CHAPTER XIX.
Still different, and far, very far less auspicious, was the fate of another of their cotemporaries. His father filled the situation of an organist in a Provincial town, but had saved money enough to give his son a decent education, and establish him at the university, with the design of his taking orders. He passed through the ordinary course with an unexceptionable character, in due time was admitted with some credit to his degree, was ordained subsequently, and was elected fellow of the college. Most unfortunately for him, his exertions to procure what appeared to be an eligible curacy, in a very remote and retired situation, were but too successful, and to this he owed his utter and irretrievable ruin. He was a well made, handsome man, of great good nature, and very agreeable manners.
There was, as ill luck would have it, another Potiphar’s wife in the village; he was exposed to precisely the same temptations as the Joseph of Scripture, but unhappily did not possess similar virtue. He too easily fell into the snare. The connection was discovered, and a prosecution was the consequence. It but little availed him, that there was no pretence for the charge of seduction on his part, that the frail lady was the mother of a numerous family, that the husband was much absent from home, that opportunities to assail his firmness were studiously sought, and that pretences to have him almost constantly in the house, were ingeniously invented. Far heavier damages were awarded against him than he was able to pay, and in consequence, he absconded. The society of which he was a member, was but too well justified in withholding the preferment, to which in his regular turn he would otherwise have been entitled; and he had the mortification to live to see a generation almost pass over him, and severally enjoying, what if he had but listened to the voice of duty, or even of prudence, he would fully have participated. He was however permitted, and this was no small indulgence, to retain the emoluments of his Fellowship.
The catastrophe of his fortune and life was disastrous; he took to drinking. It is more than apprehended, that notwithstanding his collegiate oath, which was indispensable to the enjoyment of the revenues of his fellowship, he married. The woman was content to live with him, retaining her maiden name. He at length died prematurely, very much the victim of remorse, arising from his accumulated irregularities. The moralist, with tears of pity and regret, might here expatiate on the destructive consequences of one false step, on the entrance into life. Had this poor man been fortunately under the protection, or within the sphere of the admonitions of some sincere friend and experienced counsellor, he might have adorned the society which he disgraced, and benefited the system which he injured.
“The subject of cotemporaries (such are our friend’s remarks) is at an advanced period of life more painful than pleasing. Many of those whom we most loved and esteemed, are separated from us to meet no more, but in another scene of things. Of the majority, perhaps, of the rest, there is so much to lament and to regret, in the failure of their views and hopes, in their calamities, their follies, and their errors, that remembrance presents the mind with a motley picture, where there is more gloom than sunshine, more thorns than flowers.”
There was one fellow-collegian in particular, who appears to have excited an extraordinary degree of interest in the writer of these remarks. He was of a studious and somewhat indolent character, perpetually proposing to his fancy the tranquillity and happiness, he flattered himself with hereafter enjoying in the marriage state, and in domestic life. This was the constant theme of his conversation, and the extremest limit of his ambition.
He was connected with families who had ample means of satisfying his wishes, as far as revenue was concerned, and accordingly, at no distant period after he was qualified to receive them, Benefices were bestowed upon him, equal to his warmest wishes. It is lamentable to detail the final consequences. He married a woman without principle. His flattering views of happiness in the domestic life, vanished in smoke, and if he yet lives, he lives the scorn and ridicule of many, who were well warranted in their prediction of what actually ensued.
Another individual, of very superior talents, and who had many and various attainments, as well as the most pleasing and conciliating manners, failed in his expectations of happiness, with still more provoking perverseness. He had obtained considerable distinction at the university, and might, if he had thought proper, have succeeded to something far more substantial than mere University honours; but he chose to marry, and unluckily he united himself to a person so inferior to himself in education and acquirements, that when he retired to his paternal inheritance, he found that he wanted a suitable companion. This induced him to plunge into business, for which, perhaps, of all men, he was the least qualified. He laid out the whole of his property in the purchase of great tythes in different places.
The consequence was, that for the remainder of his life, he was perpetually involved in law-suits; and though he was generally right, and successful also, his spirits were harassed, his constitution gradually impaired, and his means exhausted. This estranged him from his wife, soured his temper, and finally shortened his days. He was imprisoned in the Fleet, where a lingering disease carried him off, and in his dying moments he had no other consolation than that which he received from his medical friend, who, most fortunately for him, had known him intimately at college, and who took care with great benevolence, that the necessities of his miserable situation were duly supplied.
Fortuna sævo læta negotio.