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To understand, thoroughly understand her own heart, was the first endeavour To that point went every leisure moment which her father's claims on her allowed, and everyhad Mr Knightley been so dear to her, as every feeling declared hiun?-- When had he succeeded to that place in her affection, which Frank Churchill had once, for a short period, occupied?--She looked back; she compared the two--compared them, as they had always stood in her esti known to her-and as they must at any time have been compared by her, had it--oh!

had it, by any blessed felicity, occurred to her, to institute the comparison--She saw that there never had been a tihtley as infinitely the superior, or when his regard for her had not been infinitely the , in acting to the contrary, she had been entirely under a delusion, totally ignorant of her own heart--and, in short, that she had never really cared for Frank Churchill at all!

This was the conclusion of the first series of reflection This was the knowledge of herself, on the first question of inquiry, which she reached; and without being long in reaching it-- She was nant; ashamed of every sensation but the one revealed to her--her affection for Mr Knightley-- Every other part of her

With insufferable vanity had she believed herself in the secret of every body's feelings; with unpardonable arrogance proposed to arrange every body's destiny She was proved to have been universally --for she had done ht evil on Harriet, on herself, and she too htley--Were this most unequal of all connexions to take place, on her ; for his attachment, she must believe to be produced only by a consciousness of Harriet's;--and even were this not the case, he would never have known Harriet at all but for her folly

Mr Knightley and Harriet Smith!--It was a union to distance every wonder of the kind--The attachment of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax beca no surprize, presenting no disparity, affording nothing to be said or thought--Mr Knightley and Harriet Smith!--Such an elevation on her side! Such a debasement on his! It was horrible to Eeneral opinion, to foresee the smiles, the sneers, the merriment it would prompt at his expense; the mortification and disdain of his brother, the thousand inconveniences to himself--Could it be?--No; it was impossible And yet it was far, very far, from impossible--Was it a new circumstance for a man of first-rate abilities to be captivated by very inferior powers? Was it new for one, perhaps too busy to seek, to be the prize of a girl ould seek hi in this world to be unequal, inconsistent, incongruous--or for chance and circumstance (as second causes) to direct the human fate?