will go to their roofless houses, and see them repaired; we will
exclude from their dwellings the inclemency of the weather; we will
clothe them from cold, we will rescue them from hunger. The cries of
distress shall be changed to notes of joy: your heart shall be
enraptured, mine, too, shall revive--oh whither am I wandering? I am
painting an Elysium! and while I idly speak, some fainting object dies
for want of succour! Farewell; I will fly to the abodes of
wretchedness, and come to you to-morrow to render them the abodes of
happiness."

He then went away.

This singular visit was for Cecilia most fortunately timed: it almost
surprised her out of her peculiar grief, by the view which it opened to
her of general calamity; wild, flighty, and imaginative as were his
language and his counsels, their morality was striking, and their
benevolence was affecting. Taught by him to compare her state with that
of at least half her species, she began more candidly to weigh what was
left with what was withdrawn, and found the balance in her favour. The
plan he had presented to her of good works was consonant to her
character and inclinations; and the active charity in which he proposed
to engage her, re-animated her fallen hopes, though to far different
subjects from those which had depressed them. Any scheme of worldly
happiness would have sickened and disgusted her; but her mind was just
in the situation to be impressed with elevated piety, and to adopt any
design in which virtue humoured melancholy.



CHAPTER ix.