Page:The history of Tom Jones (1749 Volume 1).pdf/84

 Fortune had only one Gift in her Power; but in pouring forth this, he was o very profue, that others perhaps may think this ingle Endowment to have been more than equivalent to all the various Bleings which he enjoyed from Nature. From the former of thee, he derived an agreeable Peron, a ound Contitution, a olid Undertanding, and a benevolent Heart; by the latter, he was decreed to the Inheritance of one of the larget Etates in the County.

This Gentleman had, in his Youth, married a very worthy and beautiful Woman, of whom he had been extremely fond: By her he had three Children, all of whom died in their Infancy. He had likewie had the Misfortune of burying this beloved Wife herelf, about five Years before the Time in which this Hitory chues to et out. This Los, however great, he bore like a Man of Sene and Contancy; tho’ it mut be confet, he would often talk a little whimically on this Head: For he ometimes aid, he looked on himelf as till married, and conidered his Wife as only gone a little before him, a Journey which he hould mot certainly, ooner or later, take after her; and that he had not the least Doubt of meeting her again, in a