His misfortune has been losing both his parents when almost an infant; and having been master of himself and a noble fortune, at an age when the passions hurry us beyond the bounds of reason.
I am the only person on earth by whom he would ever bear to be controlled in any thing; happily for Lucy, I preserve the influence over him which friendship first gave me.
That influence, and her extreme attention to study his taste in every thing; with those uncommon graces both of mind and person she has received from nature, will, I hope, effectually fix this wandering star.
She tells me, she has asked you to a masquerade at Temple-house, to which you will extremely oblige us all by coming.
You do not tell us, whether the affair of your majority is settled: if obliged to return immediately, Temple will send you back.
Adieu! Your faithful
Ed. Rivers.
I have this moment your last letter: you are right, we American travellers are under great disadvantages; our imaginations are restrained; we have not the pomp of the orient to describe, but the simple and unadorned charms of nature.
LETTER CCVIII.212.
To Colonel Rivers, Bellfield, Rutland.
Nov. 4.