1/5 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



" mained under the preffure of poverty : liappy, 

 *' if, on account of her beauty and virtue, you had 

 •* not been pcrfecuted by thofe very perfons from 

 *' whom you folicited proteftion. 



" You may fay, I might have enjoyed happinefs 



*' independeiit of fortune, by protecting the be- 



*' loved objed:, who was attached to me, in pro- 



" portion to her very weaknefs j by confoling her 



*' with my own inquietudes, by making her re- 



" joice even in my dejeâ:ion, and thus caufing our 



" love ta increafe by our mutual forrows. Doubt- 



" lefs, virtue and love do delight in thefe bitter 



*' pleafures. But the is now no more; there ftill 



" remains to you, however, what, next to your- 



** felf, file loved moft, namely, her own mother 



" and your's, whom, by your inconfolable afflic- 



" tion, you are bringing down to the grave. Make 



" it your happinels to fuccour them, as it was 



** her's. My fon, beneficence is the happinefs of 



** virtue ; there is none greater, or more certain, 



** on the Earth. Projets of'pleafures, of repofe, 



** of enjoyments, of abundance, and of glory, are 



" not made for feeble Man, who is only a traveller, 



*' and a paflenger, through this World. Behold, 



** how a fmgle flep toward fortune, has prccipi- 



** tated us from one abyfs into another ! You op- 



** pofed it, it is true ; but who of us did not 



** believe, that the voyage of Virginia would 



** terminate 



