The description of Conrad's return from his piratical cruise, the agony
of his mind when he finds that his lovely Medora had fallen a sacrifice
to her affectionate regard for him, and his sudden departure in a boat,
through despair, is equally grand and powerful, and exhibits a fine
specimen of the influence of female constancy even on the mind of a man
like Conrad, who, from the nature of his pursuits, was inured to the
infliction of wrongs on his fellow-creatures.
The anecdote of the behaviour of Arria towards her husband, Pætus,
related by Pliny, is one of the greatest instances of constancy and
magnanimity of mind to be met with in history. Pætus was imprisoned, and
condemned to die, for joining in a conspiracy against the Emperor,
Claudius. Arria, having provided herself with a dagger, one day observed
a more than usual gloom on the countenance of Pætus, when judging that
death by the executioner might be more terrible to him than the field of
glory, and perhaps, too, sensible that it was for her sake he wished to
live, she drew the dagger from her side, and stabbed herself before his
eyes. Then instantly plucking the weapon from her breast, she presented
it to her husband, saying, "My Pætus, it is not painful!" Read this, ye
votaries of voluptuousness. Reflect upon the fine moral lesson of
conjugal virtue that is conveyed in this domestic tragedy, ye brutal
contemners of female chastity, and of every virtue that emits a ray of
glory around the social circle of matrimonial happiness! Take into your
serious consideration this direful but noble proof of constancy, ye
giddy and thoughtless worshippers at the shrine of beauty, and know,
that a virtuous disposition is the brightest ornament of the female sex.
There is another instance of constancy of mind, under oppression, in
Otway's tragedy of _Venice Preserved_, in a dialogue between Jaffier and
Belvidera, where the former questions her with great tenderness of
feeling in regard to her future line of conduct in the gloomy prospect
of his adverse fortune. She replies to him with great animation and
pathos:
"Oh, I will love thee, ev'n in madness love thee,
Tho' my distracted senses should forsake me!
Tho' the bare earth be all our resting place,
Its roots our food, some cliff our habitation,
I'll make this arm a pillow for thy head,
And as thou sighing ly'st, and swell'd with sorrow,
Creep to thy bosom, pour the balm of love
Into thy soul, and kiss thee to thy rest."
This is a true and beautiful picture of constancy of mind, under those
rude blasts of adversity, which too frequently nip the growth of
affection. The only alternative against a decay of passion on such
occasions, is a sufficient portion of virtue, strong and well-grounded
love, and constancy of mind as firm as the rock. In short, without
constancy, there can be neither love, friendship, nor virtue, in the
world.