would imagine by
his joy that nobody was ever married before.

He is going to Lake Champlain, to fix on his seat of empire, or
rather Emily's; for I see she will be the reigning queen, and he only
her majesty's consort.

I am going to Quebec; two or three dry days have made the roads
passable for summer carriages: Fitzgerald is come to fetch me. Adieu!

Eight o'clock.

I am come back, have seen Emily, who is the happiest woman existing;
she has heard from your brother, and in such terms--his letter
breathes the very soul of tenderness. I wish they were richer. I don't
half relish their settling in Canada; but, rather than not live
together, I believe they would consent to be set ashore on a desart
island. Good night.

LETTER 133.

To the Earl of ----.

Silleri, April 25.

The pleasure the mind finds in travelling, has undoubtedly, my Lord,
its source in that love of novelty, that delight in acquiring new
ideas, which is interwoven in its very frame, which shews itself on
every occasion from infancy to age, which is the first passion of the
human mind, and the last.

There is nothing the mind of man abhors so much as a state of rest:
the great secret of happiness is to keep the soul in continual action,
without those violent exertions, which wear out its powers, and dull
its capacity of enjoyment; it should have exercise, not labor.

Vice may justly be called the fever of the soul, inaction its
lethargy; passion, under the guidance of virtue, its health.

I have the pleasure to see my daughter's coquetry giving place to a
tender affection for a very worthy man, who seems formed to make her
happy: his fortune is easy; he is a gentleman, and a man of worth and
honor, and, what perhaps inclines me to be more partial to him, of my
own profession.

I mention the last circumstance in order to introduce a request,
that your Lordship would have the goodness to employ that interest for
him in the purchase of a majority, which you have so generously offered
to me; I am determined, as there is no prospect of real duty, to quit
the army, and retire to that quiet which is so pleasing at my time of
life: I am privately in treaty with a gentleman for my company, and
propose returning to England in the first ship, to give in my
resignation: in this point, as well as that of serving Mr. Fitzgerald,
I shall without scruple call upon your Lordship's friendship.

I have settled every thing with Fitzgerald, but witho