ABSTRACT
The silent uniformity which distinguished the house of Waldorf, soon wearied the active disposition of Helena. Disgusted with such stoical tranquillity, she sought in vain for amusement, / when, like Waldorf, she employed herself in agriculture, in watering the fragrant shrubs, in supporting the luxuriant vines, or in tending the young lime-plants, as they sought to entwine their branches with the parent trees. She felt wearied and unentertained – the dusky cork-trees that rustled in the wind were answered by her sighs – the novelty of her situation palled – and the company of Waldorf reconciled her but little to it. Lassitude and indolence relaxed the powers of her mind, and she rather endured than wished for existence. ‘Surely,’ she would think, ‘the chance of misery, in the busy world, is preferable to this sleepy tranquillity. Why is the unrestrained faculty of the mind free from arbitrary / laws, if it is to be confined to so small a circle of objects as I enjoy? Gratification is the soul of existence, but restraint is the burden of life. Every idea is then dormant – oblivion is but for common minds – and the swiftest evolutions of misery are more supportable than the dull silence of obscurity.’
