But in the middle of all this felicity, one blow from unseenProvidence unhinged me at once; and not only made a breach upon meinevitable and incurable, but drove me, by its consequences, into adeep relapse of the wandering disposition, which, as I may say,being born in my very blood, soon recovered its hold of me; and,like the returns of a violent distemper, came on with anirresistible force upon me. This blow was the loss of my wife. Itis not my business here to write an elegy upon my wife, give acharacter of her particular virtues, and make my court to the sexby the flattery of a funeral sermon. She was, in a few words, thestay of all my affairs; the centre of all my enterprises; theengine that, by her prudence, reduced me to that happy compass Iwas in, from the most extravagant and ruinous project that filledmy head, and did more to guide my rambling genius than a mother'stears, a father's instructions, a friend's counsel, or all my ownreasoning powers could do. I was happy in listening to her, and i