irtues; integrity,
constancy, and a steady uniformity of character: love, on the contrary,
admires it knows not what; creates itself the idol it worships; finds
charms even in defects; is pleased with follies, with inconsistency,
with caprice: to say all in one line,

"Love is a child, and like a child he plays."

The moment Emily arrives, I entreat that one of you will write to
me: no words can speak my impatience: I am equally anxious to hear of
my dear Rivers. Heaven send them prosperous gales!

Adieu!
Your faithful
A. Fermor.

LETTER 157.

To Mrs. Temple, Pall Mall.

Silleri, June 30.

You are extremely mistaken, my dear, in your idea of the society
here; I had rather live at Quebec, take it for all in all, than in any
town in England, except London; the manner of living here is uncommonly
agreable; the scenes about us are lovely, and the mode of amusements
make us taste those scenes in full perfection.

Whilst your brother and Emily were here, I had not a wish to leave
Canada; but their going has left a void in my heart, which will not
easily be filled up: I have loved Emily almost from childhood, and
there is a peculiar tenderness in those friendships, which

"Grow with our growth, and strengthen with our strength."

There was also something romantic and agreable in finding her here,
and unexpectedly, after we had been separated by Colonel Montague's
having left the regiment in which my father served.

In short, every thing concurred to make us dear to each other, and
therefore to give a greater poignancy to the pain of parting a second
time.

As to your brother, I love him so much, that a man who had less
candor and generosity than Fitzgerald, would be almost angry at my very
lively friendship.

I have this moment a letter from Madame Des Roches; she laments the
loss of our two amiable friends; begs me to assure them both of her
eternal remembrance: says, "she congratulates Emily on possessing the
heart of the man on earth most worthy of being beloved; that she cannot
form an idea of any human felicity equal to that of the woman, the
business of whose life it is to make Colonel Rivers happy. That, heaven
having denied her that happiness, she will never marry, nor enter into
an engagement which would make it criminal in her to remember him with
tenderness: that it is, however, she believes, best for her he has
left the country, for that it is impossible she should ev