Details
GODWIN, William (1756-1836). Autograph letter signed ('W. Godwin'), to Miss [Amelia] Alderson (1769-1853), 8 September 1794, 2 pages, 4to, bifolium, address leaf, integral blank, seal hole.
'BE NEITHER THE DUPE OF ANY OTHER PERSON, NOR YOUR OWN'
A curious letter to Godwin's unrequited love, by turns flirtatious and avuncular: 'I am sorry to have seen so little & to find it likely that I am to see so little of you during your present excursion to London & Middlesex,' he writes. 'I observed you with a high degree of pleasure when I saw you at Norwich (surely I did not labour under any species of delusions?) & I hoped to meet with repetition of the pleasure.' Godwin goes on to counsel Miss Anderson against the society in which she finds herself: 'Let me intreat you to be nice & fastidious. Be neither the dupe of any other person, nor your own. I think I know Mr Morgan thoroughly. My heart was full of this when I saw you, but was restrained by the presence of the young gentleman who accompanied you. Let me not be misunderstood: I mean no more than that you are wretchedly deceived if you take Mr Morgan for a great genius. The sentiments I have just written, however, uncouthly expressed, prove not only the interest I feel in your well doing, but the uncommon esteem I have conceived for your merits.'
'BE NEITHER THE DUPE OF ANY OTHER PERSON, NOR YOUR OWN'
A curious letter to Godwin's unrequited love, by turns flirtatious and avuncular: 'I am sorry to have seen so little & to find it likely that I am to see so little of you during your present excursion to London & Middlesex,' he writes. 'I observed you with a high degree of pleasure when I saw you at Norwich (surely I did not labour under any species of delusions?) & I hoped to meet with repetition of the pleasure.' Godwin goes on to counsel Miss Anderson against the society in which she finds herself: 'Let me intreat you to be nice & fastidious. Be neither the dupe of any other person, nor your own. I think I know Mr Morgan thoroughly. My heart was full of this when I saw you, but was restrained by the presence of the young gentleman who accompanied you. Let me not be misunderstood: I mean no more than that you are wretchedly deceived if you take Mr Morgan for a great genius. The sentiments I have just written, however, uncouthly expressed, prove not only the interest I feel in your well doing, but the uncommon esteem I have conceived for your merits.'
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