DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5833#0263
236 SCENES IN INDIA.
ried vacillation of her step, that she was under the
influence of a perturbed spirit.
Her father could not be unobservant of this change
in his daughter, from the buoyancy of youthful con-
fidence to the feverish aspect of continual apprehen-
sion : yet he chose not to notice it. He flattered
himself that if she sympathised in his disgrace, as
a child ought to do, according to his notions of filial
obligation, she would soon become reconciled to what
only now shocked her tender sensibility because it was
new to her inexperience, and she had yet to learn
how to appreciate the true demarcation between real
good and evil.
Such was the shallow sophistry of his reflections,
which he rather desired than believed; but his con-
clusion to these reflections always was, that whatever
direction his daughter's feelings might ultimately take,
he should, nevertheless, force them to succumb to his
paternal influence. He had, however, yet to loam
how impossible it sometimes is to warp the human
heart against its natural bias. It may acquiesce in
silence and in agony; but it will never be really sub-
dued by tyranny, though it may be silenced, racked,
and broken. The heart that turns to virtue, like
steel to the magnet, though it may be violently torn
from the object to which it clings, will not there-
fore relinquish its tendency. The impediment once
removed, it will leap with the accelerated force of
vehement reaction to the good which it adores, and
unite with it the closer for the temporary restraint.
Oppression may crush the most energetic spirit, but
can never enslave it, when it has once attained that
ried vacillation of her step, that she was under the
influence of a perturbed spirit.
Her father could not be unobservant of this change
in his daughter, from the buoyancy of youthful con-
fidence to the feverish aspect of continual apprehen-
sion : yet he chose not to notice it. He flattered
himself that if she sympathised in his disgrace, as
a child ought to do, according to his notions of filial
obligation, she would soon become reconciled to what
only now shocked her tender sensibility because it was
new to her inexperience, and she had yet to learn
how to appreciate the true demarcation between real
good and evil.
Such was the shallow sophistry of his reflections,
which he rather desired than believed; but his con-
clusion to these reflections always was, that whatever
direction his daughter's feelings might ultimately take,
he should, nevertheless, force them to succumb to his
paternal influence. He had, however, yet to loam
how impossible it sometimes is to warp the human
heart against its natural bias. It may acquiesce in
silence and in agony; but it will never be really sub-
dued by tyranny, though it may be silenced, racked,
and broken. The heart that turns to virtue, like
steel to the magnet, though it may be violently torn
from the object to which it clings, will not there-
fore relinquish its tendency. The impediment once
removed, it will leap with the accelerated force of
vehement reaction to the good which it adores, and
unite with it the closer for the temporary restraint.
Oppression may crush the most energetic spirit, but
can never enslave it, when it has once attained that