Hayley-XXX-38

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My very dear Flaxman

You shall be as solemn - nay I will go infinitely farther & say you shall be as severe as you please \nor ?by/ with yr dear pupil but with his Father illeg I trust without exciting in either any sensations towards you except those of the firmest Esteem & of the gentlest Affection.

When I have the Misfortune to have even a shadow of Misundersting [sic] with a Person so infinitely dear to me as you are I always endeavour to annihilate it by giving full scope to the native Tenderness of my Heart instead of indulging any Suggestions of intellectual Pride — I will banish therefore from my Thoughts all that relates to I will not therefore allow myself to recollect that I could easily support \corroborate/ by illeg an ostentatious display of much reading & perhaps by more solid arguments an opinion which I unluckily tested [?] but in the idleness of Pleasantry & in the Frankness of unreserved Friendship without suspecting that it could possibly prove a source of uneasiness — I will rather question myself very strictly to find out what Infirmity in my nature could draw from you a Letter of more Austerity that I expected – Perhap &c a reply \letter in which tho replying/ to a hope I expressed of enjoying much conversation with you in Town that \you/ does not discover the slightest Sympathy in such an prospect an Expectation but rather intimated an apprehension that I meant to obtrude advice which you could not possibly want —

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I am almost ashamed of trespassing on yr Time by so long a Letter – but I have spoken once for all – & \here/ dismiss Every painful Topic (that I have touched upon \from my Letters/ for ever —

Continue my dear Friend to love Me & be assured that so far from having thought you in any point of view "not the right Master for yr Pupil" I have often said with Solicitude & delight that if God had given me the power to create a Master for Him I could not have Satisfied my own Heart & Fancy in that article so completely as Providence has done for me illegwithout any merit or exertions of Mine – The same Providence will I trust reward you in the delight which I am sure you will feel in seeing & promoting thewhatever Talent or virtue He may discover —The sight of his gradual Improvement illeg

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even in Childhood was to me a Counterpoint to many & great Troubles & if you could [illeg] feel for \imagine to yrself/ a Moment my dear Friend what an inexpressible dreariness of Heart I \must/ Sometimes feel in his absence from me when Affliction invades me in any Shape, you would will shew I am sure the tenderest Indulgence to whatever Weakness you may ever happen to find

in yr most Sincere &
affectionate Friend
WH

My kindest Love to Nancy
& my Benediction to all