(for other bad ones there are, of more forts than one,) you would lofe your bloom too, and then all is gone! but keep your reputation as you have hitherto kept it, and that will be a beauty which will last to the end of your days; for it will be only the more confirmed and brightened by time; that will fecure you efteem when all the prefent form of your face is vanifhed away, and will be always mellowing into greater and greater charms. Thefe my fentiments you'll take as a bleifing, and remember, they come from the heart of a tender and affectionate mother. E. C. I LETTER XVI. A fon's letter, at fchool, to his father. Honoured Sir, AM greatly obliged to you for all your favours; all I have to hope is, that the progress I make in my learning will be no difagreeable return for the fame. Gratitude, duty, and a view of future advantages, all contribute to make me thoroughly fenfible how much I ought to labour for my own improvement and your fatisfaction, and to fhow myself upon all occafions, I Your most obedient and ever dutiful fon, LETTER XVII. A letter of excufe to a father or mother. Honoured Sir, or, Madam, AM informed, and it gives me great concern, that you have heard an ill report of me, which I fuppofe was raised by fome of my school-fellows, who either envy my esteem, or, by aggravating my faults, would endeavour to leffen their own; though I must own I have been a little too remifs in my fchool bufinefs, and am now fenfible I have loft in fome meafure my time and credit thereby; but, by my future diligence, I hope to recover both, and to convince you that I pay a ftrict regard to all your commands, which I am bound to, as well in gratitude as duty: and hope I fhall ever have leave, and with great truth, to fubfcribe myfelf, Your moft dutiful fon PHILIP COLLINGS. LETTER XVIII. To Mr. Tunbridge. I THINK I promised you a letter from this place; yet I have nothing more material to write than that I got fafe hither. To any other man I should make an apology for troubling you with an information fo trivial; but among true friends there is nothing indifferent; and what would feem of no confequence to others, has, in intercourfes of this nature, its weight and value. A bystander. unacquainted with play, may fancy, perhaps, that` the counters are of no more worth than they appear; but those who are engaged in the game know they are to be confidered at a higher rate. fee I draw my allufions from the fcene before me; a propriety which the critics, think, upon fome occafions, recommend I have often wondered what odd whim could first induce the healthy to follow the fick into places of this fort, and lay the fcene of their diverfions amidft the moft wretched You part of our fpecies. One fhould imagine an hofpital the laft fpot in the world to which thofe in purfuit of pleasure would think of reforting. However, fo it is; and, by this means, the company here furnish out a tragi-comedy of the moft fingular kind. While fome are literally dying, others are expiring in metaphor; and in one fcene you are prefented with the real, and in another with the fantastical, pains of mankind. An ignorant fpectator might be apt to fufpect that each part was endeavouring to qualify itself for ading in the opposite character: for the infirm cannot labour more earnestly to recover the ftrength they have loft than the robuft to deftroy that which they poffels. Thus the difeafed pafs not more anxious nights in their beds than the healthy at the hazard tables; and I frequently fee a game at quadrille occafion as fevere difquietudes as a fit of the gout. As for myfelf, I perform a fort of middle part in this motley drama, and am fometimes difpofed to join with the invalids in envying the healthy, and fometimes have fpirits enough to mix with the gay in pitying the fplenetic, The truth is, I have found fome benefit by the waters; but I fhall not be fo fanguine as to pronounce with certainty of their effects till I fee how they enable me to pass through the approaching winter. That feafon, you know, is the time of trial with me; and if I get over the next with more eafe than the laft, I fhall think myfelf obliged to celebrate the nymph of these fprings in grateful fonnets. But let time and feasons operate as they may, there is one part of me over which they will have no power; and in all the changes of this uncertain. conftitution my heart will ever continue fixed and firmly your's. I am, &c. LETTER XIX. From a young apprentice to his father, to let him know how he likes his place, and goes on. I Honoured Sir, KNOW it will be a great fatisfaction to you, and my dear mother, to hear that I go on very happily in my business; and my master, seeing my diligence, puts me forward, and encourages me in fuch a manner, that I have great delight in it: and hope I fhall anfwer, in time, your good wishes and expectations, and the indulgence you have always fhown me. There is fuch good order in the family, as well on my miftrefs's part as my mafter's, that every fervant as well as I, knows his duty, and does it with pleasure. So much evennefs, fedatenefs, and regularity, is obferved in all they enjoin or expect, that it is impoffible but it fhould be fo. My mafter is an honeft, worthy man; every body speaks well of him. My mistress is a cheerful, fweet-tempered woman, and rather heals breaches than widens them. And the childien, after fuch examples, behave to us all like one's own brothers and fifters. Who can but love fuch a family? I with, when it fhall please God to put me in fuch a station, that I may carry myself juft as my mafter does; and if I fhould ever marry, have just such a wife as my mistress: and then, by God's beling, I fhall be happy as they are, and as you, sir, and my dear mother, have always been if any thing can make me happier than I ain, or continue me my prefent felicity, it will be the continuance of your's, and my good mother's prayers for, Honoured sir, Your ever dutiful fon. LETTER XX. From a daughter to her mother, by way of excuse, for having neglected to write to her. Honoured Madam, HOUGH the agreeable news of your health and welfare, which was brought me last night by the hands of my uncle's man Robin, gives me inexpreffible pleafure; yet I am very much concerned that my too long filence fhould have given you fo much uneafinefs as I understand it has. I can affure you, Madam, that my neglect in that particular was no ways owing to any want of filial duty or respect, but to a hurry of bufinefs, (if I may be allowed to call it fo,) occafioned by the honour of a vifit from my Lady Betty Brilliant, and her pretty niece Mifs Charlotte, who are exceeding good company, and whom our family are proud of entertaining in the most elegant manner. I am not unfenfible, however, that neither this plea, nor any real bufinefs, of what importance foever, can juftly acquit me for not writing of tener to a parent fo tender and indulgent as yourfelf; but, as the cafe now ftands, I know no other way of making atonement than by a fincere promife of a more ftrict obfervance of my duty for the future. If therefore, Madam, you will favour me fo far as to forgive this firft tranfgreffion, you may depend on my word it fhall never more be repeated by, Honoured Madam, Your dutiful daughter. |