y, should be above inspecting, shall be done, to
prevent a necessity for such measures being taken. And if there will be
no necessity for them, it is to be hoped that motives less excusable will
not have force--motives which must be founded in a littleness of mind,
which a woman, who has not that littleness of mind, will be under such
temptations, as her duty will hardly be able at all times to check, to
despise her husband for having; especially in cases where her own family,
so much a part of herself, and which will have obligations upon her
(though then but secondary ones) from which she can never be freed, is
intimately concerned.

'This article, then, I urge to your most serious consideration, as what
lies next my heart. I enter not here minutely into the fatal
misunderstanding between them and you: the fault may be in both. But,
Sir, your's was the foundation-fault: at least, you gave a too-plausible
pretence for my brother's antipathy to work upon. Condescension was no
part of your study. You chose to bear the imputations laid to your
charge, rather than to make it your endeavour to obviate them.

'But this may lead into hateful recrimination.--Let it be remembered, I
will only say, in this place, that, in their eye, you have robbed them of
a daughter they doated upon; and that their resentments on this occasion
rise but in proportion to their love and their disappointment. If they
were faulty in some of the measures they took, while they themselves did
not think so, who shall judge for them? You, Sir, who will judge every
body as you please, and will let nobody judge you in your own particular,
must not be their judge.--It may therefore be expected that they will
stand out.

'As for myself, Sir, I must leave it (so seems it to be destined) to your
justice, to treat me as you shall think I deserve: but, if your future
behaviour to them is not governed by that harsh-sounding implacableness,
which you charge upon some of their tempers, the splendour of your
family, and the excellent character of some of them (of all indeed,
unless your own conscience furnishes you with one only exception) will,
on better consideration, do every thing with them: for they may be
overcome; perhaps, however, with the more difficulty, as the greatly
prosperous less bear controul and disappointment than others: for I will
own to you, that I have often in secret lamented, that their great
acquirements have been a snare to them; p