ken a place in the coach for Monday; I
hope, therefore, to be in London on Friday, the 26th, in the evening.
Please to let Mrs. Williams know. I am, &c.

XXIX.--To THE SAME.

Lichfield, June 23, 1775.

DEAR MADAM,--Now I hope you are thinking: Shall I have a letter to-day
from Lichfield? Something of a letter you will have; how else can I
expect that you should write? and the morning, on which I should miss a
letter, would be a morning of uneasiness, notwithstanding all that would
be said or done by the sisters of Stowhill, who do and say whatever good
they can. They give me good words, and cherries, and strawberries. Lady
****, and her mother and sister, were visiting there yesterday, and
Lady ---- took her tea before her mother.

Mrs. Cobb is to come to Miss Porter's this afternoon. Miss A--comes
little near me. Mr. Langley, of Ashbourne, was here to-day, in his way
to Birmingham, and every body talks of you.

The ladies of the Amicable society are to walk, in a few days, from the
townhall to the cathedral, in procession, to hear a sermon. They walk in
linen gowns, and each has a stick, with an acorn; but for the acorn they
could give no reason, till I told them of the civick crown.

I have just had your sweet letter, and am glad that you are to be at the
regatta. You know how little I love to have you left out of any shining
part of life. You have every right to distinction, and should,
therefore, be distinguished. You will see a show with philosophick
superiority, and, therefore, may see it safely. It is easy to talk of
sitting at home, contented, when others are seeing, or making shows.
But, not to have been where it is supposed, and seldom supposed falsely,
that all would go if they could; to be able to say nothing, when every
one is talking; to have no opinion, when every one is judging; to hear
exclamations of rapture, without power to depress; to listen to
falsehoods, without right to contradict, is, after all, a state of
temporary inferiority, in which the mind is rather hardened by
stubbornness, than supported by fortitude. If the world be worth
winning, let us enjoy it; if it is to be despised, let us despise it by
conviction. But the world is not to be despised, but as it is compared
with something better. Company is, in itself, better than solitude, and
pleasure better than indolence: "Ex nihilo nihil fit," says the moral,
as well as the natural, philosopher. By doing nothing, and by knowing
nothi