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DUTY AND INCLINATION.
15


After a voyage affording but little variety to dispel ennui, he found himself in a foreign clime, where, to reconcile himself to his irremediable lot, he sought diversion in every shape; but, notwithstanding, an inward repining prevailed, to embitter the present, at best but a life of luxurious indolence, causing him to sigh for home, for the deprivation of which and his accustomed pleasures nothing could compensate; the dazzling charms of European women, the loss of those circles where wit and fashion reigned, and where his jocund hilarity contributed to delight, as also to inspire the same feeling in others.

Thus he was assiduous to dissipate time; which, as it still stole away, far from reconciling him, contributed only to excite his further aversion from that enervating soil, upon which his untoward destiny had thrown him. Daily more discontented, he resolved at length to quit a species of banishment so uncongenial to him, and applied for leave of absence, which he obtained, though only for the limited space of eighteen months: nevertheless he gladly availed himself of it, hoping some fortunate occurrence might intervene in that short period to prevent the necessity of returning. He accordingly, after an absence of five years, repaired to England, resorted to the Capital, renewed his intimacy with