The Northern star, and farmers' and mechanics' advocate. [volume] (Warren, R.I.) 1830-1834, 1830-08-28
DE LINDSAY-A TALE.

i (Said to be founded on a recent Fact.
The simple, but singular story which |
am about to narrate is of Q man in whom
this craving after love-beyond the ordi-
nary loves of earth, was SO powerful and
restless passion, that it became in him
the source of all the errors and the vices
that have usually their origin in the gross
ness of libertinism; led his mind through
the excesses of dissipation to the hardness
of depravity; and when at length it arrived
at the fruition of dreams so wearying and
so anxious-when with that fruition, Writ
ue long stfed by disappointment, SEEM
ed slowly but triumphantly to awake-be-
trayed him only into punishment he had
almost ceased to deserve, and hurried him
into an untimely grave, at the very mo-
ment when life became dear to himself,
and appeared to promise atonement and
value to others.
Rupert de Lindsay was an orphan ofan
cient family and extensive possessions
With a person that could advance but
slight pretensions to beauty, but with an
eager desire to please, and taste the
most delicate and refined, he very early
learnt the art to compensate by the grace
of manner, for the Deficiencies of form;
and before he had reached an age when
other men are noted only for their horses
or their follies. Rupert de Lindsay was
distinguished no less for the brilliancy Of
his ton and the number Of his conquests,
than for his requirements in literature,
and his honours in the Senate. But while
every one favoured him with envy, he was,
at heart, restless and disappointed man.
Among all the delusions Of the senses,
among all the triumphs Of vanity, his rul-
ing passion, to be really, purely, and deep
ly loved, had never been satisfied. And
while this leading and master desire pined
at repeated disappointments, all other graf
ifications seemed rather to mock than to
console him. The exquisite tale Of Alci-
blades, in Marmpniel, was applicable to
him. He was loved for his adventitious
qualifications, not for himself One loved
his fashion, a second his fortune; third,
he discovered, had only listened to him
out of pique at another; and fourth ac-
cepted him as her lover because she wish
ed to decoy him from her friend. These
adventures and these discoveries brought
him disgust; they brought him, knowl-
edge of the world: and nothing hardens
the heart more than that knowledge ofthe
world which is founded on knowledge of
its vices,-made bitter by disappointment,
and misanthropical by deceit.
/ saw him just before he left England,
and his mind then was sore and feverish.
I saw him ON his return, after an absence
of five YEARS in the Courts of Europe,
and his mind was callous and even. He
had then reduced the art of governing his
own passions, and influencing the pass
ions of others, to 4 ystem: and had reach
ed the second stage Of experience, when
the deceived becomes the dcceiver. He
added to his former Indignation at the
vices ofhuman nature; scorn for its weak
ness Still many good, though irregular
impulses fingered about his heart.-Still
the appeal, which to principle would
have been useless, was triumphant when
made to an affection. And though sell
fshness constituted the system of his lie,
there were yet many hours when the sys-
tenn was forgotten, and he would have sac
rificed himself at the voice of single e.
motion. Few men of ability, who neither
marry nor desire to marry, live much a
mong the fivolties Of the world after the
age of twenty eight. And DE Lindsay
now waxing so near his thirtieth year, a
voided the society he had once courted,
and lived solely to satisfy his pleasures
and indulge his Incidence. Women made
his only pursuit, and sole ambition: And
now, at length. arrived the time when in
the prose uton Of an intrigue, he was to
be susceptible of passion; and the long
and unquenched wish Of his heart was to
be matured into completion.
In a ANAL village not far from London,
there dwelt family of the name OF War
ner; the father, piously termed Ebenezer
Ephraim, was a merchant, bigot, and
saint; tho brother, simply and laically
chrstened James, was rake, boxer,
and a good fellow. But she the daughter,
who claimed the chaste and sweet name
of Mary, simple and modest, beautiful IN
feature and in heart, Of a temper rather
tender then gay, saddened by the gloom
which hung forever upon the home other
childhood, but softened by early habits OF
charity and benevolence, unacquainted
with all sin even IN thought, loving all
IL. cso,, ,l,. gentleness of her nature,