I

tempted, if he had the fole management, fo I am confident he will fucceed in this. I defire you will allow that I write to you both at prefent, and fo I fhall while I live: It faves your money, and my time; and he being your Genius, no matter to which it is addreffed. am happy that what you write is printed in large letters; otherwife, between the weakness of my eyes, and the thickness of my hearing, I should lose the greatest pleasure that is left me. Pray command my Lord B-— to follow that example, if I live to read his Metaphyfics. Pray God bless you both. I had a melancholy account from the Doctor of his health. I will anfwer his letter as foon as I can. I am ever entirely yours.

LET

IAm

LETTER_LXXIII.

Twickenham, Decemb. 19, 1734:

your

Am truly forry for any complaint you have, and it is in regard to the weakness of eyes that I write (as well as print) in folio. You'll think (I know you will, for you have all the candor of a good understanding) that the thing which men of our age feel the most, is the friendship of our equals; and that therefore whatever affects thofe who are ftept a few years before us, cannot but fenfibly affect us who are to follow. It troubles me to hear you complain of your memory, and if I am in any part of my conftitution younger than you, it will be in my remembering every thing that has pleafed me in you, longer than perhaps you will. The two fummers we pafs'd together dwells always on my mind, like a vifion which gave me a glympfe of a better life and better company, than this world otherwife afforded. I am now an individual, upon whom no other depends; and may go where I will, if the wretched carcase I am annexed to did not hin

der me. I rambled by very eafy journies this year to Lord Bathurft and Lord Peterborow, who upon every occafion commemorate, love, and with for you. I now pass my days be$ 4

tween

tween Dawley, London, and this place, not studious, nor idle, rather polishing old works than hewing out new. I redeem now and then a paper that hath been abandoned several years; and of this fort you'll foon fee one, which I infcribe to our old friend Arbuthnot.

Thus far I had written, and thinking to finish my letter the fame evening, was prevented by company, and the next morning found myfelf in a fever highly disordered, and so continued in bed for five days; and in my chamber till now; but fo well recover'd as to hope to go abroad to-morrow, even by the advice of Dr. Arbuthnot. He himself, poor man, is much broke, tho' not worse than for these two laft months he has been, He took extremely kind your letter. I wish to God we could once meet again, before that feparation, which yet, I would be glad to believe, fhall re-unite us: But he who made us, not for ours but his purposes, knows only whether it be for the better or the worse, that the affections of this life should, or fhould not continue into the other and doubtlefs it is as it should be. Yet I am fure that while, I am here, and the thing that I am, I fhall be imperfect without the communication of fuch, friends as you; you are to me like a limb loft, and buried in another country; tho' we feem quite divided, every accident makes me feel you:

were

were once a part of me. I always confider you fo much as a friend, that I forget you are an author, perhaps too much, but 'tis as much as Į would defire you would do to me. However, if I could infpirit you to bestow correction upon those three Treatifes, which you fay are so near completed, I should think it a better work than any I can pretend to of my own. I am almost at the end of my Morals, as I've been long ago, of my Wit; my system is a short one, and my circle narrow. Imagination has no limits, and that is a sphere in which you may move on to eternity; but where one is confined to truth (or to speak more like a human creature, to the appearances of truth) we foon find the shortnefs of our Tether. Indeed by the help of a metaphysical chain of Ideas, one may extend the circulation, go round and round for ever, without making any progrefs beyond the point to which Providence has pinn'd us: But this does not fatisfy me, who would rather say a little to no purpose, than a great deal. Lord B. is voluminous, but he is voluminous only to destroy volumes. I fhall not live, I fear, to fee that work printed; he is fo taken up ftill (in fpite of the monitory hint given in the first line of my Effay) with particular men, that he neglects mankind, and is ftill a creature of this world, not of the Universe: This World,

which is a name we give to Europe, to England, to Ireland, to London, to Dublin, to the Court, to the Castle, and fo diminishing, till it comes to our own affairs, and to our own perfons. When you write (either to him or me, for we accept it all as one) rebuke him for it, as a divine you like it, or as a Badineur, if you think that more effectual.

if

What I write will fhew that my head is yet weak. I had written to you by that gentleman from the Bath, but I did not know him, and every body that comes from Ireland, pretends to be a friend of the Dean's. I am always glad to see any that are truly fo, and therefore do not mistake any thing I said, so as to difcourage your fending any fuch to me. Adieu.

You

LETTER LXXIV.

From Dr. SWIFT.

May 12, 1735.

OUR letter was fent me yesterday by Mr. Stopford, who landed the fame day, but I have not yet feen him. As to my filence, God knows it is my great misfortune. My little domestic affairs are in great confufion

by