what is it to a Proteftant prieft, who has nothing to do with the dead? I anfwer, for my own part, as a Papist, I would not pray them out of purgatory. My name is as bad an one as your's, and hated by all bad poets, from Hopkins and Sternhold to Gildon and Cibber. The first prayed against me with the Turk, and a modern imitator of their's (whom I leave to you to find out) has added the Chriftian to them, with proper definitions of cach, in this manner : The Pope's the whore of Babylon, The Chriftian is an Infidel LETTER CCCXLVI. I DR ARBUTHNOTT TO DR SWIFT. DEAR SIR, London, Oct. 17, 1725. HAVE the vanity to think, that a few friends have a real concern for me, and are uneafy when I am in diftrefs; in confequence of which, I ought to communicate with them the joy of my recovery. I did not want a most kind paragraph in your letter to Mr Pope, to convince me, that you are of the number; and I know, that I give you a sensible pleasure, in telling you, that I M m 2 think think myself at this time almoft perfectly recovered of a moft unufual and dangerous diftemper,. an impofthume in the bowels; fuch a one, that had it been in the hands of a chirurgeon, in an. outward and fleshy part, I fhould not have been well these three months. Duke Difney, our old friend, is in a fair way to recover of such another. There have been feveral of them occafioned, as I reckon, by the cold and wet feafon.. People have told me of new impoftures (as they call them) every day. Poor Sir William Wyndham is an impofture: I hope the Bath, where he is going, will do him good. The hopes of feeing once more the Dean of St Patrick's, revives my fpirits. I cannot help imagining fome of your old club met together, like mariners after a ftorm. For God's fake, do not tantalize your friends any more. I can prove by twenty unanfwerable arguments, that it is abfolutely neceffary, that you should come over to England; that it would be committing the greatest abfurdity that ever was, not to do it the next approaching Winter. I believe, indeed, it is just poffible to fave your foul without it, and that is all. As for your book* (of which I have framed to myself fuch an idea, that I am perfuaded, there is no doing any good upon mankind without it) I will fet the letters myfelf, rather than it fhould not be published. But before you put the finishing hand to it, it is really neceffary to be acquainted * Gulliver's Travels. with with fome new improvements of mankind, that have appeared of late, and are daily appearing. Mankind has an inexhauftible fource of invention in the way of folly and madness. I have only one fear, that when you come over, you will be fo much coveted and taken up by the miniftry; that unless your friends meet you at their tables, they will have none of your company. This is really no joke; I am quite in earneft. Your deafness is so neceffary a thing, that I almoft begin to think it an affectation. I remember you ufed to reckon dinners. I know of near half-a-year's dinners, where you are already befpoke. It is worth your while to come to fee your old friend Lewis, who is wifer than ever he was, the best of husbands. I am fure I can fay from my own experience, that he is the beft of friends. He was fo to me, when he had little hope I fhould ever live to thank him. You must acquaint me, before you take your journey, that we may provide a convenient lodging for you amongst your friends. I am called away this moment, and have only time to add, that I love and long to fee you; and am most fincerely, dear Sir, your moft faithful humble fervant, J. ARBUTHNOTT.. LETTER CCCXLVII. EDWARD EARL OF OXFORD TO DR SWIFT. I REV. SIR, HOPE you Dover-freet, O. 19, 1725. will excufe thefe few lines for once, when I tell you that yesterday morning, I thank God, my wife was fafely delivered of a fon, and both mother and child are as well as can be expected. I fancy this will not be difagreeable news to the Dean of St Patrick's, except he be very much altered, which I believe not. I will not trouble you with any more, but to tell you, that I am, with great refpect, Sir, your most obedient humble fervant, OXFORD. LETTER CCCXLVIII. FROM DR SWIFT. Nov. 26, 1725. I SHOULD fooner have acknowledged your's, if a feverish diforder, and the relics of it, had not disabled me for a fortnight. I now begin to make excuses, because I hope I am pretty near feeing you, and therefore I would cultivate an acquaintance: Because if you do not know me when we meet, you need only keep one of my letters, and compare it with my face, for my face and 'Tis and letters are counter-parts of my heart. I fear I have not expreffed that right; but I mean well, and I hate blots. I look in your letter, and in my confcience you fay the fame thing, but in a better manner. Pray tell my Lord Bolingbroke, that I wish he were banished again; for then I should hear from him, when he was full of philofophy, and talked de contemptu mundi. My Lord Oxford was fo extremely kind, as to write to me immediately on account of his fon's birth; which I immediately acknowledged; but before my letter could reach him, I wished it in the fea. I hope I was more afflicted than his Lordship. hard that parfons and beggars fhould be over-run with brats, while fo great and good a family wants an heir to continue it. I have received his father's picture; but I lament (fub figillo confeffionis) that it is not fo true a refemblance as I could wifh. Drown the world! I am not content with defpifing it; but I would anger it, if I could with fafety. I wish there were an hospital built for its defpifers, where one might act with fafety; and it need not be a large building, only I would have it well endowed. P** is fort chancellant, whether he fhall turn parfon or no. But all employments here are engaged, or in reverfion. Caft wits and caft beaux have a proper fanctuary in the church; yet we think it a fevere judgment, that a fine gentleman, and fo much the finer for hating ecclefiastics, should be a domestic humble retainer to an Irish prelate. He is neither fecretary nor gentle man |