CHAPTER XVII.
Of some dire dream, waking the pious soul
To life and transport, makes amends at once
For all past suffering, in a moment all
Forgotten, in that plenitude of joy."
Age of Benevolence
Three weeks had elapsed since the first interview of the good clergyman with Oriana, during which period he had frequently seen her. He was one who found leisure both for duties, and for pleasures, because he systematically divided his time; and in his duties, his pleasures lay. Complaints of the toil which his profession! imposed, of the drudgery of writing sermons, and the labour of instructing the young, were never heard from him; for he loved to be about his Master's business. Content with a stipend, which the effeminacy of modern times would pronounce insufficient for the necessaries of life, he taught his family by example the art of cheerfully sustaining privations, and of sacrificing their own wishes to the good of others. He never studied to disjoin self-denial from benevolence; and his conduct, and even his countenance was an illustration of the inspired direction, respecting the sons of Levi—"Ye shall give them no possession in Israel, I am their possession: ye shall mete out to them no inheritance, I am their inheritance." In his intercourse
