letters by Thotnion. March 28, 



IXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THOMSON 



TO THE SISTER OF HIS AMANDA AT BATH. 



Nov. 27. 1742. 

 1 HOPE the ladies have at last got their wardrobe. To oe 

 at Bath, yet debarred from the rooms, must have been a 

 cruel mortification to such as knew lefs how to converse 

 with and enjoy themselves. The very situation of Tan- 

 talus ! — -up to the lip in diversions, without being able to 

 catch a drop of them I And yet, notwithstanding all 

 these diversions, I do from my soul most sincerely pity 

 you, to be so'long doomed to a place so delightfully tire- 

 some, Delightfully, did I say ? No ; it is merely a 



scene of waking dreams, where nothing but the phantoms 

 of pleasure fly about, vs-ithout any substance or reality. — 

 What a round of silly amusements I what a giddy circle 

 of nothing do these children of a larger size run every 

 day ! Nor does it only give a gay vertigo to the head, it 

 has equally a bad influence on the heart. When the 

 head is full of nothing but drefs, and scandal, and dice, 

 and cards, and rowly powly, can the heart be sensible to 

 those fine emotions, those tender, humane, generous paf- 



sions that form the soul of all virtue and happinefs ? 



Ah then, ye lovers, never think to make any imprefsion 

 on the hearts of your D'lfsipaled Fail- * ! 



ANOTHER LETTER OF THOMSON TO AMANDA's SISTER, . 



NEVER. BEFORE PUBLISHED. 



Chris an as Day, 1742. 

 I BELIEVE I am in love with some one or all of you ? 

 for though you will not favour me with the scrape of a 



• Those pretty lines of Thumson are still applicable to Bath, but the 

 •eiioiis and beautiful moderat'an of" the fsirat Edinburgh, siy^ them above 

 iU criticism. ' B. A. 



