will expect I should recant this Expreffion, when I tell you, that Sapho (by which heathenifh Name you have chriften'd a very orthodox Lady) did not accompany me in-. to the Country. However, I will confefs myfelf the less concern'd on that account, because I have no very violent Inclination to lose my Heart, efpecially in fo wild and favage a place as this Foreft is: In the Town, 'tis ten to one but a young Fellow may find his ftray'd Heart again, with fome Wildfreet or Drury-lane Damfel; but here, where I could have met with no redrefs from an unmerciful, virtuous Dame, I muft for ever have loft my little Traveller in a Hole, where I could never rummage to find him again, Well, Sir, you have your Lady in the Town ftill, and I have my Heart in the Country ftill, which being wholly unemploy'd as yet, has the more room in it for my Friends, and does not want a Corner at your Service. To be ferious, you have extremely oblig'd met by your Franknefs and Kindness to me: And if I have abus'd it by too much Freedom on my part, I hope you will at tribute it to the natural Openness of my Temper, which hardly knows how to show Refpect, where I feel Affection. I wou'd love my Friend, as my Miftrefs, without Ceremony; and hope a little rough Ufage fome fometimes may not be more difpleafing to the one, than it is to the other! If you have any Curiofity to know in what manner I live, or rather lofe a Life, Martial will inform you in one Line: (the Tranflation of which coft a Friend of ours three in English, (One fhort, one long, One foft, one strong, Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lego, cano, quiefco: ་་ Every Day with me is literally, another yefterday; for it is exactly the fame; It has the fame Bufinefs, which is Poetry; and the fame Pleasure, which is Idlenefs. A man might indeed pafs his Time. much better, but I queftion if any Man could pass it much eafier. If you will vifit our Shades this Spring, which I very much defire, you may perhaps inftruct me to manage my Game more wifely; but at prefent I am fatisfy'd to trifle away my Time any Way, rather than let it ftick by me; as Shop-keepers are glad to be rid of thofe Goods at any rate, which would otherwife always be lying upon their hands. Sir, if you will favour me fometimes with your Letters, it will be a great Satisfaction R 2 to to me on feveral accounts; and on this m particular, That it will fhow me (to my Comfort) that even a wife Man is fometimes very idle; for fo you muft needs be when you can find leisure to write to Your, &c. I April 27, 1708. Have nothing to fay to you in this Let ter ; but I was refolv'd to write to tell you fo. Why should not I content myself with fo many great Examples, of deep Divines, profound Cafuifts, grave Philofophers, who have written, not Letters only, but whole Tomes and voluminous Treatifes about Nothing? Why fhou'd a Fellow like me, who all his life does nothing, be afham'd to write nothing? and that to one who has nothing to do but to read it? But perhaps you'll fay, the whole World has fomething to do, fomething to talk, of, fomething to wifh for, fomething to be imploy'd about: But pray, Sir, caft up the Account, put all these Somethings together, and what is the Sum Total but juft Nothing? I have no more to fay, but to defire to give you my Service (that is nothing) to your Friends, and to believe that I am nothing more than Your, &c. Ex nihilo nil fit. LUCR. YOU May 10, 1708. OU talk of Fame and Glory, and of the great Men of Antiquity: Pray tell me, what are all your great dead Men, but fo many little living Letters? What a vaft Reward is here for all the Ink wafted by Writers, and all the Blood fpilt by Princes? There was in old time one Severus a Roman Emperor. I dare fay you never call'd him by any other Name in your Life; and yet in his days he was ftyl'd Lucius, Septimius, Severus, Pius, Pertinax, Augufius, Parthi cus, Adiabenicus, Arabicus, Maximus, and what not? What a prodigious waste of Letters has Time made! what a Number have here dropt off, and left the poor furviving Seven unattended! For my own part, Four are all I have to take care for; and I'll be judg'd by you if any man cou'd live in lefs compass? except it were one Monfieur D. and one Romulus * But thefe, contrary to the common Calamity, came, in process *** R 3 procefs of time, to be call'd Monfieur Boileau Defpreaux, and Romulus Threepoints.- Well, Sir, for the future I'll drown all high Thoughts in the Lethe of Cowflip-Wine; as for Fame, Renown, Reputation, take 'em, Critics! Tradam protervis in mare Criticum If ever I feek for Immortality here, may I be då! for there's not fo much danin a Poet's being damn'd: ger Damnation follows Death in other Men, But your damn'd Poet lives and writes agen. November 1, 1708. Have been fo well fatisfy'd with the Country ever fince I faw you, that I have not fo much as once thought of the Town, or enquir'd of any one in it befides, Mr. Wyckerley and yourfelf. And from him I understand of your Journey this Summer into Leiceflerfhire; from whence I guess you are return'd by this time, to your old Apartment in the Widow's Corner, to your old Bufinefs of comparing Critics, and re conciling |