The Schoolfellows Or a ByWay to Fame Author:Richard Johns General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1841 Original Publisher: Richard Bentley Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can... more » select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. And oh! how pure is woman's love ! Alas! That for such virgin gold a base alloy should pass. Having already sufficiently introduced Sir Henry Mandeville to our readers, as one of a numerous class, who, in the belief of their own mental powers, are unconsciously the mere tools which master-minds use to the furtherance of their political purposes, let us now devote a few pages to the baronet's daughter. It is with all reverence that, paraphrasing an exquisite text of Holy Writ, which says " God is love," in application to the creature of his hand, we declare love was the active principle in the character of Catherine Mandeville, -- love, pure as ever diffused its holy influence within the soul of created being. We mean not that exclusive passion, in which idolatrous devotion to one chosen object of regard loosens every other tie of the heart; where, in self-abandonment, we still worship self at the living shrine we have endowedwith the treasure of our affections : no, in Catherine Mandeville love was ruled by love; in her it reigned as a principle, not a passion. Strong was the attachment to her father that induced her to forego an alliance which, save in the worldly considerations of wealth and rank, little heeded by her, promised every blessing that wedded life conld bestow. These worldly considerations weighed heavily in the balance of Sir Henry's opinion, and Catherine loved her parent too well to purchase a selfish gratification at the price of his happiness. Yet, it may be asked, did Miss Mandeville really love the man whose hand she so dutifu...« less