P. S. From ties abhorred _and perhaps inevitable!_ what is the meaning
of those words? they are in Eloisa’s letter. Clara, I am attentive to
every, the minutest circumstance; I am resigned to fortune: but those
words,----whatever may happen, I will never leave this place till I
have an explanation of those words.
Letter LXXVI. From Eloisa.
Can it be that my soul has not excluded all delight, and that a sense
of joy yet penetrates my heart? alas! I conceived it insensible to any
thing but sorrow: I thought I should do nothing but suffer, when you
left me, and that absence had no consolations; your letter to my
cousin has undeceived me; I have read and bath’d it with tears of
compassion. It has shed a sweet refreshing dew o’er a drooping heart,
dried up with vexation and sorrow. The peaceful serenity it has caused
in my soul convinces me of the ascendant you hold, whether present or
absent, over the affections of Eloisa. Oh! my friend, how much it
delights me to see you recover that strength of mind which becomes the
resolution of a man. I esteem you for it the more, and despise myself
the less, in that the dignity of a chaste affection is not totally
debased between us, and that our hearts are not both at once
corrupted. I will say more, as we can at present speak freely of our
affairs. That which most aggravated my despair, was to see that yours
deprived us of the only resource which was left us, the exertion of
your abilities, to improve them. You now know the worth of the
friendship with which heaven has blessed you, in that of my Lord
B----, whose generosity merits the services of your whole life, nor
can you ever sufficiently atone for the offence you have committed.
I hope you will need no other warning to make you guard for the
future against your impetuous passions. It is under the protection
of this honourable friend that you are going to enter on the stage
of the world; it is under the sanction of his credit, under the
guidance of his experience, that you go to revenge the cause of
injured merit, on the cruelty of fortune.
Do that for his sake which you did not for your own. Endeavour at
least to respect his goodness, by not rendering it useless to
yourself. Behold a pleasing prospect still before you: contemplate the
success you have reason to hope for in entering the lists where every
thing conspires to ensure the victory. Heaven has been lavish to you
of its bounties; your natural genius, cultivated by taste, has endowed
you with every necessary and agreeable qualification; at least, at
four-and-twenty you possess all the charms of youth, matured by the
reflections of age.
_Frutto simile in su’l gioveriel fiore._