.
I am not however certain it was the ceremony which affected me thus
strongly; it was impossible not to feel for this amiable victim; never
was there an object more interesting; her form was elegance itself;
her air and motion animated and graceful; the glow of pleasure was on
her cheek, the fire of enthusiasm in her eyes, which are the finest I
ever saw: never did I see joy so livelily painted on the countenance of
the happiest bride; she seem'd to walk in air; her whole person look'd
more than human.
An enemy to every species of superstition, I must however allow it
to be least destructive to true virtue in your gentle sex, and
therefore to be indulg'd with least danger: the superstition of men is
gloomy and ferocious; it lights the fire, and points the dagger of the
assassin; whilst that of women takes its color from the sex; is soft,
mild, and benevolent; exerts itself in acts of kindness and charity,
and seems only substituting the love of God to that of man.
Who can help admiring, whilst they pity, the foundress of the
Ursuline convent, Madame de la Peltrie, to whom the very colony in some
measure owes its existence? young, rich and lovely; a widow in the
bloom of life, mistress of her own actions, the world was gay before
her, yet she left all the pleasures that world could give, to devote
her days to the severities of a religion she thought the only true one:
she dar'd the dangers of the sea, and the greater dangers of a savage
people; she landed on an unknown shore, submitted to the extremities of
cold and heat, of thirst and hunger, to perform a service she thought
acceptable to the Deity. To an action like this, however mistaken the
motive, bigotry alone will deny praise: the man of candor will only
lament that minds capable of such heroic virtue are not directed to
views more conducive to their own and the general happiness.
I am unexpectedly call'd this moment, my dear Lucy, on some business
to Montreal, from whence you shall hear from me.
Adieu!
Ed. Rivers.
LETTER 6.
To Miss Rivers, Clarges Street.
Montreal, July 9.
I am arriv'd, my dear, and have brought my heart safe thro' such a
continued fire as never poor knight errant was exposed to; waited on at
every stage by blooming country girls, full of spirit and coquetry,
without any of the village bashfulness of England, and dressed like
the shepherdesses of romance. A man of adventure might make a pleasant
journe
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