Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Colville.
thinking that the knowledge of these affairs was the chief grotind-\ vork of domestic felicity . Colville-Hall had been invariably a seat of hospitality : Mr . and Mrs . Colville both delighted in the pleasures of society . Louisa partook of all the gaieties and amusements the Island of Barbadoes could afford ; and when public entertainments were at a stand , private balls and concerts were frequently going forward at Colville-Hall . These little recreations Mr . Colvillefrom
, the extent of his property in the island , could well afford . The most favourable accounts of William ' s proceedings at Eton , together with his improvements , served greatly to augment the felicity of thefamily . His letters to his mother and sister were penned in a perfect stile of epistolary elegance ; those to his father were written with a careful display of classical acquisitions . These efforts in the son were highly
flattering to the father . Mr . Colville had , in his younger years , sacrificed deeply to the Muses ; and had in many of his productions exhibited proofs of an elegant and classical genius : he was a man of erudition , without pedantry ; ancl a man of letters , without ostentation : —his selection of books stamped him a scholar , his application of them a gentleman . His excellent advice to a neighbour , who had just taken possession of an estate in Barbadoes , concerning the treatment of slaves , does honour to his philanthropy : ' Treat them , ' said he , ' with candour , probity , and tenderness , and they will return them
tenfold in all their intercourse with you ; as on the other hand , they seldom fail ( o retort the contrary treatment with severe usury—nor are they to be blamed . In all their dealings with the Europeans , they find themselves imposed upon in the grossest manner ; in a manner not fit to be practised even with brutes . Their sensibility is quick , and their passions ungovemed , perhaps ungovernable . How then can it be wondered atthat they make returns in kindwhenever
, , they find any opportunity , and become the most dangerous enemies ? Whereas , if those passions were attached by good treatment , they would be the most affectionate , steady , and careful friends . I speak from experience . 1 treat them as rational creatures , and they behave as such to me . I never deceive them , and they never deceive me ; I do them all the good offices in my power , and they return them
manifold . In short , I practise to them the behaviour which I wish to meet from them , and am never disappointed . All the evils which have been suffered from them have proceeded from the unhappy error of thinking ourselves possessed of a superiority over them , which Nature , that is , Heaven , has not given us : they are our fellow creaturesandin generalabove our level in the virtues which give real
, , , pre-eminence , however despicably we think of , and injuriously we treat , them . ' Every thing seemed to conspire to render this famil y completel y happy—but unannoyed felicity is not for us
!' Good unexpected , evils unforeseen , Appear by turns , as Fortune shifts the scene—. Sonne , rais'd aloft , come , tumbling down amain , . Then , fall so hard , they bound and rise again , '
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Colville.
thinking that the knowledge of these affairs was the chief grotind-\ vork of domestic felicity . Colville-Hall had been invariably a seat of hospitality : Mr . and Mrs . Colville both delighted in the pleasures of society . Louisa partook of all the gaieties and amusements the Island of Barbadoes could afford ; and when public entertainments were at a stand , private balls and concerts were frequently going forward at Colville-Hall . These little recreations Mr . Colvillefrom
, the extent of his property in the island , could well afford . The most favourable accounts of William ' s proceedings at Eton , together with his improvements , served greatly to augment the felicity of thefamily . His letters to his mother and sister were penned in a perfect stile of epistolary elegance ; those to his father were written with a careful display of classical acquisitions . These efforts in the son were highly
flattering to the father . Mr . Colville had , in his younger years , sacrificed deeply to the Muses ; and had in many of his productions exhibited proofs of an elegant and classical genius : he was a man of erudition , without pedantry ; ancl a man of letters , without ostentation : —his selection of books stamped him a scholar , his application of them a gentleman . His excellent advice to a neighbour , who had just taken possession of an estate in Barbadoes , concerning the treatment of slaves , does honour to his philanthropy : ' Treat them , ' said he , ' with candour , probity , and tenderness , and they will return them
tenfold in all their intercourse with you ; as on the other hand , they seldom fail ( o retort the contrary treatment with severe usury—nor are they to be blamed . In all their dealings with the Europeans , they find themselves imposed upon in the grossest manner ; in a manner not fit to be practised even with brutes . Their sensibility is quick , and their passions ungovemed , perhaps ungovernable . How then can it be wondered atthat they make returns in kindwhenever
, , they find any opportunity , and become the most dangerous enemies ? Whereas , if those passions were attached by good treatment , they would be the most affectionate , steady , and careful friends . I speak from experience . 1 treat them as rational creatures , and they behave as such to me . I never deceive them , and they never deceive me ; I do them all the good offices in my power , and they return them
manifold . In short , I practise to them the behaviour which I wish to meet from them , and am never disappointed . All the evils which have been suffered from them have proceeded from the unhappy error of thinking ourselves possessed of a superiority over them , which Nature , that is , Heaven , has not given us : they are our fellow creaturesandin generalabove our level in the virtues which give real
, , , pre-eminence , however despicably we think of , and injuriously we treat , them . ' Every thing seemed to conspire to render this famil y completel y happy—but unannoyed felicity is not for us
!' Good unexpected , evils unforeseen , Appear by turns , as Fortune shifts the scene—. Sonne , rais'd aloft , come , tumbling down amain , . Then , fall so hard , they bound and rise again , '