it, he told her, "My dear, it is only this, that you will never marry an old man again." I cannot help remarking, that fickness, which often destroys both wit and wisdom, yet seldom has power to remove that talent which we call humour: Mr. Wycherly fhew'd his, even in this last compliment; tho' I think his request a little hard, for why fhould he bar her from doubling her jointure on the fame easy terms? So trivial as these circumftances are, I should not be difpleas'd myself to know such trifles, when they concern or characterise any eminent perfon. The wifest and wittiest of men are feldom wiser or wittier than others in these sober moments: At least, our friend ended much in the character he had lived in: and Horace's rule for a play, may as well be apply'd to him as a play-wright, Servetur ad imum Qualis ab inceptu processerit, et fibi conftet. I am, &c. IM LETTER V. Feb. 10, 1715-16. Am just returned from the country, whither week in the foreft. I need not tell how 3. you much much a man of his turn entertain'd me; but I must acquaint you there is a vivacity and gaiety of difpofition almost peculiar to him, which make it impoffible to part from him without that uneafiness which generally fucceeds all our pleasures. I have been just taking a folitary walk by moon-fhine, full of reflections on the tranfitory nature of all human delights; and giving my thoughts a loofe in the contemplation of thofe fatisfactions which probably we may hereafter taste in the company of feparate spirits, when we fhall range the walks above, and perhaps gaze on this world at as vaft a distance as we now do on thofe worlds. The pleasures we are to enjoy in that converfation must undoubtedly be of a nobler kind, and (not unlikely) may proceed from the difcoveries each fhall communicate to another, of God and of Nature; for the happinefs of minds can furely 'be nothing but knowledge. The higheft gratification we receive here. from company is Mirth, which at the best is but a fluttering unquiet motion, that beats about the breaft for a few moments, and after leaves it void and empty. Keeping good company, even the beft, is but a lefs fhameful art of lofing time. What we here call'd fcience and ftudy, are little better: the greater number of arts to which we apply ourfelves are mere groping in the the dark; and even the fearch of our most important concerns in a future being, is but a needlefs, anxious, and uncertain hafte to be knowing, fooner than we can, what without all this folicitude we shall know a little later. We are but curious impertinents in the cafe of futurity, 'Tis not our business to be gueffing what the state of fouls fhall be, but to be doing what may make our own ftate happy; we cannot be knowing, but we can be virtuous. If this be my notion of a great part of that high science, Divinity, you will be so civil as to imagine I lay no mighty ftrefs upon the reft. Even of my darling poetry I really make no other ufe, than horfes of the bells that gingle about their ears (tho' now and then they tofs their heads as if they were proud of them) only to jog on, a little more merrily. Your obfervations on the narrow conceptions of mankind in the point of Friendship, confirm me in what I was fo fortunate as at my first knowledge of you to hope, and fince fo amply to experience. Let me take fo much decent pride and dignity upon me, as to tell you, that but for opinions like these which I discovered in your mind, I had never made the trial I have done; which has fucceeded fo much to mine, and, I believe, not lefs to your fatisfaction: for, if I know you right, your pleasure is greater in obliging obliging me, than I can feel on my part, till it falls in my power to oblige you. Your remark, that the variety of opinions in politics or religion is often rather a gratification, than an objection, to people who have fenfe enough to confider the beautiful order of nature in her variations, makes me think you have not conftrued Joannes Secundus wrong, in the verse which precedes that which you quote: Bene nota Fides, as I take it, does no way fignify the Roman Catholic Religion, tho' Secundus was of it. I think it was a generous thought, and one that flow'd from an exalted mind, That it was not improbable but God might be delighted with the various methods of worshipping him, which divided the whole worlda. I am pretty sure you and I fhould no more make good Inquifitors to the modern tyrants in faith, than we could have been quali a This was an opinion taken up by the old Philofophers, as the laft fupport of Paganism against Christiani- | ty: And the Miffionaries, to both the Indies, tell us, it is the first answer modern barbarians give to the offer made them of the Gofpel. But Christians might fee that the notion is not only improbable, but impoffible to be true, if the redemption of mankind was purchased by the death of Jefus, which is the gospelidea of his Religion. Nor is there any need of this opinion to difcredit perfecution. For the iniquity of that practice does not arise from restraining what God permits or delights in, but from ufurping a jurisdiction over confcience, which belongs only to his, tribunal. fied for Lictors to Procruftes, when he converted refractory members with the rack. In a word, I can only repeat to you what, I think, I have formerly faid; that I as little fear God will damn a man who has Charity, as I hope that any Priest can save him without it. I am, &c. LETTER VI. March 20, 1715-16. I Find that a real concern is not only a hindrance to speaking, but to writing too: the more time we give ourselves to think over one's own or a friend's unhappiness, the more unable we grow to express the grief that proceeds from it. It is as natural to delay a letter, at fuch a season as this, as to retard a melancholy visit to a person one cannot relieve. One is ashamed in that circumftance, to pretend to entertain people with trifling, infignificant affectations of forrow on the one hand, or unseasonable and forced gaieties on the other. "Tis a kind of profanation of things facred, to treat fo folemn a matter as a generous voluntary fuffering, with compliments, or heroic gallantries. Such a mind as your's has no need of being fpirited up into honour, or like a YOL. VIII. C weak |