214 IIEXRY KIKKE WHITE S REifATXS. 



TO MR B. MADDOCK. 



Nottingham, 24th April 1804. 

 My dear Ben, 



Truly I am grieved, that whenever I undertake i) be 

 the messenger of glad tidings, I should frustrate my 

 own design, and communicate to my good intelligence a 

 taint of sadness, as it were by contag'on. ]\Iost joyfully 

 did I sit down to write my last, as I knew I had where- 

 with to administer comfort to you ; and yet, after all, I 

 find that by gloomy anticipations, I have converted my 

 balsam into bitterness, and have by no means imparted 

 that unmixed pleasure which I wished to do. 



Forebodings and dismal calculations are, I am con- 

 vinced, very useless, and I think very pernicious specula- 

 tions — " Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof." And 

 yet how apt are we, when imminent trials molest us, to 

 increase the burthen by melancholy ruminations on future 

 evils! — evils which exist only in our own imaginations 

 — and which, should they be realized , will certainly arrive 

 in time to oppress us sufficiently, without our adding to 

 their existence by previous apprehension, and thus vo- 

 luntarily incurring the penalty of misfortunes yet in 

 prospective, and trials yet unborn. liCt us guard then, 

 I beseech you, against these ungrateful divinations into 

 the womb of futurity — we know our afiairs are in the 

 hands of One who has wisdom to do for us beyond our 

 narrow prudence, and we cannot, by taking thought, 

 avoid any afflictive dispensation which God's providence 

 may have in store for us. Let us therefore enjoy with 

 thankfulness the present sunshine without adverting to 

 the coming storm. Few and transitory are the intervals 

 of calm and settled day with which we are cheered in 

 the tempestuous voyage of life ; we ought therefore, to 

 enjoy them, while they last, with unmixed delight, and 

 not turn the blessing into a curse, by lamenting that it 

 cannot endure without interruption. We, my beloved 

 friend, are united in our affections by no common bands 

 — bands which I trust are too strong to be easily dis- 



