much as feparate Spirits do us, at tender Intervals, neither interrupting their own Enployments, nor altogether careless of ours; but, in general, conftantly wifhing us well, and hoping to have us one Day in their Company. To grow indifferent to the World is to grow Philofophical, or Religious; (whichfoever of thofe Turns we chance to take) and indeed the World is fuch a thing as one that thinks pretty much, muft either laugh at, or be angry with: But if we laugh at it, they fay we are proud; and if we are angry with it, they fay we are ill-natur'd. So the moft politic way is to feem always better pleas'd than one can be, greater Admirers, a greater Lovers, and in fhort greater Fools, than we really are: So fhall we live comfortably with our Families, quietly with our Neighbours, favour'd by our Mafters, and happy with our Miftreffes. I have filled my Paper, and fo adieu. Dear Sir, To the fame. : Sept. 8. 1717. I Think your leaving England was like a good Man's leaving the World, with the bleffed Confcience of having acted 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 con fider you in this light, than if I compared you to thofe Greeks and Romans, whofe Conftancy in fuf F 6 fering fering Pain, and whofe Refolution in pursuit of a generous End, you would rather imitate than boaft of. But I had a melancholy hint the other day, as if you were yet a Martyr to the Fatigue your Virtue made you undergo on this fide the Water. I beg if your Health be restored to you, not to deny me the Joy of knowing it. Your Endeavours of Service and good Advices to the poor Papists, 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 Family (the Hopes of the good Patriarch) land fafely after the Deluge upon the Shore of Totnefs. If I durft mix prophane with facred History, I. would chear you with the old Tale of Brutus the wandering Trojan, who found on that very Coast,' the happy End of his Peregrinations and Adven tures. I have very lately read Jeffery of Monmouth (to whom your Gornwall is not a little beholden) in the Tranflation of a Clergyman in my Neighbourhood. The poor Man is highly concern'd to vindicate Jeffery's Veracity as an Hiftorian; and told me he was perfectly aftonifh'd, 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 Corinæus and Gogmagog, have brought him fo far already, that he fpeaks refpectfully of St. Chriftopher's carrying Chrift, and the Refufcitation of St Nicholas Folentine's Chickens. Thus we proceed apace in con◄ verting each other from all manner of Infidelity. Ajax and Hector are no more, compared to Corineus and Arthur, than the Guelphs and Ghibellines were were to the Mohocks of ever-dreadful Memory. This amazing Writer has made me lay afide Homer for a Week, and when I take him up again, I fhall be very well prepared to tranflate with belief and reverence the Speech of Achilles's Horfe. You'll excufe all this Trifling, or any thing elfe 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. P.S. I know you will take part in rejoycing 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 shall first declare War against Spain, or Spain declare it against the Emperor. I muft add another Apophthegm of the fame noble Earl. It was the Saying of a Politic Prince, "Time and he would get "the better of any two others": To which Lord Oxford made this Anfwer: Time and I'gainst any two? : HE Queftion you propofed to me is what at prefent I am the moft unfit Man in the World to answer, by my Lofs of one of the beft of Fathers. He had liv'd in fuch a Courfe of Temperance as was enough to make the longeft Life agreeable to him, and in fuch a Courfe of Piety as fuffic'd to make the moft fudden Death fo alfo. Sudden in deed it was: However, I heartily beg of God to give me fuch an one, provided I 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, &ć. He has left me to the ticklish Management of a -narrow Fortune, where every falfe Step is dangerous. My Mother is in that difpirited State of Refignation, which is the effect 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 almost 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 moft fincere Letter I ever writ to you, the shortest and faintest 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 fenfible Sorrow, is a great degree of Friendfhip. I can fay no more but that I love you, and all that are your's; and that I wish it may be very long before any of your's fhall fhall feel for you, what I now feel for my Father. Adieu. 1 To the fame. Rentcomb in Gloucestershire, Oct. 3. 1721 Dear Sir, YOUR 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 Ancestors, 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 Pleafure, that reprefented her to me in those puerile Amusements, which engaged her so 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 thofe early Times, remember'd her Creator in the Days of her Youth. You defcribe fo well your Hermitical state of Life, that none of the antient Anchorites could go beyond you for a Cave in a Rock with a fine Spring, or any of the Accomodations that befit a Solitary. Only I don't remember to have read, that any of those venerable and holy Perfonages took with them a Lady, and begat Sons and Daughters. You must modeftly |