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sity, will cheerfully endeavour to alleviate our distress. Their domestic habits, the nature of those occupations in which they are engaged, and above all, those fine sensibilities with which they are endued, peculiarly fit them for the fulfilment of this important branch of social duty.

With the other sex, the case is in general very different; owing to the operation of various causes. The constitutions of men render them naturally less susceptible of the tender feelings; their habits, formed in the hurry and bustle of active life, cause them to be more inattentive to the suggestions of sympathy; the cares and turmoil of business engross their attention; and being commonly less liable to experience the pangs of sickness and affliction themselves, they view the sufferings of others with a greater degree of apathy, and exert less activity in procuring them relief.

These considerations have often, formerly, led me to admire the behaviour of an amiable young man of my acquaintance, whom I shall introduce to my readers by the name of Eudoxus. Although I do not pretend to say that he equalled Fidelia in filial regard, yet his conduct justly entitled him to be held up as an example to others of his own sex.

The father of Eudoxus was far advanced in

He was

years, and had been a long time blind. a widower, with no other child, nor indeed near relative; neither had he the advantage of a great variety of friends, whose attention and conversation might, in some degree, have rendered less irksome the privation of sight under which he laboured; and cheered his mind when sinking under the languor that generally accompanies old age. This want, however, was in a great degree compensated by the kindness of his son, whose views were continually directed to anticipate his father's wishes, and procure him every gratification his situation would allow.

Although Eudoxus was extensively engaged in business, which consequently engrossed a large portion of his time, and left him few hours at his own disposal, he nevertheless contrived to devote some of his leisure to the suggestions of filial duty. Happy in an affectionate wife and a family of amiable children, he did not forget, amid their caresses, that there was another who had a claim to some part of his attention; and who had watched over him with paternal tenderness, in the helpless hours of infancy. He recollected the anxiety with which his fond parent provided for the cultivation of his talents in youth, in order that he might procure those intellectual qualifications which contribute so much to the real happiness

of life, and be enabled to sustain with propriety the respectable station in which he was placed. Blessed with the full enjoyment of every sense, and particularly of that invaluable one of sight, Eudoxus fully entered into the cheerless situation of his aged father, to whom the pathetic lines of Milton, descriptive of his own condition, might with equal propriety be applied :

With the year

Seasons return, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me; from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Presented with an universal blank

Of nature's works, to me expung❜d and ras'd,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.

To lessen these privations, Eudoxus applied himself with unceasing assiduity. In his little excursions into the country, he observed the various changes in the face of nature with a keener eye, in order that he might be enabled by his descriptions to soothe the mind of him to whom such appearances were no more visible, and render the want of sight less regretted. His kindness operated to recall the images of former pleasing scenery; and thus to substitute the

visions of fancy for the present barren reality. He detailed the passing events of the day; he entered into the feelings of an old man towards the few remaining companions of his happier years; and by recounting whatever he might have learnt respecting them, endeavoured to gratify those feelings.

The last time I had occasion to call upon Eudoxus, I was referred to him at his aged parent's, who at that time laboured under the attacks of an acute disease.-Eudoxus was sitting by his father's couch, reading to him; and, whenever a paroxysm came on, endeavouring by every means which prudence could suggest, to mitigate the pangs of the venerable sufferer. The latter, if tolerably at ease, would, at the close of every paragraph, comment upon what he heard; and frequently digressed very far from the subject to descant on the occurrences of his early years,-upon which he dwelt with all the garrulity of age; while the countenance of the son glistened with pleasure, to find his attention drawn from his present forlorn condition to the consideration of better days. Although I had been acquainted with Eudoxus for some time, and entertained a favourable opinion of his virtues, the impression made upon my mind by his behaviour at this period, was such as to raise him still higher in my estimation.

Thus, while many other men of the same age and circumstances were immersed in sensuality and dissipation, or engrossed by a sedulous attachment to the fashionable mysteries of gaming, was this worthy young man actively employed in alleviating a parent's cares, and administering to him the balm of comfort and consolation. Nay, the innocent pleasures and amusements of life, in which Eudoxus might have freely participated, he frequently relinquished, in order that he might fulfil the dictates of duty. In the company of his own amiable family, and a large circle of friends, he might have passed very agreeably every hour that could be spared from his customary avocations; and yet have received the praises of the world as a pattern of domestic virtue. He might have contented himself with spending a vacant hour in his father's presence, and procuring him every solace and attention which money could have purchased; and yet have been considered by the generality as a perfect model of filial tenderness. But Eudoxus drew his opinions of duty from a purer source; and his practice bore honourable testimony to the rectitude of his principles.-It is only to be wished, that my endeavour to do justice to his conduct, may prove the means of causing it to be more universally imitated.

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