LETTERCXXXII.TO MRS. H——.
Charles Street, May 20, 1780.
DEAR MADAM,
YOUR goodness is never tired with action!—How many, very many times have I to thank you, for your friendly interesting yourself in our behalf!—You will say thanks are irksome to a generous mind—so I have done—but must first ask pardon for a sin of omission.—I never sent you word that your good son, as friendly as polite, paid me the note directly, and would not suffer it to run its sight:—they that know Sir Jacob will not wonder; for he is a Christian, which means, in my idea,a gentleman not of the modern sort.—Trade is at so low an ebb, the greatest are glad to see ready money:—in truth, we are a ruined people—let hirelings affect to write and talk as big as they please! and, what is worse, religion and morality are vanished with our prosperity—every good principle seems to be leaving us:—as our means lessen, luxury and every sort of expensive pleasure increases.—The blessed Sabbath-day is used by the trader for country excursions—tavern dinners—rural walks—and then whipping and galloping through dust and over turnpikes drunk home.—The poorer sort do any thing—but go to church;—they take their dust in the field, and conclude the sacred evening with riots, drunkenness, and empty pockets:—the beau in upper life hires his whisky and beast for twelve shillings; his girl dresseden militairefor half a guinea, and spends his whole week’s earnings to look and be thoughtquite the thing.—And for upper tiptop high life—cards and music are called in, to dissipate the chagrin of a tiresome, tedious Sunday’s evening.—The example spreads downwards fromthem to their domestics;—the laced valet and the livery beau either debauch the maids, or keep their girls:—thus profusion and cursed dissipation fill the prisons, and feed the gallows.—The clergy—hush! I will not meddle with them—God forbid I should!—they are pretty much the same in all places;—but this I will affirm, where-ever a preacher is in earnest in his duty, and canpreach, he will not want for crouded congregations.—As to our politics—now don’t laugh at me—for every one has a right to be a politician; so have I; and though only a poor, thick-lipped son of Afric! may be as notable a Negro state-botcher as * * * * *, and so on for five hundred:—I do not mean B—e, S—le, B—é, nor D—n—g. Mind that——no, nor N—th, G—m—e, J—k—n, nor W—dd—ne, names that will shine in history when the marble monuments of their earthly flatterers shall be mouldering into dust.—I have wrote absolute nonsense—I mean the monuments of N—th, G—m—e, &c. and not of their flatterers—but it is right I should give you an apology for this foolish letter.—Knowthen, my dear Madam, I have been seriously and literally fast asleep for these two months;—true, upon the word of a poor sufferer, a kind of lethargy.—I can sleep standing, walking, and feel so intolerably heavy, and oppressed with it, that sometimes I am ready to tumble when walking in the street.—I am exceeding sorry to hear Mr. H—— is so poorly—and hope, through God’s mercy, the waters will have the wished effect. For my own part, I feel myself ten years older this year than the last.—Time tries us all—but, blessed be God! in the end we shall be an over-match for Time, and leave him, scythe and all, in the lurch—when we shall all enjoy a blessed Eternity.—In this view, and under the same hope, we are as great, yea, as respectable and consequential—as Statesmen! Bishops! Chancellors! Popes! Heroes! Kings! Actors of every denomination—who must all drop the mask—when the fated minute arrives—and, alas! some of the very high be obliged to give place to Mr. and Mrs. H——. May you and yours enjoy every felicity here!every blessing hereafter! wish thy much obliged friends!
TheSANCHOS.