ABSTRACT
The honey-moon of their joys was now past, and the charms of novelty lost. The excessive summer heats interrupted their excursions, and the numerous musquitoes and flies in the swamps and uncleared forests, resembled one of the plagues of Egypt. Dr. Sourby had preached up so much the natural rights of all to liberty, that Miss Macguggerty began herself to assume it, first by differing from him in opinion, and soon afterwards by visiting where, when, and whom she pleased. She thought her youth, beauty, and services, a full compensation for the / Doctor’s support and regard. He had formed a sanguine plan (as he had chosen her rude and uncultivated) of moulding her to his mind, and implanting such sentiments and principles as he thought best for her and himself. But he had reckoned without his host; for she thought it a degradation of her age, character, and sex, to be disciplined like a child. Another great source of complaint to them all, was the want of a market, to procure a supply of conveniences for their house, and the necessaries of life, bread, beef, and other provisions; not to mention beer, wine, and rum, and all the articles of apparel, grocery, and furniture. These they could either not obtain at all, or at very extravagant prices. The roads also were intolerably bad, and the means of communication difficult and dangerous. Solitude by degrees became wearisome, and the perpetual recurrence of the same scenes, without variety, produced gloom / and disgust. Our philosopher strove to take refuge in the society of his neighbours, but he found them either entirely occupied in procuring the necessaries of life; or little adapted and inclined to converse with him on the subjects he understood, and to pay attention to his disquisitions. A want of proper enclosures and fences exposed his lands to the perpetual depredations of the more knowing adventurers, and involved him in vexatious recriminations and contentions. He began to find that the spirit of pride and self-interest, the love of power, wealth, and distinction, prevail as much in wilds and cottages as in cities and courts. It will not, perhaps, be unentertaining to the reader to know honest Sancho’s ideas of the matter, which he communicated in the following letter to Bab, entrusted to the care of a pedlar, who promised to put it into the first postbag he met. /
