The hirelings of his son, for he had long since
yielded the management of the estate to Content, were, without an
exception, young men born in the country and long use and much training
had accustomed them to a blending of religious exercises with most of the
employments of life. They listened, therefore, with respect, nor did an
impious smile, or an impatient glance, escape the lightest-minded of their
number, during his exhortations, though the homilies of the old man were
neither very brief, nor particularly original. But devotion to the one
great cause of their existence, austere habits, and unrelaxed industry in
keeping alive a flame of zeal that had been kindled in the other
hemisphere, to burn longest and brightest in this, had interwoven the
practice mentioned with most of the opinions and pleasures of these
metaphysical, though simple minded people. The toil went on none the less
cheerily for the extraordinary accompaniment, and Content himself, by a
certain glimmering of superstition, which appears to be the concomitant of
excessive religious zeal, was fain to think that the sun shone more
brightly on their labors, and that the earth gave forth more of its
fruits, while these holy sentiments were flowing from the lips of a father
whom he piously loved and deeply reverenced.
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