Wesley Corpus

The length of our acquaintance, indeed, will not authorize the subject of this letter or the recommendation of the enclosed book. Let the interest I take in your welfare excuse it. Or should you ascribe this interest to the weakness of superstition or the folly of enthusiasm, deem it not the impertinence of zeal. I have often thought of you--thought of you as possessing everything which the world calls enviable or delightful: health, friends, leisure. Permit me with the solicitude more properly belonging to a matron than to myself--permit me to entreat you to look beyond all these for happiness. The dangers of prosperity are great; and you seem aware of them. If poverty contracts and depresses the mind, riches sap its fortitude, destroy its vigour, and nourish its caprices. But the chief disadvantage of an elevated situation is this: it removes us from scenes of misery and indigence; we are apt to charge the great with want of feeling, but it is rather want of consideration. The wretched are taught to avoid, and the poor fear to accost them; and in the circles of perpetual gaiety they forget that these exist. You need not be reminded that there is no rank in life which exempts us from disappointment and sorrow in some kind or degree; but I must remind you there is but one belief which can support us under it. Neither hypocrisy nor bigotry, neither the subtle arguments of infidels nor the shameful lives of Christians have yet been able to overturn the truths of Revealed Religion. They contain all that is cheering--all that is consoling to the mind of man--that is congenial to the heart and adapted to his nature. You admit their importance; you reverence their mysteries: cherish their influences. The book which I have taken the liberty to enclose was written by a gentleman as much distinguished for literature and taste as for piety. The style alone might recommend it: you will find none of the cant and narrowmindness of sects and parties in any of its pages. Give it one serious perusal. To Lady Maxwell [8] LONDON, February 17, 1770.