Instances of this behaviour in parents are so common, that the
reader, I doubt not, will be very little astonished at the whole
conduct of Mr. Western. If he should, I own I am not able to account
for it; since that he loved his daughter most tenderly, is, I think,
beyond dispute. So indeed have many others, who have rendered their
children most completely miserable by the same conduct; which,
though it is almost universal in parents, hath always appeared to me
to be the most unaccountable of all the absurdities which ever entered
into the brain of that strange prodigious creature man.
The latter part of Mr. Western's behaviour had so strong an effect
on the tender heart of Sophia, that it suggested a thought to her,
which not all the sophistry of her politic aunt, nor all the menaces
of her father, had ever once brought into her head. She reverenced her
father so piously, and loved him so passionately, that she had
scarce ever felt more pleasing sensations, than what arose from the
share she frequently had of contributing to his amusement, and
sometimes, perhaps, to higher gratifications; for he never could
contain the delight of hearing her commended, which he had the
satisfaction of hearing almost every day of her life. The idea,
therefore, of the immense happiness she should convey to her father by
her consent to this match, made a strong impression on her mind.
Again, the extreme piety of such an act of obedience worked very
forcibly, as she had a very deep sense of religion.
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