4 well in it: And I hope you have received your Reward, in being happy where you are. I believe, in the Religious Country you now inhabit, you'll be better pleas'd to find I confider you in this light, than if I compared you to thofe Greeks and Romans, whofe Conftancy in fuffering Pain, and whofe Refolution in purfuit of a generous End, you would rather imitate than boast of. But I had a melancholy hint the other day, as if you were yet a Martyr to the fa-1 tigue your Virtue made you undergo on this fide the Water. I beg if your health› be reftor'd to you, not to deny me the Joy of knowing it: Your endeavours of Service and good Advices to the poor Papifts, put me in mind of Noah's preaching forty years to thofe folks that were to be drowned at laft. At the worst I heartily with your Ark may find an Ararat, and the Wife and Fail mily, (the hopes of the good Patriarch) landfafely after the Deluge upon the Shore of Totness.e If I durft mix prophane with facred Hiftory, I would chear you with the old Tale of Brutus the wandering Trojan, who found on that very Coaft the happy End of his Peregrinations and Adventures. I have very lately read Jeffery of Monmouth (to whom your Cornwall is not a lirtle beholden) in the Translation of a Cler gyman gyman in my neighbourhood. The poor Man is highly concerned to vindicate Jeffery's veracity as an Hiftorian; and told me he was perfectly aftonifhed, we of the Roman Communion could doubt of the Legends of his Giants, while we believ'd those of our Saints? I am forced to make a fair Compofition with him; and, by crediting fome of the Wonders of Corinaus and Gogmagog, have brought him fo far already, that he speaks refpectfully of St. Chrifto pher's carrying Chrift, and the Refufcitation of St. Nicholas Tolentine's Chickens. Thus we proceed apace in converting each other from all manner of Infidelity. Ajax and Hector are no more, compared to Corinaus and Arthur, than the Guelphs and Ghibellines were to the Mahacks of everdreadful memory. This amazing Writer has made me lay afide Homer for a Week, and when I take him up again, I fhall beat very well prepared to tranflate with belief: and reverence the Speech of Achilles's Horfe. You'll excufe all this trifling, or any thing else which prevents a Sheet full of! Compliment: And believe there is nothing more true (even more true than any thing in Jeffery is falfe) than that I have a conftant Affection for you, and am, &c. ༣ P.S. TIT in re P. S. I know you will take part joycing for the Victory of Prince Eugene over the Turks, in the Zeal' you bear to the Chriftian Intereft, tho' your Coufin of Oxford (with whom I dined yesterday) fays, there is no other difference in the Chriftians beating the Turks, or the Turks beating the .Chriftians, than whether the Emperor fhall firft declare War against Spain, or Spain declare it against the Emperor. I muft add another Apothegm of the fame noble Earls it was the Saying of a Politick Prince, "Time "and he would get the better of any two "others". To which Lord Oxford made this Answer, CORALNA ४ Time and I'gainst any two T HE Question you propofed to me is what at prefent I am the most unfit Man in the world to answer, by my Lofs of one of the best of Fathers. He He had liv'd in fuch a Course of Temperance as-was enough to make the longest Life agreeable to him, and in fuch a Course of Piety as fuffic'd to make the most fudden Death fo alfo. Sudden indeed it was: However, I heartily beg of God to give me fuch an one, provided 1 can lead fuch a Life. I leave him to the Mercy of God, and to the Piety of a Religion that extends beyond the Grave: Si qua eft ea cura, &c. He has left me to the ticklish Management of a narrow Fortune, where every falfe Step is dangerous. My Mother is in that difpi‹rited Srate of Refignation, which is the ef fect of long Life, and the Lofs of what is dear to us. We are really each of us in want of a Friend, of fuch an humane Turn as yourself, to make almoft any thing defirable to us. I feel your Abfence more than ever, at the fame time I can lefs exprefs my Regards to you than ever; and fhall make this, which is the most fincere Letter I ever writ to you, the shorteft and fainteft perhaps of any you have receiv'd. 'Tis enough if you reflect, that barely to remember any Perfon, when one's Mind is taken up with a fenfibleSorrow, is a great degree of Friendship. can fay no more but that I love you, and all that are yours; and that I wish it may be very long before any of yours fhall feel for you what I now feel for my Father. Adicu. To To the fame. Rentcomb in Gloucestershire, Oct. 3. 1721. Dear Sir, You OUR kind Letter has overtaken me here, for I have been in and about this Country ever fince your departure. I am pleas'd to date this from a place fo well known to Mrs. Blount, where I write as if I were dictated by her Auçcftors, whofe faces are all upon me. I fear none fo much as Sir Chriftopher Guife, who being in his Shirt, feems as ready to combate me, as her own Sir John was to demolish Duke Lancastere. I dare fay your Lady will recollect his Figure. I look'd upon the Manfion, Walls, and Terraces; the Plantations, and Slopes, which Nature has made to command a variety of Valleys and rifing Woods; with a Veneration mixt with a Pleasure, that reprefented her to me in thofe puerile Amusements, which engaged her fo many Years ago in this place: I fancy'd I faw her fober over a Sampler, or gay over a jointed Baby. I dare fay fhe did one thing more, even in those early times |