Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

I last Evening, my dear Page, recieved your
favor of the 16^th announcing to me that this
day was fixed for the consummation of that
Happiness, which after a melancholy interruption
of three years, is at length I hope restored to you.
At this moment my dear friend my sympathizing
imagination transports me to the room where
you are sitting with your Bride, & perhaps
asking yourself if the dazzling scene of Bliss
now presented to you is not all a delusion.
If a Delusion it should indeed be, may it last
at least as long you live. After realizing the
Sorrows which we have both experienced, to
have the cup of bitterness removed from
our Lips, must excite emotions of Joy, &
Gratitude which none but those who have
been unhappy can feel, or even concieve.
That you feel them all, my friend, I am
fully persuaded. — Methinks you must feel
like a shipwreck'd Passenger, who having
been plunged into ^the abyss of despair, finds
himself at the moment of perishing, thrown
upon his native shore, & surrounded by his
dearest Connexions.

The Stile of this Letter my friend would
convince any one less intimate with me than
yourself, that I am in the situation of one not yet
from the wreck, from which I behold you safely landed.
Nor can I deny that I have frequently compared my
own hard Fate with that of my other friends, & have
felt my solitary Lot more gloomy as my Companions
in Misfortune have decreased. — Yet if I know my
own heart I feel unfeigned Joy when I see my
friends restor'd to that Happiness to which I can
never more hope to arrive.

But this is dwelling too long on an unentertaining
Subject. Madison, Andrews, & one or two other friends
dined with me today, & drank to the health &
happiness of yourself & my fair friend, for such, I
hope she will permit me henceforth to esteem her.
They have just left me, & I could not pass the Evening
without greeting you with my warmest Congratu-
-lations. — Fleur was over here to day from
Rosewell. The family he tells me were all well.
I communicated to him the intelligence of your
intended marriage; & with that cordiality which
the poor fellow seems to possess a great share of,
he ejaculated, "I hope he will be happy."

Your printer is unworthy of the employment
of handing down to posterity so valuable a Collection
as Dodsley — He has murder'd some things most
cruelly. — Assassination cannot be worse than
Bells for Belles — enclos'd for ensnar'd — Psycke
for Psyche. — Hunts for haunts. Throng & song for
Train & Plain . — Come for came , though the
Rhyme, if he had any Ears would have directed a
Jack-Ass how the word should be spelt. Besides
these, cure for ear , & with for will , are abomi-
-nable instances of stupidity or Inattention. But
[R]ight for Knight deserves crucifixion.— You
[torn][w]rite like an enraged Author, who finds
[torn]mutilated or massacred in the press.
[torn]eloved you however a few Lines by
way of Tail-piece, or conclusion to the
collection, which are the last I shall venture
to trust you with till I hear that your
Typo-mania has subsided.

You will also find some Lines of a different
complexion & [torn]— May the good that I
anticipated for you while writing them be
fully realized to yourself & your Bride.

Adieu, my friend — May all your
days — & all your Nights be as happy
as this. Maria & my Children offer you
their Congratulations on your present
Happiness. — Present me to the late Miss
Lowther, & tell her, that I hope to find in
M^rs Page all that I once lov'd & admired
under that name. — I set out for
Winchester & Monongalia the 29^th Perhaps
you may hear from me at Mannsfield.

Congratulations

John Page esquire
New York