blessing.--But no; in the pursuit of ambition, in the
acquisition of wealth, in the thirst after power, and
the craving after distinction, nay, nineteen times out
of twenty, in the most frivolous occupations, the most
unsatisfactory amusements, do the great mass of the
maturer man sink those feelings; divested of which, we
become mere plodders on the earth, mere creatures of
materialism: nor is it until after age and infirmity have
overtaken them, they look back with regret to that real
and substantial, but unenjoyed happiness, which the
occupied heart and the soul's communion alone can bestow.
Then indeed, when too late, are they ready to acknowledge
the futility of those pursuits, the inadequacy of those
mere ephemeral pleasures, to which in the full meridian
of their manhood they sacrificed, as a thing unworthy of
their dignity, the mysterious charm of woman's influence
and woman's beauty.

We do not mean to say Clara de Haldimar would have fallen
short of the high estimate formed of her worth by the
friend of her brother; neither is it to be understood,
Sir Everard suffered this fair vision of his fancy to
lead him into the wild and labyrinthian paths of boyish
romance; but certain it is, the floating illusions,
conjured up by his imagination, exercised a mysterious
influence over his heart, that hourly acquired a deeper
and less equivocal character. It might have been curiosity
in the first instance, or that mere repose of the fancy
upon an object of its own creation, which was natural to
a young man placed like himself for the moment out of