198 female conversation. 
LETTER LXIV. 
To A Irs. D * * *. 
Madam, 
N O W we proceed to the conclufton. From epsom we 
purfued our journey by a crofs ugly road of clay, which 
feemed to be only paflable in dry weather. At length we came 
in view of the dead, flat, English Holland, hampton-court, 
and about fix in the evening we arrived at Kingston. The 
charming banks of the Thames now began to captivate the 
fancy, and check the remembrance of other delightful fcenes, 
which were now pafling away like a dream, and of which this 
moralizing letter- journal can preferve the memory only for 
a day. But is not this the cafe of life in general ? Thofe who 
pafs through it moft pleafantly, is it not chiefly by means of 
a fucceffion of objects, of which the laft, in fome meafure, de- 
faces the remembrance of the former ? You mu ft not miftake 
my meaning : conftancy is a virtue of great worth : indeed there 
is no virtue without it, but they fay, variety has its charms with 
your fex as well as mine ; conftancy in focial duties, in whatever 
relation we ftand to others, is a virtue united with conftancy to 
god and ourfelves. 
Of all pleafures, that which is derived from company, is the 
moft delightful. This is obfervable in the brute creation : in 
us the love of it feems to be implanted by the god of nature, 
as a passion of the mind. But whilft we remember that our 
true glory confifts in the exercife of our reafon, we mall con- 
clude, that the more rational our difcourfe, the more it will 
tend 
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