fhop of Rochester *. Sure, this is a nation that is curfedly afraid of being over-run with too much politenefs, 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 efcapes being banished by others, I fear he will banish himfelf. This leads me to give you fome account of the manner of my life and conversation; which has been infinitely more various and diffipated, than when you knew me, and cared for me; and among all fexes, parties, and profeflions. A glut of ftudy and retirement, in the first part of my life, caft me into this; and this, I begin to fee, will throw me again into ftudy and retirement.

The civilities I have met with from oppofite fets of people, have hindered me from being vio

* Dr Atterbury.

lent

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. Warb.

This Mr Walfh feriously thought to be the cafe, where, in a letter to Mr Pope, he fays,-"When we were in the North, (c my Lord Wharton fhewed me a letter he had received from "a certain great General in Spain [Lord Peterborow]. I told "him, I would by all means have that General recalled, and "fet to writing here at home; for it was impoffible, that a "man with fo much wit as he fhewed, could be fit to command "an army, or do any other bufinefs." Pope's works, vol. 7. let. 5. Sept. 9. 1706. Warb.

lent 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 furprised at any. I am therefore the more afflicted, and the more angry, at the violences 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 quietnefs of mind, which by fits improves into a certain degree of chearfulnefs, enough to make me juft fo good humoured as to with that world well. My friendships are increafed 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 1 have learned to bear with); and fuch I cannot be commonly civil to; for I think thofe men are next to knaves who converfe with them. The greatest man in power of this fort, fhall hardly make me bow to him, ualefs I had a perfonal obligation, and that I will take care not to have. The top pleafure 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 fuperiors. 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. have carefully avoided all intercourfe with poets and fcribblers, unless where, by great chance, I have found a modeft one. By thefe means I have had no quarrels with any perfonally; none have Dd3 been

I

been enemies, but who were alfo ftrangers to me; and as there is no great need of an eclairciffement with fuch, whatever they writ or faid, I never retaliated; not only never feeming 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 fee the millenium and the kingdom of the just 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 juftice, and feel in your heart how long a man may be filent to those he truly loves and refpects..

I

LETTER CCCIX.

LORD BOLINGBROKE TO DR SWIFT.

AM not fo lazy as Pope, and therefore you

must not expect from me the fame indulgence to lazinefs. In defending his own caufe, he pleads your's; 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 ex

pect

pect from two fuch righteous tribunals. You resemble perfectly the two ale-house keepers in Holland, who were at the fame time burgomafters of the town, and taxed one another's bill 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 acknowledgements at leaft are neceffary to preferve it; and I begin to fufpect, by your defrauding me of them, that you hope in time to difpute 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 contrast 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 ufed to fcatter with fome profufion among the female kind, has been thefe many years devoted to one object. A great many misfortunes, (for fo they are called, tho' fometimes very improperly), and a retirement from the world, have made that juft 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-fhine, have difappeared fince I lived in the fhade. No man comes to a hermitage, but for the fake of the hermit.

A

few

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 Bickerstaff be admitted, this diftinction is owing to fome strokes, 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 the Zabians, Magians, and the Egyptian feers), 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 abftracted reafon of things, that I am ready to imagine, there never was any fuch 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 history of our own country, till that body of it which you promife to finish appears *.

I am under no apprehenfion, that a glut of ftudy and retirement fhould caft me back into the hurry of the world; on the contrary, the single regret which I ever feel, is, that I fell fo late into this courfe of life: My philofophy grows confirm

ed

*See note, p. 263, above.