Bungay Castle: A Novel. v. 1/2Bonhote, Mrs. (Elizabeth)
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Bungay Castle: A Novel. v. 1/2
Bonhote, Mrs. (Elizabeth)
English fiction -- 18th century
Into Bungay Castle he removed with his whole family, and there for
some years found that happiness he had vainly sought in more
enlivening scenes; and there he tasted those serene and contented
pleasures he had been unable to procure in the world; though formed
to make a brilliant figure on its great stage, he had every endowment
of the mind for the true enjoyment of domestic life, uniting with
the most unshaken courage the gentlest philanthropy. He had married
at the age of thirty-five a lady much younger than himself, by whom
he had several children, and looked forward with the hope of being
the parent of a more numerous offspring, while, like the patriarchs
of old, he lived respected and revered in the bosom of his family.
Ah! little did he suspect the revolution ambition would one day make
in his mind.
Lady de Morney was yet in the pride of life; her beauty unfaded, her
spirits lively, and her mind in its full vigour; her person was
lovely, her disposition amiable: sweetness, modesty, truth, and
fortitude, were the inmates of her bosom, and gave additional graces
to the ease and elegance of her manners; strictly exemplary in
performing the important duties of wife and mother, no complaints
were heard where she presided; no looks of discontent were seen on
the countenance of her dependents; time was neither abused nor found
a burden; her whole study and attention were employed to promote the
happiness of her husband, and to superintend the education of her
children; for the latter employment no one was more adequate than
herself,--her own example serving more than precept to enforce the
lessons of truth on the ductile mind of youth; her own gentleness
made them happy, while her conduct convinced them of the value and
dignity of virtue.
She considered youth and innocence as the most valuable of earthly
treasures, and she was not more anxious to preserve the one in all
its native purity, than to teach them how to enjoy the other with
cheerfulness and gratitude: Having stored their minds with virtuous
precepts, best calculated to chain the attention, and which she
hoped would lay the most solid foundation for securing their future
happiness, she lived with her children in habits of the most
soothing and perfect friendship, and very seldom was under the
unpleasant necessity of assuming the stern authority of a
dictatorial parent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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