melworth-hall.

Dear sir,

Agreeably to your friendly injunctions, I came hither yesterday to meet, in the sympathetic kindness of my friend Sir Edward Melworth, that consolation which my recent affliction really needs; but instead of lessening my griefs, I find them augmented by my concern for this valuable man, who, in the bloom of life, and blessed with every amiable quality, is a prey to the most poignant sorrow, for the loss of a wife, to whom he had been united only six weeks, when she was torn from him by the inexorable hand of death. She was too tenderly beloved by him to leave any room to hope that the wound made by grief may be healed by another filling up the vacancy which her death has occasioned in his heart. He seems, now, as inconsolable as/ when it first happened, which was ten months back; and I oft en fear the life of the Baronet will fall a sacrifice to his unavailing sorrow. – This idea, when I view his altered looks, affects my spirits too powerfully to admit of my making a very long stay with him. In my adverse circumstances, a peculiar exertion of fortitude is necessary against every degree of sloth or supineness, since it is no longer in my power to indulge it. I am sensible too, that it is highly criminal. – Our great Creator formed every human being for usefulness, in some respect or other; none for idleness. Those who are not naturally industrious, are, often, by the wise dispensations of providence, thrown into a situation which compels them to be so. I come under this description, and cannot help considering every hour as lost while I remain thus disengaged from every useful employ. It is my wish to enter into the active scenes of life, as soon as possible; and, as I know not any thing else I am calculated for, I design going into the army.