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Article THURLOGH, THE MILESIAN. ← Page 4 of 8 →
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Thurlogh, The Milesian.
CHAPTER VI . The swain whose importunities had hurried off the clergyman to seal that which civilization has adopted as the compact of wedded life , and which the Messiah himself had once sanctioned by his presence , and even administered to the hilarity ofthe company on the occasion , was the son of a commoner who lived at some distance from a wealthy and noble lord , yet separated less by the interval of space than by those barriers of etiquette
behind which the shallow and the imbecile ever love to take shelter as the most impregnable outposts of ignorance and of vice . In no one case that could be adduced has this truism been more exemplified than in tbe following , which I now record . While young and capable of participating in generalities , Lord Portleck himself was gay , affable , and hospitable . A captivating exterior , joined to the consideration of exalted rank , gained a ready credence , amongst that sex whose smiles he wished to courtto the impeccability of a character thus
, eminently favoured ; while tbe witchery of bis manner and tbe plausibility of his address , led the world at large to believe that his frankness was but the mirror of inward rectitude and truth . Every door flew open at the recognition of his knock , every drawing-room was ready to greet him with a welcome . It was not long , however , before the poison of his seductiveness began to insinuate itself with extensive sway into tbe susceptible bossoms of his fair associates ; and the quick perception of his glance was not backward in
giving him intimation whenever such an impression was but once conceived . The Rubicon crossed , and the guards of prudence disarmed , the Lothario never failed to improve the feeling to his worst designs ; and even when stern morality and unbending principle interposed , the lubricity of his tongue and the varnish of his diction , would overrule all qualm , and conciliate acquiescence to some affinity with virtue . With those recommendations it would be endless to enumerate the hapless victims that fell within his snares . Neither the young nor the
middleaged , the maid , wife , or widow , were secured from his attack ; so that the result was , what unfortunately his experience had but too much warranted , a conviction , as regarded him , as to the universality of the weakness of the female world , or , in other words , that no woman could be proof against the artillery of love . Thus predisposed for suspicion , it will readily be believed , that when superanuated by age and satiated by gratification , it became his turn at last , to look within his own walls . The shadows which haunted his guilty
imagination , and the doubts that pursued him , were an incessant source of disquiet , but particularly to be lamented as inflicting their severity upon his own family . Ob ! and he had such' an interesting and charming family ! Five lovely daughters as ever graced a throne , or tripped with maiden buoyancy across the emerald freshness of their native vallies , lived or rather existed within the precincts of an old castle , immured like so many Danaes , from all intercourse with man , owing to the illiberal apprehensions of their profligate father .
" Full many a flower is born to blush unseen , And waste its sweetness on the desert air . " It was so here . Nineteen years of lonely solitude had passed over the eldest girl , before her eye was allowed to feast itself with the scintillations of that homage , which tine attractions of beauty never fail to draw forth from the discerning of our sex , or her bosom glowed with the mutuality ol attachment , whatever she may have by instinct imagined , or by anticipation prefigured to herself . In short , no male biped , in the shape of a man , whether as visitor or even of attendant , was admitted within the hall—all
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Thurlogh, The Milesian.
CHAPTER VI . The swain whose importunities had hurried off the clergyman to seal that which civilization has adopted as the compact of wedded life , and which the Messiah himself had once sanctioned by his presence , and even administered to the hilarity ofthe company on the occasion , was the son of a commoner who lived at some distance from a wealthy and noble lord , yet separated less by the interval of space than by those barriers of etiquette
behind which the shallow and the imbecile ever love to take shelter as the most impregnable outposts of ignorance and of vice . In no one case that could be adduced has this truism been more exemplified than in tbe following , which I now record . While young and capable of participating in generalities , Lord Portleck himself was gay , affable , and hospitable . A captivating exterior , joined to the consideration of exalted rank , gained a ready credence , amongst that sex whose smiles he wished to courtto the impeccability of a character thus
, eminently favoured ; while tbe witchery of bis manner and tbe plausibility of his address , led the world at large to believe that his frankness was but the mirror of inward rectitude and truth . Every door flew open at the recognition of his knock , every drawing-room was ready to greet him with a welcome . It was not long , however , before the poison of his seductiveness began to insinuate itself with extensive sway into tbe susceptible bossoms of his fair associates ; and the quick perception of his glance was not backward in
giving him intimation whenever such an impression was but once conceived . The Rubicon crossed , and the guards of prudence disarmed , the Lothario never failed to improve the feeling to his worst designs ; and even when stern morality and unbending principle interposed , the lubricity of his tongue and the varnish of his diction , would overrule all qualm , and conciliate acquiescence to some affinity with virtue . With those recommendations it would be endless to enumerate the hapless victims that fell within his snares . Neither the young nor the
middleaged , the maid , wife , or widow , were secured from his attack ; so that the result was , what unfortunately his experience had but too much warranted , a conviction , as regarded him , as to the universality of the weakness of the female world , or , in other words , that no woman could be proof against the artillery of love . Thus predisposed for suspicion , it will readily be believed , that when superanuated by age and satiated by gratification , it became his turn at last , to look within his own walls . The shadows which haunted his guilty
imagination , and the doubts that pursued him , were an incessant source of disquiet , but particularly to be lamented as inflicting their severity upon his own family . Ob ! and he had such' an interesting and charming family ! Five lovely daughters as ever graced a throne , or tripped with maiden buoyancy across the emerald freshness of their native vallies , lived or rather existed within the precincts of an old castle , immured like so many Danaes , from all intercourse with man , owing to the illiberal apprehensions of their profligate father .
" Full many a flower is born to blush unseen , And waste its sweetness on the desert air . " It was so here . Nineteen years of lonely solitude had passed over the eldest girl , before her eye was allowed to feast itself with the scintillations of that homage , which tine attractions of beauty never fail to draw forth from the discerning of our sex , or her bosom glowed with the mutuality ol attachment , whatever she may have by instinct imagined , or by anticipation prefigured to herself . In short , no male biped , in the shape of a man , whether as visitor or even of attendant , was admitted within the hall—all