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CHAPTER V.

LETTERS OF CONGRATULATION.

LETTER I.

Miss Robinson, (afterwards Mrs. Montagu,) to Mrs. Donnellan.-On the new year.

Dear Mrs. Donnellan,

Bullstrode, Jan. 1, 1742.

Though there is no day of the year in which one does not wish all happiness to one's friends, this is the day in which the heart goes forth in particular vows and wishes for the welfare of those we love. It is the birth of a new year, whose entrance we would salute, and hope auspicious. Nor is this particular mark of time of little use; it teaches us to number our days, which a wise man thought an incitement to the well spending of them. And indeed, did we consider how much the pleasure and profit of our lives depend upon the economy of our time, we should not waste it, as we do, in idle regret or reflection on the past, or in a vain, unuseful regard for the future. In our youth, we defer being prudent till we are old, and look forward to a promise of wisdom as the portion of latter years: when we are old, we seek not to improve, and we scarcely employ ourselves; we look backward to our youth, as to the day of our diligence, and take a pride in laziness, saying, we rest, as after the accomplishment of our undertakings. We ought to ask for our daily merit as for our daily bread. The mind, no more than the body, can

be sustained by the food taken yesterday, or promised for to-morrow. Every day ought to be considered as a period apart: some virtue should be exercised, some knowledge improved, some pleasure comprehended, in it. Many look upon the present day as only the day before to-morrow, and wear it out with a weary impatience of its length. I pity those people who are ever in pursuit, but never in possession. I would wish myself as little anxious as possible about the future; for the event of things generally mocks our foresight, eludes our care, and shows us how vain is the labour of anxiety.

May the sun every day this year, when it rises, find you well with yourself; and, at its setting, leave you happy with your friends! Let yours be rather the felicity of ease and contentment, than the extacy of mirth and joy! May your mind repose in virtue and truth, and never in indolence or negligence! That you already know much, is the best incitement to know more; if you study trifles, you neglect two excellent things, knowledge and your own understanding. I wish we were as cautious of unbending the mind as we are of relaxing our nerves. I should as soon be afraid of stretching a glove till it was too strait, as of making the understanding and capacity narrow by extending them to things of a large comprehension; yet this is a common notion.

Our happy society is just breaking up; but I will think with gratitude, and not with regret, of the pleasant hours which I have had.—I hope this year will be happy to me: the last was encumbered with fears, and I had not much health in it; yet I was concerned at taking leave of it yesterday. I had not for it the tenderness

one feels for a friend, or the gratitude one has to a benefactor; but I was reconciled to it as an old acquaintance. It had not enriched, nor, I fear, improved me; but it suffered me, and admitted my friends.

letter:

The dutchess of Portland thanks you for your she will answer y word of mouth.-I am sorry you have been low-spirited, but I can never like you the less for it. Mutual friendships are built on mutual wants; were you completely happy, you would not need me. Imperfection wants and seeks assistance.

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I should have paid my compliments earlier on the joyful occasion of your marriage, if I had known whither to address them, for your brother's letter, which informed me, happened to lie several days at Cambridge before it came to my hands. My congratulation, however, though late, wants nothing of the warmth, with which the earliest was accompanied: for I must beg leave to assure you, that I take a real part in the present joy of your family; and feel a kind of paternal pleasure, from the good fortune of one, whose amiable qualities I > have witnessed, from her tenderest years, and to whom

I have ever been wishing and ominating every thing that is good. I always expected that your singular merit and accomplishments would recommend you, in

proper time, to an advantageous and honourable match; and I was assured that your prudence would never suffer you to accept any which was not worthy of you: so that it gives me not only the greatest pleasure on your account, but a sort of pride also on my own, to see my expectations fully answered, and my predictions literally fulfilled.

You have the fairest prospect of conjugal felicity now open before you, by your marriage with a gentleman, not only of figure and fortune, but of great knowledge and understanding: who values you not so much for the charms of your person, as for those of your mind, which will always give you the surest hold of him; as they will every day be gathering strength, whilst the others are daily losing it. Beauty has great power to conciliate affection, but cannot preserve it without the help of the mind: whatever the perfections of the one may be, the accomplishments of the other will always be the more amiable, and, in the married state especially, will be found, after all, the most solid and lasting basis of domestic comfort. But I am using the privilege of my years, and instead of compliments, giving lessons to one who does not need them. I shall only add, therefore, my repeated wishes of all the happiness that matrimony can give both to you and Mr. Montagu, to whose worthy character I am no stranger, though I have not the honour to be known to him in person; and that I am with, sincere respect, madam,

Your faithful friend,

And obedient servant,

Conyers Middleton,

LETTER III.

Dr. Conyers Middleton to Mrs. Montagu.--On the same

Madam,

subject.

Hildersham, Oct. 4, 1742.

I should have paid my thanks much earlier for your obliging and entertaining letter, if business of various kinds had not constantly prevented me, till I was forced to a resolution of being prevented no longer. I now, therefore, beg leave to assure you, that your letter gave me great pleasure on many accounts: but above all, by letting me see that you are not only perfectly at ease, and happy in your late change of condition, but furnished with all the materials proper to secure that happiness for life; since the principles which you lay down for your conduct in it, cannot fail to draw every good out of it, which it can possibly yield. Young ladies who have been admired as beauties, are apt to consider a husband as an acquisition of conquest, and to be shocked at the thought of being reduced by marriage to a state of subjection; and from a resolution to shake off this yoke, often lay the foundation of a contest which begins with matrimony itself, and continues. sometimes to the end of it. But this capital point you wisely give up at once, and profess the duty of submission as essential to the character of a good wife: a condescension, that cannot betray you into any inconvenience, since a reasonable husband will never require more of it than is due; and a kind one will always be content with less, and when convinced of the disposition, will generally dispense with the act. As your profession, I dare say, is sincere, I may trust you with a paradox, which you

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