Nature never intended me for the busy world -- I long for repose
and solitude, where I can enjoy that disinterested friendship
which is not to be found among crouds, and indulge those pleasing
reveries that shun the hurry and tumult of fashionable society --
Unexperienced as I am in the commerce of life, I have seen enough
to give me a disgust to the generality of those who carry it on --
There is such malice, treachery, and dissimulation, even among
professed friends and intimate companions, as cannot fail to
strike a virtuous mind with horror; and when Vice quits the stage
for a moment, her place is immediately occupied by Folly, which
is often too serious to excite any thing but compassion. Perhaps I
ought to be silent on the foibles of my poor aunt; but with you,
my dear Willis, I have no secrets; and, truly, her weaknesses are
such as cannot be concealed. Since the first moment we arrived at
Bath, she has been employed constantly in spreading nets for the
other sex; and, at length, she has caught a superannuated
lieutenant, who is in a fair way to make her change her name -- My
uncle and my brother seem to have no objection to this
extraordinary match, which, I make no doubt, will afford
abundance of matter for conversation and mirth; for my part, I am
too sensible of my own weaknesses, to be diverted with those of
other people -- At present, I have something at heart that employs
my whole attention, and keeps my mind in the utmost terror and
suspence.
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