The Emigrants by Gilbert Imlay

Author:Gilbert Imlay
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-12-23T04:30:00+00:00

LETTER XXXI

MISS CAROLINE T——N TO P. P. ESQ.

Pittsburg, March.

IN the multiplicity of sorrows which have overwhelmed the heart of your friend, still she has had sensibility enough left, to weep the whole day for the tragical end of your interesting story.

If at this immature age I have been doomed to witness so many miseries, and to look for consolation in the communications and sentiments of a philosopher which are generally so much out of tone with juvenile organs; and if I have learned from the lessons that your misfortunes afford me, to know, that mine hitherto have been merely nothing; what my dear friend may I expect to meet, judging of the horizon of my present hopes in the uneven journey through life?

It is impossible to make any comments upon the propriety of your conduct, after reading the barbarous treatment of Lord B——, and the more cruel and unnatural of Lord and Lady L——.

And can it be possible that sensible beings can be so unfeeling as to condemn and punish an unhappy object, who is araigned for a supposed crime, upon circumstantial evidence, particularly after the world has produced so many pathetic instances, when the innocent have suffered, and which are sufficient to rouse the feelings of the most obdurate?

How depraved must be that heart which instead of offering consolation and advice to a delicate and depressed woman, condemns her unheard, and consigns her name to infamy and contempt?

But who can help feeling the most exquisite anguish, when they recollect that the ingenuous heart of an amiable woman, who is formed for the soft endearments of domestic felicity, should be first imposed upon by a base and cowardly being, who ought to have been her guardian and protector, and who after having shocked her delicacy, and sullied her honour by his unmanly aspersions, should be condemned to eternal disgrace?

If virtue is any thing more than a name, certainly it must consist in administering relief to the unfortunate, and protecting the innocent; and if a mother, or any other woman, can behold a daughter or a friend, thus treated, and thus aspersed, and will not intrepidly step forward, and attempt to save them from being wrecked upon that coast which is inevitable destruction, is it wonderful that in so many instances, women of quality have disgraced not only their rank, but have degraded the name by a depravity, which is consequent to those sacrifices and distresses they are compelled to experience.

O! Enchantment airy sprite,

Thou little wanton playful boy,

With tuneful sounds inspire delight,

And every sorrow change to joy.—

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