will not vindicate the expression, but of this I will unfeignedly
assure you, I am at least as glad to see you just now, as I should be
to see anybody."

"Your eyes," cried he, "are red, your voice is inarticulate;--young,
rich, and attractive, the world at your feet; that world yet untried,
and its falsehood unknown, how have you thus found means to anticipate
misery? which way have you uncovered the cauldron of human woes? Fatal
and early anticipation! that cover once removed, can never be replaced;
those woes, those boiling woes, will pour out upon you continually, and
only when your heart ceases to beat, will their ebullition cease to
torture you!"

"Alas!" cried Cecilia, shuddering, "how cruel, yet how true!"

"Why went you," cried he, "to the cauldron? it came not to you. Misery
seeks not man, but man misery. He walks out in the sun, but stops not
for a cloud; confident, he pursues his way, till the storm which,
gathering, he might have avoided, bursts over his devoted head. Scared
and amazed, he repents his temerity; he calls, but it is then too late;
he runs, but it is thunder which follows him! Such is the presumption
of man, such at once is the arrogance and shallowness of his nature!
And thou, simple and blind! hast thou, too, followed whither Fancy has
led thee, unheeding that thy career was too vehement for tranquility,
nor missing that lovely companion of youth's early innocence, till,
adventurous and unthinking, thou hast lost her for ever!"

In the present weak state of Cecilia's spirits, this attack was too
much for her; and the tears she had just, and with difficulty
restrained, again forced their way down her cheeks, as she answered,