eived such a profound reverence for her sense and judgment,
that, far from thinking the man excusable who should treat her basely,
I am ready to regret that such an angel of a woman should even marry.
She is in my eye all mind: and were she to meet with a man all mind
likewise, why should the charming qualities she is mistress of be
endangered? Why should such an angel be plunged so low as into the
vulgar offices of a domestic life? Were she mine, I should hardly wish
to see her a mother, unless there were a kind of moral certainty, that
minds like hers could be propagated. For why, in short, should not the
work of bodies be left to mere bodies? I know, that you yourself have
an opinion of her little less exalted. Belton, Mowbray, Tourville, are
all of my mind; are full of her praises; and swear, it would be a million
of pities to ruin a woman in whose fall none but devils can rejoice.

What must that merit and excellence be which can extort this from us,
freelivers, like yourself, and all of your just resentments against the
rest of her family, and offered our assistance to execute your vengeance
on them? But we cannot think it reasonable that you should punish an
innocent creature, who loves you so well, and who is your protection, and
has suffered so much for you, for the faults of her relations.

And here let me put a serious question or two. Thinkest thou, truly
admirable as this lady is, that the end thou proposest to thyself, if
obtained, is answerable to the means, to the trouble thou givest thyself,
and to the perfidies, tricks, stratagems, and contrivances thou has
already been guilty of, and still meditatest? In every real excellence
she surpasses all her sex. But in the article thou seekest to subdue her
for, a mere sensualist, a Partington, a Horton, a Martin, would make a
sensualist a thousand times happier than she either will or can.

Sweet are the joys that come with willingness.

And wouldst thou make her unhappy for her whole life, and thyself not
happy for a single moment?

Hitherto, it is not too late; and that perhaps is as much as can be said,
if thou meanest to preserve her esteem and good opinion, as well as
person; for I think it is impossible she can get out of thy hands now she
is in this accursed house. O that damned hypocritical Sinclair, as thou
callest her! How was it possible she should behave so speciously as she
did all the time the lady staid with us!--Be honest, a