"... But my son an old Batchelor--believe me my beloved Child I
feel the full force and value of that affection that could prompt
to such a plan--dear as your society is to me it would then become
the misery of my existence--could I see my Child so formed for
domestick happiness deprived of every blessing on my account. No my
Dr John I do not know a more unhappy being than an old Batchelor
... may God preserve my Child from realizing the dreary picture--as
soon as you can keep a Wife you must Marry with all possible
speed--that is as soon as you find a very Amiable woman. She must
be a good daughter and fond of Domestick life--and pious, without
ostentation, for remember no Woman without the fear of God, can
either make a good Wife or a good Mother--freethinking Men are
shocking to nature, but from an Infidel Woman Good Lord deliver us.
I have thought more of it than you have done--for I have two or
three presents carefully [laid] by for her, and I have also been so
foresightly as to purchase two Dutch toys for your Children in case
you might marry before we had free intercourse with that
country.... Who can say what I can say 'here is my Son--a hansome
accomplished young man of three and twenty--he will not Marry that
he may take care of his Mother--here is my Dr Margaret, hansome,
Amiable and good and she would not leave her _Ant_ (I mean Aunt)
for any Man on Earth.' Ah My Dear and valuable children, dear is
your affection to my heart, but I will never make so base a use of
it. I entreat my Dr John that you will not give yourself one
moment's uneasiness about me--I will at all events have £86 a year
for life that your Father cannot deprive me of, and tho' I could
not live very splendidly in a Town on this, yet with a neat little
House and Garden in the country, it would afford all the means of