LETTER XLIV
[THIS IS THE POSTHUMOUS LETTER TO COL. MORDEN, REFERRED TO IN THE ABOVE.]
Superscribed,
TO MY BELOVED COUSIN WILLIAM MORDEN, ESQ.TO BE DELIVERED AFTER MY DEATH.
MY DEAREST COUSIN,
As it is uncertain, from my present weak state, whether, if living, I maybe in a condition to receive as I ought the favour you intend me of avisit, when you come to London, I take this opportunity to return you,while able, the humble acknowledgments of a grateful heart, for all yourgoodness to me from childhood till now: and more particularly for yourpresent kind interposition in my favour--God Almighty for ever bless you,dear Sir, for the kindness you endeavoured to procure for me!
One principal end of my writing to you, in this solemn manner, is, to begof you, which I do with the utmost earnestness, that when you come tohear the particulars of my story, you will not suffer active resentmentto take place in your generous breast on my account.
Remember, my dear Cousin, that vengeance is God's province, and he hasundertaken to repay it; nor will you, I hope, invade that province:--especially as there is no necessity for you to attempt to vindicate myfame; since the offender himself (before he is called upon) has stoodforth, and offered to do me all the justice that you could have extortedfrom him, had I lived: and when your own person may be endangered byrunning an equal risque with a guilty man.
Duelling, Sir, I need not tell you, who have adorned a public character,is not only an usurpation of the Divine prerogative; but it is an insultupon magistracy and good government. 'Tis an impious act. 'Tis anattempt to take away a life that ought not to depend upon a privatesword; an act, the consequence of which is to hurry a soul (all its sinsupon its had) into perdition; endangering that of the poor triumpher--since neither intend to give to the other that chance, as I may call it,for the Divine mercy, in an opportunity for repentance, which eachpresumes to hope for himself.
Seek not then, I beseech you, Sir, to aggravate my fault, by a pursuit ofblood, which must necessarily be deemed a consequence of that fault.Give not the unhappy man the merit (were you assuredly to be the victor)of falling by your hand. At present he is the perfidious, the ungratefuldeceiver; but will not the forfeiture of his life, and the probable lossof his soul, be a dreadful expiation for having made me miserable for afew months only, and through that misery, by the Divine favour, happy toall eternity?
In such a case, my Cousin, where shall the evil stop?--And who shallavenge on you?--And who on your avenger?
Let the poor man's conscience, then, dear Sir, avenge me. He will oneday find punishment more than enough from that. Leave him to the chanceof repentance. If the Almighty will give him time for it, who should youdeny it him?--Let him still be the guilty aggressor; and let no one say,Clarissa Harlowe is now amply revenged in his fall; or, in the case ofyour's, (which Heaven avert!) that her fault, instead of being buried inher grave, is perpetuated, and aggravated, by a loss far greater thanthat of herself.
Often, Sir, has the more guilty been the vanquisher of the less. An Earlof Shrewsbury, in the reign of Charles II. as I have read, endeavouringto revenge the greatest injury that man can do to man, met with his deathat Barn-Elms, from the hand of the ignoble Duke who had vilelydishonoured him. Nor can it be thought an unequal dispensation, were itgenerally to happen that the usurper of the Divine prerogative should bepunished for his presumption by the man whom he sought to destroy, andwho, however previously criminal, is put, in this case, upon a necessaryact of self-defence.
May Heaven protect you, Sir, in all your ways; and, once more, I pray,reward you for all your kindness to me! A kindness so worthy of yourheart, and so exceedingly grateful to mine: that of seeking to makepeace, and to reconcile parents to a once-beloved child; uncles to aniece late their favourite; and a brother and sister to a sister whomonce they thought not unworthy of that tender relation. A kindness sogreatly preferable to the vengeance of a murdering sword.
Be a comforter, dear Sir, to my honoured parents, as you have been to me;and may we, through the Divine goodness to us both, meet in that blessedeternity, into which, as I humbly trust, I shall have entered when youwill read this.
So prays, and to her latest hour will pray, my dear Cousin Morden, myfriend, my guardian, but not my avenger--[dear Sir! remember that!--]
Your ever-affectionate and obligedCLARISSA HARLOWE.