not regain one great Genius, but at the expence of another c. I tremble for my Lord Peterborow (whom I now lodge with) he has too much Wit, as well as Courage, to make a solid General d: and if he escapes being banished by others, I fear he will banish himself. This leads me to give you some account of the manner of my Life and Converfation, which has been infinitely more various and diffipated, than when you knew me and cared for me; and among all Sexes, Parties, and Profeffions. A Glut of Study and Retirement in the first part of my life caft me into this; and this, I begin to fee, will throw me again into Study and Retirement.

The Bishop of Rochefter thought this to be indeed the cafe; and that the price agreed on for Lord B's return was his banishment: an imagination, which fo ftrongly poffeffed him when he went abroad, that all the expoftulations of his friends. could not convince him of the folly of it.

d This Mr. Walsh ferioufly thought to be the cafe, where, in a letter to Mr. Pope, he fays-" When we "were in the North, my

The Civilities I have met with from oppofite Setts of people, have hinder'd me from being violent or four to any Party; but at the fame time the Obfervations and Experiences I cannot but have collected, have made me lefs fond of, and lefs furprized at, any: I am therefore the more afflicted and the more angry at the Violence and Hardships I fee practifed by either. The merry Vein you knew me in, is funk into a Turn of Reflection, that has made the world pretty indifferent to me; and yet I have acquired a Quietness of mind which by fits improves into a certain degree of Chearfulness, enough to make me just fo good humoured as to with that world well. My Friendships are encreased by new ones, yet no part of the warmth I felt for the old is diminished. Averfions I have none but to Knaves (for fools I have learned to bear with) and fuch I cannot be commonly civil to; for I think thofe men are next to Knaves who converse with them. The greatest man in power of this fort fhall hardly make me bow to him, unless I had a perfonal obligation, and that I will take care not to have. The top pleasure of my life is one I learned from you both how to gain and how to use; the Freedom of Friendship with men, much my Superiors. To have pleased great men, according to Horace, is a praife; but not to have flattered

them

By these

them, and yet not have displeased them, is a greater. I have carefully avoided all intercourse with Poets and Scriblers, unless where by great chance I have found a modeft one. means I have had no quarrels with any perfonally; none have been Enemies, but who were alfo Strangers to me: and as there is no great need of an Eclaircifment with fuch, whatever they writ or faid I never retaliated, not only never seeming to know, but often really never knowing, any thing of the matter. There are very few things that give me the Anxiety of a wish; the strongest I have would be to pass my days with you, and a few fuch as you: But Fate has difperfed them all about the world; and I find to wifh it is as vain, as to wish to see the Millennium and the Kingdom of the Juft upon earth.

If I have finned in my long filence, confider there is one to whom you yourself have been as great a finner. As foon as you fee his hand, you will learn to do me justice, and feel in your heart how long a man may be filent to those he truly loves and respects.

LET

LETTER VIII.

Lord BOLINGBROKE to Dr. SWIFT.

AM not fo lazy as Pope, and therefore you

must not expect from me the fame indulgence to Laziness; in defending his own cause he pleads yours, and becomes your Advocate while he appeals to you as his Judge: You will do the fame on your part; and I, and the reft of your common Friends, fhall have great juftice to expect from two such righteous Tribunals: You resemble perfectly the two Alehouse-keepers in Holland, who were at the fame time Burgomafters of the Town, and taxed one another's Bills alternately. I declare before-hand I will not ftand to the award; my Title to your Friendship is good, and wants neither Deeds nor Writings to confirm it: but annual acknowledgments at least are neceffary to preferve it: and I begin to fufpect by your defrauding me of them, that you hope in time to dispute it, and to urge Prefcription against me. I would not fay one word to you about myself (fince it is a fubject on which you appear to have no curiosity) was it not to try how far the contrast between Pope's fortune and manner of life, and mine, may be carried.

2

I have

I have been, then, infinitely more uniform and lefs diffipated than when you knew me and cared for me. That Love which I used to scatter with some profufion among the female kind, has been these many years devoted to one object. A great many misfortunes (for fo they are called, though fometimes very improperly) and a retirement from the world, have made that just and nice discrimination between my Acquaintance and my Friends, which we have feldom fagacity enough to make for ourfelves; thofe infects of various hues, which used to hum and buz about me while I ftood in the fun-fhine, have difappeared fince I lived in the fhade. No man comes to, a Hermitage but for the fake of the Hermit; a few philofophical Friends come often to mine, and they are fuch as you would be glad to live with, if a dull climate and duller company have not altered you extremely from what you was nine years ago.

The hoarfe voice of Party was never heard in this quiet place; Gazettes and Pamphlets are banished from it, and if the Lucubrations of Ifaac Bickerftaff be admitted, this diftinction is owing to fome ftrokes by which it is judged that this illuftrious Philofopher had (like the Indian Fohu, the Grecian Pythagoras, the Perfian Zoroafter, and others his Precurfors

among