“This passion wrinkles the forehead; the eyebrows are sunk down and knit; the eyeball is half hid under the eyebrows, which turn towards the object; it should appear full of fire, as well as the white of the eye and the eyelid; the nostrils open, more marked than ordinary, and drawn backward, so as to make wrinkles on the cheeks; the mouth is so shut as to show the teeth, and very much sunk down; the muscles of the jaw appear sunk; the colour of the face is partly inflamed, and partly yellowish; the lips pale or livid.
“The infant was taken into the woods by Hugo, where it was left to perish; and the wicked Baron soon contrived to persuade the domestics that the child had died of a fever; and had even a mock burial, the better to deceive them.
“But, my dear children,” said Mr. Willock, “if the former was the countenance of the wicked Baron before he committed the crime, how did it appear now? instead of finding that he could enjoy his riches, his mind was full of horror and dismay; his anguish became extreme; his face appeared not only deformed but hideous; the forehead wrinkled from the top to the bottom; the eyebrows bent down over the eyes, and pressing one another on the sides of the nose; the eyes seemingly on fire, and full of blood; the eyeball disturbed, and under the eyebrows, sparkling and unfixed; the eyelid swelled and livid; the nostrils large, open, and lifted up; the end of the nose sunk down; the muscles, leaders, and veins, swelled and stretched; the upper part of the cheeks large, marked, and narrow towards the jaw; the mouth drawn backwards, more open at the sides than in the middle; the lower lip large and turned out, he gnashes his teeth, foams, bites his lips, which are pale, as is the rest of the face; the hair is strait, and stands an end; such was the picture of the wicked Baron, the picture of
DESPAIR.
“What a dreary thing, my dear children, must be despair—afflicted by an accusing conscience, and bereft of hope! What would this wicked man have given, after he had parted with his ill-gotten wealth, to have found the child alive! but that felicity was denied him living; he was to die in affliction.
“The wicked Hugo was taken to prison to await his punishments.—But let us turn to a more agreeable subject—the honest wood cutter, who could refuse all the allurements of wealth, because it was ill-gotten; even his wife Gertrude, who loved riches, disdained to enjoy them on such terms. What a lesson does this afford to us to be noble in mind, and to resist temptation! The good do not feel any of the violent passions; they are moderate and temperate in all they do; they are undisturbed, and through all the changes of life may depend on that Providence, the recollection of which occasioned the great and good Jonas Hanway; who founded the Marine Society, to use the motto—‘Never Despair.’
“Never, then, my dear children, suffer your young minds to long after riches, when they cannot be purchased by fair and honest means; for you may rest assured that it is much better to prefer,
“The wise man’s choice, by which you’ll find,
No wealth is like a quiet mind.”