The enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1804-1815, 1815-08-30

husband, of whose life she was the pulse.
But one short week before, this earth could
not reveal love!ier vision. Virtue blessed,
affection followed. beauty beamed on her, the
light OF every eye, the charm of every heart,
she moved along in cloudless chastity, cheer
eddy the song of love, and circled by the
splenlors she created Behold her now,
the loathsome refuse OF an adaterous bed
fostering III the very infe ction of her crimes
the scott and scorn of their unruarily, merci-
less, inhuman author. But thus il ever is
w!th tie vctaries of guils--the birth of their
.cr.me is the death of their enjoyment, and
the wretch who filings his Offering on its al
tar, falls an Immediate victim TO the fame Of
his devotion. l an, glad 1t is SOFT is "a wise,
retribuuve dspcnsation-it bears the stamp ct
q preventive Providence. / rejoice it is so in
the present Instance first because this pre-
Iuature inHiCtlon must ensure repentance in
the wretched sufferer: and next, because, as
this aduiterous hend has rather acted on the
suggestions OF his nature than his shape, by
rebeiling against the finest impulse of man,
lie has made himself an outlaw from the sym
pathies of humanity. Why should he ex-
pect that charity from you, which he would
not spare even to the misfortunes he had in
hictcd For the honor Of the form i'll which
he is disguised, am willing TO hope he was
80 blinded by his vice, that he did not see the
flll extent OF those misfortunes. If he had
feelings capable of being touched, it is not to
the faded victim of her own weakness and of
his wickedness that l would direct them.
There is nothing in her CRIME which
atfrights charity from its commiseraton.
But, gentlemen, there is one over whom pity
may mourn, for he is wretched--and mourn
without blush, for he is guhless. &c.
Il NV shall depict to you the deserted hus-
band? To every other object in this catal
logue az calamity, there is some crime attach
ed which checks compassion. Bat here. Oh
1t ever there was man amiable, IL was that
man Oh, if there was husband fond, il was
that husband his hope, his JOY, his ambition
was domestic---his tolls were forgotten in the
affections or his home, and, amid every adj
verse variety OF fortune, Hope point ed 20 his
children, and he WAS comforted. BY this
vile act, that hope is blasted, that house is a
desert, those children are parentless. In vain
do they look to their surviving parent his
heart is broken, his mind is in ruins, his very
form is fading from the earth. He had one
consolation, he had an aged mother, on
whose life the remnant of his. fortunes hung,
and on whose protection of his children his
remaining prospects rested even that is o.
yer, she could not survive his shame, she
never raised her head. she became hearsed
in his misfortune, he has followed her funeral.
II this DE not the climax of human misery, tell
me in what does human misery consist -
Wife, parent, fortune, prospects, happiness,
all gone at once, and gone forever For my
part, when contemplate this, do not won
der at the impression it has produced On him
Il do not wonder at the faded form, the de-
Iected air, the emaclated countenance and
all the ruinous AMI, mouldering trophies by
which misery has marked its triumph over
youth, and health, and happiness! IF know
that in the hordes of what is called fashiona.
bic life. there is sect of philosophers won
tiertully patient Of their fellow creatu res
suferings, g too nsens5le TO feel for any one,
or too selfish to feel for others trust there is
not one afnopg you professor of those l,rinci-
pieS--l trust there 10 NOT one among YOU who
can even hear of such caiamites without af-
fiction or, if there be, pray that he may
never know their import by experience that
having, IN the wilderness Of the world, but
one dear and darling obj without whose
participation bliss would be joylesa, and, in
whose sympathies, sorrow has found charm
whose smile has clreered his toil--whosc
love has pillowed his NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. an
gel spirit, guiding him through danger, and
darkness and despair, amid the worlds frown,
and the friends per6dy, was more than
friend, and world, and all to him God for
bld that by villains vile or a villains wick
einesS, the so;ace of that artery torn from
his heart-strings, he should be taught how
to appreciate the woe of others in the dismal
solitude OF his own. On, no feel that l
address myself to human beings, who know
ing the value of what the world is worth. is
capable Of approaching all that makes it dear
TO us.
Observe, however, lest this crime should
want any aggravation observe, beseech you,
the period of its accomplishment My client
was not SO young as that the elasticity of his
spirit could rebound and bear him above the
pressure of the misfortune, nor was he wither-
ed by age into aConParAtive insensbity, bet
just at that temperate interval Of manhood
when passion had ceased to play, and,reason
begins to operate--when love, gratiAed, left
him nothing to desire--and fidelity, long
tried, left him nothing to aPprehend h was
Just, LOO, at that period of his professional
career when bis patient industry, having con-
ouered the ascent, he was able to look round
him from the height on which he rested.
For this, welcome had been the day oftumult,
and the pale midnight lamp succeed .ng-
welcome the drudgery Of forni---.w welcome the
an lysis Of Crime-welcome the sneer of envy
aud the scorn of dullness, and ali tie spurns
which "patient merit of the unworthy takes"
For this he had encountered, perhaps, the
generous rivalry Of genius, perhaps, tue Bit
ing blasts OF poverty, perhaps, the efforts of
that deadly SANDER, which coiling round the
cradle of his young ambition, might have
sought to crush him ia its envenomed fold
IngS.