The Summer is advancing briskly on, & bringing me with it every Day still nearer to you--And to my last Change--With you I am looking for the purest Happiness in Friendship & Love that I can derive from any thing below; And it will add to measure of Felicity if I can make the Woman I choose to protect & esteem think me worthy her Regard. I said that the swift Advances of Summer are bringing me swiftly on to Death--In Virginia there are numberless Admonitions to this Reflection, but I suppress any farther Declaration. I wrote you by Mr ---- early last Month; & at the same Time I wrote to several of my Acquaintances: but if they lived in the Moon I could hear from them as often as I do now when only a Couple of Hundred Miles, or a little more, separates us: Would it not be more agreeable to me if they did--? For then I should every Night almost, see, at least, the Place of their Habitation, tho' we could have no Correspondence. You are such a Pilgrim, Laura; I mean such a Rover, that I am at some Loss to know how to direct a Letter to you; & I want my Letters, while they are on their Passage to go through as few Hands as possible, not because I write any _Secrecy_, or _Scandal_, for you will not allow either the one or the other; but only that you may speedily receive & read the Little I do write, fresh from my Heart. I suppose that Miss ---- has before now seen Cohansie--And cloyed of it too, no Doubt. She is a lively, sportful Soul. But that dear Place, which ingrosses so many of my Thoughts, has not Variety enough to entertain her long--You yourself, who are not always soaring on Follie's Wing, through the Regions of Vanity & Nonsense, sometimes find the Country dull--But Miss ---- does not find Satisfaction in the City; it is plain then since that young Lady cannot find Contentment either in City or Country, that She cannot be happy at all. Merciful, merciful Heaven! O grant me what I am trying hard to obtain; grant that my Inclinations be all duely bended to a perfect Satisfaction with my Lot here--! With such a Temper I shall be at Rest, be happy, if I continue here in Virginia; Or I shall be happy if I remove into new Jersey; But, must I declare it, Laura, that if I am destitute of this, I should be wretched, tho' your Friend & Companion--I am, Laura, thine PHILIP. V. FITHIAN. [JOURNAL] _Wednesday 13._