consequence than ordinary; it may be numbered amongst
the rest of our misfortunes, all which an inconsiderate
passion has occasioned. You must pardon me I
cannot be reconciled to it, it has been the ruin of
us both. ’Tis true that nobody must imagine
to themselves ever to be absolute master on’t,
but there is great difference betwixt that and yielding
to it, between striving with it and soothing it up
till it grows too strong for one. Can I remember
how ignorantly and innocently I suffered it to steal
upon me by degrees; how under a mask of friendship
I cozened myself into that which, had it appeared
to me at first in its true shape, I had feared and
shunned? Can I discern that it has made the trouble
of your life, and cast a cloud upon mine, that will
help to cover me in my grave? Can I know that
it wrought so upon us both as to make neither of us
friends to one another, but agree in running wildly
to our own destruction, and that perhaps of some innocent
persons who might live to curse our folly that gave
them so miserable a being? Ah! if you love yourself
or me, you must confess that I have reason to condemn
this senseless passion; that wheresoe’er it comes
destroys all that entertain it; nothing of judgment
or discretion can live with it, and it puts everything
else out of order before it can find a place for itself.
What has it brought my poor Lady Anne Blunt to?
She is the talk of all the footmen and boys in the
street, and will be company for them shortly, and
yet is so blinded by her passion as not at all to perceive
the misery she has brought herself to; and this fond
love of hers has so rooted all sense of nature out
of her heart, that, they say, she is no more moved
than a statue with the affliction of a father and mother
that doted on her, and had placed the comfort of their
lives in her preferment. With all this is it
not manifest to the whole world that Mr. Blunt could
not consider anything in this action but his own interest,
and that he makes her a very ill return for all her
kindness; if he had loved her truly he would have
died rather than have been the occasion of this misfortune
to her. My cousin Franklin (as you observe very
well) may say fine things now she is warm in Moor
Park, but she is very much altered in her opinions
since her marriage, if these be her own. She
left a gentleman, that I could name, whom she had much
more of kindness for than ever she had for Mr. Franklin,
because his estate was less; and upon the discovery
of some letters that her mother intercepted, suffered
herself to be persuaded that twenty-three hundred pound
a year was better than twelve hundred, though with
a person she loved; and has recovered it so well,
that you see she confesses there is nothing in her
condition she desires to alter at the charge of a wish.
She’s happier by much than I shall ever be,
but I do not envy her; may she long enjoy it, and
I an early and a quiet grave, free from the trouble
of this busy world, where all with passion pursue
their own interests at their neighbour’s charges;
where nobody is pleased but somebody complains on’t;
and where ’tis impossible to be without giving
and receiving injuries.