Page:Modern literature (1804 Volume 1).djvu/290

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any of his former misconduct. Hamilton both before and after the release spent much time in exhorting the husband of his cousin to act as became the connection which he had formed, and advised him particularly to abstain from hard drinking and from methodism, both of which intoxicating the brain, unhinging the faculties, and giving full reins to passion, often led to madness, profligacy, or both. O'Rourke acknowledged that it was very true, and promised faithfully hereafter to avoid the drunkenness of either strong liquor or fanaticism, both of which he confessed from experience, heightened the propensity towards loose women and other irregularities. Though Hamilton did not altogether rely on the conscientious penitence of this person, yet knowing that his fears, wherever circumstances led them to operate, would powerfully influence his actions, desired