On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
643
Untitled Article
SKETCHES OF DOMESTIC LIFE . No . VII . The Insipid .
Untitled Article
* What a nice girl is Harriet Ward ! ' exclaimed Mrs . Lang , a lady so remarkable for loquacity that her tongue might have been described as like the showman ' s wonderful animal , which grew an inch an hour and never came to its full growth .
' What a sensible girl is Harriet Ward ! ' muttered old Sir Ben ^ jamin Bubble , who had a remarkable c talent for silence , * save when permitted to pronounce a dissertation on the Currency . ' What a sweet gal is Harriet Ward !* drawled a young man with whiskers in the most exemplary curl , and whose first love was a looking-glass , which , meet it where he might , he never failed to consult as to the state of his stock .
' Well / thought Grace Clare , a gay , giddy , but withal good creature , to whom all these observations had been addressed , ' this is very strange : the fable of the old man and his ass no longer holds good ; for it appears that it is possible to please ever y body . ' Why , Harriet has discovered a secret worth the philosophers * stone ! What is perpetual youth , inexhaustible wealth , compared with the power of pleasing every body ? 6
There ' s my cousin Bell , with all her wit , thinks herself fortunate in my friendship and affection . To be sure she is something like cayenne pepper , apt to bite ; but then the bite has such a wholesome pungency , and she is always good-naturedly inclined " to kiss the place to make it well , " as we say to the children .
* Then there ' s Lucy , lovely as the daylight . I do think she has not half as many friends as fingers . c And Anna , too , all high principle and noble purpose , like the good Lady Wentworth , " to nothing but herself severe , " hundreds hold her in absolute horror .
* I must study this Harriet ; this hare with many friends . " ' The young lady in question had , in common with many sisters , been secured by an industrious father , upon her coming of age , a small competency , and all , yet in their minority , resided with their widowed mother , who managed the interest of the united capital .
These girls , left to the education of chance , and no very favourable chance occurring , were guided by their animal instincts , not by their human reason ; the former had received little of the regulation which they require , the latter still less of the excitement , encouragement , and cultivation , which in all , but most especially in the ordinary run of human beings , are essential to its development .
Each individual of this family , more or less uninformed or misinformed , was g rossly selfish—eager for self-advantage—self-enjoyment- —unconscious that either would be secured or increased by attention to the pleasures or interests of others . Each wilfully
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1835, page 643, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2650/page/15/
-