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left to their own eratic course,
too often" led to be wilder, and dazzled to blend".
Genius has been called the brightest gift of heaven--it may be
so --but who will say it is the happiest? Not those on
whom it is bestowed. Often at the moment when its brightness
most shines on others, it is self most dark.
And while it imparts delight --it is its self miserable.
Nature is impartial in the distribution of her gifts--she
unites great powers with great weaknesses--bright
{highs?} with dark shade, and so mingle her various
qualities, that if balanced one with another
there may be covered { ?} at differences, there will
be found but little inequality in the character or condition
of individual. If the dangers and sufferings attached to genius,
taken into the account, its
possessor would seldom be an object of envy. Had Julia's
mind been less brilliantly endowed, she would not only have
been a more useful, but a far happier woman.
It is scarcely possible for a female, to be placed
in a situation more full of peril, then that in which
Mrs Clifton now was. Her ardent affections, {bright?}{bereft?}
of the object to which they so long had clung, recoiled
up on her self, and preyed upon her peace. The {active } { ?}
of her active mind wanted proper { } occupation
and her creative fancy as often conjured up unreal misery
as unreal joy. The common-place realities of life, could
neither interest, occupy or please--The monotony, wearied and
depressed,
Even danger and difficulty had greater charms for such
a character, than quietude and security.
The tumultuous joys of the world, in which she
had sought a refuge from domestic sorrows, began to lose
their charm with their novelty--The same perpetual round
of frivolous amusements, and heartless pleasures,
in which there was so little to exercise the mind,
charm the fancy, or touch the heart, and {compelled?} upon the
appetite, and left a craving void, which the world could never
fill. No not even its most substantial joys, its brightest
honors. Give the heart all that life has to give, and yet this
craving void remains. The soul