 | Letters of Mrs. Adams, |  |
TO MISS LUCY CRANCH.
I have not yet noticed your obliging favor of April
26th, which reached me by Captain Lyde, whilst
I was at the Bath Hotel. I had then so much upon
my hands, that I did not get time to write but to
your mamma and cousin, who I hope is with you
before now. By him I wrote many letters, and
amongst the number of my friends, my dear Lucy
was not omitted.
If I did not believe my friends were partial to all
I write, I should sometimes feel discouraged when I
take my pen; for, amongst so large a number of correspondents,
I feel at a loss how to supply them all.
It is usual at a large entertainment, to bring the
solid food in the first course. The second consists
of lighter diet, kickshaws, trifles, whip syllabub,
&c.; the third is the dessert, consisting of the fruits
of the season, and sometimes foreign sweetmeats.
If it would not be paying my letters too great a
compliment to compare any of them to solid food, I
should feel no reluctance at keeping up the metaphor
with respect to the rest. Yet it is not the
studied sentence, nor the elaborate period, which
pleases, but the genuine sentiments of the heart expressed
with simplicity. All the specimens, which
have been handed down to us as models for letter-writing,
beauty of it. It is that native simplicity too, which
gives to the Scotch songs a merit superior to all
others. My favourite Scotch song, "There's na luck
about the house," will naturally occur to your mind.
I believe Richardson has done more towards embellishing
the present age, and teaching them the
talent of letter-writing, than any other modern I can
name. You know I am passionately fond of all his
works, even to his "Pamela." In the simplicity of
our manners, we judge that many of his descriptions
and some of his characters are beyond real life;
but those, who have been conversant in these old corrupted
countries, will be soon convinced that Richardson
painted only the truth in his abandoned characters;
and nothing beyond what human nature is
capable of attaining, and frequently has risen to,
in his amiable portraits. Richardson was master of
the human heart; he studied and copied nature;
he has shown the odiousness of vice, and the fatal
consequences which result from the practice of it;
he has painted virtue in all her amiable attitudes;
he never loses sight of religion, hut points his characters
to a future state of restitution as the sure
ground of safety to the virtuous, and excludes not
hope from the wretched penitent. The oftener I
have read his books, and the more I reflect upon his
great variety of characters, perfectly well supported,
the more I am led to love and admire the author.
He must have an abandoned, wicked, and depraved
heart, who can be tempted to vice by the perusal
person can read them without being made better by
them, as they dispose the mind to receive and relish
every good and benevolent principle. He may
have faults, but they are so few, that they ought not
to be named in the brilliant clusters of beauties
which ornament his works. The human mind is an
active principle, always in search of some gratification;
and whose writings which tend to elevate it to
the contemplation of truth and virtue, and to teach
it that it is capable of rising to higher degrees of
excellence than the mere gratification of sensual
appetites and passions, contribute to promote its
mental pleasures, and to advance the dignity of our
natures. Sir Joshua Reynolds's observation with
respect'to painting may be applied to all those works
which tend to refine the taste, "which, if it does not
lead directly to purity of manners, obviates, at least,
their greatest depravation, by disentangling the mind
from appetite, and conducting the thoughts through
successive stages of excellence, till that contemplation
of universal rectitude and harmony, which began
by taste, may, as it is exalted and refined, conclude
in virtue."
Why may we not suppose, that, the higher our attainments
in knowledge and virtue are here on earth,
the more nearly we assimilate ourselves to that
order of beings who now rank above us in the world
of spirits? We are told in Scripture, that there are
different kinds of glory, and that one star differeth
from another. Why should not those who have distinguished
their fellow-mortals continue to preserve their rank
when admitted to the kingdom of the just? Though,
the estimation of worth may be very different in the
view of the righteous Judge of the world from that
which vain man esteems such on earth, yet we may
rest assured that justice will be strictly administered
to us.
But whither has my imagination wandered? Very
distant from my thoughts when I first took my pen.
We have a large company to dine with us to-day,
and I have some few arrangements to make before
dinner, which obliges me to hasten to a conclusion;
among the persons invited, is a gentleman who married
the only daughter of Richardson. She died
about six months ago. This gentleman has in his
possession the only portrait of her father which was
ever taken. He has several times invited me to go
to his house and see it. I design it, though I have
not yet accepted his invitation.
Write to me, my dear Lucy, and be assured I
speak the words of truth and soberness when I tell
you that your letters give real pleasure to
| Letters of Mrs. Adams, | |