most loved, and with whom I most lived, must be banished: After both of you left England, my contant Hoft was the Bishop of * Rochester. Sure this is a nation that is curfedly afraid of being overrun with too much Politeness, and cannot regain one great Genius, but at the expence of another. I tremble for my Lord Peterborow (whom I now lodge with) he has too much Wit, as well as Courage, to make a folid General: and if he escapes being banished by others, I fear he will banish himself. This leads me to give you fome 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 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 angryat the Violences and Hardfhips 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 Quietnefs of mind which by fits improves into a * Dr. Atterbury, D

certain degree of Chearfulness, enough to make me juft fo good humoured as to wish 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 those men are next to Knaves who converfe with them. The greatest Man in power of this fort shall hardly make me bow to him, unless I had a personal 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 ufe; the Freedom of Friendship with men much my Superiors. To have pleafed great men, according to Horace, is a praife; but not to have flattered them and yet not have difpleafed 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. By these 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 such, 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 and I find to wish it is as vain, as to wish to

:

world;

+

fee 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 see 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 refpects.

I

LETTER VIII.

Lord BOLINGBROKE to Dr. SWIFT.

Am not fo lazy as Pope, and therefore you muft

not expect from me the fame indulgence to Lazinefs; 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 rest of your common Friends, fhall have great juftice to expect from two fuch righteous Tribunals: You refemble perfectly the two Alehoufe-keepers in Holland, who were at the same time Burgomafters of the Town, and taxed one another's Bills alternately. I declare before hand I will not stand to the award; my Title to your Friendfhip is good, and wants neither Deeds nor Writings to confirm it but annual Acknowledgments at leaft 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 Prescription against me. I would not fay one word to you about myfelf (fince it is a fubject on which you appear to have no curiofity) was it not to try how far the contraft between Pope's fortune and manner of life, and mine may be carried,

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 fome profufion among the female kind, has been these many years devoted to one object. A great many misfortunes (for fo they are called, though sometimes very improperly) and a retirement from the world, havemade that just and nice difcrimination between my Acquaintance and my Friends, which we have feldom fagacity enough to make for ourselves; thofe infects of various hues, which used to hum and buz about me, while I ftood in the fun-shine, 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 banifhed from it, and if the Lucubrations of Ifaac Bickerstaff be admitted, this diftinction is owing to fome ftrokes by which it is judged that this Illuftri

ous Philofopher had (like the Indian Fohu, the Grecian Pythagoras, the Perfian Zoroafter, and o-. thers his Precurfors among the Zabians, Magians, and the Egyptian Seers) both his outward and his inward Doctrine, and that he was of no fide at the bottom. When I am there, I forget I ever was of any party myself; nay, I am often fo happily abforbed by the abstracted reason of things, that I am ready to imagine there never was any fuck monfter as Party. Alas, I am foon awakened from that: pleafing dream by the Greek and Roman Hiftorians, by Guicciardine, by Machiavel, and Thuanus; for I have vowed to read no Hiftory of our own coun- ' try, till that body of it which you promise to finish, appears.

I am under no apprehenfion that a glut of Study and Retirement fhould caft me back into the hurry? of the world; on the contrary, the fingle regret which I ever feel, is that I fell fo late into this course of life; my Philofophy grows confirmed by habit, and if you and I meet again, I will extort this approbation from you: Jam non confilio bonus, fed more eo perductus, ut non tantum re&te facere poffim, sed nifi recte facere non poffim. The little incivilities I have met with from oppofite fetts of people, have been fo far from rendering me violent or four to any, that I think myfelf obliged to them all; fome have cured me of my fears, by fhewing me how impotent the malice of the world is; others have cured: me of my hopes, by fhewing how precarious popu