that I know, may yet remember you and me, but I never hear of it. The Dean is well; I have had many accounts of him from Irish Evidence, but only two Letters thefe four months, in both which you are mentioned kindly: He is in the North of Ireland, doing I know not what with I know not whom. Cleland always fpeaks of you: he is at Tunbridge, wondring at the fuperior Carnivoracity of the Dr. He plays now with the old Duchefs of M→ nay dines with her, after fhe has won all his Other News know I not, but that Counsellor Bickford has hurt himself, and has the ftrangeft walking-ftaff I ever faw. He intends fpeedily to make you a vifit at Amesbury. I am my Lord Duke's, my Lady Duchefs's, Mr. Dormer's, General Dormer's, and

money.

Dear Sir,

Your, &c.

Sept. 11, 1730.

I May with great Truth return your

Speech, that I think of you daily; oftner indeed than is confiftent with the character of a reasonable man; who is rather to make himself easy with the things and men that are about him, than uneasy

And you,

with thofe which are not. whofe Abfence is in a manner perpetual to me, ought rather to be remembred as a good man gone, than breathed after as one living. You are taken from us here, to be laid up in a more bleffed ftate with Spirits of a higher kind: fuch I reckon his Grace and her Grace, fince their Banishment from an earthly Court to an heavenly one, in each other and their friends; for I conclude none but true friends will confort or affociate with them afterwards. I can't but look upon myself (fo unworthy as a man of Twitnam feems to be rank'd with fuch rectify'd and fublimated Beings as you as a separated Spirit too from Courts and Courtly Fopperies. But I own, not altogether fo divefted of terrene Matter, nor altogether fo fpiritualized, as to be worthy admiffion to your Depths of Retirement and Contentment. Iam tugg'd back to the world and its regards too often; and no wonder, when my retreat is but ten miles from the Capital. I am within Ear-fhot of Reports, within the Vortex of Lyes and Cenfures. I hear fometimes of the Lampooners of Beauty, the Calumniators of Virtue, the Jokers at Reason and Religion. I prefume thefe are creatures and things as unknown to you, as we of this dirty Orb are to the Inhabitants of the Q 2 Planet

Planet Jupiter: Except a few fervent prayers reach you on the wings of the poft, from two or three of your zealous Votaries at this diftance; as one Mrs. Howard, who lifts up her heart now and then to you, from the midst of the Colluvies and Sink of Human Greatnefs at W One Mrs. B. that fancies you may remember her while you liv'd in your mortal and too tranfitory State at Petersham? One Lord B. who admir'd the Duchefs before fhe grew quite a Goddefs; and a few

others.

To defcend now to tell you what are our Wants, our Complaints, and our Miferies here; I muft feriously fay, the Lofs of any one Good woman is too great to be born easily and poor Mrs. Rollinfon, tho a private woman, was fuch. Her Husband 18 sgone into Oxfordshire very melancholy, and thence to the Bath, to live on, for fuch is our Fate, and Duty. Adieu. Write to me as often as you will, and (to encourage you) I will write as feldom as if you did not. Believe me

A

i

Four, &c.

·Dear Sir,

AM fomething like the Sun at this Sea-. fon, withdrawing from the World, but meaning it mighty well, and refolving to shine whenever I can again. But I fear the Clouds of a long Winter will overcome me to fuch a degree, that any body will take a farthing-candle for a better Guide, and more ferviceable companion, My Friends may remember my brighter days, but will think (like the Irishman) that the Moon is a better thing when once I ant gone. I don't fay this with any allufion to my Poetical capacity as a Son of Apollo, but in my Companionable one, (if you'll fuffer me to use a phrase of the Earl of Clarendon's) For I fhall fee or be feen of few of you, this Winter. I am grown too faint to do any good, or to give any plea fure. I not only, as Dryden fairly fays, Feel my Notes decay as a Poet; but feel my Spirits flag as a Companion, and fhall re turn again to where I first began, my Books. I have been putting my Library in order, and enlarging the Chimney in it, with equal intention to warm my Mind and Body (if I can) to fome Life. A Friend, Q3

(a

a Woman-friend, God help me!) with whom I have spent three or four hours a day these fifteen years, advised me to pass more time in my studies: I reflected, she must have found fome Reafon for this admonition, and concluded fhe wou'd compleat all her kindnesses to me by returning me to the Employment I am fitteft for; Converfation with the dead, the old, and the

worm-eaten.

Judge therefore if I might not treat you as a Beatify'd Spirit, comparing your life with my ftupid ftate. For as to my living at Windfor with Ladies, &c. it is all a dream; I was there but two nights and all the day out of that company. I fhall certainly make as little Court to others, as they do to me; and that will be none at all. My Fair-Weather-Friends of the Summer are going away for London, and I fhall fee Them and the Butterflies together, if I live till next Year; which I would not defire to do, if it were only for their fakes. But we that are writers, ought to love Pofterity, that Pofterity may love us; and I would willingly live to fee the Children of the prefent Race, meerly in hope they may be a little wifer than their Parents.

I am, &c.