_Louisa Clifton to her brother Coke Clifton_
_Grosvenor-Street_
Where is Anna St. Ives?--Where is my friend? Where is the youth to whom
you owe existence?--Man of revenge, answer me! Oh God! O God!--Is it
possible?--Can it be that you, Coke Clifton, the son of my mother, the
hoped for friend of my heart, the expected champion of virtue, can turn
aside to such base and pitiful vice; such intolerable, such absurd,
such deep hypocrisy? And why? What cause? Is this the reward of their
uncommon virtues?
And you, Oh man! Did they not labour hourly, incessantly, with the
purity of saints and the ardour of angels, to do you good? Was it not
their sole employment; their first duty, and their dearest hope? Did
they ever deviate? Did they not return urbanity for arrogance, kindness
for contempt, and life for blows?--Can you, Clifton, dare you be thus
wicked? And will you persist?--
If you have brought them to harm, if your practices have reached their
lives, earth does not contain so foul, so wicked a monster!--
Surely this cannot be! Surely you have some drop of mother's blood in
you, and cannot be actuated by a spirit so wholly demon!
What shall I do? What shall I say? How shall I awaken a soul so steeped
in iniquity, so dead to excellence, so obstinate in ill?--Clifton!--You
were not formed for this! You have a mind that might have been the fit
companion of divine natures!--It may be still!--Awake! View the light,
and turn from crimes, pollution, and abhorrence, to virtue, love, and
truth!
Know you not the beaming charity of her whom you persecute, if--Oh
God!--Surely this is vain terror! Surely Anna St. Ives is still among
the living!--
Clifton, once again I say, remember the untainted benevolence of her
soul! Is it, can it be forgotten by you? Which of your good qualities
was ever forgotten by her? Hear her describe them in her own
language![1]
[Footnote 1: Here follow numerous extracts from the letters of Anna St.
Ives; all expressive of the high qualities and powers of Mr. Clifton,
of the delight they gave her, and the hopes they inspired. They are
omitted here, because it is probable they are fresh in the reader's
memory: if not, it will be easy to turn to Anna's letters; particularly
to letters XXIV. XXXI. XXXVIII. XLV. LVI. LXIII. LXVIII. LXXVIII.
LXXIX. LXXXII. CVIII.]
These are a few of the commendations with which her descriptions
abound. Commendations of you, oh man of mischief and mistake! They are
quotations from her letters. Read them; remember them; think on all she
has done for you, all she has said to you, and all you have made her
suffer!
What shall I say? My fears are infinite, my hopes few, my anguish
intolerable!--For the love of God, brother, do not rob the world of two
people who were born to be its light and pride! Do not be this diabolic
instrument of passion and error! If they still have being, restore them
to the human race.--You know not the wrong you do!--'Tis heinous, 'tis
hateful wickedness! Can a mind like yours feel no momentary remorse, no
glow of returning virtue, no sudden resolution to perform a great and
glorious act of justice on yourself?
If you value your soul's peace, hear me! Awake from this guilty dream,
and be once more the brother of the agonizing,