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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.
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Untitled Article
Now it was that Georgina Mountwell , triumphant in art , felicitated herself upon her prompt policy ; now it was that Lady Mateland pressed a f lowing kiss of congratulation on the fair forehead of her niece , and repealed the ceremony with increased pleasure when she saluted her as Countess of Raggedville—a title derived from a place , the revenues of which arrayed her ladyship in robes , while the sons of the soil were in tatters . How much longer are these monstrosities to mark
the social ma ]) of , at least , Christian countries , —how much longer are the mansions of aristocracy to rise in contrast with the rnanger of the great Master , as the practice of their inmates with his universal charity and simplicity ? The pretty countess was now proclaimed a splendid beauty ; the beautiful Clara was unnamed and unnoticed . Such are the delusions which float upon the tide of society , such are the realities which it en < rulfs—as on the tide of the waters straws
float , and gold sinks . Georgina had married the earl as she would have stepped into a balloon , for the purpose of rising to an elevation that she could no otherwise attain . She resolved that he should
be a statesman ; it was alike her pleasure and his birthright , and what opposed to these were his ignorance and his indolence ( His vanity , which was even greater than either , enabled her to mould him readily to her views ; he was gratified by the blaze with which she surrounded him , and thus aided
and stimulated , he won his way to power to gratify vulgar ambit ion and serve contemptible interests . But such ambition
ever plays a losing game ; it . has an insatiable desire , which can never be but partially and incidentally appeased . Fortune begins to fail , and personal powers to decay , while along the heights of ambition fresh beacons continue to blaze—and when can it m'cuiv a cleur path , and an unincumbered progress ?
Broken or superseded tools cannot alwnys be cast aside—the blunted instrument with which no further way can Ik 4 cut , may yet be an ugly weapon in the hands of : ui enemy ; and thus it is that every adventurer and adventuress , from the ruler ol the pettiest drawing-room or meeting-place to the palace and the senate , have so many dear friends who owe all the
countenance they meet to iear , not to affection . But to quit the scene of idle toil , and degrading glare , and turn to ( -him Hruce—the wronged--the uncomplaining . The injurer is sure to hale the injured , j md the countess hated Clara . : some remnant of feeling made her Lidyship sensible
to the severest of all reproaches—the reproncli of silent suffering , of unmerited suffering -which , instead ol' vituperating or expostulating , stands aside in the * noble meekness of consciouw innocence and calm resignation . Clara was like a statue which some classic chisel had called
Untitled Article
& % The Intriguante .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1836, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2653/page/22/
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