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Eighteenth Century Post-Bag
is to some partial representation of yours I owe the pleasure of her acquaintance; you will guess I mean Mrs. Cleland. I am greatly charmed with her; her good sense, her wit, her knowledge of the world, her manner, everything delights me; she has the vivacity of youth without its petulance; her perfections are so happily tempered they have a moral harmony, if one may use the expression; no note too sharp, nor none too flat; her conversation is too gentle to be called wise, and too correct to be called witty; but with that mixture of imagination and judgment which cannot be described or expressed, I am charmed with her to a degree I do not care to own, as I have always declared against sudden friendships. She seems to have almost as much indulgence to me for my honest simplicity of heart as I have respect for accomplishments, and is extremely obliging to me on that account. Lady Allen has been often ill, so not much amongst us. The Miss Aliens I am not much acquainted with; I have given their aunt so visible a preference that I think they may possibly hate me, which, in a Christian sense, I should be sorry for, but no otherwise, for I detest the ambition of universal empire, N2 195 |
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