d heart, and
wanted to be thought a clever fellow, that, in order to avoid the like
disgrace, I laid down two rules to myself. The first, whenever I went
into company where there were strangers, to hear every one of them speak,
before I gave myself liberty to prate: The other, if I found any of them
above my match, to give up all title to new discoveries, contenting
myself to praise what they praised, as beauties familiar to me, though I
had never heard of them before. And so, by degrees, I got the reputation
of a wit myself: and when I threw off all restraint, and books, and
learned conversation, and fell in with some of our brethren who are now
wandering in Erebus, and with such others as Belton, Mowbray, Tourville,
and thyself, I set up on my own stock; and, like what we have been told
of Sir Richard, in his latter days, valued myself on being the emperor of
the company; for, having fathomed the depth of them all, and afraid of no
rival but thee, whom also I had got a little under, (by my gaiety and
promptitude at least) I proudly, like Addison's Cato, delighted to give
laws to my little senate.

Proceed with thee by-and-by.

LETTER LIII

MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.

But now I have cleared myself of any intentional levity on occasion of my
beloved's meditation; which, as you observe, is finely suited to her
case, (that is to say, as she and you have drawn her case;) I cannot help
expressing my pleasure, that by one or two verses of it, [the arrow,
Jack, and what she feared being come upon her!] I am encouraged to hope,
what it will be very surprising to me if it do not happen: that is, in
plain English, that the dear creature is in the way to be a mamma.

This cursed arrest, because of the ill effects the terror might have had
upon her, in that hoped-for circumstance, has concerned me more than on
any other account. It would be the pride of my life to prove, in this
charming frost-piece, the triumph of Nature over principle, and to have a
young Lovelace by such an angel: and then, for its sake, I am confident
she will live, and will legitimate it. And what a meritorious little
cherub would it be, that should lay an obligation upon both parents
before it was born, which neither of them would be able to repay!--Could
I be sure it is so, I should be out of all pain for her recovery: pain, I
say; since, were she to die--[die! abominable word! how I hate it!] I
verily think I should be the most mise