Do I ftill live in the memory of my friends, as they certainly do in mine? I have read a good many of your paper-squabbles about me, and am glad to fee fuch free conceffions on that head, tho' made with no view of doing me a pleasure, but merely of loading another.

I am, &c.

LETTER XXV.

From the Bishop of ROCHESTER. On the Death of his Daughter.

I

Montpelier, Nov. 20, 1729.

AM not yet Master enough of myself, after the late wound I have receiv'd, to open my very heart to you, and am not content with less than that, whenever I converse with you. My thoughts are at prefent vainly, but pleasingly employ'd, on what I have loft, and can never recover. I know well I ought, for that reason, to call them off to other fubjects, but hitherto I have not been able to do it. By giving them the rein a little, and fuffering them to spend their force, I hope in fome time to check and fubdue them. Multis fortunæ vulneribus perculfus, buic uni me imparem fenfi, et pene fuccubui. This is weakness, not wisdom, I own; and on

that

that account fitter to be trufted to the bofom of a friend, where I may fafely lodge all my infirmities. As foon as my mind is in fome meafure corrected and calm'd, I will endeavour to follow your advice, and turn it to something of use and moment; if I have ftill life enough left to do any thing that is worth reading and preferving. In the mean time I shall be pleas'd to hear that you proceed in what you intend, without any fuch melancholy interruption as I have met with. Your mind is as yet unbroken by age and ill accidents, your knowledge and judgment are at the height: use them in writing fomewhat that may teach the present and future times, and if not gain equally the applause of both, may yet raise the envy of the one, and secure the admiration of the other. Employ not your precious moments, and great talents on little men and little things; but chuse a subject every way worthy of you, and handle it as you can, in a manner which no-body else can equal or imitate. As for me, my abilities, if I ever had any, are not what they were: and yet I will endeavour to recollect and employ them.

gelidus tardante fenecta

Sanguis hebet, frigentque effato in corpore vires.

However, I should be ingrateful to this place,

if

if I did not own that I have gained upon the gout in the fouth of France, much more than I did at Paris: tho' even there I fenfibly improved. I believe my cure had been perfected, but the earnest defire of meeting One I dearly loved, called me abruptly to Montpelier; where after continuing two months, under the cruel torture of a fad and fruitless expectation, I was forced at last to take a long journey to Toulouse; and even there I had mifs'd the perfon I fought, had she not, with great fpirit and courage, ventured all night up the Garonne to fee me, which she above all things defired to do before she died. By that means fhe was brought where I was, between seven and eight in the morning, and liv'd twenty hours afterwards, which time was not loft on either fide, but pafs'd in fuch a manner as gave great fatisfaction to both, and fuch as on her part, every way became her circumftances and character. For she had her fenfes to the very last gafp, and exerted them to give me, in those few hours, greater marks of Duty and Love than fhe had done in all her life-time, tho' she had never been wanting in either. The laft words fhe faid to me were the kindeft of all; a reflection on the goodness of God, which had allow'd us in this manner to meet once more, before we parted for ever. Not many minutes

after

after that, the laid herself on her pillow, in a fleeping posture,

placidaque ibi demum morte quievit.

Judge you, Sir, what I felt, and still feel on this occafion, and spare me the trouble of describing it. At my Age, under my infirmities, among utter Strangers, how shall I find out proper reliefs and fupports? I can have none, but those with which Reafon and Religion furnish me, and those I lay hold on, and grasp as fast as I can. I hope that He, who laid the burden upon me (for wife and good purposes no doubt) will enable me to bear it, in like manner, as I have born others, with fome degree of fortitude and firmness.

You see how ready I am to relapse into an argument which I had quitted once before in this letter. I shall probably again commit the fame fault, if I continue to write; and therefore I stop short here, and with all fincerity, affection, and esteem, bid you adieu! till we meet either in this world, if God pleases, or else in another. I am, &c.

LET

LETTERS

TO AND FROM

Mr. G A Y.

From 1712 to 1732.

You

LETTER I.

Binfield, Nov. 13, 1712.

OU writ me a very kind Letter fome months ago, and told me you were then upon the point of taking a journey into Devonshire. That hindered my answering you, and I have fince several times inquired of you, without any fatisfaction; for fo I call the knowledge of your welfare, or of any thing that concerns you. I past two months in Suffex, and fince my return have been again very ill. I writ to Lintot in hopes of hearing of you, but had no answer to that point. Our friend Mr. Cromwell too has been filent all this year; I believe he has been displeased at some or other

of