Series 1 > Lyon in mourning, or, A collection of speeches, letters, journals etc. relative to the affairs of Prince Charles Edward Stuart > Volume 1

7
1746] LETTER FROM REV. ROBERT LYON
fluous things which please wanton fancy rather than answer 23 Oct,’
need, without which nature is easily satisfied, and which, if we
do not affect, we cannot want ? What is it but to wear coarse
cloaths, to feed on plain and simple fare, to work and take
some pains, to sit or goe in a lower place, to have few friends
and not one flatterer ? And what great harm in this ? If I
had time to compare it with the many dangers and tempta¬
tions to which wealth is expos’d,—pray consider that poverty
is a state which many have born with great chearfulness.
Many wise men have voluntarily embrac’d it. It is allotted by
Divine wisdom to most men, and the very best of men do often fol. 8.
endure it. God has declared an especial regard to that state
of life. The mouth of truth hath proclaimed it happy. The
Son of God dignified it by His own choice, and sanctified it by
His partaking deeply thereof. And can such a condition be
very disagreeable to any of you (who were never over-prosperous
in the world) ? Or can it reasonably displease you ?
My dear mother and sisters, these considerations, I hope,
thro’ the Divine assistance, will be a mean to support you
under your present and future afflictions, and preserve you
from repining at my fate and your own loss.1
[Before I end this letter I must take this opportunity to
acquaint you of one thing that none on earth knows but the
person immediately concern’d. The matter is this. Had it
pleased God that I should have surviv’d my dear mother, and
been provided of any tolerable subsistence in this world, I
design’d and propos’d to make Stewart Rose (whom I know to
be a virtuous, wise, good, and religious young woman), partner
of my life and fortune. I am too sensible of what she suffers
on my account, and which would make her affliction sit the
harder upon her, the natural modesty she is mistress of, would
1 The paragraph following in brackets was at first omitted by Mr. Forbes,
with this explanatory note inserted at the end of the letter. ‘ N.B.—In the
original of the above letter there was a paragraph about a very particular con¬
cern of Mr. Lyon’s which I did not chuse to transcribe.’ But he afterwards sup¬
plied it by writing it on the inside of the front board of the volume, with the
following: 'N.B.—Finding that Mr. Lyon’s own relations and Mrs. Stewart
Rose made no secret of the mutual affection that had been betwixt the young
lady and her departed friend, I obtain’d a true copy of the paragraph and
transcrib’d it as above.—Robert Forbes, A.M.’