me; for that evening, as I was sitting down to supper, unsuspicious of
danger, an officer entered, and tore me from the embraces of my family.

"My wife had been for some time in a declining state of health: ruin at
once so unexpected and inevitable was a stroke she was not prepared to
bear, and I saw her faint into the arms of our servant, as I left my
own habitation for the comfortless walls of a prison. My poor Lucy,
distracted with her fears for us both, sunk on the floor and endeavoured
to detain me by her feeble efforts, but in vain; they forced open her
arms; she shrieked, and fell prostrate. But pardon me. The horrors of
that night unman me. I cannot proceed."

He rose from his seat, and walked several times across the room: at
length, attaining more composure, he cried--"What a mere infant I am!
Why, Sir, I never felt thus in the day of battle." "No," said Temple;
"but the truly brave soul is tremblingly alive to the feelings of
humanity."

"True," replied the old man, (something like satisfaction darting across
his features) "and painful as these feelings are, I would not exchange
them for that torpor which the stoic mistakes for philosophy. How many
exquisite delights should I have passed by unnoticed, but for these keen
sensations, this quick sense of happiness or misery? Then let us, my
friend, take the cup of life as it is presented to us, tempered by the
hand of a wise Providence; be thankful for the good, be patient under
the evil, and presume not to enquire why the latter predominates."

"This is true philosophy," said Temple.

"'Tis the only way to reconcile ourselves to the cross events of life,"