es in the first four
years of its life, and often wished it would go quietly out of the
world; whereas a son which I had by the jeweller, I took a different
care of, and showed a different concern for, though I did not let him
know me; for I provided very well for him, had him put out very well to
school, and when he came to years fit for it, let him go over with a
person of honesty and good business, to the Indies; and after he had
lived there some time, and began to act for himself, sent him over the
value of L2000, at several times, with which he traded and grew rich;
and, as 'tis to be hoped, may at last come over again with forty or
fifty thousand pounds in his pocket, as many do who have not such
encouragement at their beginning.

I also sent him over a wife, a beautiful young lady, well-bred, an
exceeding good-natured pleasant creature; but the nice young fellow did
not like her, and had the impudence to write to me, that is, to the
person I employed to correspond with him, to send him another, and
promised that he would marry her I had sent him, to a friend of his, who
liked her better than he did; but I took it so ill, that I would not
send him another, and withal, stopped another article of L1000 which I
had appointed to send him. He considered of it afterwards, and offered
to take her; but then truly she took so ill the first affront he put
upon her, that she would not have him, and I sent him word I thought she
was very much in the right. However, after courting her two years, and
some friends interposing, she took him, and made him an excellent wife,
as I knew she would, but I never sent him the thousand pounds cargo, so
that he lost that money for misusing me, and took the lady at last
without it.

My new spouse and I lived a very regular, contemplative life; and, in
itself, certainly a life filled with all human felicity. But if I looked
upon my present situation with satisfaction, as I certainly did, so, in
proportion, I on all occasions looked back on former things with
detestation, and with the utmost affliction; and now, indeed, and not
till now, those reflections began to prey upon my comforts, and lessen
the sweets of my other enjoyments. They might be said to have gnawed a
hole in my heart before; but now they made a hole quite through it: now
they ate into all my pleasant things, made bitter every sweet, and mixed
my sighs with every smile.

Not all the affluence of a plentiful fortune; not a h