As I was yesterday taking the air with my friend Sir
Roger, we were met by a fresh-coloured, ruddy young man,
who rid by us full speed, with a couple of servants behind
him. Upon my inquiry who he was, Sir Roger told me (15)
that he was a young gentleman of a considerable estate,
who had been educated by a tender mother, that lives not
many miles from the place where we were. She is a very
good lady, says my friend, but took so much care of her
son's health, that she has made him good for nothing.
She quickly found that reading was bad for his eyes,
and that writing made his head ache. He was let loose (149: 5)
among the woods as soon as he was able to ride on horse-back,
or to carry a gun upon his shoulder. To be brief,
I found by my friend's account of him, that he had got
a great stock of health, but nothing else; and that, if it
were a man's business only to live, there would not be a (10)
more accomplished young fellow in the whole country.
The truth of it is, since my residing in these parts I
have seen and heard innumerable instances of young
heirs and elder brothers who--either from their own
reflecting upon the estates they are born to, and therefore (15)
thinking all other accomplishments unnecessary; or from
hearing these notions frequently inculcated to them by the
flattery of their servants and domestics; or from the same
foolish thought prevailing in those who have the care of
their education--are of no manner of use but to keep (20)
up their families, and transmit their lands and houses in
a line to posterity.
This makes me often think on a story I have heard of
two friends, which I shall give my reader at large under
feigned names. The moral of it may, I hope, be useful, (25)
though there are some circumstances which make it rather
appear like a novel than a true story.
Eudoxus and Leontine began the world with small
estates. They were both of them men of good sense
and great virtue. They prosecuted their studies together
in their earlier years, and entered into such a friendship
as lasted to the end of their lives. Eudoxus, at his first
setting out in the world, threw himself into a court, where
by his natural endowments and his acquired abilities he (150: 5)
made his way from one post to another, till at length he
had raised a very considerable fortune. Leontine, on the
contrary, sought all opportunities of improving his mind
by study, conversation, and travel. He was not only
acquainted with all the sciences, but with the most eminent (10)
professors of them throughout Europe. He knew
perfectly well the interests of its princes, with the customs
and fashions of their courts, and could scarce meet
with the name of an extraordinary person in the _Gazette_
whom he had not either talked to or seen. In short, he (15)
had so well mixed and digested his knowledge of men
and books, that he made one of the most accomplished
persons of his age. During the whole course of his
studies and travels, he kept up a punctual correspondence
with Eudoxus, who often made himself acceptable to the (20)
principal men about court by the intelligence which he
received from Leontine. When they were both turned of
forty,--an age in which, according to Mr. Cowley, "there
is no dallying with life,"--they determined, pursuant to
the resolution they had taken in the beginning of their (25)
lives, to retire, and pass the remainder of their days in
the country. In order to this, they both of them married
much about the same time. Leontine, with his own and
his wife's fortune, bought a farm of three hundred a year,
which lay within the neighbourhood of his friend Eudoxus,
who had purchased an estate of as many thousands.
They were both of them fathers about the same time;
Eudoxus having a son born to him, and Leontine a
daughter: but, to the unspeakable grief of the latter, his (151: 5)
young wife, in whom all his happiness was wrapt up, died
in a few days after the birth of her daughter. His affliction
would have been insupportable had not he been
comforted by the daily visits and conversations of his
friend. As they were one day talking together with their (10)
usual intimacy, Leontine considering how incapable he
was of giving his daughter a proper education in his own
house, and Eudoxus reflecting on the ordinary behaviour
of a son who knows himself to be the heir of a great
estate, they both agreed upon an exchange of children: (15)
namely, that the boy should be bred up with Leontine as
his son, and that the girl should live with Eudoxus as his
daughter, till they were each of them arrived at years of
discretion. The wife of Eudoxus, knowing that her son
could not be so advantageously brought up as under the (20)
care of Leontine, and considering at the same time that
he would be perpetually under her own eye, was by degrees
prevailed upon to fall in with the project. She
therefore took Leonilla, for that was the name of the girl,
and educated her as her own daughter. The two friends (25)
on each side had wrought themselves to such an habitual
tenderness for the children who were under their direction,
that each of them had the real passion of a father,
where the title was but imaginary. Florio, the name of
the young heir that lived with Leontine, though he had
all the duty and affection imaginable for his supposed
parent, was taught to rejoice at the sight of Eudoxus,
who visited his friend very frequently, and was dictated
by his natural affection, as well as by the rules of prudence, (152: 5)
to make himself esteemed and beloved by Florio.
The boy was now old enough to know his supposed
father's circumstances, and that therefore he was to make
his way in the world by his own industry. This consideration
grew stronger in him every day, and produced so (10)
good an effect that he applied himself with more than
ordinary attention to the pursuit of everything which
Leontine recommended to him. His natural abilities,
which were very good, assisted by the directions of so
excellent a counsellor, enabled him to make a quicker (15)
progress than ordinary through all the parts of his education.
Before he was twenty years of age, having finished
his studies and exercises with great applause, he was removed
from the university to the Inns of Court, where
there are very few that make themselves considerable (20)
proficients in the studies of the place[114] who know they
shall arrive at great estates without them. This was not
Florio's case: he found that three hundred a year was but
a poor estate for Leontine and himself to live upon, so
that he studied without intermission till he gained a very (25)
good insight into the constitution and laws of his country.
[114] Improve the arrangement.
I should have told my reader, that whilst Florio lived
at the house of his foster-father, he was always an acceptable
guest in the family of Eudoxus, where he became
acquainted with Leonilla from her infancy. His acquaintance
with her by degrees grew into love, which in a mind
trained up in all the sentiments of honour and virtue became
a very uneasy passion. He despaired of gaining (153: 5)
an heiress of so great a fortune, and would rather have
died than attempted it by any indirect methods. Leonilla,
who was a woman of the greatest beauty joined with the
greatest modesty, entertained at the same time a secret
passion for Florio, but conducted herself with so much (10)
prudence that she never gave him the least intimation
of it. Florio was now engaged in all those arts and
improvements that are proper to raise a man's private
fortune, and give him a figure in his country, but secretly
tormented with that passion which burns with the greatest (15)
fury in a virtuous and noble heart, when he received a
sudden summons from Leontine to repair to him into
the country the next day. For it seems Eudoxus was so
filled with the report of his son's reputation that he could
no longer withhold making himself known to him. The (20)
morning after his arrival at the house of his supposed
father, Leontine told him that Eudoxus had something of
great importance to communicate to him; upon which the
good man embraced him and wept. Florio was no sooner
arrived at the great house that stood in his neighbourhood (25)
but Eudoxus took him by the hand, after the first salutes[115]
were over, and conducted him into his closet. He there
opened[116] to him the whole secret of his parentage and education,
concluding after this manner: "I have no other
way left of acknowledging my gratitude to Leontine than
by marrying you to his daughter. He shall not lose the
pleasure of being your father by the discovery I have
made to you. Leonilla, too, shall be still my daughter; (154: 5)
her filial piety, though misplaced, has been so exemplary
that it deserves the greatest reward I can confer upon it.
You shall have the pleasure of seeing a great estate fall
to you, which you would have lost the relish of had you
known yourself born to it. Continue only to deserve it (10)
in the same manner you did before you were possessed of
it. I have left your mother in the next room. Her heart
yearns towards you. She is making the same discoveries
to Leonilla which I have made to yourself." Florio was
so overwhelmed with this profusion of happiness that he (15)
was not able to make a reply, but threw himself down at
his father's feet, and amidst a flood of tears kissed and
embraced his knees, asking his blessing, and expressing in
dumb show those sentiments of love, duty, and gratitude
that were too big for utterance. To conclude, the happy (20)
pair were married, and half Eudoxus's estate settled upon
them. Leontine and Eudoxus passed the remainder of
their lives together; and received in the dutiful and affectionate
behaviour of Florio and Leonilla the just recompense,
as well as the natural effects, of that care which (25)
they had bestowed upon them in their education. L.
[115] Salutations.
[116] Disclosed.