Unfortunately for those who came within the circle of his authority, his ideas of right and wrong were based on warped and narrow views, the result of a defective religious education.

He, therefore, often called things wrong, from prejudice, that were not wrong in themselves; and sternly reacted upon others, and drove them away from him, when he might have led and guided them into the paths of virtue.
The first year of Andrew Howland's married life was one of deep trial to the loving young creature he had taken from her sunny home to cherish in his bosom--a bosom too cold to warm into vigorous life new shoots of affection.

And yet he loved his wife; loved her wisely, as he thought, not weakly, nor blindly.

He saw her faults, and, true to his character, laid his hands upon them.

Alas! how much of good was crushed in the rigid pressure! To Mr.Howland life was indeed a stern reality.