Elizabeth Hamilton

“ The road which winded along the foot of the hills, on the north side of the Glen, owed as little to art as any country road in the kingdom. It was very narrow, and much encumbered by loose stones, brought down from the hills above, by the winter torrents.
Mrs Mason and Mary were so enchanted by the change of scenery, which was incessantly unfolding to their view, that they made no complaints of the slowness of their progress, nor did they much regret being obliged to stop a few minutes at a time, where they found so much to amuse and to delight them. ”

“ Mrs Mason thanked them, and presented each with a ribbon as an encouragement for good behaviour; assuring them at the same time, that they would through life find happiness the reward of usefulness. "Alas," said Mrs Morison, "they must be obliged to work: poor things, they have nothing else to depend on!"
"And on what can they depend so well as on their own exertions?" replied Mrs Mason; "let them learn to excel in what they do, and look to the blessing of God upon their labours, and they may then pity the idle and the useless." ”

“ I rejoice at least that I shall now have an opportunity of knowing who and what your husband is; for I confess that"—
"And what should you know of any one, at Gowan-brae?" cried Mrs Mollins. "I am sure if it was not for seeing the Court Calendar at Mount Flinders, I should not have known the names of above twenty people in my life. But you have such a hatred to strangers, and such a prejudice against any one that is in the least genteel, that I believe you would rather have seen me married to a shoemaker than to a gentleman." ”

“ To yield to those who, in their turn, yield to us, is an easy task, and would neither exercise our patience, nor forbearance, nor fortitude; and are not these most precious virtues?"
"How like that is to my good mother!" cried Mary. "O, Mrs Mason, if I had always such a friend as you beside me, to put me in mind of my duty, and to support me in performing it, I think I should never sink under it, as I sometimes do." ”

“ Mollins acknowledges that he is already embarrassed. He will soon be more so: they will live beyond their income, in order to keep up with the gay and giddy fools whose steps they follow. Bell's beauty, her levity, her want of fixed and solid principle;—O, Mrs Mason, what a shocking view does it present! I see her ruin before me. Night and day it haunts my imagination. A foreboding voice incessantly whispers, that if she ever returns to her father's house, she will return dishonoured and disgraced. ”

“ No unsuitable or incongruous marriage ever yet took place, but where there was some wrong bias in the mind, some disease lurking in the imagination, which inflamed the vanity in that very way which the marriage promised to gratify. Had Bell's passion for wealth been born of avarice, she would have despised this Mollins: but a man who lived among lords and ladies, was in her eyes irresistible. It is this propensity that will be her ruin. Yes, my good friend, I see it plainly. Their vanity is greater than their fortune can support. ”

“ Jenny desired me not to vex myself, for that it was easy to say that the screen only fell by accident, and that my lord would be a good boy, and say that he saw it fall, and that the lace which hung on it fell into the fire; "and then what can my lady say, you know?" cried she, perfectly satisfied with the arrangement.
Her story might do very well, I said, provided there was none to witness against us.
"And who can witness against us?" said she, "has not the door been shut all the time? who then can witness against us?" ”

“ Mrs Mason, though she had not the eye of a painter, or connoisseur, enjoyed in perfection the pleasures of taste, in as far as they arise from feeling and observation; and as she considered all the beauties of nature as proofs of the divine beneficence, the contemplation of them always served to increase her confidence in the protection of the Almighty, of whose immediate presence they were to her a sacred pledge. To a person thus disposed, every change of season has some peculiar charm, and every object appears placed in a point of view, in which all that is lovely is seen to most advantage. ”

“ You shall read my sister's letters, and judge for yourself."
"I shall read them afterwards," said Mrs Mason; "but wish you in the mean time to give me some account of what has happened, that I may be prepared to speak upon it with your father. Where did your sister meet with Captain Mollins? Who is he? what do you know of his character, or what did she know of it? It is of those particulars that I long to be informed."
"It is," replied Mary, "in her intimacy with Mrs Flinders, that all our vexations have originated. Yet Mrs Flinders meant no harm to Bell, but the contrary. ”

“ If these witness against us, what does it signify whether my lady be pleased or no? I hope I shall never be so wicked as to tell a wilful falsehood."
"Wicked, indeed!" repeated Jenny, very angrily,—"Where have you lived all your days I wonder, that you can talk such nonsense! as if servants must not always do such things if they would keep their place? I know more of the world than you do, Mrs Wisdom, and can tell you, that you will not find many masters or mistresses that do not like better to be imposed upon than to know the truth, when it does not happen to be agreeable. ”

“ And was not the father of this Flinders transported for hen-stealing? and did he not marry a planter's widow, and defraud her children, who, for aught I know, are now begging their bread, while this Flinders, and his cousin, who was a broken milliner, are revelling in the fortune that should by right have been theirs!"
"O dear sir, you have such a memory for these things. But you know that nobody minds them but yourself; and that all the great people court Mr and Mrs Flinders, both in town and country."
"Yes, yes," said Mr Stewart, "the vulgar of all ranks are mean and selfish. ”

“ This is my great difficulty."
"Did you ever know of a child complain of being punished, when sensible that the punishment was just?" replied Mr Gourlay. "No; there is a sense of justice implanted in the human mind, which shews itself even in the first dawn of reason, and would always operate, were it not stifled by the injudicious management of parents, who do not punish according to justice, but according to caprice. Of this the schoolmaster who follows a well-digested plan, will never be guilty. ”

“ My daughter will be one of the many victims to the epidemical frenzy, which has of late spread through our country, the desire of shining in a sphere above our own. People who labour under this disease, mistake show for splendour, and splendour for happiness; and, while their pulses throb with the fever of vanity, think no sacrifice too great, for procuring a momentary gratification to its insatiable thirst. ”

“ Mrs Morison was a neat orderly person, and liked to see her house and children what she called well red up: But her notions of what was necessary to comfort, fell far short of Mrs Mason's; neither had she been accustomed to that thorough-going cleanliness, which is rather the fruit of habitual attention, than of periodical labour; and which, like the pure religion, that permits not the accumulation of unrepented sins upon the conscience, makes holiday of every day in the week. Mrs Morison was a stranger to the pride which scorns instruction. ”

“ Is it not heartless?"
"So she will admit when she is herself a mother," replied Mrs Mason.—The rest of her speech was lost; for from the bark of joy which the dogs began to send forth, Mr Stewart perceived that his sons were near at hand, and eagerly flew out to meet them. They were already folded in Mary's arms, and sprung to their father with all the alacrity of confiding love. ”

“ Mrs Flinders, indeed, told her, that genteel people never paid in ready money, and that many young ladies never paid their bills at all, or entertained a thought of paying them, till they were married: but Bell's early prejudices upon this subject had been so strongly impressed, that she could not easily reconcile herself to this new doctrine. Her pride was mortified at being obliged to implore the forbearance of tradespeople, at whose expense her vanity had been fed; but the dread of exposing to her father the extent of her extravagance, compelled her to submit to the mortification. ”

“ But I wished to raise my wife and bairns above their station; and God, who saw the pride of my heart, has punished me."
"If you only risked your own," said Mrs Mason, "your ambition was blameless, and your exertions laudable."
"Alas! Madam," returned William, "no man that enters into what they call speculations in business, can say that he risks only his own: he risks the money of his friends, and of his neighbours, and of all who, from confidence in his honesty, give him trust or credit. ”

“ My leaving the castle was now a thing fixed and certain: and the only consolation I could receive in the view of it, was from a knowledge of carrying with me the good-will of all that knew me. I was shocked at the thoughts of being thrown into the world without a friend; but I was reminded by dear Miss Osburne, that the friendship of man is but a bending reed, in comparison of the protection of Him, who is, to all that put their trust in Him, a tower of strength. ”

“ My lady looked at Jackson, who was dressing out her toilet, and had stopped to listen to Molly's speech. "Do you think she can be spared, Jackson?" said my lady. "Indeed," replied Jackson, "if you ask me, my lady, I certainly do not think she can."
"If you please, my lady," said Molly, "the new housemaid says she will think nothing of doing all the work to give a ploy to poor Betty: the dairy-maid too will help her; there is not a servant in the house that would not, she is so obliging and so good-natured a lassie." ”

“ Jackson was very kind to me, and assured me that my Lady would, when left to herself, come round, but that there would be no good in speaking to her at present. There was indeed no good in it; for all that Miss Osburne said in my defence, only made her more positive in asserting the truth of Jenny's story: and when my amiable friend would have questioned the child, she helped him to all his answers; and it is surprising how soon children can observe who is on their side, and how soon they can learn to practise the little arts of cunning and deceit. ”

“ Do you not think that each of these boys would, if properly trained, find as much amusement in works that would tend to ornament the village, or in cultivating a few shrubs and flowers to adorn the walls of their own cottages, as they now appear to find in mischief and destruction? Do you not think, that that girl of yours might have been so brought up, as to have had more pleasure in cleaning a window of her father's house, than in bedaubing it with mud? Allowing the pleasure of being mischievously active, and the pleasure of being usefully active, to be at present equal ”

“ It should therefore be his first object, to train his pupils to habits of order and subordination, not by means of terror, but by a firmness which is not incompatible with kindness and affection."
"But how," said Morison, "without punishment, can order and subordination be enforced? and will not punishment beget terror, and terror beget aversion? I should think that a severe schoolmaster never could be beloved, and I fear a lenient one would never be obeyed. ”

“ Mrs Mason perceiving that his daughters were now qualified to succeed her in the charge of the school, at length acceded to the wishes of her friends, and took possession of the pretty cottage, which had been built for her by Lord Longlands, in the midst of the pleasure grounds at Hill Castle. In that sweet retreat she tranquilly spent the last days of a useful life; looking to the past with gratitude, and to the future with the full assurance of the hope which is mingled with peace and joy. ”

“ How else can we expect to profit by the instruction it conveys? The mere sound, without the sense, will do us no more good than a tune on the bagpipe. Yet if we are once taught at school to connect notions of piety with certain discordant accents, it is ten to one if we ever get so far quit of the impression, as to pay attention to the religious truths that are delivered with a natural and proper accent; while the greatest nonsense and absurdity, if conveyed to our ears in a solemn drawl, will pass for superior sanctity. ”

“ I am troubled about her intimacy with these Flinders's more than I can express."
"But, Sir," said Mrs Mason, "have you not a right to dictate to your daughter what company she ought to keep? If you really think Mrs Flinders an improper associate, why do you permit her to go to her house?"
"Because," replied Mr Stewart, "I cannot bear to see my child unhappy. I have not courage to encounter sour looks, and all the murmurings of discontent. This girl, who is when in good humour so lively and engaging, treats every opposition to her will as an act of cruel tyranny ”

“ Is it merely by teaching them to say their questions, or even teaching them to read, that the briers and thorns of pride and self-will will be rooted up from your childrens' minds?"
"We maun trust a' to the grace of God," said the farmer.
"God forbid that we should put trust in ought beside," returned Mrs Mason: "but if we hope for a miraculous interposition of divine grace, in favour of ourselves, or of our children, without taking the means that God has appointed, our hope does not spring from faith, but from presumption. ”