Was it a Gasconade to please me, that you faid fortune was increased 100l. a year your

fince I left you? you should have told me how. Those fubfidia fenectuti are extremely defirable, if they could be got with justice, and without avarice; of which vice tho' I cannot charge myself yet, nor feel any approaches towards it, yet no ufurer more wishes to be richer (or rather to be furer of his rents.) But I am not half so moderate as you, for I declare I cannot live easily under double to what with.

are fatisfied

you are

I hope Mr. Gay will keep his 3000l. and live on the intereft without decreasing the principal one penny; but I do not like your feldom feeing him. I hope he is grown more difengaged from his intentnefs on his own affairs, which I ever disliked, and is quite the reverse to you, unless you are a very dextrous disguiser. I defire my humble service to Lord Oxford, Lord Bathurst, and particularly to Mrs. B-, but to no Lady at court. God bless you for being a greater Dupe than I: I love that character too myself, but I want your charity. Adieu.

LE T

LETTER XXXIX.

Oct. 9, 1729.

T pleases me that you received my books at

laft: but you have never once told me if you approve the whole, or disapprove not of fome parts, of the Commentary, &c. It was my principal aim in the entire work to perpetuate the friendship between us, and to fhew that the friends or the enemies of one were the friends or enemies of the other: If in any particular, any thing be ftated or mention'd in a different manner from what you like, pray tell me freely, that the new Editions now coming out here may have it rectify'd. You'll find the octavo rather more correct than the quarto, with fome additions to the Notes and Epigrams caft in, which I wish had been increas'd by your acquaintance in Ireland. I rejoice in hearing that Drapiers-Hill is to emulate Parnaffus; I fear the country about it is as much impoverish'd. I truly fhare in all that troubles you, and wish you remov'd from a scene of diftrefs, which I know works your compaffionate temper too ftrongly. But if we are not to fee you here, I believe I fhall once in my life fee you there. You think more for me, and about me, than any friend I have, and you think better for me. Perhaps you'll not be contented,

tented, tho' I am, that the additional 100l. a year is only for my life. My mother is yet living, and I thank God for it: fhe will never be troublesome to me, if she be not fo to herself: but a melancholy object it is, to observe the gradual decays both of body and mind, in a perfon to whom one is tyed by the links of both. I can't tell whether her death itself would be fo afflicting.

You are too careful of my worldly affairs; I am rich enough, and I can afford to give away a 100l. a year. Don't be angry; I will not live to be very old; I have Revelations to the contrary. I would not crawl upon the earth without doing a little good when I have a mind to do it: I will enjoy the pleasure of what I give, by giving it alive, and seeing another enjoy it. When I die, I fhou'd be asham'd to leave enough to build me a monument, if there were a wanting friend above ground.

Mr. Gay affures me his 3000/. is kept entire and facred; he feems to languish after a line from you, and complains tenderly. Lord Bolingbroke has told me ten times over he was going to write to you. Has he, or not? The Dr. is unalterable, both in friendship and Quadrille his wife has been very near death laft week his two brothers buried their wives within these fix weeks. Gay is fixty miles off,

and

and has been fo all this fummer, with the Duke and Duchefs of Queensbury. He is the fame man: So is every one here that you know: mankind is unamendable. Optimus ille Qui minimis urgetur-Poor Mrs. * is like the rest, fhe cries at the thorn in her foot, but will fuffer no body to pull it out. The Court-Lady I have a good opinion of, yet I have treated her more negligently than you wou'd do, because you like to fee the infide of a court, which I do not. I have seen her but twice. You have a desperate hand at dashing out a character by great strokes, and at the fame time a delicate one at fine touches. God forbid you shou'd draw mine, if I were confcious of any guilt; But if I were conscious only of folly, God fend it! for as no body can detect a great fault fo well as you, no body would fo well hide a small one. But after all, that Lady means to do good, and does no harm, which is a vast deal for a Courtier. I can affure you that Lord Peterborow always speaks kindly of you, tainly has as great a mind to be any one. I must throw away my pen; it cannot, it will never tell you, what I inwardly am to you. Quod nequeo monftrare, et fentio tantum.

your

and cer

friend as

LET

LETTER XL.

Lord BOLINGBROKE to Dr. SWIFT.

I

Bruffels, Sept. 27, 1729.

Have brought your French acquaintance thus far on her way into her own country, and confiderably better in health than the was when she went to Aix. I begin to entertain hopes that she will recover fuch a degree of health as may render old age fupportable. Both of us have closed the tenth Luftre, and it is high time to determine how we shall play the last act of the Farce. Might not my life be intituled much more properly a What-dye-call-it than a Farce? fome Comedy, a great deal of Tragedy, and the whole interspersed with scenes of Harlequin, Scaramouch, and Dr. Baloardo, the prototype of your Hero. I used to think fometimes formerly of old age and of death: enough to prepare my mind; not enough to anticipate forrow, to dash the joys of youth, and to be all my life a dying. I find the benefit of this practice now, and find it more as I proceed on my journey little regret when I look backwards, little apprehenfion when I look forward. You complain grievously of your fituation in Ireland: I would complain of mine too in England, but I will not, nay I ought not; for I

find