Tho' the public voice had long since accustomed me to think myself
honoured in calling Mrs. Gibbon my aunt, yet I never enjoyed the
happiness of living near her, and of instructing myself not less by
her example than by her precepts. Your piety, Madam, has engaged you
to prefer a retreat to the world. Errors, justifiable only in their
principle, forced my father to give me a foreign education. Fully
disabused of the unhappy ideas I had taken up, and at last restored
to myself, I am happy in the affection of the tenderest of fathers.
May I not hope, Madam, to see my felicity compleat by the acquisition
of your esteem and friendship? Duty and Inclination engage me equally
to solicit them, all my endeavours shall tend to deserve them, and,
with Mrs. Gibbon, I know that to deserve is to obtain. I have now
been in England about two months, and should have acquitted myself
much sooner of my duty, but frequent journeys to London scarce left
me a moment to myself, and since a very ugly fever my father has
had, engrossed all my thoughts. He is now entirely recovered, and
desires his love and service to you, Madam, as well as to Mr. Law.
I am, Dear Madam,
With the sincerest esteem and most profound respect,
Your most obedient humble servant and dutiful nephew,
E. GIBBON, JUNIOR.
11.
_To his Father._
London, October the 24th, 1758.