s to see the opinion established, that there
are fair characters existing among the individuals of the race; for the
moment that all men, without exception, shall be conceived abandoned,
good people will cease efforts deemed to be hopeless, and perhaps think
of taking their share in the scramble of life, or at least of making it
comfortable principally for themselves. Take then, my dear sir, this
work most speedily into hand: shew yourself good as you are good;
temperate as you are temperate; and above all things, prove yourself as
one, who from your infancy have loved justice, liberty and concord, in
a way that has made it natural and consistent for you to have acted, as
we have seen you act in the last seventeen years of your life. Let
Englishmen be made not only to respect, but even to love you. When
they think well of individuals in your native country, they will go
nearer to thinking well of your country; and when your countrymen see
themselves well thought of by Englishmen, they will go nearer to
thinking well of England. Extend your views even further; do not stop
at those who speak the English tongue, but after having settled so many
points in nature and politics, think of bettering the whole race of
men. As I have not read any part of the life in question, but know
only the character that lived it, I write somewhat at hazard. I am
sure, however, that the life and the treatise I allude to (on the Art
of Virtue) will necessarily fulfil the chief of my expectations; and
still more so if you take up the measure of suiting these performances
to the several views above stated. Should they even prove unsuccessful
in all that a sanguine admirer of yours hopes from them, you will at
least have framed pieces to interest the human mind; and whoever gives
a feeling of pleasure that is innocent to man, has added so much to the
fair side of a life otherwise too much darkened by anxiety and too much
injured by pain. In the hope, therefore, that you will listen to the
prayer addressed to you in this letter, I beg to subscribe myself, my
dearest sir, etc., etc.,

"Signed, BENJ. VAUGHAN."

Continuation of the Account of my Life, begun at Passy, near Paris,
1784.

It is some time since I receiv'd the above letters, but I have been too
busy till now to think of complying with the request they contain. It
might, too, be much better done if I were at home among my papers,
which would aid my memory, and help to