Two months had now passed, and of Pekuah nothing had been heard;
the hopes which they had endeavoured to raise in each other grew
more languid; and the Princess, when she saw nothing more to be
tried, sunk down inconsolable in hopeless dejection. A thousand
times she reproached herself with the easy compliance by which she
permitted her favourite to stay behind her. "Had not my fondness,"
said she, "lessened my authority, Pekuah had not dared to talk of
her terrors. She ought to have feared me more than spectres. A
severe look would have overpowered her; a peremptory command would
have compelled obedience. Why did foolish indulgence prevail upon
me? Why did I not speak, and refuse to hear?"

"Great Princess," said Imlac, "do not reproach yourself for your
virtue, or consider that as blameable by which evil has
accidentally been caused. Your tenderness for the timidity of
Pekuah was generous and kind. When we act according to our duty,
we commit the events to Him by whose laws our actions are governed,
and who will suffer none to be finally punished for obedience.
When, in prospect of some good, whether natural or moral, we break
the rules prescribed us, we withdraw from the direction of superior
wisdom, and take all consequences upon ourselves. Man cannot so
far know the connection of causes and events as that he may venture
to do wrong in order to do right. When we pursue our end by lawful
means, we may always console our miscarriage by the hope of future
recompense. When we consult only our own policy, and attempt to
find a nearer way to good by over-leaping the settled boundaries of
right and wrong, we cannot be happy even by success, because we
cannot escape the consciousness of our fault; but if we miscarry,
the disappointment is irremediably embittered. How comfortless is
the sorrow of him who feels at once the pangs of guilt and the