no describing how beautiful the opening river appears,
every moment gaining on the sight, till, in a time less than can
possibly be imagined, the ice passing Point Levi, is hid in one moment
by the projecting land, and all is once more a clear plain before you;
giving at once the pleasing, but unconnected, ideas of that direct
intercourse with Europe from which we have been so many months
excluded, and of the earth's again opening her fertile bosom, to feast
our eyes and imagination with her various verdant and flowery
productions.

I am afraid I have conveyed a very inadequate idea of the scene
which has just passed before me; it however struck me so strongly, that
it was impossible for me not to attempt it.

If my painting has the least resemblance to the original, your
Lordship will agree with me, that the very vicissitudes of season here
partake of the sublimity which so strongly characterizes the country.

The changes of season in England, being slow and gradual, are but
faintly felt; but being here sudden, instant, violent, afford to the
mind, with the lively pleasure arising from meer change, the very high
additional one of its being accompanied with grandeur. I have the
honor to be,

My Lord,
Your Lordship's, &c.
William Fermor.

LETTER 132.

To Mrs. Temple, Pall Mall.

April 22.

Certainly, my dear, you are so far right; a nun may be in many
respects a less unhappy being than some women who continue in the
world; her situation is, I allow, paradise to that of a married woman,
of sensibility and honor, who dislikes her husband.

The cruelty therefore of some parents here, who sacrifice their
children to avarice, in forcing or seducing them into convents, would
appear more striking, if we did not see too many in England guilty of
the same inhumanity, though in a different manner, by marrying them
against their inclination.

Your letter reminds me of what a French married lady here said to me
on this very subject: I was exclaiming violently against convents; and
particularly urging, what I thought unanswerable, the extreme hardship
of one circumstance; that, however unhappy the state was found on
trial, there was no retreat; that it was _for life_.

Madame De ---- turned quick, "And is not marriage for life?"

"True, Madam; and, what is worse, without a year of probation. I
confess the force of your argument."

I have never dared since to mention convents before Madame