LETTER II.
WORTHY to HARRINGTON.
“Wish you success!”—In
what? Who is this lady of whom you have
been talking at such an inconsistent rate?
But before you have leisure to reply to these
inquiries, you may have forgotten there is
such a person, as she whom you call Harriot—I
have seen many juvenile heroes,
during my pilgrimage of two and twenty
years, easily inflamed with new objects—
agitated and hurried away by the impetuosity
of new desires—and at the same time
they were by no means famous for solidity
of judgment, or remarkable for the permanency
of their resolutions. There is such
a tumult—such an ebullition of the brain in
these paroxisms of passion, that this new
object is very superficially examined. These,
added to partiality and prepossession, never
fail to blind the eyes of the lover. Instead
of weighing matters maturely, and stating
the evidence fairly on both sides, in order to
form a right judgment, every circumstance
not perfectly coincident with your particular
bias, comes not under consideration, because
it does not flatter your vanity. “Ponder
and pause” just here, and tell me feriously
whether you are in love, and whether
you have sufficiently examined your heart
to give a just answer.
Do you mean to insinuate that your declaration
of love hath attracted the affection
of the pensive
Harriot? If this should be
the case, I wish you would tell me what you
design to do with her.
