Surrounded with our little possessions, I am conscious to no
deficiency; in the midst of my parents and friends, I desire not to look
beyond the narrow circle of the neighbouring hills. If you feel those
wants, which I do not so much as understand, enjoy your fond mistake.
Possess those riches which I will not envy you. Wander from luxury to
luxury unquestioned; I shall be sufficiently happy in the narrow
gratifications that nature has placed within my reach. The gifts you
offer me have no splendour in my eye, and I could not thank you for them
though offered with ever so much disinterestedness. The only gift it is
in your power to make is liberty. Allow me to partake of that bounty,
which nature has bestowed upon the choristers of the grove, to wander
where I will. Under a thousand of those privations that would render the
child of luxury inconsolable, I would support myself; freedom and
independence are the only boons which the whole course of my life has
taught me to cherish."
"Your ignorance," rejoined Roderic, "is amiable, though unfortunate. But
your merit is too great not to deserve to be informed. Knowledge, my
lovely maiden, is always regarded as a desirable acquisition by the
prudent and the judicious. To what purpose was a mind so capacious,
competent to the greatest improvements, and formed to comprehend
subjects of the most extensive compass, or the sublimest reach, bestowed
upon us, if it be not employed in the pursuits of science and
experience? Your abilities, my Imogen, appear to be of the very first
description.
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