(difcouraged, I fuppofe, by her ill fuccefs) that fhe did write. It is impoffible to fhare the delight which fuch charming spirits give, without the inconvenience that will attend their volatility.-So mixed are our best enjoyments!

It was but yesterday that I wrote to chide the dear creature for freedoms of that nature, which her unfeafonably-expreffed Love for me had made her take, as you wrote me word in your former. I was afraid, that all fuch freedoms would be attributed to me. And I am fure, that nothing but my own application to my friends, and a full conviction of my contrition, will procure me favour. Least of all can I expect, that either your mediation or hers (both of whose fond and partial love of me is fo well known) will avail me.

She then gives a brief account of the Arreft: Of her dejection under it: Of her apprehenfions of being carried to her former lodgings: Of Mr. Lovelace's avowed innocence, as to that infult: Of her release by Mr. Belford: Of Mr. Lovelace's promife not to moleft her: Of her cloaths being fent her: Of the earnest defire of all his friends, and of himself, to marry her: Of Mifs Howe's advice to comply with their requests: And of her declared refolution rather to die, than be his, fent to Mifs Howe, to be given to his relations, but as the day before. After which he thus proceeds:

Now, my dear Mrs. Norton, you will be furprised, perhaps, that I fhould have returned fuch an answer: But, when you have every-thing before you, you, who know me fo well, will not think me wrong. And, befides, I am upon a better preparation, than for an earthly Hufband.

Nor let it be imagined, my dear and ever venerable friend, that my prefent turn of mind proceeds from gloominess or melancholy: For altho' it was brought

on

on by disappointment (the world fhewing me early, even at my first rushing into it, its true and ugly face ;) yet I hope, that it has obtained a better root, and will every day more and more, by its fruits, demonftrate to me, and to all my friends, that it has.

I have written to my Sifter. Laft Friday I wrote: So the dye is thrown. I hope for a gentle Anfwer. But, perhaps, they will not vouchfafe me any. It is my first direct application, you know. I with Mis Howe had left me to my own workings in this tender point.

It will be a great fatisfaction to me to hear of your perfect recovery; and that my fofter-brother is out of danger. But why faid I, out of danger?-When can this be justly faid of creatures, who hold by fo uncertain a tenure? This is one of thofe forms of common fpeech, that proves the frailty and the prefumption of poor mortals, at the fame time.

Don't be uneafy you cannot answer your wishes to be with me. I am happier than I could have expected to be among mere ftrangers. It was grievous at firft; but use reconciles every thing to us. The people of the houfe where I am, are courteous and honeft. There is a widow who lodges in it [Have I not faid fo formerly?] a good woman; who is the better for` having been a proficient in the School of Affliction.

An excellent School! my dear Mrs. Norton, in which we are taught to know ourselves, to be able to compaffionate and bear with one another, and to look up to a better hope.

I have as humane a Phyfician (whose fees are his leaft regard) and as worthy an Apothecary, as ever Patient was vifited by. My Nurfe is diligent, obliging, filent, and fober. So I am not unhappy without And within-I hope, my dear Mrs. Norton, that I fhall be every day more and more happy within.

No doubt, it would be one of the greatest comforts I could know, to have you with me: You, who love

me fo dearly: Who have been the watchful fuftainer of my helpless infancy: You, by whofe precepts I have been fo much benefited !-In your dear bofom could I repofe all my griefs: And by your piety, and experience in the ways of Heaven, fhould I be ftrengthened in what I am ftill to go through.

But, as it must not be, I will acquiefce; and fo, I hope, will you: For you fee in what refpects I am not unhappy; and in thofe that I am, they lie not in your power to remedy.

Then, as I have told you, I have all my cloaths in my own poffeffion. So I am rich enough, as to this world, in common conveniencies.

So you fee, my venerable and dear friend, that I am not always turning the dark fide of my profpects, in order to move compaffion; a trick imputed to me, too often, by my hard-hearted fifter; when, if I know my own heart, it is above all trick or artifice. Yet I hope at laft I fhall be so happy, as to receive benefit rather than reproach from this talent, if it be my talent. At laft, I fay; for whofe heart have I hitherto moved?-Not one, I am fure, that was not predetermined in my favour.

As to the Day-I have paffed it, as I ought to pass it. It has been a very heavy day to me !-More for my friends fake, too, than for my own!-How did they ufe to pafs it!-What a Feftivity !-How have they now paffed it?-To imagine it, how grievous ! Say not, that thofe are cruel, who fuffer fo much for my fault; and who, for Eighteen years together, rejoiced in me, and rejoiced me, by their indulgent goodness!-But I will think the reft!-Adieu, my dearest Mrs. Norton !-

Adieu !

LET

Mifs CL. HARLOWE, To Mifs ARAB. HARLOWE, Friday, July 21. IF, my dearest Sifter, I did not think the state of my health very precarious, and that it was my duty to take this step, I fhould hardly have dared toapproach you, altho' but with my pen, after having found your cenfures fo dreadfully juftified as they have been.

I have not the courage to write to my Father himfelf; nor yet to my Mother. And it is with trembling, that I addrefs myfelf to you, to beg of you to intercede for me, that my Father will have the goodnefs to revoke that heaviest part of the very heavy Curfe he laid upon me, which relates to HEREAFTER: For, as to the HERE, I have indeed met with my punishment from the very wretch in whom I was supposed to place my confidence.

As I hope not for reftoration to favour, I may be allowed to be very earnest on this head: Yet will I not use any arguments in fupport of my requeft, beeause I am fure my Father, were it in his power, would not have his poor child miferable for ever.

I have the most grateful fenfe of my Mother's goodness in sending me up my cloaths. I would have acknowleged the favour the moment I received them, with the most thankful duty, but that I feared any line from me would be unacceptable..

I would not give fresh offence: So will decline all other commendations of Duty and Love: appealing to my heart for both, where both are flaming with an ardour that nothing but death can extinguish: Therefore only fubfcribe myself, without fo much as My dear and happy Sifter, Your afflicted Servant. A Letter directed for me, at Mr. Smith's, a glover, in King - ftreet, Covent garden, will

a name,

come to hand.

Mr. BELFORD, To ROBERT LOVELACE, Esq; [In Anfwer to his Letters lxxix. lxxxii. vol. vi.} Edgware, Monday, July 24. WHAT pains thou takeft to perfuade thyfelf, that the Lady's ill health is owing to the vile Arreft, and to the Implacablenefs of her friends! Both primarily (if they were) to be laid at thy door. What poor excufes will good heads make for the evils they are put upon by bad hearts!-But 'tis no wonder that he who can fit down premeditatedly to do a bad action, will content himself with a bad excufe: And yet, what fools muft he fuppofe the reft of the world. to be, if he imagines them as easy to be imposed upon, as he can impofe upon himself?

In vain doft thou impute to pride or wilfulness the neceffity to which thou haft reduced this Lady, of parting with her cloaths: For can fhe do otherwife, and be the noble-minded creature she is?

Her implacable friends have refused her the current cafh fhe left behind her; and wifhed, as her Sister wrote to her, to fee her reduced to want: Probably therefore they will not be forry that she is reduced to fuch freights; and will take it for a juftification from Heaven of their wicked hard-heartedness. Thou canft not suppose she would take fupplies from thee: To take them from me would, in her opinion, be taking them from thee. Mifs Howe's Mother is an avaritious woman; and, perhaps, the Daughter can do nothing of that fort unknown to her; and, if the could, is too noble a girl to deny it, if charged. And then Mifs Harlowe is firmly of opinion, that the fhall never want nor wear the things fhe difpofes of.

Having heard nothing from town that obliges me to go thither, I fhall gratify poor Belton with my company till to-morrow, or perhaps till Wednesday:

For