by her unfailing sympathy, so that she was very generally beloved by
characters of very different descriptions; still, she was too much under
the influence of an ardent imagination to adhere to common rules.

There are mistakes of conduct which at five-and-twenty prove the
strength of the mind, that, ten or fifteen years after, would
demonstrate its weakness, its incapacity to acquire a sane judgment. The
youths who are satisfied with the ordinary pleasures of life, and do not
sigh after ideal phantoms of love and friendship, will never arrive at
great maturity of understanding; but if these reveries are cherished,
as is too frequently the case with women, when experience ought to have
taught them in what human happiness consists, they become as useless as
they are wretched. Besides, their pains and pleasures are so dependent
on outward circumstances, on the objects of their affections, that they
seldom act from the impulse of a nerved mind, able to choose its own
pursuit.

Having had to struggle incessantly with the vices of mankind, Maria's
imagination found repose in pourtraying the possible virtues the
world might contain. Pygmalion formed an ivory maid, and longed for an
informing soul. She, on the contrary, combined all the qualities of a
hero's mind, and fate presented a statue in which she might enshrine
them.

We mean not to trace the progress of this passion, or recount how often
Darnford and Maria were obliged to part in the midst of an interesting
conversation. Jemima ever watched on the tip-toe of fear, and frequently
separated them on a false alarm, when they would have given worlds to
remain a little longer together.