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DUTY AND INCLINATION.
31

conduct, commanding respect and affection, he was, equally with his consort, formed for the charms of domestic life; and each auspicious year, as it flowed gently on, still found them blest. Ostentatious parade, or pride of birth, were equally repugnant to their generous feelings. It had been the lot of this amiable pair to lose their eldest son; but as if to solace their misfortune, and repay them for the tender cares lavished upon him, the infant Frederic (named after his maternal grandfather), then their only heir and treasure, thrived apace, and in his progression to youth, yielded the promise of those virtues, and that soundness of understanding, which gained him many flattering encomiums, and especially from the learned preceptors under whom he pursued his studies. His person was good, about the middle size; his low straight brow denoted contemplation, whilst his easy closing lip portrayed benevolence; a cool dispassionate judgment seemed to mingle in the expression of his countenance with some more yielding quality; sentiments held in subjection to the dictates of reason. The amiable disposition of the mother harmonized in him with the noble principles of the father, forming at once a character such as by the wise and good is ever justly esteemed and admired.