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evidence and conviction I mean,) till it was too late, It is thirteen years ago, and seems but as yesterday; and every day I live it sinks deeper into my heart*. Many a corollary could I draw from this axiom for your use not for my own; but I will leave you the merit of doing it for yourself.

Pray tell me how your health is: I conclude it is good, for I hear you offered yourself as a guide to Mr. Palgrave, into the Sierra Morena of Yorkshire., I passed the end of May and all June, in Kent, not disagreeably. In the west part of it, from every eminence, the eye catches some long reach of the Thames and Medway, with all their shipping: in the east, the sea breaks in upon you, and mixes its white transient sails and glittering blue expanse, with the deeper and brighter greens of the woods and corn. Now I am again very disconsolate, and all alone, for Mr. Brown is gone, and the cares of this world are coming thick upon me: you, I hope, are better off, riding and walking in the woods of Studley, &c. I must not wish for you here; besides, I am going to town at Michaelmas, by no means for

amusement.

LETTER IV.

To Mr. Mason.

March 28, 1767.

I break in upon you at a moment, when we least of all are permitted to disturb our friends, only to say, that you are daily and hourly present to my thoughts. If the worst be not yet past, you will neglect and par

* Mr. Gray was very affectionately attached to his mother. After her death, he seldom mentioned her without a sigh.

don me but if the last struggle be over; if the poor object of your long anxieties, be no longer sensible of your kindness, or of her own sufferings, allow me, (at least in idea, for what could I do, were I present, more than this?) to sit by you in silence, and to pity, from my heart, not her, who is at rest, but you, who lose her. May HE who made us, the Master of our pleasures and of our pains, preserve and support you! Adieu! I have long understood how little you had to hope*.

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I was absent from College; and I did not receive your melancholy letter till my return hither yesterday: so you must not attribute this delay to me, but to accident. To sympathize with you in such a loss †, is an easy task for me; but to comfort you, not so easy: can I wish to see you unaffected with the sad scene now before your eyes, or with the loss of a person who, through a great part of your life, has proved himself so kind a friend to you? HE who best knows our nature, (for HE made us what we are,) by such afflictions, recalls us from our wandering thoughts and idle merriment; from the insolence of youth and prosperity, to

This little billet," says Mr. Mason, "which I received at the Hot-Wells at Bristol, breathed, and still seems to breathe, the very voice of Friendship in its tenderest and most pathetic note. I opened it almost at the precise moment when it would necessarily be the most affecting."-Mrs. Mason, young and beautiful, tenderly beloved and regretted by her husband, died of a consumption, in the spring of 1767; about eighteen months after their marriage.

+ The death of his uncle, governor Floyer.

serious reflection, to our duty, and to Himself. Nor need we hasten to get rid of these impressions. Time, by appointment of the same Power, will cure the smart, and, in some hearts, soon blot out all the traces of sorrow: but such as preserve them longest, (for it is partly left in our own power,) do perhaps best acquiesce in the will of the Chastiser.

For the consequences of this sudden loss, I see them well; and I think, in a like situation, I could fortify my mind, so as to support them with cheerfulness and good hopes, though I am not naturally inclined to see things in their best aspect. When you have time to turn yourself round, you must think seriously of your profession. You know I wished to see you wear the livery of it long ago: but I will not dwell on this subject at present. To be obliged to those whom we love and esteem, is a pleasure; but to serve and oblige them, is a still greater: and this, with independence, (no vulgar blessing,) are what a profession, at your age, may reasonably promise; without it, they are hardly attainable. Remember I speak from experience.

In the mean time, while your present situation lasts, which I hope will not be long, continue your kindness and confidence in me, by trusting me with the whole of it; and surely you hazard nothing by so doing: that situation does not appear so new to me as it does to you. You well know the tenor of my conversation, (urged at times perhaps a little farther than you liked,) has been intended to prepare you for this event, and to familiarize your mind with this spectre, which you call by its worse name: but remember that Honesta res est læta paupertas. I see it with respect; and so will every one, whose poverty is not seated in his mind.

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The greatest

evil in it, (take my word, who know it well,) is, that you have less the power of assisting others, who have not the same resources to support them. You have youth: you have many kind well-intentioned people belonging to you; many acquaintances of your own, who will wish to serve you. Consider how many have had the same, or greater cause for dejection, with none of these resources before their eyes. Adieu! I sincerely wish your happiness.

I have just heard that a friend of mine is struck with a paralytic disorder; in which state it is likely he may live for years, incapable of assisting himself, and in the hands of servants or relations who only gape after his spoils: think how many things may befall a man far worse than poverty or death.

CHAPTER IX.

LETTERS OF MISS TALBOT.

LETTER I.

To Mrs. Carter.

1745.

I have felt a

Because you are in low spirits, dear miss Carter, and I am not in very high ones, I think I can scarcely do better, than to write to you. great deal of what you express. On the destruction of my cloud-built castles, and their airy inhabitants, I have fancied myself, as you do, left in a dreary solitude; and I have said,

"My torch is out, and the world lies before me,

Like a black desert at the approach of night."

But with the help of some experience, much reflection, and a few plain books, I am grown into a happier state of mind, and, I think, much better suited to this world. As well might we expect

66

'Perpetual sunshine and unclouded skies,

As man for ever temperate, just, and wise."

I do not pity you for having experienced this truth. I believe, they who take the world as they find it, and see it as it is, live more happily, than they who make a fine, fairy world of their own, peopled with sylphs. There is such a mixture of folly and infirmity in the best and wisest of the human race, that we should be much more thankful for the good we meet with, than disappointed at

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