the Emperor anfwered, that he likewife condoled with them for the untimely death of Hector. I always loved and respected him very much, and do still as much as ever; and it is a return fufficient, if he pleases to accept the offers of my most humble fervice.

The Beggar's Opera hath knocked down Gulliver; I hope to fee Pope's Dulnefs knock down the Beggar's Opera, but not till it hath fully done its job.

To expofe vice, and make people laugh with innocence, does more public fervice than all the Minifters of state from Adam to Walpole, and fo adieu.

LETTER XXVIII.

LORD BOLINGBROKE TO DR. SWIFT.

POPE charges himself with this letter; he has been

m

here two days, he is now hurrying to London, he will hurry back to Twickenham in two days more, and before the end of the week he will be, for ought I know, at Dublin. In the mean time his " Dulness grows and flourishes as if he was there already. It will indeed be a noble work: the many will ftare at it, the few will fmile, and all his Patrons from Bickerstaff to Gulliver will rejoice, to see themselves adorned in that immortal piece.

I hear

m The Dunciad.

W.

I hear that you have had fome return of your illnefs which carried you fo fuddenly from us (if indeed it was your own illness which made you in fuch hafte to be at Dublin). Dear Swift, take care of your health; I'll give you a receipt for it, à la Montagne, or which is better à la Bruyere. Neuriffer bien votre corps; ne le fatiguer jamais*: laiffer rouiller l'efprit, meuble inutil, voire outil dangereux: laiffer fonner vos cloches le matin pour eveiller les chanoines, et pour faire dormir le Doyen d'un fommeil doux et profond, qui luy procure de beaux fonges: lever vous tard, et aller à P'Eglife, pour vous faire payer d'avoir bien dormi et bien dejeuné. As to myself (a person about whom I concern myself very little) I muft fay a word or two out of complaifance to you. I am in my farm, and here I shoot strong and tenacious roots: I have caught hold of the earth (to use a Gardener's phrase), and neither my enemies nor my friends will find it an easy matter to tranfplant me again. Adieu. Let me hear from you, at least of you: I love you for a thousand things, for none more than for the juft efteem and love you have for all the fons of Adam.

P. S. According to Lord Bolingbroke's account I shall be at Dublin in three days. I cannot help adding a word, to defire you to expect my foul there with you by that time; but as for the jade of a body

that

* The whole of this pleasant receipt is taken from the Lutrin of Boileau.

that is tacked to it, I fear there will be no dragging it after. I affure you I have few friends here to detain me, and no powerful one at Court abfolutely to forbid my journey. I am told the Gynocrafy are of opinion, that they want no better writers than Cibber and the British Journalist; fo that we may live at quiet, and apply ourfelves to our most abftrufe ftudies. The only Courtiers I know, or have the honour to call my friends, are John Gay and Mr. Bowry; the former is at prefent fo employed in the elevated airs of his Opera, and the latter in the exaltation of his high dignity (that of her Majesty's Waterman), that I can scarce obtain a categorical answer from either to any thing I fay to 'em. But the Opera fucceeds extremely, to yours and my extreme fatisfaction, of which he promises this poft to give you a full account. I have been in a worfe condition of health than ever, and think my immortality is very near out of my enjoyment: fo it must be in you, and in pofterity to make me what amends you can for dying young. Adieu. While I am, I am yours. Pray love me, and take care of yourself.

LETTER XXIX.

March 23, 1727-8.

I

fo

SEND you a very odd thing, a paper printed in Boston in New-England, wherein you'll find a real perfon a member of their Parliament, of the name of Jonathan Gulliver. If the fame of that Traveller hath travelled thither, it has travelled very quick to have folks christened already by the name of the fuppofed Author. But if you object that no child so lately christened could be arrived at years of maturity to be elected into Parliament, I reply (to folve the riddle) that the perfon is an anabaptift, and not christened till full age, which sets all right. However it be, the accident is very fingular, that these two names fhould be united.

Mr. Gay's Opera has been acted near forty days running, and will certainly continue the whole feason. So he has more than a fence about his thoufand pounds": he'll foon be thinking of a fence about his

two

n Before Mr. Gay had fenced his thousand pounds, he had a confultation with his friends about the disposal of it. Mr. Lewis advised him to intrust it to the funds, and live upon the interest: Dr. Arbuthnot, to intruft it to Providence, and live upon the principal; and Mr. Pope was for purchasing an annuity for life. In this uncertainty he could only fay with the old man in Terence,

-feciftis probe,

Incertior fum multo, quam dudum.

W.

two thousand. Shall no one of us live as we would wish each other to live? Shall he have no annuity, you no fettlement on this fide, and I no profpect of getting to you on the other? This world is made for Cæfar-as Cato faid, for ambitious, false, or flattering people to domineer in : nay they would not, by their good-will, leave us our very books, thoughts, or words, in quiet. I despise the world yet, I affure you, more than either Gay or you, and the Court more than all the reft of the world. As for those Scribblers for whom you apprehend I would fupprefs my Dulness, (which by the way, for the future, you are to call by a more pompous name The Dunciad,) how much that nest of Hornets are my regard, will eafily appear to you, when you read the Treatife of

the Bathos.

At all adventures, yours and my name shall stand linked as friends to pofterity, both in verfe and profe, and (as Tully calls it) in confuetudine Studiorum. Would to God our perfons could but as well, and as furely, be infeparable! I find my other Ties dropping from me fome worn off, fome torn off, others relaxing daily: my greateft, both by duty, gratitude, and humanity, Time is fhaking every moment, and it now hangs but by a thread! I am many years the older, for living fo much with one fo old; much the more helpless, for having been fo long helped and tended by her; much the more confiderate and tender, for a daily commerce with one who required me

juftly