I do for
ever, then, disclaim your interference in my province. Fill paper as you
please with triangles and squares: try how many ways you can hang and
combine them together. I shall never envy nor control your sublime
delights. But leave me to decide when and where friendships are to be
contracted. You say I contract them at random. So you said the woman at
Philadelphia was a drunkard. I receive none into my esteem, till I know
they are worthy of it. Wealth, title, office, are no recommendations to
my friendship. On the contrary, great good qualities are requisite to
make amends for their having wealth, title, and office. You confess,
that, in the present case, I could not have made a worthier choice.
You only object, that I was so soon to lose them. We are not immortal
ourselves, my friend; how can we expect our enjoyments to be so? We have
no rose without its thorn; no pleasure without alloy. It is the law of
our existence; and we must acquiesce. It is the condition annexed to all
our pleasures, not by us who receive, but by him who gives them. True,
this condition is pressing cruelly on me at this moment.
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