CHAPTER V. LETTER OF MR. (AFTERWARDS LORD) LYTTLETON. LETTER I. To his Father. January 17, 1747. Dear sir, It is a most sensible and painful addition to my concern and affliction for my dear wife, to hear of your being so ill with the stone; and loaded as my heart is with other grief, I cannot help writing, to tell you how much I feel for you, and how ardently I pray to God to relieve you. Last night all my thoughts were employed on you ; for, when I went to bed, my poor Lucy was so much better, that we thought her in a way of recovery: but my uneasiness for you kept me awake great part of the night; and in the morning I found she had been much worse, so that our alarm was as great as ever. She has since mended again, and she is now pretty nearly as you heard by the last post: only that such frequent relapses give one more cause to fear that the good symptoms, which sometimes appear, will not be lasting. On the other hand, by her struggling so long, and her pulse recovering itself so well as it does, after these violent flurries, and great sinkings, one would hope that nature is strong in her, and will be able at last to conquer ber illness. Sir Edward Hulse seems now inclined to trust to that, and trouble her with no more physic. Upon the whole, her case is full of uncertainty, and the doctors can pronounce nothing positively about her; but they rather think it will be an affair of time. My own health is yet tolerably good, my heart has gone through as severe a trial as it can well sustain; more indeed than I thought it could have borne. You may be assured, dear sir, I will make use of all the supports that religion or reason can give me, to save me from sinking under it. I know the interest you take in my life and health and I know it is my duty to try not to add to your other pains that of my loss; which thought has as great an effect upon me as any thing can. And I believe God Almighty supports me above my own strength, for the sake of my friends who are concerned for me; and in return for the resignation with which I endeavour to submit to his will. If it please him, in his infinite mercy, to restore my dear wife to me, I shall most thankfully acknowledge his goodness; if not, I shall most humbly endure his chastisement, which I have too much deserved. These are the sentiments with which my mind is replete but, as it is still a most bitter cup, how my body will bear it, if it must not pass from me, is impossible for me to foretell. I hope the best. Gilbert West would be happy in the reputation his book has gained him, if my poor Lucy were not so ill. However, his mind leans always to hope; which is an advantage both to him and me, as it makes him a better comforter. To be sure, we ought not yet to despair; but there is much to fear, and a most melancholy interval to be supported, before any certainty comes. God send it may come well at last! I am, dear sir, Your most afflicted, but most affectionate son, Dear sir, LETTER II. To Dr. Doddridge. Hagley, Oct. 5, 1751. My concern was so great on the account I received from the bishop of Worcester of the ill state of your health, that in the midst of my grief for the death of my father, when I had scarcely performed my last duties to him, I wrote to you at Bristol; which letter, I find, you never received. Indeed, my dear friend, there are few losses I should more sensibly feel than yours, if it should please God to take you from us. But I trust, he will be so gracious to your family and your friends, as to prolong your life, and defer your reward for some time longer. And I am persuaded, no human means can be found better than that which has been prescribed to you of removing to Lisbon, and passing the winter in that mild climate: only let me entreat you to lay by all studies while you are there; for too much application (an a very little in your state is too much) would frustrate the benefit which we may hope from the change of air. The complying with this injunction, will be the best recompense you can make Mrs. Doddridge for all the obligations you have to her; and if I have any authority with you, as I flatter myself I have, I would employ it all to enforce this upon you, for I do indeed think your life will depend upon it. You have, I believe, brought on your illness by continual study and labour; and an entire remission of mind is absolutely necessary for your recovery.. My father met death with a noble firmness, and an assured hope of a blessed immortality; so that our thoughts are raised above our grief, and fixed much more on the example he has left us, than on the loss we have sustained. It is also a comfort to us, that, upon his body being opened, as he ordered it should be, we find the cause of his violent pains was of such a nature as death alone could remove or relieve. Let me know by every mail how you do: and depend upon it, that if Providence shall call you away to the crown prepared for you, nothing in my power shall be wanting, as long as I live, to show the affection I had for you, in my regard to your widow and family; but, I hope your life will be preserved to be an ornament to the Christian church, and a support of religion in these bad times. May God Almighty grant it; and may we meet again, with the pleasure which friends restored to each other, feel after so alarming a parting? But if that be denied, may we meet in the next world to part no more, through His power, who will, I trust, blot out my offences, and make me worthy to be a partaker with you of his heavenly kingdom! I am, with the tenderest regard and affection, dear sir, Your most faithful friend and servant, GEORGE LYTTLETON. CHAPTER VI. LETTERS OF THE DUTCHESS OF Dear madam, LETTER I. To lady Luxborough. Piercy Lodge, Dec. 31, 1751. Apologies between friends are unneces sary; so that if you have still the inclination which you have formerly shown, to look upon me in that light, you will never again treat me with the ceremony of a formal acquaintance. When you write to me, you give me pleasure; when you do not, I love my own peace too well, to fancy you are angry with me, while I am not conscious of my deserving to have you so. You see I do not regulate my correspondence as poor lady did her visits; which she never was to return sooner than her former ones had been repaid. I am not in the least surprised that you were pleas ed to return to the venerable seat of your ancestors, and the abode of your first and happiest days: and I find nothing trivial or childish in the satisfaction you felt, in seeing old faces full of gratitude for obligations long since past, and by you, perhaps, forgotten; or in recalling some lively little incidents in the earliest hours of youth. As for the wise and witty of the present age, I know not what they would say; and I do not design to hear it. They will scarcely visit my hermitage; and I shall not leave it to visit them. I hope to dispose of my house in Downing-street; which I would not do, if I ever intended to pass six weeks in London, for I like the situation. But I find myself happiest in the retreat of which my dear lord's unmerited beneficence has made me mistress. He has fixed my home upon the spot of earth I would have chosen for myself. Every thing both within and without the house, reminds me of my obligations to him; and I cannot turn my eyes upon any object, which is not an object of his goodness to me. The satisfaction I take in adding either beauty or convenience to my habitation, is greatly enhanced by the reflection, that, while I am adorning it, I show my value for the gift, and my gratitude to the lamented giver. I have a regular, and, I hope, a religious family. My woman, though she has not lived with me quite three years, had before lived twenty three betwixt lord Grantham's and lady Cowper's; my housekeeper has been a servant as long; the person who takes in my |