Whether I am out-stepping the bounds of prudence in this
address to your Ladyship I cannot feel assured; and yet there is so much at
stake in a quarter so loved and valuable, that I cannot forbear running the
risque, and making one effort more to plead a cause which your Ladyship’s
own heart must plead with a power so superior to all other voices. If, then, a
word that is here said only adds to the pain of this unhappy conflict between
affection and views of duty, without lending any ATTEMPTED MEDIATION. 25
After a long and most confidential conversation with my friend (whom I have known thoroughly, I believe, for many trying years), I am convinced that the deep and rooted feeling of his heart is regret and sorrow for the occurrences which have so deeply wounded you; and the most unmixed admiration of your conduct in all its particulars, and the warmest affection. But may I be allowed to state to Lady Byron that Lord B., after his general acknowledgment of having frequently been very wrong, and, from various causes, in a painful state of irritation, yet declares himself ignorant of the specific things which have given the principal offence, and that he wishes to hear them; that he may, if extenuation or atonement be possible, endeavour to make some reply; or, at all events, may understand the fulness of those reasons which have now, and as unexpectedly as afflictingly, driven your Ladyship to the step you have taken.
It would be waste of words and idle presumption for me,
however your Ladyship’s goodness
| 26 | MEMOIR OF REV. F. HODGSON. |
Whatever, then, may be against it, whatever restraining remembrances or anticipations, to a person who was not already qualified by sad experience to teach this very truth, I would say that there is a claim paramount to all others,—that of attempting to save the human beings nearest and dearest to us from the most comprehensive ruin that can be suffered by them, at the expense of any suffering to ourselves.
If I have not gone too far, I would add that so suddenly
and at once to shut every avenue to re-SENSIBLE ADVICE. 27
Be all that is right called out into action, all that is wrong suppressed (and by your only instrumentality, Lady Byron, as by yours only it can be) in my dear friend. May you both yet be what God intended you for: the support, the watchful correction, and improvement of each other! Of yourself, Lord B. from his heart declares that he would wish nothing altered—nothing but that sudden, surely sudden, determination which must for ever destroy one of you, and perhaps even both. God bless both!
