H. K. Paterson del.

259

LETTER XX.

Lugo, January, 1809

I CLOSED my last letter, my dear S—,
without wishing you the compliments of the
season; without congratulating you on the
opening of a new year, surrounded as you
are by the heart-felt delights of social society,
and all the cheering comforts attached to the
domestic hearth. Here, we have none of
them. The recollection that they once were
ours is like a dream that is past. Houseless,
exposed on these sterile hills, few of us can
expect to taste such sweet rest again.

What we now feel, proves to me with a
stronger conviction than ever, the influence
of the mind over the body, either by em-
powering it to endure, or, by leaving the
nerves unbraced, allowing it to sink in
exhaustion. Even this long march, these
almost impenetrable snows, these hard priva-
tions, how gladly would we have encountered

S 2