THE CONQUEST YES,—and then-Ye, whose clay-cold heads and lukewarm hearts can argue down or mask your passions, tell me, what trespass is it that men should have them? or how his spirit stands answerable to the father of spirits but for his conduct under them! If nature has so wove her web of kindness that some threads of love and desire are entangled with the piece, must the whole web be rent in drawing them out?-Whip me such stoics, great governor of nature! said I to myself: wherever thy providence shall place me for the trials of my virtue; whatever is my danger,-whatever is my situation,-let me feel the movements which rise out of it, and which belong to me as a man,—and if I govern them as a good one, I will trust the issues to thy justice; for thou hast made us, and not we ourselves. As I finished my address, I raised the fair fille de chambre up by the hand, and led her out of the room -she stood by me till I locked the door and put the |