolence has been gratified by contemplating this
artless picture, I have thought that a couple of this description,
equally necessary and independent of each other, because each
fulfilled the respective duties of their station, possessed all that
life could give.- Raised sufficiently above abject poverty not to be
obliged to weigh the consequence of every farthing they spend, and
having sufficient to prevent their attending to a frigid system of
oeconomy, which narrows both heart and mind. I declare, so vulgar
are my conceptions, that I know not what is wanted to render this
the happiest as well as the most respectable situation in the world,
but a taste for literature, to throw a little variety and interest
into social converse, and some superfluous money to give to the
needy and to buy books.
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