To John Temple, Esq; Pall Mall.
Quebec, Sept. 15.
Believe me, Jack, you are wrong; this vagrant taste is unnatural,
and does not lead to happiness; your eager pursuit of pleasure defeats
itself; love gives no true delight but where the heart is attach'd, and
you do not give yours time to fix. Such is our unhappy frailty, that
the tenderest passion may wear out, and another succeed, but the love
of change merely as change is not in nature; where it is a real taste,
'tis a depraved one. Boys are inconstant from vanity and affectation,
old men from decay of passion; but men, and particularly men of sense,
find their happiness only in that lively attachment of which it is
impossible for more than one to be the object. Love is an intellectual
pleasure, and even the senses will be weakly affected where the heart
is silent.
You will find this truth confirmed even within the walls of the
seraglio; amidst this crowd of rival beauties, eager to please, one
happy fair generally reigns in the heart of the sultan; the rest serve
only to gratify his pride and ostentation, and are regarded by him with
the same indifference as the furniture of his superb palace, of which
they may be said to make a part.
With your estate, you should marry; I have as many objections to the
state as you can have; I mean, on the footing marriage is at present.
But of this I am certain, that two persons at once delicate and
sensible, united by friendship, by taste, by a conformity of sentiment,
by that lively ardent tender inclination which alone deserves the name
of love, will find happiness in marriage, which is in vain sought in
any other kind of attachment.
You are so happy as to have the power of chusing; you are rich, and
have not the temptation to a mercenary engagement. Look round you for
a companion, a confidente; a tender amiable friend, with all the
charms of a mistress: above all, be certain of her affection, that you
engage, that you fill her whole soul. Find such a woman, my dear
Temple, and you cannot make too much haste to be happy.
I have a thousand things to say to you, but am setting off
immediately with Sir George Clayton, to meet the lieutenant governor at
Montreal; a piece of respect which I should pay with the most lively
pleasure, if it did not give me the opportunity of seeing the woman in
the world I most admire. I am not however going to set you the example
of marrying: I am not so happy; she is engaged to the gentleman who
goes up with me. Adieu!
Yours,
Ed. Rivers.