William Pitt Scargill

“ If I should ever think of engaging myself to any woman, and resigning my present freedom, become a married man, I must endeavour to select a suitable companion; money is a sordid motive, though it is a necessary adjunct; beauty is a fading flower, yet the eye is fascinated by its charms; intellect is inspiring, but it often leads to vanity; religion is essential, but how do we know it to be sincere. If I were to think of marrying, I wish that it might be to Emily Douglas ”

“ Death comes at last to force the unwelcome conviction on all who will not otherwise entertain it, that the idols of earth must inevitably be torn from our grasp, and that the cold grave must close on every tie which binds us to this sublunary scene. This strong and simple truth is one of those irresistible and universal arguments that apply to all capacities of intellect, and to all conditions of fortune. All shall die; all leave whatever ministered to pride or vanity behind them. ”

“ I prefer returning to the full tide of life, and coming from time to time to enjoy these fastnesses of nature with all the stimulus of contrast, added to their intrinsic sublimity. Emily wept as we left the banks of the Pelice on our return to Turin. Though longing to be with those who were left behind, and carrying with her the society which had lent its charms to the desert, her tears flowed as an irresistible tribute to scenes so congenial to her heart. Charlotte used to be always considered by us to live more in a world of sentiment than her elder sister, yet her eyes were not suffused ”

“ I am such a novice in the ways of polite life, that I have not yet learned to laugh at the people around me, without something of self-reproach, which sends me to my pillow in an uneasy state of mind, that “murders sleep;” and I was growing very weary of what is so falsely, in my opinion, called pleasure, when Mr. Oliphant’s melancholy letter occasioned a complete cessation of dinner and evening parties, so far as we were concerned. We had no spirits to join the insipid society of the neighbourhood, when our minds were transplanted to the awful scene at Mount Prospect. ”

“ I forget how the conversation ended, but it amused me at the time that it happened, and slipped out of my recollection, till having written Mount Prospect, that name revived the remembrance of a combat which diverted us.
I shall pity George Bentley, when he loses so many friends with whom he is accustomed to pass a part of almost every day, but he will bear it better than Frederick would do in the same situation. How wonderfully the good and evil of life are balanced! Sensibility increases every pleasure, but as certainly augments every pain. ”

“ These asses in human form, the most idle, ignorant, effeminate animals possible to conceive, are to be husbands, fathers, landlords, masters! It is a melancholy prospect, and in looking to my own sex, on thoughts of which my mind from infancy has dwelt with pride and pleasure, as the sweet depository of religion, morals, fond affections, taste and talents softened down to social converse, and illuminating the domestic sphere, oh, what a contrast meets my eye! ”

“ If the Almighty made us free, we can imagine how he may fore-know our actions without controlling them; though he formed all created things, because in the very idea of freedom, such independence is essential; any compulsion would destroy liberty, and involve a contradiction in terms; but here is the final limit to which human understanding can attain.
“How this wonderful union of divine power, and the creature’s free agency is effected, belongs to higher matters than we can reach. We only know, as I said before, that we know nothing, if we are not free. ”

“ Now, Butler, whose book you see before you, has admirably and clearly drawn the true distinction, and shewn that consciousness takes cognizance of identity, but is not the thing itself. You may sleep for a million of years as for a single night, without destroying your identity. Were it not so, each interruption from forgetfulness, however short, or from whatever cause, whether a natural slumber, lapse of memory, epileptic fit, swoon, or contusion of the brain, would be as fatal to the continuity of self, as the longest term of oblivion. ”

“ Stanley is a practical illustration of the precept intended, I am convinced, to be understood, as he enacts it.—Cheerful, elegant, informed, and pleasing, there is no society which is not rendered more agreeable by his presence; but there is none in which it would be possible to forget his sacred calling. Religion seems to have its rise in the centre of his heart, and to send forth streams into every action; yet not such as dash and foam, and startle by their impetuosity, but the existence of which, within the soil, is discovered from the verdure and fertility of the surface. ”

“ In such manner also has he unlocked his soul in this little sheltered bay, to the gentle flow of affection. How thankful do I feel for the blessing of being permitted to see this hour, and bear a part in the scene which Glenalta now exhibits!
The process of change too has been as quick as it is gratifying; a cautious and alternating advance and recession would have been the history of an ordinary mind, but the impulses of a generous character are instinctive and uncalculating. ”

“ Well, man is surely a perfect enigma! Venteroli, La Place, La Croix, all those volumes with the red, blue, and yellow, covers, which when lying on my table you used to call my parterre of tulips, and at which I have often worked till my mind was reduced to a state of complete inanition, became objects of affection when the task was finished,—not that I had any inclination to continue the toil, when the necessity for it had ceased ”

“ Thank Heaven, my beloved mother, and her precious charge, have surmounted the difficulties of our journey with far less of inconvenience than I could have anticipated. My uncle suffers no pain, but his languor increases with increasing weakness. The wonderful blessings of the Almighty warm my heart to unspeakable gratitude; and when I consider the chain of circumstances attending on the return of this once dreaded relation to his own country, I cannot call them less than providential. ”

“ He has a fund of humour also, which gives variety to his powers of pleasing; and when bodily pain does not weigh upon his spirits, he is a delightful companion, whose society will add considerably to the pleasures of our winter fire-side. But his frown is as awful as his smile is beaming, and would have petrified me long ago, if I had ever encountered his brow in the act of concentrating its forces upon me, as it does when aunt Howard and Louisa appear in his presence. ”

“ You have, my beloved brother, honoured me so far as to consult my understanding upon these great, these awful subjects, and nothing could tempt me to accept the office of guide, conscious as I am of my own weakness, were I not firmly persuaded, that while mortal affairs require human strength to unravel their intricacies, and overcome their obstructions, humility is the only pilot to heaven. ”

“ We are encircled by people of princely fortune; and luxury, in all its fertility of invention, reigns throughout this rich and beautiful country. But, oh! how much I miss the England of my early recollections! Mr. Otway and I often mourn over the progress of what is falsely called refinement, which has made the lower classes forget the simple sobriety, the active industry, the nice cleanliness of former times, and has rendered the higher orders a disgusting engraftment of foreign manners, customs, and language, upon a British stock. ”

“ After the lapse of many days I find my letter only half written; but anxiety thickens upon us, and my Julia will excuse me. My poor aunt Howard’s situation is so precarious, that we know not what a day may bring forth. My dear uncle declines, alas, too visibly to leave a doubt that the dreaded moment is at hand! and though Lady Crayton is recovering rapidly, she is, to my eye, a more melancholy object than even death itself. La Tour’s words vibrate on my senses: they are a true picture ”

“ Let us view the wonderful question of free-will in this light: that the Almighty could decree man to be free, we have no reason to deny. Omnipotence can achieve all things; and even were we inclined to declare, that not being satisfied that free-will exists, we will not give credit to the Great Framer of the universe for more than we see, still we are pinned on the other side; for if we only admit what we see, we cannot by the same rule consistently negative that which we do not see. ”

“ You never saw a character so changed, or rather so developed under a new aspect, as that of our uncle. All appearance of harshness has subsided, every semblance of suspicion has given place to the kindest expression of trust and affection. The effects are painful as they are pleasing, as in learning to love we are taught to fear ”

“ Falling at length into the possession of one whose delicate ear recognizes its full perfections, the structure is repaired, the strings are tuned anew; and now the liquid tones are poured with generous freedom, to repay that skilful touch, that refined taste, which alone has power to unlock all its stores of melody. Such a musician is my mother, and the attachment with which she has inspired my uncle, is reflected on us all. Of you also dear Arthur he speaks as he ought to do ”

“ The beauty of England indeed I admit, without any drawback, and if I confess that I love my own hills and vallies better, such predilection is easily resolvable into affections which may often bestow pre-eminence where it is intrinsically wanting, and raise the barren wild without depressing the cultured garden. This kingdom with which I was only acquainted before as a child, and which therefore possesses all the charms of novelty in addition to its other attractions, in my eyes appears a perfect paradise, so rich, so cultivated is every part of it ”

“ As mamma never leaves my uncle, she is spared much weariness of mind, which would not be counterpoised to her by the novelty which makes some amends to us, the younger branches of the household. Mr. Otway performs the part of Chaperone; and on our return home we find the cords of affection more tightly drawn towards that delightful society with which heaven, in its bounteous mercy has blessed our happy fire-side. It is, however, only doing justice to inform you, that we have not yet seen some charming people who are reported to inhabit this vicinity. ”

“ Ignorance is not entitled to predicate for or against. We can only with propriety say, that what is hidden, is hidden. But my experience tells me that I am free; and that when not coerced from without, when not restrained by extrinsic force, I follow the dictates of my will, I find that no temptation assails me with such violence as to make it impossible that I [114] should not have resisted its approaches: and find that the common sense of all mankind is with me, since every human law is founded on the distinction between voluntary and compulsory action. ”

“ For this cause we suffer books to teach, though we deny a friend the delight of converting us from the evil of our ways, and why? Alas! in human weakness we have the answer. The choice of a book is a free act; the continuing to read it is a free act. The advocacy of its doctrines, if they be arrayed with power, talent, and genius, reflects honour on our discrimination, and, to a certain degree, identifies us with the author, who perhaps has vanished from the arena of our paltry rivalry, having been called to his account ”

“ You were not in need of Tremaine when you read that book.” “Tremaine,” answered I, “would have set me thinking, but would not have convinced me upon all the topics which he discusses, though some of his reasoning is admirable. He meets many difficult questions very ably, but to read any author on these subjects with advantage, the mind, if inclined to infidelity, must undergo a process for restoring it to its neutral state; and a few arguments of the negative kind are a very necessary preparation for those of a positive character.” ”

“ Ask yourself solemnly, and searchingly, what is your ground for believing that, ere you saw the light, you lived during nine months in another state as different from your present condition of existence, as the present union of body and spirit can possibly be from a future mode of being in which the soul, freed from human restraint, shall expatiate with as much more liberty than it can now exert, as it enjoys at present, when compared with the former period of its imprisonment. ”

“ Frederick and I were hammering at something not far removed from this statement, when Mr. Otway came into the room, and in five minutes drew up the case as I have recorded it.
As time rolled on, the delightful mother of Emily Douglas, was called upon to approve a union which cannot fail of happiness. Emily and Charles Falkland are formed for each other. Virtue and talents lend all their influence to lay a solid foundation, while the lighter graces which belong to manners and accomplishments, give a finish to the charm that binds them to each other. ”

“ They yielded at once in my brother to the force of truth; and that reserve which is still occasionally observable in his manner, expresses nothing like the coldness of doubt, but seems only to say, “alas! why has this native element of kindness, this congenial sympathy, been so long withheld, and why am I only learning, for the first time, to bask in the warm sunshine, when the orb of day is descending from his meridian, and hastening to hide his radiant beams in the deep?” ”

“ What more is demanded of us in the commencement of our religious course, than we see to be but reasonable in undertaking any earthly enterprize? And with what additional force does the injunction to prepare by an humble spirit for the reception of divine knowledge apply to the understanding, when we reflect on our utter inability to search into the counsels of God with our finite powers of capacity! ”

“ The first in magnitude of these, is my uncle’s state of health, which hangs a cloud over our spirits. He is so much beloved by us all, that to witness his decline, gentle and almost imperceptible as it is, gives the truest pain to [30] every heart at Glenalta. For a long time after he arrived here, I resisted conviction, and could not believe that my dearest mother was not influenced by morbid melancholy in her forebodings; but she was too well skilled in every symptom of the disease to doubt its progress; and I grieve to say that every day adds testimony to the correctness of her predictions. ”

“ I must tell you, that nothing could exceed the admiration which these amiable, unartificial sisters of mine have excited in Hampshire. How is it that people can relinquish all right and title to understanding or good feeling, in their own case, and yet retain enough of each to admire both when they have met with them in others?
I hope that George Bentley has received all my letters, and that he may turn in his thoughts the proposal which I made in my last, that he should meet us at Turin. ”

“ I must have felt some pleasure under any circumstances at your being enabled to continue that character to which your pupils once assigned the appellation of the “good Benefico (the good giant) ,” but your little volatile friend Fanny, said to me a few days ago, and reflected my own feelings as she spoke, “Mamma, there are but two people in the world besides you to whom I cannot grudge the delight of making dear Mr. Oliphant a man of easy fortune; and those two are my uncle and Mr. Otway.” But this theme, all inspiring as it is, must not make me forgetful of your request. ”

“ If I try the goods of this life, I am forced to cry with Solomon that all is vanity; pleasure but a bubble, which, glittering for a [97] moment, passes away; that riches, fame, rank, power, beauty, are but gewgaws incapable of satisfying the cravings of an immortal soul; but even when the mind is of such mundane temperament that these things do seem sufficient, and that it would fain build its tabernacle amongst them, Death, ‘the great teacher Death,’ interposes to prevent the dreamer from long enjoying the illusion of his wishes. ”