136 AMIABILITY. 



can only class it as superlative. Yet we must needs look in another 

 direction than that of every day affection and assumption, if we 

 expect to find the links of affection and amiability in all their pris- 

 tine purity. Human innocence has but few representatives in com- 

 parison with human knavery and the very mist of deceitfulness now 

 requires more than the sunshine of goodness, or the rays of refine- 

 ment to dispel it even temporarily. 



In fact amiable people are models of trustfulness, they are ex- 

 ceedingly sensitive, and consequently should be spared from the 

 silent regret they undergo when deceived by those whom they have 

 honored with their friendship. We might emphatically say that 

 their nature is too delicate and harmless to be subjected to any sort 

 of injury. But in the thickest of the various perplexities of the 

 age we live in, it requires much strength of mind to maintain an 

 amiable disposition, for among the array of disagreeable persons but 

 few can cope with the notoriously captious — those, in brief who 

 look upon amiable people as simple minded and will not acknoAv- 

 ledge under any consideration, that the sweet tempered are fit for 

 aught else than social fixtures. Never alllowing that their quiet 

 ease and modesty come from the best order of intelligence, an ex- 

 quisite conception of tenderness, and a thorough observance of 

 politeness in all its phases and upon all occasions. The enmity or 

 opposition of the jealous and unlettered, to amiable personages, in- 

 variably reveals precisely what they most wish to cover up, and that 

 is their inferiority of both mind and manners ; yet the class of itself 

 is of but little importance to societ} r since its most charming mem- 

 bers are alike apt and amiable. 



But alas ! how helpless are amiable people generally, when they 

 have been reduced in circumstances by the wicked devices of others. 

 Their ambition is painfully shattered, and they plod along through 

 the remainder of their days as if they were desirous of being totally 

 undiscoverable to their former friends and associates. They are 

 willing to partake of the humble meal and the obscure abode, and 

 to adhere to their original nature. Hence there can hardly be any- 

 thing more despicable than to wilfully deceive or trifle with their 

 confidence. The utter conteuqjt of every advocate of meekness 

 should follow the creature who may be so steeped in dishonesty as 

 to commit such a wrong. 



