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To the Same

July 20, 1720.

OUR kind Defire to know the State of my Health had not been unfatiffied of fo long, had not that ill State been the Impediment. Nor fhould I have feem'd an unconcern'd Party in the Joys of your Family, which I heard of from Lady Scudamore, whofe fhort Efchantillon of a Let ter (of a quarter of a Page) I value as the fhort Glimpse of a Vision afforded to fome devout Hermit; for it includes (as those Revelations do) a Promife of a better Life in the Elyfian Groves of Cirencester, whither, I could almoft say in the Style of a Sermon, the Lord bring us all, &c. Thi ther may we tend, by various ways to one blissful Bower: Thither may Health, Peace, and good Humour, wait upon us as Affociates: Thither may whole Cargoes of Nectar (Liquor of Life and Longevity!) by Mortals call'd Spaw-water, be convey'd, and there (as Milton has it) may we, like the Deities,

On Flow'rs repos'd, and with fresh Garlands Quaff Immortality and Joy-[crown'd,

When I fpeak of Garlands, I fhould not forget the green Veftments and Scarfs which your Sifters promis'd to make for this Purpose: I expect you too in Green with a Hunting-horn by your Side and a green Hat, the Model of which you may take from Osborne's Defcription of King James the First.

What Words, what Numbers, what Oratory or what Poetry, can fuffice, to exprefs how infinitely I efteem, value, love and defire you all, above all the great ones, the rich ones, and the vain ones of this Part of the World! above all the Jews, Jobbers, Bubblers, Subfcribers, Projectors, Directors, Governors, Treafurers, r Sc. Sc. Sc. in facula fæculorum!

Turn your Eyes and Attention from this miferable mercenary Period; and turn yourself, in a juft Contempt of thefe Sons of Mammon, to the Contemplation of Books, Gardens, and Marriage. In which I now leave you, and return (Wretch that I am!) to Water-gruel and Palladio.

I am, &c.

To

Dear Sir,

Yo

To the fame.

Twickenham, Sept. 1.

OUR Doctor is going to the Bath, and stays a Fortnight or more: Perhaps you would be comforted to have a Sight of him, whether you need him or not. I think him as good a Doctor as any for one that is ill, and a better Doctor than any for one that is well. He would do admirably for Mrs. Mary Digby: She needed only to follow his Hints, to be in eternal Business and Amusement of Mind, and even as active as fhe could defire. But indeed I fear the would out-walk him: For (asDean Swift obferv'd to me the very first time I faw the Doctor) He is a Man that. can do every thing but walk. His Brother, who is lately come into England, goes alfo to the Bath; and is a more extraordinary Man than he, worth your going thither on purpose to know him. The Spirit of Philanthropy, fo long dead to our World, is reviv'd in him: He is a Philofopher all of Fire; fo warmly, nay fo wildly in the Right, that he forces all others about him to be so too, and draws them into his K 2

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own Vortex. He is a Star that looks as if it were all Fire, but is all Benignity, all gentle and beneficial Influence. If there be other Men in the World that would serve a Friend, yet he is the only one I believe that could make even an Enemy ferve a Friend.

As all human Life is chequer d and mix'd with Acquifitions and Loffes (though the latter are more certain and irremediable, than the former lafting or fatisfactory) fo at the time I have gain'd the Acquaintance of one worthy Man I have loft another, a very eafy, human, and gentlemanly Neighbour, Mr. Stonor. It's certain the Lofs of one of this Character puts us naturally upon fetting a greater Value on the few that are left, though the Degree of our Efteem may be different. Nothing, fays Seneca, is fo melancholy a Circumftance in human Life, or fo foon reconciles us to to the Thought of our own Death, as the Reflection and Profpect of one Friend after another dropping round us! Who would ftand alone, the fole remaining Ruin, the laft tottering Column of all the Fabrick of Friendship; once fo large, feemingly so strong, and yet fo fuddenly fo funk and buried?

To the fame.

Saturday Night.

I

Dear Sir,

Have belief enough in the goodness of your whole family, to think you will ail be pleas'd that I am arriv'd in faftey at Twickenham; tho''tis a fort of Earneft, that you will be troubled again with me at Sherborne, or Colefbill; for however I may like One of your places, it may be in that as in liking One of your family; when one fees the reft, one likes them all. Fray make my ervices acceptable to them; I wish them all the happiness they may want, and the continuance of all the happiness they have; and I take the latter to comprize a great deal more than the former. I muft feparate Lady Scudamore from you, as I fear fhe will do herself, before this letter reaches you: So I with her a good journey, and I hope one day to try if the lives as well as you do; tho' I much queftion if fhe can live as quietly: I fufpect the Bells will be ringing at her arrival,and on her own and Mifs Scudamore's birthdays, and that all the Clergy in the County come to pay refpects; both the Clergy and their Bells expecting from her, and K3

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