Did ever comedy end more happily than this long trial?

LETTER VIII

Mr. Lovelace, to John Belford, ESQ. 
WEDN.  July 12.

So, Jack, they think they have gained a mighty point.  But, were I to change my mind, were I to repent, I fancy I am safe.—­And yet this very moment it rises to my mind, that ’tis hard trusting too; for surely there must be some embers, where there was fire so lately, that may be stirred up to give a blaze to combustibles strewed lightly upon them.  Love, like some self-propagating plants, or roots, (which have taken strong hold in the earth) when once got deep into the heart, is hardly ever totally extirpated, except by matrimony indeed, which is the grave of love, because it allows of the end of love.  Then these ladies, all advocates for herself, with herself, Miss Howe at their head, perhaps,——­not in favour to me—­I don’t expect that from Miss Howe—­but perhaps in favour to herself:  for Miss Howe has reason to apprehend vengeance from me, I ween.  Her Hickman will be safe too, as she may think, if I marry her beloved friend:  for he has been a busy fellow, and I have long wished to have a slap at him!—­The lady’s case desperate with her friends too; and likely to be so, while single, and her character exposed to censure.

A husband is a charming cloke, a fig-leaved apron for a wife:  and for a lady to be protected in liberties, in diversions, which her heart pants after—­and all her faults, even the most criminal, were she to be detected, to be thrown upon the husband, and the ridicule too; a charming privilege for a wife!

But I shall have one comfort, if I marry, which pleases me not a little.  If a man’s wife has a dear friend of her sex, a hundred liberties may be taken with that friend, which could not be taken, if the single lady (knowing what a title to freedoms marriage had given him with her friend) was not less scrupulous with him than she ought to be as to herself.  Then there are broad freedoms (shall I call them?) that may be taken by the husband with his wife, that may not be quite shocking, which, if the wife bears before her friends, will serve for a lesson to that friend; and if that friend bears to be present at them without check or bashfulness, will show a sagacious fellow that she can bear as much herself, at proper time and place.

Chastity, Jack, like piety, is an uniform thing.  If in look, if in speech, a girl give way to undue levity, depend upon it the devil has got one of his cloven feet in her heart already—­so, Hickman, take care of thyself, I advise thee, whether I marry or not.

Thus, Jack, have I at once reconciled myself to all my relations—­and if the lady refuses me, thrown the fault upon her.  This, I knew, would be in my power to do at any time:  and I was the more arrogant to them, in order to heighten the merit of my compliance.