hould have had them, and everything would not
have conspired thus to have crossed them. Since He has decreed it
otherwise (at least as far as we are able to judge by events), we must
submit, and not by striving make an innocent passion a sin, and show a
childish stubbornness.

I could say a thousand things more to this purpose if I were not in
haste to send this away,--that it may come to you, at least, as soon as
the other. Adieu.

I cannot imagine who this should be that Mr. Dr. meant, and am inclined
to believe 'twas a story meant to disturb you, though perhaps not by
him.

_Letter 47._

SIR,--'Tis never my humour to do injuries, nor was this meant as any to
you. No, in earnest, if I could have persuaded you to have quitted a
passion that injures you, I had done an act of real friendship, and you
might have lived to thank me for it; but since it cannot be, I will
attempt it no more. I have laid before you the inconveniences it brings
along, how certain the trouble is, and how uncertain the reward; how
many accidents may hinder us from ever being happy, and how few there
are (and those so unlikely) to make up our desire. All this makes no
impression on you; you are still resolved to follow your blind guide,
and I to pity where I cannot help. It will not be amiss though to let
you see that what I did was merely in consideration of your interest,
and not at all of my own, that you may judge of me accordingly; and, to
do that, I must tell you that, unless it were after the receipt of those
letters that made me angry, I never had the least hope of wearing out my
passion, nor, to say truth, much desire. For to what purpose should I
have strived against it? 'Twas innocent enough in me that resolved never
to marry, and would have kept me company in this solitary place as long
as I lived, without being a trouble to myself or anybody else. Nay, in
earnest, if I could have hoped you would be so much your own friend as
to seek out a happiness in some other person, nothing under heaven could
have satisfied me like entertaining myself with the thought of having
done you service in diverting you from a troublesome pursuit of what is
so uncertain, and by that giving you the occasion of a better fortune.
Otherwise, whether you loved me still, or whether you did not, was
equally the same to me, your interest set aside. I will not reproach you
how ill an interpretation you made of this, because we will have no more
quarrels. O