In an old family mansion, situated on an estate in Gloucestershire known
by the name of Rosevalley, resided Mrs Mowbray, and Adeline her only
child.
Mrs Mowbray's father, Mr Woodville, a respectable country gentleman,
married, in obedience to the will of his mother, the sole surviving
daughter of an opulent merchant in London, whose large dower paid off
some considerable mortgages on the Woodville estates, and whose mild and
unoffending character soon gained that affection from her husband after
marriage, which he denied her before it.
Nor was it long before their happiness was increased, and their union
cemented, by the birth of a daughter; who continuing to be an only
child, and the probable heiress of great possessions, became the idol
of her parents, and the object of unremitted attention to those who
surrounded her. Consequently, one of the first lessons which Editha
Woodville learnt was that of egotism, and to consider it as the chief
duty of all who approached her, to study the gratification of her whims
and caprices.
But, though rendered indolent in some measure by the blind folly of her
parents, and the homage of her dependents, she had a taste above the
enjoyments which they offered her.
She had a decided passion for literature, which she had acquired from
a sister of Mr Woodville, who had been brought up amongst literary
characters of various pursuits and opinions; and this lady had imbibed
from them a love of free inquiry, which she had little difficulty in
imparting to her young and enthusiastic relation.
But, alas! that inclination for study, which, had it been directed to
proper objects, would have been the charm of Miss Woodville's life,
and the safeguard of her happiness, by giving her a constant source of
amusement within herself; proved to her, from the unfortunate direction
which it took, the abundant cause of misery and disappointment.
For her, history, biography, poetry, and discoveries in natural
philosophy, had few attractions, while she pored with still unsatisfied
delight over abstruse systems of morals and metaphysics, or new theories
in politics; and scarcely a week elapsed in which she did not receive,
from her aunt's bookseller in London, various tracts on these her
favourite subjects.
Happy would it have been for Miss Woodville, if the merits of the works
which she so much admired could have been canvassed in her presence by
rational and unprejudiced persons: but, her parents and friends being
too ignorant to discuss philosophical opinions or political controversies,
the young speculator was left to the decision of her own inexperienced
enthusiasm. To her, therefore, whatever was bold and uncommon seemed new
and wise; and every succeeding theory held her imagination captive till
its power was weakened by one of equal claims to singularity.
She soon, however, ceased to be contented with reading, and was eager
to become a writer also. But, as she was strongly imbued with the
prejudices of an ancient family, she could not think of disgracing that
family by turning professed author: she therefore confined her little
effusions to a society of admiring friends, secretly lamenting the loss
which the literary world sustained in her being born a gentlewoman.
Nor is it to be wondered at, that, as she was ambitious to be, and to be
thought, a deep thinker, she should have acquired habits of abstraction,
and absence, which imparted a look of wildness to a pair of dark eyes,
that beamed with intelligence, and gave life to features of the most
perfect regularity.
To reverie, indeed, she was from childhood inclined; and her life was
long a life of reverie. To her the present moment had scarcely ever
existence; and this propensity to lose herself in a sort of ideal world,
was considerably increased by the nature of her studies.
Fatal and unproductive studies! While, wrapt in philosophical abstraction,
she was trying to understand a metaphysical question on the mechanism
of the human mind, or what constituted the true nature of virtue, she
suffered day after day to pass in the culpable neglect of positive
duties; and while imagining systems for the good of society, and the
furtherance of general philanthropy, she allowed individual suffering in
her neighbourhood to pass unobserved and unrelieved. While professing
her unbounded love for the great family of the world, she suffered her
own family to pine under the consciousness of her neglect; and viciously
devoted those hours to the vanity of abstruse and solitary study,
which might have been better spent in amusing the declining age of her
venerable parents, whom affection had led to take up their abode with
her.
Let me observe, before I proceed further, that Mrs Mowbray scrupulously
confined herself to theory, even in her wisest speculations; and being
too timid, and too indolent, to illustrate by her conduct the various
and opposing doctrines which it was her pride to maintain by turns, her
practice was ever in opposition to her opinions.
Hence, after haranguing with all the violence of a true Whig on the
natural rights of man, or the blessings of freedom, she would 'turn
to a Tory in her elbow chair', and govern her household with despotic
authority; and after embracing at some moments the doubts of the
sceptic, she would often lie motionless in her bed, from apprehension
of ghosts, a helpless prey to the most abject superstition.
Such was the mother of ADELINE MOWBRAY! such was the woman who, having
married the heir of Rosevalley, merely to oblige her parents, saw
herself in the prime of life a rich widow, with an only child, who was
left by Mr Mowbray, a fond husband, but an ill-judging parent, entirely
dependent on her!
At the time of Mr Mowbray's death, Adeline Mowbray was ten years old,
and Mrs Mowbray thirty; and like an animal in an exhausted receiver,
she had during her short existence been tormented by the experimental
philosophy of her mother.
Now it was judged right that she should learn nothing, and now that she
should learn every thing. Now, her graceful form and well-turned limbs
were to be free from any bandage, and any clothing save what decency
required,--and now they were to be tortured by stiff stays, and fettered
by the stocks and the back-board.
All Mrs Mowbray's ambition had settled in one point, one passion,
and that was EDUCATION. For this purpose she turned over innumerable
volumes in search of rules on the subject, on which she might improve,
anticipating with great satisfaction the moment when she should be held
up as a pattern of imitation to mothers, and be prevailed upon, though
with graceful reluctance, to publish her system, without a name, for the
benefit of society.
But, however good her intentions were, the execution of them was
continually delayed by her habits of abstraction and reverie. After
having over night arranged the tasks of Adeline for the next day,--lost
in some new speculations for the good of her child, she would lie in bed
all the morning, exposing that child to the dangers of idleness.
At one time Mrs Mowbray had studied herself into great nicety with
regard to the diet of her daughter; but, as she herself was too much
used to the indulgences of the palate to be able to set her in reality
an example of temperance, she dined in appearance with Adeline at one
o'clock on pudding without butter, and potatoes without salt; but while
the child was taking her afternoon's walk, her own table was covered
with viands fitted for the appetite of opulence.
Unfortunately, however, the servants conceived that the daughter as
well as the mother had a right to regale clandestinely; and the little
Adeline used to eat for her supper, with a charge not to tell her mamma,
some of the good things set by from Mrs Mowbray's dinner.
It happened that, as Mrs Mowbray was one evening smoothing Adeline's
flowing curls, and stroking her ruddy cheek, she exclaimed triumphantly,
raising Adeline to the glass, 'See the effect of temperance and low
living! If you were accustomed to eat meat, and butter, and drink any
thing but water, you would not look so healthy, my love, as you do now.
O the excellent effects of a vegetable diet!'
The artless girl, whose conscience smote her during the whole of this
speech, hung her blushing head on her bosom:--it was the confusion of
guilt; and Mrs Mowbray perceiving it earnestly demanded what it meant,
when Adeline, half crying, gave a full explanation.
Nothing could exceed the astonishment and mortification of Mrs Mowbray;
but, though usually tenacious of her opinions, she in this case profited
by the lesson of experience. She no longer expected any advantage from
clandestine measures:--but Adeline, her appetites regulated by a proper
exertion of parental authority, was allowed to sit at the well-furnished
table of her mother, and was precluded, by a judicious and open
indulgence, from wishing for a secret and improper one; while the
judicious praises which Mrs Mowbray bestowed on Adeline's ingenuous
confession endeared to her the practice of truth, and laid the foundation
of a habit of ingenuousness which formed through life one of the
ornaments of her character--Would that Mrs Mowbray had always been
equally judicious!
Another great object of anxiety to her was the method of clothing
children; whether they should wear flannel, or no flannel; light shoes,
to give agility to the motions of the limbs; or heavy shoes, in order to
strengthen the muscles by exertion;--when one day, as she was turning
over a voluminous author on this subject, the nurserymaid hastily
entered the room, and claimed her attention, but in vain; Mrs Mowbray
went on reading aloud:--
'Some persons are of opinion that thin shoes are most beneficial to
health; others, equally worthy of respect, think thick ones of most use:
and the reasons for these different opinions we shall class under two
heads--'
'Dear me, ma'am!' cried Bridget, 'and in the meantime Miss Adeline will
go without any shoes at all.'
'Do not interrupt me, Bridget,' cried Mrs Mowbray, and proceeded to read
on. 'In the first place, it is not clear, says a learned writer, whether
children require any clothing at all for their feet.'
At this moment Adeline burst open the parlour door, and, crying bitterly,
held up her bleeding toes to her mother.
'Mamma, mamma!' cried she, 'you forget to send for a pair of new shoes
for me; and see, how the stones in the gravel have cut me!'
This sight, this appeal, decided the question in dispute. The feet of
Adeline bleeding on a new Turkey carpet proved that some clothing for
the feet was necessary; and even Mrs Mowbray for a moment began to
suspect that a little experience is better than a great deal of theory.