Tuesday, 8th December.
No place yet; but, that time need not be lost, I have been looking over Rousseau's 4th volume. I imagine ——- gathered thence his sentiments on the subject of jealousy. If so, he has grossly mistaken the ideas of Rousseau. Do you discover a symptom of it? Far otherwise. You see only confidence and love. That jealousy for which you are an advocate, he condemns as appertaining to brutes and sensualists. Discard, I beseech you, ideas so degrading to true love. I am mortified with the reflection that they were ever yours.
I think ——- must have taken pains to have overlooked the following paragraph, when, in enumerating the duties of a woman towards a lover or husband, he makes it principally to consist "in respecting themselves, in order to acquire respect. How delightful are these privileges! How respectable are they! how cordially do men prize them, when a woman knows how to render them estimable." I fear ——- will be convinced of this but too late. I am glad to find, however, that the idea so often urged (in vain) by me, is not a mere vagary of my own brain, but is supported by so good authority.
Wednesday, 9th December.
I have this day made a feint at law. But, were my life at stake, it could not command my attention.
Thursday, 10th December.
We have about twelve or fourteen inches of snow. When you read my letters I wish you would make minutes at the time of such facts as require an answer; for, if you trust your memory till the time of writing, you will omit half you would otherwise say.
Friday, 11th December.
I really wish much to know the conduct of ——-. It is, however, more curiosity than anxiety. It would be childish to build any part of one's happiness on a basis so unstable.
The Van Rensselaer before mentioned, and henceforth to be designated by Ll., proves to be a phenomenon of goodness and (can you believe it) even tenderness. Tenderness, I hear you cry, in a Hollandois! But hold your injustice; the character and fine heart of Van Rensselaer will, I think, in future, remove your prejudice, especially when you add to this his marked attention and civility.