“The ceremony of condolence is an impertinence, but if you consider mine superior to ceremony, you will accept it.
“I have too much humility to offer consolation to a mind like yours. I will only describe sensations which nearly a similar misfortune excited in me.
“I felt myself for a time bereft of every comfort the world could bestow, but these opinions passed away, and gave place to others, almost the reverse.
“I was separated from the only friend I had in the world, and by circumstances so much more dreadful than those which have occurred to you, as the want of warning increases all our calamities, but yet I have lived to think with indifference of all I then suffered.
“You have been a most kind husband, I am told. Rejoice,—the time might have come when you would have wept over her remains with compunction for cruelty to her.
“While you have no self-reproaches to wound you, be pacified. Every ill falls short of that.
“I lament her as a person whom you loved. I am shocked
at the unexpected death of one in such apparent vigour of mind and body; but I
feel no concern for any regret she endured at parting
| 278 | WILLIAM GODWIN |
“I shall be glad to hear of your health, and that your poor little family are well, for believe me concerned for your welfare.”
