Temple-house, Sept. 29.
I regret your not being with us, more than I can express.
I would have every friend I love a witness of my happiness.
I thought my tenderness for Emily as great as man could feel, yet find it every moment increase; every moment she is more dear to my soul.
The angel delicacy of that lovely mind is inconceivable; had she no other charm, I should adore her: what a lustre does modesty throw round beauty!
We remove to-morrow to Bellfield: I am impatient to see my sweet girl in her little empire: I am tired of the continual crowd in which we live at Temple’s: I would not pass the life he does for all his fortune; I sigh for the power of spending my time as I please, for the dear shades of retirement and friendship.
How little do mankind know their own happiness! every pleasure worth a wish is in the power of almost all mankind.
Blind to true joy, ever engaged in a wild pursuit of what is always in our power, anxious for that wealth which we falsely imagine necessary to our enjoyments, we suffer our best hours to pass tastelessly away; we neglect the pleasures which are suited to our natures; and, intent on ideal schemes of establishments at which we never arrive, let the dear hours of social delight escape us.
Hasten to us, my dear Fitzgerald: we want only you, to fill our little circle of friends.
Your affectionate
Ed. Rivers.