A handsome man, as you are, in your
person; so happy in the gifts of your mind, that every body courts your
company; and possessed of such a noble and clear estate; and very rich in
money besides, left you by the best of fathers and mothers, with such
ancient blood in your veins, untainted! for you to throw away yourself
thus, is intolerable; and it would be very wicked in you to ruin the
wench too. So that I beg you will restore her to her parents, and give
her 100l. or so, to make her happy in some honest fellow of her own
degree; and that will be doing something, and will also oblige and pacify
'Your much grieved sister.'
'If I have written too sharply, consider it is my love to you, and the
shame you are bringing upon yourself; and I wish this may have the effect
upon you, intended by your very loving sister.'
This is a sad letter, my dear father and mother; and one may see how poor
people are despised by the proud and the rich! and yet we were all on a
foot originally: And many of these gentry, that brag of their ancient
blood, would be glad to have it as wholesome, and as really untainted, as
ours!--Surely these proud people never think what a short stage life is;
and that, with all their vanity; a time is coming, when they shall be
obliged to submit to be on a level with us: And true said the
philosopher, when he looked upon the skull of a king, and that of a poor
man, that he saw no difference between them.
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