page XI

Canto Fifth.

Time personified. His first employment. Fresh additions to his commission. His budget of dispensations. Man’s duty in regard to such he receives. Love the greatest blessing on earth, and the source of all others. Youth expectanat. Fanciful passion, and reason, antagonistic. The spell dissolved. Reactions. Illustrations offer’d. The miseries attending domestic divisions. Contrasted advantages arising from domestic unanimity. Woman’s influences. Malcolm’s happy lot; his wife’s prudence; her second courtship, which wins him from evil habits; his first attempt at family worship, and happy result. Reflection on the lives of an aged couple. The influence of true love, though in the minority, upon the world at large, with contrary consequence without it. Moral reflections on true love’s influences.