Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1842-07-02

possessed neither of these requisites, and
instead of devoting himself to his profess
sion he was idly pursuing his amusement
in the circles of fashion. Have you never
met with persons, Charles, whose very
versatility of talent prevented their sue
cess in life? Such a one was Edward
Liston. He sketched beautifully, he sung
with taste and accompanied himself on the
guitar very well. His musical ear enabled
him to improvise on the piano, SO that with
a limited knowledge of the science he yet
charmed his hearers by his skilful combi-
nations of broken melodies and snatches
of old songs; he poetized better than the
generality of album contributors. He read
with exquisite meditation and elegance,
and his powers in recitation were often
compared to the best of modern TRACE
dians In short, he had the most brilliant
qualities that ever commanded success in
the circles of fashion, while he was utterly
deficient in that perseverance and steadi-
ness of purpose which could alone have
ensured to him excellence in any depart
ment of taste or science.
Byron has said that 'maidens like moths
are ever caught with glare and the sar-
casm of the poet is too often verified by
the experience of every day life. Sophia
had been utterly blind to the fine quail
ties of her daily companion, Charles Hay
wood, and she was now completely daz-
zled by the brilliant halo which encircled
the young favorte of a coterie. Edward
Liston became her sutton, and but few
months after her first acquaintance with
him, he asked and received her hand She
married him with full belief in his noble
ness of character as well as superior intel
lect, and to her younger part of her friends
she seemed to have drawn high prize in
the lottery of life. Indignantly rejecting
her guardians proposition to secure her
fortune by marriage settlement, Sophia
felt that where she was willing to entrust
her happiness she would not hesitate to
bestow the paltry gift of property, and she
came a lowered as well as loving bride
to the arms Of her gifted husband Ignor-
ant of the want and therefore of the value
of money, she felt no surprise when she
found herself established in a style of
sPlendour, which would have better suited
larger income. Indeed she felt pride
in thus exchanging the small and plain
apartments other guardians country house,
for the spacious and richly furnished ones
in which she now appeared as mistress
They lived in gay and fashionable man.
ner, receiving company very frequently,
and indulging in all the extensive pleas
ures of the time, until sudden check
was given to their thoughtless course of
life, by the severe illness of Sophia. In
the midst of her unrelenting career she
was struck down by the hand Of disease,
and for many weeks she lay on the couch
of suffering, with death watching beside
her pillow. Her eldest child was born and
died; yet the mother was unconscious of
everything-physical suffering had de-
stroyed all perception. Slowly and pain
fully the disease was driven back, and
step by step death retreated from be-
side her. She recovered, but the feeble
ness consequent upon her protracted i'll
ness, long confined her to the solitude of
her apartment. and while there she first
learned to reflect in sober sadness. Her
previous life had passed like happy but
bewildering dream, and her first awaking
was on the very brink Of the grave. She
shuddercd when she remembered her
thoughtless existence and her utter unfit
ness for another world. Whether this
communion with herself availed to prepare
her for the dreaded change whenever it
should come, rests between her soul and its
Maker; but it is certain that her giddy.
reckless gaiety of feeling was replaced by
an earnest and humble reliance upon the
God who had watched over her from in
fancy. She went into the chamber of
sickness a light hearted votary of earthly
pleasure, and she emerged from it chris
tian.
But Mr. Liston had employed the period
of her illness in very different manner
He was at first, kind, attentive and anxious,
but by degrees, he became careless and in
different. AS soon as all danger of death
had passed, he left his wife to the care of
her attendants, and once more shone in the
scenes of gayety. He had lived upon ex-
ctement until the quiet duties and pleasures
of life were utterly tastcless and insipid.-
He could not be spared from the gay scenes
ofwhich he was the life and ornament, and
therefore his wife was left in loneliness, de-
prived of the mpanionshp and solace of
him, who had sworn to cherish her in sick
ness and in health When she at length
returned to society, he was vexed and NOR
tilted at the change in her appearance and
manner. He could not bear to hear re-
marks about her faded looks, and still less
could he endure her scruples of conscience
respecting certain amusements in which she
had formerly INDUCED. Indeed, he had
learned to feel her presence a restraint
upon his pleasures, and in his heart he Sc
cretly wished that she would withdraw
from the scenes which she could no longer
adorn. Sophia perceived his desires, and
she obeyed. The birth of son afforded her