214 



IIXTRACTS FROM THE COUNTESS OF MORLEY'S 

 " D A C R E ." 



A THOUSAND opportunities for falling in love are afforded to young 

 people in a continental tour, which are denied them in England. 

 The mountain path cannot be ascended alone, but imperatively 

 requires the supporting arm of the companion : without his 

 careful assistance the mule would not thread its dangerous way, 

 and her safety requires his attendance at her side. The distant 

 expedition brings a moonlight return. They listen to the mur- 

 muring ripple of the wave as it gently reaches the shore, and the 

 joyous sound of voices softened by the distance breaks upon the 

 ear. They gaze on the tremulous stream of silver light which 

 dances on the scarcely ruffled waters, and watch with wonder and 

 delight the red bickering flame that ever and anon shoots upwards 

 from the summit of Vesuvius. Their feelings are brought into 

 unison by sympathy in the contemplative pleasures which such 

 scenes must produce ; and the gay frivolity of the ball room is 

 exchanged for the silent enthusiasm which nature awakes. 



It is at moments like these, when the petty anxieties of life are 

 absorbed in the sublimity of the scene — when the thoughts are 

 - not selfishly engaged in a search for admiration — when the heart 

 is not hardened by the vain ambition of conquest — that we are 

 most accessible to tenderness and attachment. It is at moments 

 like these that — when silence is at length broken — the warm in 

 heart and the pure in mind dare to pour forth those sentiments 

 which are least suited to the gaiety of society, and least under- 

 stood by the cold and reckless. 



There are many to whom the name of a ball conveys no other 

 idea than the meeting of various persons, to indulge in the un- 

 meaning practice of dancing: there are others who look upon a 

 ball as the means of conquest and display. By some it is re- 

 garded as the business of life ; by others as the frivolous recrea- 

 tion of unthinking people. By the wily matron it is viewed as a 

 market; by the presumptuous heir apparent as the bazaar from 

 which he may select his mate at pleasure; and there are those 

 among the elders, who, regarding it as the innocent outbreak of 

 joy and mirth in the young, benignantly approve of such a safety- 

 valve to the exuberance of youthful spirits. But with far other 



