“A delicacy strikes me, and begins at this moment,
in the midst of my prosperity, to make my pride uneasy.
“I am afraid that my father should say Erasmus
gets on by patronage, after all—by the
patronage of a poor Irish porter and a rich English
merchant.
“Adieu, my dear friends; you must not expect
such long letters from me now that I am becoming a
busy man. Alfred and I see but little of one another,
we live at such a distance, and we are both so gloriously
industrious. But we have holiday minutes, when
we meet and talk more in the same space of time than
any two wise men—I did not say, women—that
you ever saw.
“Yours, affectionately,
“ERASMUS PERCY.
“P.S. I have just recollected that I forgot
to answer your question about Mr. Henry. I do
see him whenever I have time to go, and whenever he
will come to Mr. Gresham’s, which is very seldom.
Mr. Gresham has begged him repeatedly to come to his
house every Sunday, when Henry must undoubtedly be
at leisure; yet Mr. Henry has been there but seldom
since the first six weeks after he came to London.
I cannot yet understand whether this arises from pride,
or from some better motive. Mr. Gresham says he
likes what he has seen of him, and well observes,
that a young officer, who has lived a gay life in
the army, must have great power over his own habits,
and something uncommon in his character, to be both
willing and able thus suddenly and completely to change
his mode of life, and to conform to all the restraints
and disagreeable circumstances of his new situation.”
“... Let me take the opportunity of your
playful allusion to your present patrons, a porter
and a hypochondriac, seriously to explain to you my
principles about patronage—I never had any
idea that you ought not to be assisted by friends:
friends which have been made for you by your parents
I consider as part of your patrimony. I inherited
many from my father, for which I respect and bless
his name. During the course of my life, I have
had the happiness of gaining the regard of some persons
of talents and virtue, some of them in high station;
this regard will extend to my children while I live,
and descend to them when I am no more. I never
cultivated them with a view to advancing my
family, but I make no doubt that their friendship
will assist my sons in their progress through their
several professions. I hold it to be just and
right that friends should give, and that young men
should gratefully accept, all the means and opportunities
of bringing professional acquirements and abilities
into notice. Afterwards, the merit of the candidate,
and his fitness for any given situation, ought, and
probably will, ultimately decide whether the assistance
has been properly or improperly given. If family
friends procure for any young man a reward of any
