The Miser Or The Convicts of Lisnamona Author:William Carleton Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. During the few days that intervened between our hero's birth and his christening, Fardorougha's mind wag engaged in forming some fixed principle b... more »y which to guide his heart in the conflict that still went on between avarice and affection. In this task he imagined that the father predominated over the miser almost without a struggle ; whereas, the fact was, that the subtle passion, ever more ingenious than the simple 'one, changed its external character, and came out in the shape of affectionate forecast and provident regard for the wants and prospects of his child. This gross deception of his own heart he felt as a relief, for, though smitten with the world, it did not escape him that the birth of his little one, all its circumstances considered, ought to have caused him to feel an enjoyment unalloyed by the care and regret which checked his sympathies as a parent. Neither was conscience itself altogether silent,nor the blunt remonstrances of his servants wholly without effect. Nay, so completely was his judgment overreached, that he himself attributed this anomalous state of feeling to a virtuous effort of Christian duty, and looked upon the encroachments which a desire of saving wealth had made on his heart, as a manifest proof of much parental attachment. He consequently loved his wealth through the medium of his son, and laid it down as a fixed principle that every act of parsimony on his part was merely one of prudence, and had the love of a father and an affectionate consideration for his child's future welfare to justify it. The first striking instance of this close and griping spirit appeared upon an occasion which seldom fails to open, in Ireland. at least, all the warm and generous im pulses of our nature. When his wife deemed it necessary to make th...« less