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vis'd me! In conversation, in study, I fhall always want you, and wifh for you: In my most lively, and in my most thoughtful hours, I fhall equally bear about me, the impressions of you: And perhaps it will not be in This life only, that I fhall have cause to remember and acknowledge the friendship of the Bishop of Rochester.

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NCE more I write to you, as I promis'd, and

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this once, I fear, will be the laft! the Curtain will foon be drawn between my friend and me, and nothing left but to wish you a long good-night. May you enjoy a state of repofe in this life, not unlike that fleep of the foul which fome have believ'd is to fucceed it, where we lye utterly forgetful of that world from which we are gone, and ripening for that to which we are to go. If you retain any memory of the past, let it only image to you what has pleas'd you beft; fometimes present a dream of an absent friend, or bring you back an agreeable converfation. But upon the whole, I hope you will think lefs of the time past than of the future; as the former has been lefs kind to you than the latter infallibly will be. Do not envy the world your Studies; they will tend to the benefit of men against whom you can have no complaint, I

mean of all Pofterity; and perhaps, at your time of life, nothing else is worth your care. What is every year of a wife man's life but a cenfure or critic on the paft? Those whose date is the shorteft, live long enough to laugh at one half of it: the boy despises the infant, the man the boy, the philofopher both, and the Christian all. You may now begin to think your manhood was too much a puerility; and you'll never fuffer your age to be but a fecond infancy. The toys and baubles of your childhood are hardly now more below you, than those toys of our riper and of our declining years, the drums and rattles of Ambition, and the dirt and bubbles of Avarice. At this time, when you are cut off from a little fociety and made a citizen of the world at large, you should bend your talents not to ferve a Party, or a few, but all mankind. Your Genius fhould mount above that mift in which its participation and neighbourhood with earth long involv'd it; to fhine abroad and to heaven; ought to be the bufinefs and the glory of your prefent fituation. Remember it was at fuch a time, that the greatest lights of antiquity dazled and blazed the most, in their retreat, in their exile, or in their death: but why do I talk of dazling or blazing? it was then that they did good, that they gave light, and that they became Gui, des to mankind.

Thofe aims alone are worthy of spirits truly great, and fuch I therefore hope will be yours. Refentment indeed may remain, perhaps cannot be quite extinguifhed, in the nobleft minds; but Revenge never will harbour there: higher principles than those of the first, and better principles than thofe of the latter, will in

fallibly influence men, whose thoughts and whofe hearts are enlarged, and cause them to prefer, the Whole to any part of mankind, efpecially to fo fmall a part as one's single self.

Believe me, my Lord, look upon you as a spirit entered into another life 3o, as one just upon the edge of Immortality; where the passions and affections mult be much more exalted, and where you ought to despise all little views, and all mean retrospects 3 Nothing is worth your looking back; and therefore look forward, and make (as you can) the world look after youj But take care that it be not with pity, but with esteem and admiration. ba the sd. bus * I am with the greateft fincerity, and passion for your ! 16 Low adi to nesio fame as well as happiness,

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igo The Bishop of Rochester went into exile the month follow. ing and continued in it till his death, which happen'd at Paris on the fifteenth day of February in the year 1732.

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31 Notwithstanding this, Mr. Pape was convinced, before the Bishop's death, that during his banishment he was in the intrigues of the Pretender. Tho', when he took, his laft leave of Mr. Pope, he told him, he would allow him to lay his fentence was just, if he ever found he had any concerns with that family in his exile, boog bri inun on esb

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Paris, Nov. 23, 1731.

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could I avoid it? The dead and the living, my friends and my foes, at home and abroad, call'd me to fay fomething; and the reputation of Hiftory which I and all the world value, must have si fuf fered, had I continued filent. I have printed it here, in hopes that fomebody may venture to reprint it in England, notwithstanding those two frightening words at the clofe of it 33. Whether that happens or not, it is fit you should have a fight of it, who, I know, will read it with fome degree of fatisfaction, as it is mine, tho' it fhould have (as it really has) nothing elle to recommend it. Such as it is, Extremum hoc munus mo rientis habeto for that may well be the cafe, confi dering that within a few months I am entering into my feventieth year after which, even the healthy and the happy cannot much depend upon life, and will nor, if they are wife, much defire it. Whenever I go, you will lofe a friend who loves and values you extremely,

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33. The Bishop's Name, fet to his Vindication of Bifhop Smalridge, Dr. Aldrich, and himself, from the fcandalous Refections of Oldmixon, relating to the Publication of Lord Clarendon's Hiftony. Paris, 1731. 410. fince reprinted in England.

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if in my circumftances I can be said to be loft to any one, when dead, more than I am already whilst living. I expected to have heard from you by Mr. Morice, and wondered a little that I did not; but he owns himself in a fault, for not giving you due notice of his motions. It was not amifs that you forebore writing, on a head wherein I promis'd more than I was able to perform. Difgraced men fancy fometimes, that they preserve an influence, where when they endeavour to exert it, they foon fee their mistake. I did fo, my good friend, and acknowledge it under my hand. You founded the coaft, and found out my error, it seems, before I was aware of it; but enough on this fubject.

What are they doing in England to the honour of Letters; and particularly what are you doing? Ipfe quid andes? Quæ circumvolitas agilis Thyma? Do you purfue the Moral plan you marked out, and feemed fixteen months ago so intent upon? Am I to fee it perfected e'er I die, and are you to enjoy the reputation of it while you live? or do you rather chufe to leave the marks of your friendship, like the legacies of a will, tó be read and enjoyed only by thofe who survive you? Were I as near you as I have been, I should hope to peép p into the manufcript before it was finished. But alas! there is, and will ever probably be a great deal of land and fea between us. How many books have come out of late in your parts, which you think I should be glad in the perufe? Name them: The catalogue, I believe, will not coft you much trouble. They must be good ones indeed to challenge any part of my time, now I have fo little of it left. 1, who fquandered whole days heretofore, now husband hours when the

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