"I have felt extremely anxious, dearest Lady, since I had the pleasure to be with you, lest, from my embarrassment in delivering my sentiments, I might have said any thing liable to misapprehension. This anxiety induces me to trouble you with the present letter. I had designed, in our last conversation, to have said, that I had ever regarded the marriage state as that of the greatest happiness. It always appeared to me that two persons of different sexes living together in reciprocal benevolence were placed at the summit of human felicity. Hard necessity has, however, precluded me from the enjoyment of such bliss; and when I had at length relinquished even the idea of it, by accident I met with a lady in whom were concentred all the qualities which I could have wished for in the moments of fondest expectation, and from whom I was led to believe I might derive what I had ever regarded as the greatest happiness. This was to me one of those circumstances of the reality of which the mind seems doubtful, from the excess of delight that it occasions. I had wished, dearest Lady, at our last interview, to have convinced you that I was capable of discerning and loving you, as well for the perfections of your mind, as for the charms of your person. I have ever been an enthusiastic admirer of intellectual excellence; and in the minds of some ladies whom I have known, I have distinguished a purity of thought and benevolence of design which I have never found, nor can I expect to find, amongst men. In addition to these simple and fascinating qualities, I have witnessed a clearness of perception and judgment, an undeviating rectitude of principle, and, as the result of these and other qualities, such a dignity of character, that I have looked up to the possessor of them as to something divine. I had wished to have made you acquainted, in some degree, with my own character, as far as I might have been supposed to have acquired that most difficultly attained information, a knowledge of myself. I perceive, however, an impropriety in saying much upon this subject; but I wish you to be assured, that I am incapable of uttering any thing false or deceitful, and that consequently you may rely upon my word. I have pursued every object in life with an avidity which has appeared to many disproportionate to its value; but surely, if an object be worth attaining, neither diligence should be spared nor time lost in its attainment. How anxious and earnestly interested must a person of this disposition, with respect to subjects of little importance, feel when engaged in what he considers as the most important concern of his life. I shall suffer the greatest inquietude until I am assured of your good opinion. This letter has been written by snatches, in the midst of