Meaning his meditated second violence (See Letter 281) and his succeeding letters to her, supplicating for her pardon. ↩
See Letter 397. ↩
See Letter 401. ↩
See Letter 426. ↩
See Letter 436. ↩
See Letter 448. ↩
Begun on Monday , and by piecemeal finished on Tuesday; but not sent till the Thursday following. ↩
I.e. At the time this Letter was written. ↩
Joy, let me here observe, my dear Sir, by way of note, is not absolutely inconsistent with melancholy; a soft gentle joy, not a rapid, not a rampant joy, however; but such a joy, as shall lift her temporarily out of her soothing melancholy, and then let her down gently into it again; for melancholy, to be sure, her reflection will generally make to be her state. ↩
And here, by way of note, permit me to say, that no sermon I ever composed cost me half the pains that this letter hath done—but I knew your great appetite after, as well as admiration of, the ancient wisdom, which you so justly prefer to the modern—and indeed I join with you to think, that the modern is only borrowed, (as the moon doth its light from the sun), at least, that we excel them in nothing; and that our best cogitations may be found, generally speaking, more elegantly dressed and expressed by them. ↩
See Letter 475. ↩
See Letter 465. ↩
See Letter 460. ↩
See the beginning of Letter 476. ↩
The words thus enclosed [ ] were omitted in the transcript to Mr. Lovelace. ↩
Whoever has seen Dean Swift’s Lady’s Dressing Room, will think this description of Mr. Belford’s not only more natural, but more decent painting, as well as better justified by the design, and by the use that may be made of it. ↩
See Judges 12:6. ↩
See Letter 486. ↩
This letter contains in substance—her thanks to the good woman for her care of her in her infancy; for her good instructions, and the excellent example she had set her; with self-accusations of a vanity and presumption, which lay lurking in her heart unknown to herself, till her calamities (obliging her to look into herself) brought them to light.
She comforts her on her early death; having finished, as she says, her probatory course, at so early a time of life, when many are not ripened by the sunshine of Divine Grace for a better, till they are fifty, sixty, or seventy years of age.
I hope, she says, that my father will grant the request I have made to him in my last will, to let you pass the remainder of your days at my Dairy-house, as it used to be called, where once I promised myself to be happy in you. Your discretion, prudence, and economy, my dear, good woman, proceeds she, will male your presiding over the concerns of that house as beneficial to them as it can be convenient to you. For your sake, my dear Mrs. Norton, I hope they will make you this offer. And if they do, I hope you will accept it for theirs.
She remembers herself to her foster-brother in a very kind manner; and charges her, for his sake, that she will not take too much to heart what has befallen her.
She concludes as follows:
Remember me, in the last place, to all my kind well-wishers of your acquaintance; and to those I used to call My Poor. They will be God’s poor, if they trust in Him. I have taken such care, that I hope they will not be losers by my death. Bid them, therefore, rejoice; and do you also, my reverend comforter and sustainer, (as well in my darker as in my fairer days), likewise rejoice, that I am so soon delivered from the evils that were before me; and that I am now, when this comes to your hands, as I humbly trust, exulting in the mercies of a gracious God, who has conducted an end to all my temptations and distresses; and who, I most humbly trust, will, in his own good time, give us a joyful meeting in the regions of eternal blessedness. ↩
A blank, at the writing, was left for this date, and filled up on this day. See Letter 454. ↩
The date of the year is left blank for particular reasons. ↩
See Letter 147. ↩
See Letter 147. ↩
See Letter 476. ↩
Job 15:31, 32, 33. ↩
See Letter 454. ↩
See Letter 144. ↩
See Letter 346. ↩
See her letter, enclosed in Mr. Lovelace’s, No. 372.
The reader may observe, by the date of this letter, that it was written within two days of the allegorical one, to which it refers, and while the lady was labouring under the increased illness occasioned by the hurries and terrors into which Mr. Lovelace had thrown her, in order to avoid the visit he was so earnest to make her at Mr. Smith’s; so early written, perhaps, that she might not be surprised by death into a seeming breach of her word.
High as her Christian spirit soars in this letter, the
