Italian Letters, vols 1,2 | Page 2

situation particularly critical.
But if your situation be critical, you have also many advantages, to
balance the temptations you may be called to encounter. Heaven has
blessed you with an understanding solid, judicious, and penetrating.

You cannot long be made the dupe of artifice, you are not to be misled
by the sophistry of vice. But you have received from the hands of the
munificent creator a much more valuable gift than even this, a manly
and a generous mind. I have been witness to many such benevolent acts
of my Rinaldo as have made my fond heart overflow with rapture. I
have traced his goodness to its hiding place. I have discovered
instances of his tenderness and charity, that were intended to be
invisible to every human eye.
I am fully satisfied that the marquis of Pescara can never rank among
the votaries of vice and folly. It is not against the greater instances of
criminality that I wish to guard you. I am not apprehensive of a sudden
and a total degeneracy. But remember, my lord, you will, from your
situation, be inevitably surrounded with flatterers. You are naturally
fond of commendation. Do not let this generous instinct be the means
of disgracing you. You will have many servile parasites, who will
endeavour, by inuring you to scenes of luxury and dissipation, to divert
your charity from its noblest and its truest ends, into the means of
supporting them in their fawning dependence. Naples is not destitute of
a set of young noblemen, the disgrace of the titles they wear, who
would be too happy to seduce the representative of the marquisses of
Pescara into an imitation of their vices, and to screen their follies under
so brilliant and conspicuous an example.
My lord, there is no misfortune that I more sincerely regret than the
loss of your society. I know not how it is, and I would willingly
attribute it to the improper fastidiousness of my disposition, that I can
find few characters in the university of Palermo, capable of interesting
my heart. With my Rinaldo I was early, and have been long united; and
I trust, that no force, but that of death, will be able to dissolve the ties
that bind us. Wherever you are, the heart of your St. Julian is with you.
Wherever you go, his best wishes accompany you. If in this letter, I
have assumed an unbecoming austerity, your lordship will believe that
it is the genuine effusion of anxiety and friendship, and will pardon me.
It is not that I am more exempt from youthful folly than others. Born
with a heart too susceptible for my peace, I am continually guilty of
irregularities, that I immediately wish, but am unable to retract. But

friendship, in however frail a bosom she resides, cannot permit her own
follies to dispense her from guarding those she loves against
committing their characters.

Letter II
The Answer Naples It is not necessary for me to assure my St. Julian,
that I really felt those sentiments of filial sorrow which he ascribes to
me. Never did any son sustain the loss of so indulgent a father. I have
nothing by which to remember him, but acts of goodness and favour;
not one hour of peevishness, not one instance of severity. Over all my
youthful follies he cast the veil of kindness. All my imaginary wants
received a prompt supply. Every promise of spirit and sensibility I was
supposed to discover, was cherished with an anxious and unremitting
care.
But such as he was to me, he was, in a less degree, to all his domestics,
and all his dependents. You can scarcely imagine what a moving
picture my palace--and must I call it mine? presented, upon my first
arrival. The old steward, and the grey-headed lacqueys endeavoured to
assume a look of complacency, but their recent grief appeared through
their unpractised hypocrisy. "Health to our young master! Long life,"
cried they, with a broken and tremulous accent, "to the marquis of
Pescara!" You will readily believe, that I made haste to free them from
their restraint, and to assure them that the more they lamented my ever
honoured father, the more they would endear themselves to me. Their
looks thanked me, they clasped their hands with delight, and were
silent.
The next morning as soon as I appeared, I perceived, as I passed along,
a whole crowd of people plainly, but decently habited, in the hall.
"Who are they?" said I. "I endeavoured to keep them off," said the old
steward, "but they would not be hindered. They said they were sure that
the young marquis would not bely the bounty of their old master, upon
which they had so long depended for the conveniences and comfort