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He seemed always happy, and I never
saw him weep except once, and that was on being beaten, I know not
why, by the jailer. Strange that he should be thus happy in a
receptacle of so much pain and sorrow; yet he was light-hearted as
the son of a grandee. From him I learnt, at least, that the mind
need not depend on situation, but may be rendered independent of
external things. Govern the imagination, and we shall be well,
wheresoever we happen to be placed. A day is soon over, and if at
night we can retire to rest without actual pain and hunger, it
little matters whether it be within the walls of a prison, or of a
kind of building which they call a palace. Good reasoning this; but
how are we to contrive so to govern the imagination? I began to
try, and sometimes I thought I had succeeded to a miracle; but at
others the enchantress triumphed, and I was unexpectedly astonished
to find tears starting into my eyes.
CHAPTER VIII.
I am so far fortunate, I often said, that they have given me a
dungeon on the ground floor, near the court, where that dear boy
comes within a few steps of me, to converse in our own mute
language. We made immense progress in it; we expressed a thousand
various feelings I had no idea we could do, by the natural
expressions of the eye, the gesture, and the whole countenance.
Wonderful human intelligence! How graceful were his motions! how
beautiful his smile! how quickly he corrected whatever expression I
saw of his that seemed to displease me! How well he understands I
love him, when he plays with any of his companions! Standing only
at my window to observe him, it seemed as if I possessed a kind of
influence over his mind, favourable to his education. By dint of
repeating the mutual exercise of signs, we should be enabled to
perfect the communication of our ideas. The more instruction he
gets, the more gentle and kind he becomes, the more he will be
attached to me. To him I shall be the genius of reason and of good;
he will learn to confide his sorrows to me, his pleasures, all he
feels and wishes; I will console, elevate, and direct him in his
whole conduct. It may be that this my lot may be protracted from
month to month, even till I grow grey in my captivity. Perhaps this
little child may continue to grow under my eye, and become one in
the service of this large family of pain, and grief, and calamity.
With such a disposition as he has already shown, what would become
of him? Alas; he would at most be made only a good under-keeper, or
fill some similar place. Yet I shall surely have conferred on him
some benefit if I can succeed in giving him a desire to do kind
offices to the good and to himself, and to nourish sentiments of
habitual benevolence. This soliloquy was very natural in my
situation; I was always fond of children, and the office of an
instructor appeared to me a sublime duty.
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