can care for a hundred thousand people, who never cared for one? No ill-humoured man can ever be a Patriot, any more than a Friend. I defigned to have left the following page for Dr. Arbuthnot to fill, but he is fo touch'd with the period in yours to me concerning him, that he intends to answer it by a whole letter. He too is bufy about a book, which I guess he will tell you of. So adieu---what remains worth telling you? Dean Berkley is well, and happy in the prosecution of his Scheme. Lord Oxford and Lord Bolingbroke in health, Duke Disny so alfo; Sir William Wyndham better, Lord Bathurst well. These and fome others, preferve their ancient honour and ancient friendship. Those who do neither, if they were d---d, what is it to a Protestant priest, who has nothing to do with the dead? I answer for my own part as a Papift, I would not pray them out of Purgatory. My name is as bad an one as yours, and hated by all bad Poets, from Hopkins and Sternhold to Gildon and Cibber. The first prayed against me with the Turk; and a modern Imitator of theirs (whom I leave you to find out) has added the Chriftian to 'em, with proper definitions of each in this manner, The Pope's the Whore of Babylon, The Chriftian is an Infidel LETTER I LETTER XIII. From Dr. SWIFT. Nov. 26, 1725. Should fooner have acknowledged yours, if a feverish disorder and the relics of it had not difabled me for a fortnight. I now begin to make excuses, because I hope I am pretty near seeing you, and therefore I would culti vate an acquaintance; because if you do not know me when we meet, you need only keep one of my letters, and compare it with my face, for my face and letters are counterparts of my heart. I fear I have not exprefs'd that right, but I mean well, and I hate blots: I look in your letter, and in my confcience you fay the fame thing, but in a better manner. Pray tell my Lord Bolingbroke that I wish he were ba nished again, for then I fhould hear from him, when he was full of philosophy, and talked de contemptu mundi. My Lord Oxford was fo extremely kind as to write to me immediately an account of his fon's birth; which I immediately acknowledg'd, but before my letter could reach him, I wished it in the fea: I hope I was more afflicted than his Lordship. "Tis hard that Parfons and Beggars should be over-run with bratts, while fo great and good a family wants wants an heir to continue it. I have receiv'd his Father's picture, but I lament (fub figillo confeffionis) that it is not fo true a resemblance as I could wish. Drown the world! I am not content with defpifing it, but I would anger it, if I could with fafety. I wish there were an Hofpital built for its Defpifers, where one might act with safety, and it need not be a large building, only I would have it well endow'd. P** is fort chancellant whether he fhall turn Parfon or no. But all employments here are engaged, or in reverfion. Caft Wits and caft Beaux have a proper fanctuary in the church: yet we think it a fevere judgment, that a fine gentleman, and fo much the finer for hating Ecclefiaftics, fhould be a domeftic humble retainer to an Irifh Prelate. He is neither Secretary nor Gentleman-ufher, yet ferves in both capacities. He hath published several reasons why he never came to fee me, but the best is, that I have not waited on his Lordship. We have had a Poem fent from London in imitation of that on Mifs Carteret. It is on Mifs Harvey of a day old; and we fay and think it is yours. I wish it were not, because I am against monopolies.---You might have fpared me a few more lines of your Satire, but I hope in a few months to fee it all. To hear boys, like you, talk of Millenniums and tranquillity! I am older by thirty years, Lord Bolingbroke by twenty, and you but by ten, than when we laft were together; and we should differ more than ever, you coquetting a maid of honour, my Lord looking on to see how the gamefters play, and I railing at you both. I defire you and all my friends will take a special care that my Difaffection to the world may not be imputed to my Age, for I have credible witnesses ready to depose, that it hath never varied from the twenty-first to the f--ty eighth year of my life (pray fill that blank charitably.) I tell you after all, that I do not hate mankind, it is vous autres who hate them, because you would have them reasonable Animals, and are angry at being disappointed: I have always rejected that definition, and made another of my own. I am no more angry with---than I was with the Kite that last week flew away with one of my chickens; and yet I was pleased when one of my servants shot him two days after. This I say, because you are fo hardy as to tell me of your intentions to write Maxims in oppofition to Rochefoucault, who is my favourite, because I found my whole character in him; however I will read him again, because it is poffible I may have fince undergone fome alterations.-- heart.. This, methinks, is no great compliment to his own Take care the bad Poets do not out-wit you, as they have ferved the good ones in every age, whom they have provoked to transmit their names to pofterity. Mævius is as well known as Virgil, and Gildon will be as well known as you, if his name gets into your Verfes and as to the difference between good and bad fame, 'tis a perfect trifle. I ask a thousand pardons, and fo leave you for this time, and will write again without concerning myfelf whether you write or no. I am, &c. I LETTER XIV. Decemb. 10, 1725. Find myself the better acquainted with you for a long Abfence, as men are with themfelves for a long Affliction: Absence does but hold off a Friend, to make one see him the more truly. I am infinitely more pleas'd to hear you are coming near us, than at any thing you seem to think in my favour; an opinion which has perhaps been aggrandized by the distance or dulnefs of Ireland, as objects look larger thro' a medium of Fogs: and yet I am infinitely pleas'd with that too. I am much the happier for finding (a better thing than our.... VOL. IX. Wits) F |