English essays -- 18th century; Fiction; Short stories
The letters which the father sent her afterwards are yet extant in the
nunnery where she resided; and are often read to the young religious, in
order to inspire them with good resolutions and sentiments of virtue. It
so happened that after Constantia had lived about ten years in the
cloister, a violent fever broke out in the place, which swept away great
multitudes, and among others Theodosius. Upon his death-bed he sent his
benediction in a very moving manner to Constantia, who at that time was
herself so far gone in the same fatal distemper that she lay delirious.
Upon the interval which generally precedes death in sickness of this
nature, the abbess, finding that the physicians had given her over, told
her that Theodosius had just gone before her, and that he had sent her
his benediction in his last moments. Constantia received it with
pleasure. "And now," says she, "if I do not ask anything improper, let
me be buried by Theodosius. My vow reaches no further than the grave;
what I ask is, I hope, no violation of it." She died soon after, and was
interred according to her request.
The tombs are still to be seen, with a short Latin inscription over them
to the following purpose:--
"Here lie the bodies of Father Francis and Sister Constance. They
were lovely in their lives, and in their death they were not divided."
GOOD NATURE.
Part One.
_Sic vita erat_: _facile omnes perferre ac pati_:
_Cum quibus erat cunque una_, _his sese dedere_,
_Eorum obsequi studiis_: _advorsus nemini_;
_Nunquam praeponens se aliis_. _Ita facillime_
_Sine invidia invenias laudem_.--
TER., _Andr._, Act i. _se._ 1.
His manner of life was this: to bear with everybody's humours; to
comply with the inclinations and pursuits of those he conversed with;
to contradict nobody; never to assume a superiority over others. This
is the ready way to gain applause without exciting envy.
Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of
humanity, and yet, as if Nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are
continually adding grief to grief, and aggravating the common calamity by
our cruel treatment of one another. Every man's natural weight of
affliction is still made more heavy by the envy, malice, treachery, or
injustice of his neighbour. At the same time that the storm beats on the
whole species, we are falling foul upon one another.
Half the misery of human life might be extinguished, would men alleviate
the general curse they lie under, by mutual offices of compassion,
benevolence, and humanity. There is nothing, therefore, which we ought
more to encourage in ourselves and others, than that disposition of mind
which in our language goes under the title of good nature, and which I
shall choose for the subject of this day's speculation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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