[From Letters of Bishop Hildesley]

Letter LXXI

Bishopscourt, Sunday Night , Jan. 31, 1768.

The business of the day is over; and if it were not, I do not know any employment fitter for it, than to write to, or to visit, a friend in his affliction.

It will be but to repeat the same thing (and the same thing, too, perhaps, it may be necessary and salutary to repeat), namely, to desire that you will permit nature to take its course, without stifling, or struggling, against the grain. The pungency of your sorrow must soften by degrees. It would have been just the same if your dear partner and you had been spared together twenty years longer. The parting would have been equally grievous, come when it would. When it is most agreeable to you, you will come hither. Change of place, after you have a little settled necessary affairs at home, will be good for you. The sight of any new, or of any old friend, will at first, naturally discompose; but that will go off again in some measure, for, if people were always to grieve for their losses by mortality, half the world would be a scene of woe. This, I believe, was said before; and if I say it again, you will bear with my repetitions.

Hetty begs to be kindly remembered to you; and would be desirous, though she does not at present like the word glad, to see you.—I am, dear sir, as ever, your affectionate

MARK SODOR & MAN.

An answer to our agent in the Tythe-Cause obliges me to send over, to save the passage.