My Dear Sir,—Every well-constituted mind—and yours, I have
abundant reason to esteem well-constituted—is stored with principles equally
important to society, and efficacious in procuring its own happiness. Among
these principles, fidelity is constantly affirmed to hold the highest place;
and so loudly and unanimously have mankind applauded the exercise of this
virtue, that the idea of deceit is at least outwardly spurned by the very
basest of mankind, and to quote a trite though striking adage, there is honour
even among thieves. Perhaps there is no situation in life more painful, than to
contain within one’s bosom either joys or sorrows, without the power of
participating them with some person, upon whose truth and sympathy the heart
may safely rely. Such is the lot of many. But I trust such misery will never be
mine. Your prudence, your wisdom, your unstained fidelity, your unassailable
secresy, are my pledges; and I hasten to relieve my oppressed soul from a
secret of the very highest possible importance; a secret, which my intimate
acquaintance with men of the highest celebrity has alone enabled me to
penetrate; a secret, upon which the fate of empires, if not of the whole human
race, depends; a secret, of magnitude sufficient to convulse the mind of a
stoic, however hardened by apathy; a secret, in short, too overwhelming in its
effects, to be confided to a man less rigid in his moral principles, less
blameless in the tenour of his conduct, less fortified against the power of
temptation, or less proved by repeated and unfailing trials, than yourself.
But, my friend, beware; and if you feel unequal to the trust I am about to
repose in you, destroy immediately this paper, before you lead yourself into a
snare, which will blast your own peace of mind for ever, and hurl the
thunderbolt of destruction upon unoffending millions. Above all, keep the
secret from all women. Mrs. John is a very worthy woman; I
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