The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 353: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

272 THE STEAM PACKET, tailor, and had resolved to defeat it. At the same time he thought it would be expedient to allow that individual to proceed to a certain extent in his designs, so that he himself might have the credit of saving Belinda from such a match, and restoring a daughter to a father who would be grateful for the service thus rendered. He had calculated that he should return with the fair fugitive as soon as possible on the ensuing morning, after Mr. Pifpaf should have received his letter of explanation and penitence; and he resolved that, should forgiveness — be accorded him, he would devote the remainder of his life to all the honourable means within his reach to repair his shattered fortunes. Under these impressions had he hitherto acted, and the hope of accomplishing his purpose occupied his mind as he galloped along the road after the post-chaise which contained the roguish tailor and the deluded Belinda. .. CHAPTER XXV. WHEREIN A PORTION OF PREVIOUS DELUSIONS IS DISSIPATED. O woman! the bright side of thy character sheds so much pure and holy lustre upon the dim and dark scenes of this rude world, that thy foibles, thy frivolities, thine inconsistencies, should be forgotten! We speak not now of beauteous women only—but of woman in general, The capricious inclination awakened by the mere charm of perishable beauty is idle in the extreme; but that love which springs from the concordant sympathies of virtuous souls—that love which is awakened by the perception of moral excellence, and fed by meditation upon intellectual beauty—that is a passion which refines and ennobles the human heart. Where is there a sight more nearly approaching to the intercourse of angels, than that of two young beings, free from the sins and follies of the world, mingling pure thoughts, and looks, and feel- ings, and becoming as it were soul of one soul, and heart of one heart? How exquisite is the silent converse that they hold—the soft devotion of the eye, that needs no words to make it eloquent ! ! Alas! would that this picture could always apply; would that self- ishness, or a more gross feeling still, never desecrated the altars of true love, by assuming its semblance! Belinda was not attached to the sup- posed lord, in the manner which we have just described ; and the reader is well aware that the tailor entertained a more sincere regard for the pecuniary than the personal or mental qualities of the indiscreet young Gomicbooks:com py. een a 7 jo — 2. or . F bee ie led, oe Ec yas 6!