ledgments, who have condescended to give me your very self. I can make no Return for so inestimable a Favour, but in acknowledging the Generosity of the Giver. To have either Wealth, Wit, or Beauty, is generally a Temptation to a Woman to put an unreasonable Value upon herself; but with all these, in a Degree which drew upon you the Addresses of Men of the amplest Fortunes, you bestowed your Person where you could have no Expectations but from the Gratitude of the Re ceiver, ceiver, tho you knew he could exert that Gratitude in no other Returns but Esteem and Love. For which must I first thank you, for what you have denied yourself, or for what you have bestowed on me? I owe to you, that for my fake you have overlooked the Prospect of living in Pomp and Plenty, and I have not been circumspect enough to preserve you from Care and Sorrow. I will not dwell upon this particular; You are so good a Wife, that I know you than A 4. than I give, when I say any thing in your Favour to my own Difadvantage. Whoever should fee or hear you, would think it were worth leaving all the World for you ; while I, habitually poffeffed of that Happiness, have been throwing away impotent Endeavours for the rest of Mankind, to the Neglect of Her for whom any other Man, in his Senses, would be apt to facrifice every thing elfe. I know not by what unreafonable Prepoffeffion it is, but, me methinks, there must be something austere to give Authority to Wisdom, and I cannot account for having only rallied many seasonable Sentiments of yours, but that you are too Beautiful to appear Judicious, One may grow fond, but not wise, from what is said by so lovely a Counsellor : Hard Fate, that you have been leffened by your Perfections, and loft Power by your Charms! That ingenuous Spirit in all your Behaviour, that familiar Grace in your Words and Adi ons, a ons, has for this seven Years only inspired Admiration and Love, but Experience has taught me, the best Counsel I ever have received, has been pronounced by the fairest and softest Lips, and convinced me that I am in you blest with a wise Friend, as well as a charming Mistress. Your Mind shall no longer suffer by your Person nor shall your Eyes for the future dazzle me into a Blindness towards your Understanding I rejoice in this publick Occasion to shew my Esteem for you ; and must do 1. a |