LETTER VIII
MR. LOVELACE, TO JOHN BELFORD, ESQ.
And now it is time to confess (and yet I know that thy conjectures areaforehand with my exposition) that this Captain Tomlinson, who is sogreat a favourite with my charmer, and who takes so much delight inhealing breaches, and reconciling differences, is neither a greater mannor a less than honest Patrick M'Donald, attended by a discarded footmanof his own finding out.
Thou knowest what a various-lifed rascal he is; and to what better hopesborn and educated. But that ingenious knack of forgery, for which he wasexpelled the Dublin-University, and a detection since in evidenceship,have been his ruin. For these have thrown him from one country toanother; and at last, into the way of life, which would make him a fithusband for Miss Howe's Townsend with her contrabands. He is, thouknowest, admirably qualified for any enterprize that requires adroitnessand solemnity. And can there, after all, be a higher piece of justice,than to keep one smuggler in readiness to play against another?
'Well, but, Lovelace, (methinks thou questionest,) how camest thou toventure upon such a contrivance as this, when, as thou hast told me, theLady used to be a month at a time at this uncle's; and must therefore, inall probability, know, that there was not a Captain Tomlinson in all theneighbourhood, at least no one of the name so intimate with him as thisman pretends to be?'
This objection, Jack, is so natural a one, that I could not helpobserving to my charmer, that she must surely have heard her uncle speakof this gentleman. No, she said, she never had. Besides she had notbeen at her uncle Harlowe's for near ten months [this I had heard fromher before]: and there were several gentlemen who used the same green,whom she knew not.
We are all very ready, thou knowest, to believe what she likes.
And what was the reason, thinkest thou, that she had not been of so longa time at this uncle's?--Why, this old sinner, who imagines himselfentitled to call me to account for my freedoms with the sex, has latelyfallen into familiarities, as it is suspected, with his housekeeper; whoassumes airs upon it.--A cursed deluding sex!--In youth, middle age, ordotage, they take us all in.
Dost thou not see, however, that this housekeeper knows nothing, nor isto know any thing, of the treaty of reconciliation designed to be set onfoot; and therefore the uncle always comes to the Captain, the Captaingoes not to the uncle? And this I surmised to the lady. And then it wasa natural suggestion, that the Captain was the rather applied to, as heis a stranger to the rest of the family--Need I tell thee the meaning ofall this?
But this intrigue of the antient is a piece of private history, the truthof which my beloved cares not to own, and indeed affects to disbelieve:as she does also some puisny gallantries of her foolish brother; which,by way of recrimination, I have hinted at, without naming my informant intheir family.
'Well but, methinks, thou questionest again, Is it not probable that MissHowe will make inquiry after such a man as Tomlinson?--And when shecannot--'
I know what thou wouldst say--but I have no doubt, that Wilson will be sogood, if I desire it, as to give into my own hands any letter that may bebrought by Collins to his house, for a week to come. And now I hope thouart satisfied.
I will conclude with a short story.
'Two neighbouring sovereigns were at war together, about some pitifulchuck-farthing thing or other; no matter what; for the least trifles willset princes and children at loggerheads. Their armies had been drawn upin battalia some days, and the news of a decisive action was expectedevery hour to arrive at each court. At last, issue was joined; a bloodybattle was fought; and a fellow who had been a spectator of it, arriving,with the news of a complete victory, at the capital of one of the princessome time before the appointed couriers, the bells were set a ringing,bonfires and illuminations were made, and the people went to bedintoxicated with joy and good liquor. But the next day all was reversed:The victorious enemy, pursuing his advantage, was expected every hour atthe gates of the almost defenceless capital. The first reporter washereupon sought for, and found; and being questioned, pleaded a greatdeal of merit, in that he had, in so dismal a situation, taken such aspace of time from the distress of his fellow-citizens, and given it tofestivity, as were the hours between the false good news and the realbad.'
Do thou, Belford, make the application. This I know, that I have givengreater joy to my beloved, than she had thought would so soon fall to hershare. And as the human life is properly said to be chequerwork, nodoubt but a person of her prudence will make the best of it, and set offso much good against so much bad, in order to strike as just a balance aspossible.
[The Lady, in three several letters, acquaints her friend with the mostmaterial passages and conversations contained in those of Mr. Lovelace'spreceding. These are her words, on relating what the commission of thepretended Tomlinson was, after the apprehensions that his distant inquiryhad given her:]
At last, my dear, all these doubts and fears were cleared up, andbanished; and, in their place, a delightful prospect was opened to me.For it comes happily out, (but at present it must be an absolute secret,for reasons which I shall mention in the sequel,) that the gentleman wassent by my uncle Harlowe [I thought he could not be angry with me forever]: all owing to the conversation that passed between your good Mr.Hickman and him. For although Mr. Hickman's application was too harshlyrejected at the time, my uncle could not but think better of itafterwards, and of the arguments that worthy gentleman used in my favour.
Who, upon a passionate repulse, would despair of having a reasonablerequest granted?--Who would not, by gentleness and condescension,endeavour to leave favourable impressions upon an angry mind; which, whenit comes coolly to reflect, may induce it to work itself into acondescending temper? To request a favour, as I have often said, is onething; to challenge it as our due, is another. And what right has apetitioner to be angry at a repulse, if he has not a right to demand whathe sues for as a debt?
[She describes Captain Tomlinson, on his breakfast-visit, to be, a grave,good sort of man. And in another place, a genteel man of great gravity,and a good aspect; she believes upwards of fifty years of age. 'I likedhim, says she, as soon as I saw him.'
As her projects are now, she says, more favourable than heretofore, shewishes, that her hopes of Mr. Lovelace's so-often-promised reformationwere better grounded than she is afraid they can be.]
We have both been extremely puzzled, my dear, says she, to reconcile someparts of Mr. Lovelace's character with other parts of it: his good withhis bad; such of the former, in particular, as his generosity to histenants; his bounty to the innkeeper's daughter; his readiness to put meupon doing kind things by my good Norton, and others.
A strange mixture in his mind, as I have told him! for he is certainly(as I have reason to say, looking back upon his past behaviour to me intwenty instances) a hard-hearted man.--Indeed, my dear, I have thoughtmore than once, that he had rather see me in tears than give me reason tobe pleased with him.
My cousin Morden says, that free livers are remorseless.* And so theymust be in the very nature of things.
* See Vol. IV. Letter XIX. See also Mr. Lovelace's own confession of thedelight he takes in a woman's tears, in different parts of his letters.
Mr. Lovelace is a proud man. We have both long ago observed that he is.And I am truly afraid, that his very generosity is more owing to hispride and his vanity, that that philanthropy (shall I call it?) whichdistinguishes a beneficent mind.
Money he values not, but as a mean to support his pride and hisindependence. And it is easy, as I have often thought, for a person topart with a secondary appetite, when, by so doing, he can promote orgratify a first.
I am afraid, my dear, that there must have been some fault in hiseducation. His natural bias was not, perhaps (as his power was likely tobe large) to do good and beneficent actions; but not, I doubt, fromproper motives.
If he had, his generosity would not have stopt at pride, but would havestruck into humanity; and then would he
not have contented himself withdoing praiseworthy things by fits and starts, or, as if relying on thedoctrine of merits, he hoped by a good action to atone for a bad one;*but he would have been uniformly noble, and done the good for its ownsake.
* That the Lady judges rightly of him in this place, see Vol. I. LetterXXXIV. where, giving the motive for his generosity to his Rosebud, hesays--'As I make it my rule, whenever I have committed a very capitalenormity, to do some good by way of atonement; and as I believe I am apretty deal indebted on that score; I intend to join an hundred pounds toJohnny's aunt's hundred pounds, to make one innocent couple happy.'--Besides which motive, he had a further view in answer in that instance ofhis generosity; as may be seen in Vol. II. Letters XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII.See also the note, Vol. II. pp. 170, 171.
To show the consistence of his actions, as they now appear, with hisviews and principles, as he lays them down in his first letters, it maybe not amiss to refer the reader to his letters, Vol. I. No. XXXIV. XXXV.
See also Vol. I. Letter XXX.--and Letter XL. for Clarissa's early opinionof Mr. Lovelace.--Whence the coldness and indifference to him, which heso repeatedly accuses her of, will be accounted for, more to her glory,than to his honour.
O my dear! what a lot have I drawn! pride, this poor man's virtue; andrevenge, his other predominating quality!--This one consolation, however,remains:--He is not an infidel, and unbeliever: had he been an infidel,there would have been no room at all for hope of him; (but pridinghimself, as he does, in his fertile invention) he would have been utterlyabandoned, irreclaimable, and a savage.
[When she comes to relate those occasions, which Mr. Lovelace in hisnarrative acknowledges himself to be affected by, she thus expressesherself:]
He endeavoured, as once before, to conceal his emotion. But why, mydear, should these men (for Mr. Lovelace is not singular in this) thinkthemselves above giving these beautiful proofs of a feeling heart? Wereit in my power again to choose, or to refuse, I would reject the man withcontempt, who sought to suppress, or offered to deny, the power of beingvisibly affected upon proper occasions, as either a savage-heartedcreature, or as one who was so ignorant of the principal glory of thehuman nature, as to place his pride in a barbarous insensibility.
These lines translated from Juvenal by Mr. Tate, I have been oftenpleased with:
Compassion proper to mankind appears: Which Nature witness'd, when she lent us tears. Of tender sentiments we only give These proofs: To weep is our prerogative: To show by pitying looks, and melting eyes, How with a suff'ring friend we sympathise. Who can all sense of other ills escape, Is but a brute at best, in human shape.
It cannot but yield me some pleasure, hardly as I have sometimes thoughtof the people of the house, that such a good man as Captain Tomlinson hadspoken well of them, upon inquiry.
And here I stop a minute, my dear, to receive, in fancy, your kindcongratulation.
My next, I hope, will confirm my present, and open still more agreeableprospects. Mean time be assured, that there cannot possibly any goodfortune befal me, which I shall look upon with equal delight to that Ihave in your friendship.
My thankful compliments to your good Mr. Hickman, to whose kind inventionI am so much obliged on this occasion, conclude me, my dearest Miss Howe,
Your ever affectionate and gratefulCL. HARLOWE.