pardon for not telling you, as I fhould, had you been in England: but no fecret can cross your Irish Sea, and every clerk in the post-office had known it. I fancy, though you loft fight of me in the firft of thofe Effays, you faw me in the fecond. The defign of concealing myself was good, and had its full effect; I was thought a Divine, a Philofopher, and what not; and my doctrine had a fanction I could not have given to it. Whether I can proceed in the fame grave march like Lucretius, or muft defcend to the gayeties of Horace, I know not, or whether I can do either; but be the future as it will, I fhall collect all the past in one fair quarto this winter, and send it you, where you will find frequent mention of yourfelf. I was glad you fuffered your writings to be collected more completely than hitherto, in the volumes I daily expect from Ireland: I wished it had been in more pomp, but that will be done by others: yours are beauties, that can never be too finely dreft, for they will ever be young. I have only one piece of mercy to beg of you; do not laugh at my gravity, but permit me to wear the beard of a Philosopher, till I pull it off, and make a jest of it myself. 'Tis just what my Lord B. is doing with Metaphyfics. I hope, you will live to fee*, and ftare at the learned figure he will make, on the fame fhelf with Locke and Malbranche.

You

* After reading this paffage, can it be believed that Pope did not know the real principles of Bolingbroke?

You fee how I talk to you' (for this is not writing);

if you like I should do fo, why not tell me fo? if it be the least pleasure to you, I will write once a week moft gladly; but can you abstract the letters from the person who writes them, fo far, as not to feel more vexation in the thought of our feparation, and thofe misfortunes which occafion it, than fatisfaction in the Nothings he can exprefs? If you can, really and from my heart, I cannot. I return again to melancholy. Pray, however, tell me, is it a fatisfaction? that will make it one to me; and we will think alike, as! friends ought, and you fhall hear from me punctually juft when you will..

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P. S. Our friend, who is juft returned from a progrefs of three months, and is fetting out in three: days with me for the Bath, where he will stay till towards the middle of October, left this letter' with me yesterday, and I cannot feal and dispatch it till I' have: fcribbled the remainder of this page full. He talks very pompously of my Metaphyfics, and places them in a very honourable station. It is true, I have writ fix letters and an half to him on fubjects of that kind, and I propose a letter and an half more, which would fwell the whole up to a confiderable volume. But he thinks me: fonder of the Name of an Author than I am. When he and you,. and one or two other friends have seen them, fatis magnum Theatrum mihi eftis, I fhall not have the itch of making them. more public. I know how little regard you pay to writings

VOL. IX.

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writings of this kind. But I imagine that if you can like any fuch, it must be those that strip Metaphyfics of all their bombaft, keep within the fight of every well-conftituted Eye, and never bewilder themselves, whilst they pretend to guide the reason of others. I writ to you a long letter fome time ago, and sent it by the post. Did it come to your hands? or did the inspectors of private correspondence stop it, to revenge themselves of the ill faid of them in it? Vale & me

ama.

LETTER LXXIII.

FROM DR. SWIFT.

Nov. 1, 1734

I HAVE yours with my Lord B's Postscript of

September 15: it was long on its way, and for fome weeks after the date I was very ill with my two inveterate disorders, giddiness and deafness. The latter is pretty well off; but the other makes me totter towards evenings, and much dispirits me. But I continue to ride and walk, both of which, although they be no cures, are at least amufements. I did never imagine you to be either inconftant, or to want right notions of friendship, but I apprehend your want of health; and it hath been a frequent wonder to me how you have been able to entertain the world

world fo long, fo frequently, fo happily, under fo many bodily disorders. My Lord B. fays you have been three months rambling, which is the best thing you can poffibly do in a fummer feafon; and when the winter recalls you, we will, for our own interests, leave you to your fpeculations. God be thanked I have done with every thing, and of every kind that requires writing, except now and then a letter, or like a true old man, fcribbling trifles only fit for children or school-boys of the lowest class at best, which three or four of us read and laugh at to-day, and burn to-morrow. Yet, what is fingular, I never am without fome great work in view, enough to take up forty years of the most vigorous healthy man : although I am convinced that I fhall never be able to finish three Treatifes, that have lain by me feveral years, and want nothing but correction. My Lord B. faid in his Postscript, that you would go to Bath in three days: we fince heard that you were dangerously ill there, and that the news-mongers gave you But a gentleman of this kingdom, on his return from Bath, affured me he left you well, and fo did fome others whom I have forgot. I am forry at my heart that you are pestered with people who come in my name, and I profess to you, it is without my knowledge. I am confident I shall hardly ever have occafion again to recommend, for my friends here are very few, and fixed to the freehold, from whence nothing but death will remove them.

over.

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them. Surely I never doubted about your Effay on Man; and I would lay any odds, that I would never fail to discover you in fix lines, unless you had a mind to write below or befide yourself on purpose. I confess I did never imagine you were fo deep in Morals, or that so many new and excellent rules could be produced fo advantageously and agreeably in that science, from any one head. I confefs in fome places I was forced to read twice; I believe I told you before what the Duke of Dorset faid to me on that occafion, How a judge here, who knows you, told him that on the first reading thofe Effays, he was much pleased, but found fome lines a little dark: on the fecond most of them cleared up, and his pleasure encreased: on the third he had no doubt remained, and then he admired the whole. Lord B's attempt of reducing Metaphyfics to intelligible sense and usefulness, will be a glorious undertaking, and as I never knew him fail in any thing he attempted, if he had the fole management, so I am confident he will fucceed in this. I defire you will allow that I write to you both at prefent, and fo I fhall while I live: it faves your money and my time; and he being your Genius, no matter to which it is addreffed. I am happy that what you write is printed in large letters; otherwise, between the weaknefs of my eyes, and the thickness of my hearing, I fhould lose the greatest pleasure that is left me. Pray command my Lord B to follow that example, if

My