s spread
before us: the whole universe smiles, the earth is clothed in lively
colors, the animals are playful, the birds sing: in being chearful with
innocence, we seem to conform to the order of nature, and the will of
that beneficent Power to whom we owe our being.

If the Supreme Creator had meant us to be gloomy, he would, it seems
to me, have clothed the earth in black, not in that lively green, which
is the livery of chearfulness and joy.

I am called away.

Adieu! my dearest Bell.
Your faithful
Emily Rivers.

LETTER 199.

To Captain Fitzgerald.

Bellfield, Oct. 14.

You flatter me most agreably, my dear Fitzgerald, by praising Emily;
I want you to see her again; she is every hour more charming: I am
astonished any man can behold her without love.

Yet, lovely as she is, her beauty is her least merit; the finest
understanding, the most pleasing kind of knowledge; tenderness,
sensibility, modesty, and truth, adorn her almost with rays of
divinity.

She has, beyond all I ever saw in either sex, the polish of the
world, without having lost that sweet simplicity of manner, that
unaffected innocence, and integrity of heart, which are so very apt to
evaporate in a crowd.

I ride out often alone, in order to have the pleasure of returning
to her: these little absences give new spirit to our tenderness. Every
care forsakes me at the sight of this temple of real love; my sweet
Emily meets me with smiles; her eyes brighten when I approach; she
receives my friends with the most lively pleasure, because they are my
friends; I almost envy them her attention, though given for my sake.

Elegant in her dress and house, she is all transport when any little
ornament of either pleases me; but what charms me most, is her
tenderness for my mother, in whose heart she rivals both me and Lucy.

My happiness, my friend, is beyond every idea I had formed; were I a
little richer, I should not have a wish remaining. Do not, however,
imagine this wish takes from my felicity.

I have enough for myself, I have even enough for Emily; love makes
us indifferent to the parade of life.

But I have not enough to entertain my friends as I wish, nor to
enjoy the god-like pleasure of beneficence.

We shall be obliged, in order to support the little appearance
necessary to our connexions, to give an attention rather too strict to
our affairs; even this, however, our affection for each other will make
easy