Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/133

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RESIGNATION.

From your refinement of manners, your pleasing ad-
dress, and your judicious use of all your advantages for
improvement, you pass for a well educated person.
Maria is straight-forward and natural ; speaks what is
in her heart without ornament or coloring. You seek
recreation from business by entering into all the pleas-
ures which excite the senses and gratify the desires of
this mortal body. Maria prays and toils day after day,
and nurses her sick mother with a self-sacrificing love.
Yon regard joy and sorrow alike as the sport of chance.
Maria thanks God and trusts her Father in heaven.
You stand far above her, far as earth with her gifts and
pleasures can raise you, and yet" — he took Oswald's
hand, and concluded in a somewhat elevated tone — "I
say to you, if you believe in God, then in the name of
that true God, I say to you that Maria stands far above
you, for her walk is in Heaven." Young Mander hesi-
tated between displeasure and shame, and then replied
with a tone of mingled vexation and embarrassmennt,
"A little more culture would do the pious young woman
no harm."
  "Maria's education," replied Hold, "is sufficient for
her condition, and whatever else it might be desirable
for her to know is not to be found in these books. Yes
— pardon me if, as a fellow-islander of Maria, I speak
plainly and directly what is in my heart — what you
might learn from her is more and greater than any
thing that she could learn from all your knowledge and
all your books. Suppose she were capable of the cul-
ture you offer, what would she gain by it ? Discontent
at her situation, and a longing for u life by her unattain-
able, and what is still worse, the excitement of passions