They are generally kind and charitable to the poor; so are their
wives and daughters. I have often known them to cheer the sick-bed--to
assist the widow and the orphan--to advise and admonish the profligate,
and, in some instances, even to reclaim them. But now about your own
prospects; I think you should go and see your family as soon as your
health permits you."
"I would give my right hand," replied Jemmy, "just to see them, if it
was only for five minutes: but I cannot go. I vowed that I would never
enter my native parish until I should become a Catholic clergyman. I
vowed that, sir, to God--and with his assistance I will keep my vow."
"Well," said the curate, "you are right. And now lot me give you a
little advice. In the first place, learn to speak as correctly as you
can; lay aside the vulgarisms of conversation peculiar to the common
people; and speak precisely as you would write. By the by, you acquitted
yourself to admiration with the Colonel. A little stumbling there was in
the beginning; but you got over it. You see, James, the force of truth
and simplicity. I could scarcely restrain my tears while you spoke."
"If I had not been in earnest, sir, I could never have spoken as I did."
"You never could. Truth, James, is the foundation of all eloquence; he
who knowingly speaks what is not true, may dazzle and perplex; but he
will never touch with that power and pathos which spring from truth.
Fiction is successful only by borrowing her habiliments.
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