Gratitude, as well as Wit & Vivacity at will—and they proved a very Happy and respectable Couple, without other aides than such as Moderate Affections, and reasonable Dictates, usually supply—but their Sensible Plan of Acting, was in a great measure ascribed to a very serious conversation he had with her the Day after Marriage.—After shewing her his House, his Gardens, making his Housekeeper explain to her the different Departments of Servants &c. &c. Economicks—He desired she would oblige Him with her Company in his Library, tête a tête, for a couple of Hours—the Girl was all Amazement—and well she might—for He had never been known to harangue for a Quarter of an hour together in his Life—but she submitted of course & you are to supposed them seated in his Study, each side of a Pembroke Table, if you will, his Hand extended over it to receive Hers—and He Declaiming Thus—“My Dear Lydia I observed your su[r]prize, and I wonder not at it, when I proposed a Conference with you—You must think it strange—that I, who never sought to engage your attention for more than ten minutes together before, should now solicit it for Hours, when I’ve a Prospect of engaging it as often as I choose—but my dear Girl—lend me your serious attention at present, & I flatter myself that I never shall be desirous of it again on the same subject—as I cannot think my Inclinations once known, that you will ever act in opposition to them—You are not to suppose Lydia, from my Character as to Indolence & Singularity, that I have not the same Discernment and in many Respects the same Passions as other men and you will find perhaps, under this Apparent Nonchalance one of the steadiest Tempers and most quick sighted observers—you ever met with in the most brilliant of your acquaintance—but the Truth is, my Dear, that I’m of a Very speculative if not Philosophic Humour—I have in my heart—a most thorough Contempt for Pageantry and Ceremony, in almost all it’s Forms—but I have never yet loved an human Being well enough to tell them so—I am satisfied with the rectitude of my own Heart, and desire no other Praises than what results from the Consciousness of Deserving all good Peoples, if the string of my Actions was once discover’d—but I speak not of this Peculiarity, as any Excellence in my Nature—it is perhaps the Contrary—as most Good Persons are taught to admire the Opinions & Practises of the Public, and they may be right in doing so—if either the one or the other are effectual in stimulating to good Examples—with me they do not operate in this way—I have no pleasure in any thing, however well appearing, if I cannot trace it to the source of good Moral Principles—I love the study of the human Kind above all sciences—and in order to accomplish this, I must have my own at perfect ease—this an Indifferent Spectator would imagine no difficult matter surrounded with affluence, bless’d with Health and equal Spirits as I