God
grant, that after having had so many reasons to hate life, after being
agitated with so many storms, after it has even become a burden,
that death, which must terminate all, may be no more terrible than
it would have been at that moment!
By inconceivable care and vigilance, she saved my life; and I am
convinced she alone could have done this. I have little faith in the
skill of physicians, but depend greatly on the assistance of real
friends, and am persuaded that being easy in those particulars on
which our happiness depends, is more salutary than any other
application. If there is a sensation in life peculiarly delightful, we
experienced it in being restored to each other; our mutual
attachment did not increase, for that was impossible, but it became, I
know not how, more exquisitely tender, fresh softness being added to
its former simplicity. I became in a manner her work; we got into
the habit, though without design, of being continually with each
other, and enjoying, in some measure, our whole existence together,
feeling reciprocally that we were not only necessary, but entirely
sufficient for each other's happiness. Accustomed to think of no
subject foreign to ourselves, our happiness and all our desires were
confined to that pleasing and singular union, which, perhaps, had no
equal, which is not, as I have before observed, love, but a
sentiment inexpressibly more intimate, neither depending on the
senses, sex, age, nor figure, but an assemblage of every endearing
sensation that composes our rational existence and which can cease
only with our being.
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