state: but, though it subsides, it
gives place to a tenderness still more pleasing, to a soft, and, if you
will allow the expression, a voluptuous tranquillity: the pleasure does
not cease, does not even lessen; it only changes its nature.

My sister tells me, she flatters herself, you will give a few months
to hers and Mr. Temple's friendship; I will not give up the claim I
have to the same favor.

My little farm will induce only friends to visit us; and it is not
less pleasing to me for that circumstance: one of the misfortunes of a
very exalted station, is the slavery it subjects us to in regard to the
ceremonial world.

Upon the whole, I believe, the most agreable, as well as most free
of all situations, to be that of a little country gentleman, who lives
upon his income, and knows enough of the world not to envy his richer
neighbours.

Let me hear from you, my dear Fitzgerald, and tell me, if, little as
I am, I can be any way of the least use to you.

You will see Emily before I do; she is more lovely, more enchanting,
than ever.

Mrs. Fitzgerald will make me happy if she can invent any commands
for me.

Adieu! Believe me,
Your faithful, &c.
Ed. Rivers.

LETTER 178.

To Colonel Rivers, at Bellfield, Rutland.

London, Sept. 15.

Every mark of your friendship, my dear Rivers, must be particularly
pleasing to one who knows your worth as I do: I have, therefore, to
thank you as well for your letter, as for those obliging offers of
service, which I shall make no scruple of accepting, if I have occasion
for them.

I rejoice in the prospect of your being as happy as myself: nothing
can be more just than your ideas of marriage; I mean, of a marriage
founded on inclination: all that you describe, I am so happy as to
experience.

I never loved my sweet girl so tenderly as since she has been mine;
my heart acknowledges the obligation of her having trusted the future
happiness or misery of her life in my hands. She is every hour more
dear to me; I value as I ought those thousand little attentions, by
which a new softness is every moment given to our affection.

I do not indeed feel the same tumultuous emotion at seeing her; but
I feel a sensation equally delightful: a joy more tranquil, but not
less lively.

I will own to you, that I had strong prejudices against marriage,
which nothing but love could have conquered; the idea of an
indissoluble union deterred me from thinking o