He resided in New York some time before he took up his
abode in Philadelphia. He had some pecuniary concerns
with a merchant of that place. He occasionally frequented
his house, finding, in the society which it afforded him, scope
for amusing speculation, and opportunities of gaining a species
of knowledge of which at that time he stood in need.

[figure description] Page 105.[end figure description]

There was one daughter of the family who of course constituted
a member of the domestic circle.

Helena Cleves was endowed with every feminine and
fascinating quality. Her features were modified by the most
transient sentiments and were the seat of a softness at all
times blushful and bewitching. All those graces of symmetry,
smoothness and lustre, which assemble in the imagination
of the painter when he calls from the bosom of her natal
deep, the Paphian divinity, blended their perfections in the
shade, complexion, and hair of this lady. Her voice was
naturally thrilling and melodious, and her utterance clear
and distinct. A musical education had added to all these
advantages the improvements of art, and no one could swim
in the dance with such airy and transporting elegance.

It is obvious to inquire whether her mental, were, in any degree,
on a level with her exterior accomplishments. Should
you listen to her talk, you would be liable to be deceived in
this respect. Her utterance was so just, her phrases so happy,
and her language so copious and correct, that the hearer
was apt to be impressed with an ardent veneration of her
abilities, but the truth is, she was calculated to excite emotions
more voluptuous than dignified. Her presence produced
a trance of the senses rather than an illumination of
the soul. It was a topic of wonder how she should have so
carefully separated the husk from the kernel, and be so absolute
a mistress of the vehicle of knowledge, with so slender
means of supplying it; yet it is difficult to judge but from
comparison. To say that Helena Cleves was silly or ignorant
would be hatefully unjust. Her understanding bore no
disadvantageous comparison with that of the majority of her
sex, but when placed in competition with that of some eminent
females or of Ormond, it was exposed to the risk of
contempt.

This lady and Ormond were exposed to mutual examination.
The latter was not unaffected by the radiance that
environed this girl, but her true character was easily discovered,
and he was accustomed to regard her merely as an
object charming to the senses. His attention to her was
dictated by this principle. When she sung or talked, it was
not unworthy of the strongest mind to be captivated with her
music and her elocution; but these were the limits which he

[figure description] Page 106.[end figure description]

set to his gratifications. That sensations of a different kind,
never ruffled his tranquillity must not be supposed, but he too
accurately estimated their consequences to permit himself to
indulge them.

Unhappily the lady did not exercise equal fortitude. Durring
a certain interval Ormond's visits were frequent, and she
insensibly contracted for him somewhat more than reverence.
The tenor of his discourse was little adapted to cherish her
hopes. In the declaration of his opinions he was never withheld
by scruples of decorum, or a selfish regard to his own
interest. His matrimonial tenets were harsh and repulsive.
A woman of keener penetration would have predicted from
them, the disappointment of her wishes, but Helena's mind
was uninured to the discussion of logical points and the
tracing of remote consequences. His presence inspired feelings
which would not permit her to bestow an impartial attention
on his arguments. It is not enough to say that his
reasonings failed to convince her; the combined influence
of passion and an unenlightened understanding hindered her
from fully comprehending them. All she gathered was a
vague conception of something magnificent and vast in his
character.

Helena was destined to experience the vicissitudes of fortune.
Her father died suddenly and left her without provision.
She was compelled to accept the invitations of a
kinswoman, and live, in some sort, a life of dependence. She
was not qualified to sustain this reverse of fortune, in a graceful
manner. She could not bear the diminution of her customary
indulgences, and to these privations were added the
inquietudes of a passion, which now began to look with an
aspect of hopelessness.

These events happened in the absence of Ormond. On
his return he made himself acquainted with them. He saw
the extent of this misfortune to a woman of Helena's character,
but knew not in what manner it might be effectually
obviated. He esteemed it incumbent on him to pay her a
visit in her new abode. This token at least of respect or
remembrance his duty appeared to prescribe.

This visit was unexpected by the lady. Surprise is the
enemy of concealment. She was oppressed with a sense of
her desolate situation. She was sitting in her own

[figure description] Page 107.[end figure description]

apartment in a museful posture. Her fancy was occupied with
the image of Ormond, and her tears were flowing at the
thought of their eternal separation, when he entered softly
and unperceived by her. A tap upon the shoulder was the
first signal of his presence. So critical an interview could
not fail of unveiling the true state of the lady's heart. Ormond's
suspicions were excited, and these suspicions speedily
led to an explanation.

Ormond retired to ruminate on this discovery. I have
already mentioned his sentiments respecting love. His feelings
relative to Helena did not contradict his principles, yet
the image which had formerly been exquisite in loveliness,
had now suddenly gained unspeakable attractions. This
discovery had set the question in a new light. It was of sufficient
importance to make him deliberate. He reasoned
somewhat in the following manner.

Marriage is absurd. This flows from the general and incurable
imperfection of the female character. No woman
can possess that worth which would induce me to enter into
this contract, and bind myself, without power of revoking
the decree, to her society. This opinion may possibly be
erroneous, but it is undoubtedly true with respect to Helena,
and the uncertainty of the position in general, will increase
the necessity of caution in the present case. That woman
may exist whom I should not fear to espouse. This is not
her. Some accident may cause our meeting. Shall I then
disable myself, by an irrevocable obligation, from profiting
by so auspicious an occurrence?

This girl's society was to be enjoyed in one of two ways.
Should he consult his inclination there was little room for
doubt. He had never met with one more highly qualified
for that species of intercourse which he esteemed rational.
No man more abhorred the votaries of licentiousness. Nothing
was more detestable to him than a mercenary alliance.
Personal fidelity and the existence of that passion, of which
he had, in the present case, the good fortune to be the object,
were indispensable in his scheme. The union was indebted
for its value on the voluntariness with which it was
formed, and the entire acquiescence of the judgment of both
parties in its rectitude. Dissimulation and artifice were
wholly foreign to the success of his project. If the lady

[figure description] Page 108.[end figure description]

thought proper to assent to his proposal, it was well. She
did so because assent was more eligible than refusal.

She would, no doubt, prefer marriage. She would deem
it more conducive to happiness. This was an error. This
was an opinion, his reasons for which he was at liberty to
state to her; at least it was justifiable in refusing to subject
himself to loathsome and impracticable obligations. Certain
inconveniences attended women who set aside, on these
occasions, the sanction of law, but these were imaginary.
They owed their force to the errors of the sufferer. To
annihilate them, it was only necessary to reason justly, but
allowing these inconveniences their full weight and an indestructable
existence, it was but a choice of evils. Were they
worse in this lady's apprehension, than an eternal and hopeless
separation? Perhaps they were. If so, she would
make her election accordingly. He did nothing but lay the
conditions before her. If his scheme should obtain the concurrence
of her unbiassed judgment he should rejoice. If
not, her conduct should be uninfluenced by him. Whatever
way she should decide, he would assist her in adhering to
her decision, but would, meanwhile, furnish her with the
materials of a right decision.

This determination was singular. Many will regard it as
incredible. No man, it will be thought, can put this deception
on himself, and imagine that there was genuine beneficence
in a scheme like this. Would the lady more consult
her happiness by adopting than by rejecting it? There can
be but one answer. It cannot be supposed that Ormond, in
stating this proposal, acted with all the impartiality that he
pretended; that he did not employ fallacious exaggerations
and ambiguous expedients; that he did not seize every opportunity
of triumphing over her weakness, and building his
success rather on the illusions of her heart than the convictions
of her understanding. His conclusions were specious
but delusive, and were not uninfluenced by improper
biasses; but of this he himself was scarcely conscious, and it
must be, at least, admitted that he acted with scrupulous
sincerity.

An uncommon degree of skill was required to introduce
this topic so as to avoid the imputation of an insult. This
scheme was little in unison with all her preconceived notions.

[figure description] Page 109.[end figure description]

No doubt, the irksomeness of her present situation, the allurements
of luxury and ease, which Ormond had to bestow,
and the revival of her ancient independence and security,
had some share in dictating her assent.

Her concurrence was by no means cordial and unhesitating.
Remorse and the sense of dishonor pursued her to her
retreat, though chosen with a view of shunning their intrusions,
and it was only when the reasonings and blandishments
of her lover were exhibited, that she was lulled into temporary
tranquillity.

She removed to Philadelphia. Here she enjoyed all the
consolations of opulence. She was mistress of a small but
elegant mansion. She possessed all the means of solitary
amusement, and frequently enjoyed the company of Ormond.
These however were insufficient to render her happy. Certain
reflections might, for a time, be repressed or divested
of their sting, but they insinuated themselves at every interval,
and imparted to her mind, a hue of dejection from which
she could not entirely relieve herself.

She endeavored to acquire a relish for the pursuits of
literature, by which her lonely hours might be cheered; but
of this, even in the blithesomeness and serenity of her former
days, she was incapable. Much more so now when
she was the prey of perpetual inquietude. Ormond perceived
this change, not without uneasiness. All his efforts to
reconcile her to her present situation were fruitless. They
produced a momentary effect upon her. The softness of
her temper and her attachment to him, would, at his bidding,
restore her to vivacity and ease, but the illumination
seldom endured longer than his presence, and the novelty of
some amusement which he had furnished her.

At his next visit, perhaps, he would find that a new task
awaited him. She indulged herself in no recriminations or
invectives. She could not complain that her lover had deceived
her. She had voluntarily and deliberately accepted
the conditions prescribed. She regarded her own disposition
to repine as a species of injustice. She laid no claim to
an increase of tenderness. She hinted not a wish for a
change of situation; yet she was unhappy. Tears stole into
her eyes, and her thoughts wandered into gloomy reverie, at

[figure description] Page 110.[end figure description]

moments when least aware of their reproach, and least willing
to indulge them.

Was a change to be desired? Yes; provided that
change was equally agreeable to Ormond, and should be
seriously proposed by him, of this she had no hope. As
long as his accents rung in her ears, she even doubted whether
it were to be wished. At any rate, it was impossible
to gain his approbation to it. Her destiny was fixed. It
was better than the cessation of all intercourse, yet her heart
was a stranger to all permanent tranquillity.

Her manners were artless and ingenuous. In company
with Ormond her heart was perfectly unveiled. He was her
divinity to whom every sentiment was visible, and to whom
she spontaneously uttered what she thought, because the
employment was pleasing; because he listened with apparent
satisfaction; and because, in fine, it was the same thing
to speak and to think in his presence. There was no inducement
to conceal from him the most evanescent and fugitive
ideas.

Ormond was not an inattentive or indifferent spectator of
those appearances. His friend was unhappy. She shrunk
aghast from her own reproaches and the contumelies of the
world. This morbid sensibility he had endeavored to cure,
but hitherto in vain. What was the amount of her unhappiness?
Her spirits had formerly been gay, but her gaiety
was capable of yielding place to soul-ravishing and solemn
tenderness. Her sedateness was, at those times, the offspring
not of reflection but of passion. There still remained
much of her former self. He was seldom permitted to
witness more than the traces of sorrow. In answer to his
inquiries, she, for the most part, described sensations that
were gone, and which she flattered herself and him would
never return; but this hope was always doomed to disappointment.
Solitude infallibly conjured up the ghost which
had been laid, and it was plain that argument was no adequate
remedy for this disease.

How far would time alleviate its evils? When the novelty
of her condition should disappear, would she not regard it
with other eyes? By being familiar with contempt, it will
lose its sting; but is that to be wished? Must not the character
be thoroughly depraved before the scorn of our neighbors

[figure description] Page 111.[end figure description]

shall become indifferent? Indifference, flowing from a sense
of justice, and a persuasion that our treatment is unmerited,
is characteristic of the noblest minds, but indifference to obloquy,
because we are habituated to it, is a token of peculiar
baseness. This therefore was a remedy to be ardently deprecated.

He had egregiously overrated the influence of truth and
his own influence. He had hoped that his victory was permanent.
In order to the success of truth, he was apt to
imagine, that nothing was needful but opportunities for a
complete exhibition of it. They that inquire and reason
with sufficient deliberateness and caution, must inevitably
accomplish their end. These maxims were confuted in the
present case. He had formed no advantageous conceptions
of Helena's capacity. His aversion to matrimony arose from
those conceptions, but experience had shown him that his
conclusions, unfavorable as they were, had fallen short of
the truth. Convictions, which he had conceived her mind
to be sufficiently strong to receive and retain, were proved
to have made no other, than a momentary impression.
Hence his objections to ally himself to a mind inferior to his
own were strengthened rather than diminished. But he
could not endure the thought of being instrumental to her
misery.

Marriage was an efficacious remedy, but he could not as
yet bring himself to regard the aptitude of this cure as a subject
of doubt. The idea of separation sometimes occurred
to him. He was not unapprehensive of the influence of
time and absence, in curing the most vehement passion, but
to this expedient the lady could not be reconciled. He
knew her too well to believe that she would willingly adopt
it. But the only obstacle to this scheme did not flow from
the lady's opposition. He would probably have found upon
experiment as strong an aversion to adopt it in himself as
in her.

It was easy to see the motives by which he would be likely
to be swayed into a change of principles. If marriage
were the only remedy, the frequent repetition of this truth
must bring him insensibly to doubt the rectitude of his determinations
against it. He deeply reflected on the consequences
which marriage involves. He scrutinized with the

[figure description] Page 112.[end figure description]

utmost accuracy, the character of his friend, and surveyed
it in all its parts. Inclination could not fail of having some
influence on his opinions. The charms of this favorite object
tended to impair the clearness of his view, and extenuate
or conceal her defects. He entered on the enumeration
of her errors with reluctance. Her happiness had it been
wholly disconnected with his own, might have had less
weight in the balance, but now, every time the scales were
suspended, this consideration acquired new weight.

Most men are influenced, in the formation of this contract,
by regards purely physical. They are incapable of higher
views. They regard with indifference every tie that binds
them to their contemporaries, or to posterity. Mind has no
part in the motives that guide them. They choose a wife
as they choose any household moveable, and when the irritation
of the senses has subsided, the attachment that remains
is the offspring of habit.

Such were not Ormond's modes of thinking. His creed
was of too extraordinary a kind not to merit explication.
The terms of this contract were, in his eyes, iniquitous and
absurd. He could not think with patience of a promise
which no time could annul, which pretended to ascertain
contingences and regulate the future. To forego the liberty
of choosing his companion, and bind himself to associate
with one whom he despised, to raise to his own level one
whom nature had irretrievably degraded; to avow, and
persist in his adherence to a falsehood, palpable and loathsome
to his understanding; to affirm that he was blind, when
in full possession of his senses; to shut his eyes and grope
in the dark, and call upon the compassion of mankind on his
infirmity, when his organs were, in no degree, impaired, and
the scene around him was luminous and beautiful, was an
height of infatuation that he could never attain. And why
should he be thus self-degraded? Why should he take a
laborious circuit to reach a point which, when attained, was
trivial, and to which reason had pointed out a road short and
direct?

A wife is generally nothing more than a household superintendent.
This function could not be more wisely vested
than it was at present. Every thing, in his domestic system,
was fashioned on strict and inflexible principles. He

[figure description] Page 113.[end figure description]

wanted instruments and not partakers of his authority. One
whose mind was equal and not superior to the cogent apprehension
and punctual performance of his will. One whose
character was squared, with mathematical exactness, to his
situation. Helena, with all her faults, did not merit to be
regarded in this light. Her introduction would destroy the
harmony of his scheme, and be, with respect to herself, a
genuine debasement. A genuine evil would thus be substituted
for one that was purely imaginary.

Helena's intellectual deficiencies could not be concealed.
She was a proficient in the elements of no science. The
doctrine of lines and surfaces was as disproportionate with
her intellects as with those of the mock-bird. She had not
reasoned on the principles of human action, nor examined
the structure of society. She was ignorant of the past or
present condition of mankind. History had not informed
her of the one, nor the narratives of voyages, nor the deductions
of geography of the other. The heights of eloquence
and poetry were shut out from her view. She could not
commune in their native dialect, with the sages of Rome
and Athens. To her those perennial fountains of wisdom
and refinement were sealed. The constitution of nature,
the attributes of its author, the arrangement of the parts of
the external universe, and the substance, modes of operation,
and ultimate destiny of human intelligence, were enigmas
unsolved and insoluble by her.

But this was not all. The superstructure could for the
present be spared. Nay, it was desirable that the province
of rearing it, should be reserved for him. All he wanted
was a suitable foundation; but this Helena did not possess.
He had not hitherto been able to create in her the inclination
or the power. She had listened to his precepts with docility.
She had diligently conned the lessons which he had
prescribed, but the impressions were as fleeting as if they
had been made on water. Nature seemed to have set impassible
limits to her attainments.

This indeed was an unwelcome belief. He struggled to
invalidate it. He reflected on the immaturity of her age.
What but crude and hasty views was it reasonable to expect
at so early a period. If her mind had not been awakened,

[figure description] Page 114.[end figure description]

it had proceeded, perhaps, from the injudiciousness of his
plans, or merely from their not having been persisted in.
What was wanting but the ornaments of mind to render
this being all that poets have feigned of angelic nature.
When he indulged himself in imaging the union of capacious
understanding with her personal loveliness, his conceptions
swelled to a pitch of enthusiasm, and it seemed as if no labor
was too great to be employed in the production of such a
creature. And yet, in the midst of his glowings, he would
sink into sudden dejection at the recollection of that which
passion had, for a time, excluded. To make her wise it
would be requisite to change her sex. He had forgotten
that his pupil was a female, and her capacity therefore limited
by nature. This mortifying thought was outbalanced by
another. Her attainments, indeed, were suitable to the imbecility
of her sex; but did she not surpass, in those attainments,
the ordinary rate of women? They must not be
condemned, because they are outshone by qualities that are
necessarily male births.

Her accomplishments formed a much more attractive
theme. He overlooked no article in the catalogue. He
was confounded at one time, and encouraged at another, on
remarking the contradictions that seemed to be included in
her character. It was difficult to conceive the impossibility
of passing that barrier which yet she was able to touch.
She was no poet. She listened to the rehearsal, without
emotion, or was moved, not by the substance of the passage,
by the dazzling image or the magic sympathy, but by something
adscititious; yet usher her upon the stage, and no poet
would wish for a more powerful organ of his conceptions.
In assuming this office, she appeared to have drank in the
very soul of the dramatist. What was wanting in judgment,
was supplied by memory, in the tenaciousness of which, she
has seldom been rivalled.

Her sentiments were trite and undigested, but were decorated
with all the fluences and melodies of elocution. Her
musical instructer had been a Sicilian, who had formed her
style after the Italian model. This man had likewise taught
her his own language. He had supplied her chiefly with
Sicilian compositions, both in poetry and melody, and was

[figure description] Page 115.[end figure description]

content to be unclassical, for the sake of the feminine and
voluptuous graces of his native dialect.

Ormond was an accurate judge of the proficiency of Helena,
and of the felicity with which these accomplishments
were suited to her character. When his pupil personated the
victims of anger and grief, and poured forth the fiery indignation
of Calista, or the maternal despair of Constance, or
the self-contentions of Ipsipile, he could not deny the homage
which her talents might claim.

Her Sicilian tutor had found her no less tractable as a votary
of painting. She needed only the education of Angelica,
to exercise as potent and prolific a pencil. This was incompatible
with her condition, which limited her attainments
to the elements of this art. It was otherwise with music.
Here there was no obstacle to skill, and here the assiduities
of many years, in addition to a prompt and ardent genius, set
her beyond the hopes of rivalship.

Ormond had often amused his fancy with calling up images
of excellence in this art. He saw no bounds to the influence
of habit, in augmenting the speed and multiplying
the divisions of muscular motion. The fingers, by their
form and size, were qualified to outrun and elude the most
vigilant eye. The sensibility of keys and wires had limits,
but these limits depended on the structure of the instrument,
and the perfection of its structure was proportioned to the
skill of the artist. On well constructed keys and strings,
was it possible to carry diversities of movement and pressure
too far. How far they could be carried was mere theme of
conjecture, until it was his fate to listen to the magical performances
of Helena, whose volant finger seemed to be selfimpelled.
Her touches were creative of a thousand forms
of piano, and of numberless transitions from grave to quick,
perceptible only to ears like her own.

In the selection and arrangement of notes, there are no
limits to luxuriance and celerity. Helena had long relinquished
the drudgery of imitation. She never played but
when there were motives to fervor, and when she was likely
to ascend without impediment, and to maintain for a suitable
period her elevation, to the element of new ideas. The
lyrics of Milton and of Metastasio, she sung with accompaniments
that never tired, because they were never repeated.

[figure description] Page 116.[end figure description]

Her harp and clavichord supplied her with endless combinations,
and these in the opinion of Ormond were not inferior
to the happiest exertions of Handel and Arne.

Chess was his favorite amusement. This was the only
game which he allowed himself to play. He had studied it
with so much zeal and success, that there were few with
whom he deigned to contend. He was prone to consider it
as a sort of criterion of human capacity. He who had acquired
skill in this science, could not be infirm in mind; and
yet he found in Helena, a competitor not unworthy of all his
energies. Many hours were consumed in this employment,
and here the lady was sedate, considerate, extensive in foresight,
and fertile in expedients.

Her deportment was graceful, in as much as it flowed
from a consciousness of her defects. She was devoid of arrogance
and vanity, neither imagining herself better than
she was, and setting light by those qualifications which she
unquestionably possessed. Such was the mixed character
of this woman.

Ormond was occupied with schemes of a rugged and arduous
nature. His intimate associates and the partakers of
his confidence, were imbued with the same zeal, and ardent
in the same pursuits. Helena could lay no claim to be
exalted to this rank. That one destitute of this claim should
enjoy the privileges of his wife, was still a supposition truly
monstrous. Yet the image of Helena, fondly loving him,
and a model as he conceived of tenderness and constancy,
devoured by secret remorse, and pursued by the scorn of
mankind; a mark for slander to shoot at, and an outcast of
society, did not visit his meditations in vain. The rigor of
his principles began now to relent.

He considered that various occupations are incident to
every man. He cannot be invariably employed in the promotion
of one purpose. He must occasionally unbend, if
he desires that the springs of his mind should retain their
due vigor. Suppose his life were divided between business
and amusement. This was a necessary distribution, and
sufficiently congenial with his temper. It became him to select
with skill his sources of amusement. It is true that
Helena was unable to participate in his graver occupations;
what then? In whom were blended so many pleasurable

[figure description] Page 117.[end figure description]

attributes? In her were assembled an exquisite and delicious
variety. As it was, he was daily in her company.
He should scarcely be more so, if marriage should take
place. In that case, no change in their mode of life would
be necessary. There was no need of dwelling under the
same roof. His revenue was equal to the support of many
household establishments. His personal independence would
remain equally inviolable. No time, he thought, would diminish
his influence over the mind of Helena, and it was not
to be forgotten that the transition would to her be happy. It
would reinstate her in the esteem of the world, and dispel
those phantoms of remorse and shame by which she was at
present persecuted.

These were plausible considerations. They tended at
least to shake his resolutions. Time would probably have
completed the conquest of his pride, had not a new incident
set the question in a new light.