As you have thought fit to favour Mr. Solmes with your particular
recommendation, and was very earnest in his behalf, ranking him (as
you told me, upon introducing him to me) among your select friends; and
expecting my regards to him accordingly; I beg your patience, while
I offer a few things, out of many that I could offer, to your serious
consideration, on occasion of his address to me, if I am to use that
word.
I am charged with prepossession in another person's favour. You will be
pleased, Sir, to remember, that till my brother returned from Scotland,
that other person was not absolutely discouraged, nor was I forbid to
receive his visits. I believe it will not be pretended, that in birth,
education, or personal endowments, a comparison can be made between the
two. And only let me ask you, Sir, if the one would have been thought of
for me, had he not made such offers, as, upon my word, I think, I ought
not in justice to accept of, nor he to propose: offers, which if he had
not made, I dare say, my papa would not have required them of him.
But the one, it seems, has many faults:--Is the other faultless?--The
principal thing objected to Mr. Lovelace (and a very inexcusable one) is
that he is immoral in his loves--Is not the other in his hatreds?--Nay,
as I may say, in his loves too (the object only differing) if the love
of money be the root of all evil.
But, Sir, if I am prepossessed, what has Mr. Solmes to hope for?--Why
should he persevere? What must I think of the man who would wish me to
be his wife against my inclination?--And is it not a very harsh thing
for my friends to desire to see me married to one I cannot love, when
they will not be persuaded but that there is one whom I do love?
Treated as I am, now is the time for me to speak out or never.--Let
me review what it is Mr. Solmes depends upon on this occasion. Does he
believe, that the disgrace which I supper on his account, will give
him a merit with me? Does he think to win my esteem, through my uncles'
sternness to me; by my brother's contemptuous usage; by my sister's
unkindness; by being denied to visit, or be visited; and to correspond
with my chosen friend, although a person of unexceptionable honour and
prudence, and of my own sex; my servant to be torn from me, and another
servant set over me; to be confined, like a prisoner, to narrow and
disgraceful limits, in order avowedly to mortify me, and to break my
spirit; to be turned out of that family-management which I loved, and
had the greater pleasure in it, because it was an ease, as I thought, to
my mamma, and what my sister chose not; and yet, though time hangs heavy
upon my hands, to be so put out of my course, that I have as little
inclination as liberty to pursue any of my choice delights?--Are these
steps necessary to reduce me to a level so low, as to make me a fit wife
for this man?--Yet these are all he can have to trust to. And if
his reliance is on these measures, I would have him to know, that
he mistakes meekness and gentleness of disposition for servility and
baseness of heart.
I beseech you, Sir, to let the natural turn and bent of his mind and my
mind be considered: What are his qualities, by which he would hope to
win my esteem?--Dear, dear Sir, if I am to be compelled, let it be in
favour of a man that can read and write--that can teach me something:
For what a husband must that man make, who can do nothing but command;
and needs himself the instruction he should be qualified to give?
I may be conceited, Sir; I may be vain of my little reading; of my
writing; as of late I have more than once been told I am. But, Sir, the
more unequal the proposed match, if so: the better opinion I have of
myself, the worse I must have of him; and the more unfit are we for each
other.
Indeed, Sir, I must say, I thought my friends had put a higher value
upon me. My brother pretended once, that it was owing to such value,
that Mr. Lovelace's address was prohibited.--Can this be; and such a man
as Mr. Solmes be intended for me?
As to his proposed settlements, I hope I shall not incur your great
displeasure, if I say, what all who know me have reason to think (and
some have upbraided me for), that I despise those motives. Dear, dear
Sir, what are settlements to one who has as much of her own as she
wishes for?--Who has more in her own power, as a single person, than
it is probable she would be permitted to have at her disposal, as a
wife?--Whose expenses and ambition are moderate; and who, if she had
superfluities, would rather dispense them to the necessitous, than lay
them by her useless? If then such narrow motives have so little weight
with me for my own benefit, shall the remote and uncertain view of
family-aggrandizements, and that in the person of my brother and his
descendents, be thought sufficient to influence me?
Has the behaviour of that brother to me of late, or his consideration
for the family (which had so little weight with him, that he could
choose to hazard a life so justly precious as an only son's, rather than
not ratify passions which he is above attempting to subdue, and, give me
leave to say, has been too much indulged in, either with regard to his
own good, or the peace of any body related to him;) Has his behaviour, I
say, deserved of me in particular, that I should make a sacrifice of my
temporal (and, who knows? of my eternal) happiness, to promote a plan
formed upon chimerical, at least upon unlikely, contingencies; as I will
undertake to demonstrate, if I may be permitted to examine it?
I am afraid you will condemn my warmth: But does not the occasion
require it? To the want of a greater degree of earnestness in my
opposition, it seems, it is owing, that such advances have been made,
as have been made. Then, dear Sir, allow something, I beseech you, for a
spirit raised and embittered by disgraces, which (knowing my own heart)
I am confident to say, are unmerited.
But why have I said so much, in answer to the supposed charge of
prepossession, when I have declared to my mamma, as now, Sir, I do
to you, that if it be not insisted upon that I shall marry any other
person, particularly this Mr. Solmes, I will enter into any engagements
never to have the other, nor any man else, without their consents; that
is to say, without the consents of my father and my mother, and of you
my uncle, and my elder uncle, and my cousin Morden, as he is one of the
trustees for my grandfather's bounty to me?--As to my brother indeed, I
cannot say, that his treatment of me has been of late so brotherly,
as to entitle him to more than civility from me: and for this, give me
leave to add, he would be very much my debtor.
If I have not been explicit enough in declaring my dislike to Mr. Solmes
(that the prepossession which is charged upon me may not be supposed to
influence me against him) I do absolutely declare, That were there no
such man as Mr. Lovelace in the world, I would not have Mr. Solmes.
It is necessary, in some one of my letters to my dear friends, that I
should write so clearly as to put this matter out of all doubt: and to
whom can I better address myself with an explicitness that can admit
of no mistake, than to that uncle who professes the highest regard for
plain-dealing and sincerity?
Let me, for these reasons, be still more particular in some of my
exceptions to him.
Mr. Solmes appears to me (to all the world, indeed) to have a very
narrow mind, and no great capacity: he is coarse and indelicate; as
rough in his manners as in his person: he is not only narrow, but
covetous: being possessed of great wealth, he enjoys it not; nor has the
spirit to communicate to a distress of any kind. Does not his own sister
live unhappily, for want of a little of his superfluities? And suffers
not he his aged uncle, the brother of his own mother, to owe to
the generosity of strangers the poor subsistence he picks up from
half-a-dozen families?--You know, Sir, my open, free, communicative
temper: how unhappy must I be, circumscribed in his narrow, selfish
circle! out of which being with-held by this diabolical parsimony, he
dare no more stir, than a conjurer out of his; nor would let me.
Such a man, as this, love!--Yes, perhaps he may, my grandfather's
estate; which he has told several persons (and could not resist hinting
the same thing tome, with that sort of pleasure which a low mind takes,
when it intimates its own interest as a sufficient motive for it to
expect another's favour) lies so extremely convenient for him, that it
would double the value of a considerable part of his own. That estate,
and an alliance which would do credit to his obscurity and narrowness,
they make him think he can love, and induce him to believe he does: but
at most, he is but a second-place love. Riches were, are, and always
will be, his predominant passion. His were left him by a miser, on this
very account: and I must be obliged to forego all the choice delights
of my life, and be as mean as he, or else be quite unhappy. Pardon, Sir,
this severity of expression--one is apt to say more than one would of
a person one dislikes, when more is said in his favour than he can
possibly deserve; and when he is urged to my acceptance with so much
vehemence, that there is no choice left me.
Whether these things be perfectly so, or not, while I think they are,
it is impossible I should ever look upon Mr. Solmes in the light he is
offered to me. Nay, were he to be proved ten times better than I have
represented him, and sincerely think him; yet would he be still ten
times more disagreeable to me than any other man I know in the world.
Let me therefore beseech you, Sir, to become an advocate for your niece,
that she may not be made a victim to a man so highly disgustful to her.
You and my other uncle can do a great deal for me, if you please, with
my papa. Be persuaded, Sir, that I am not governed by obstinacy in this
case; but by aversion; an aversion I cannot overcome: for, if I have but
endeavoured to reason with myself, (out of regard to the duty I owe
to my father's will,) my heart has recoiled, and I have been averse to
myself, for offering but to argue with myself, in behalf of a man who,
in the light he appears to me, has no one merit; and who, knowing this
aversion, could not persevere as he does, if he had the spirit of a man.
If, Sir, you can think of the contents of this letter reasonable, I
beseech you to support them with your interest. If not--I shall be most
unhappy!--Nevertheless, it is but just in me so to write, as that Mr.
Solmes may know what he has to trust to.
Forgive, dear Sir, this tedious letter; and suffer it to have weight
with you; and you will for ever oblige
Your dutiful and affectionate niece,