́ed, that you are neither a free-thinker, nor can fell bargains; that you can neither spell, nor talk, nor write, nor think like a Courtier; then you pretend to be refpected for qualities which have been out of fashion ever fince you were almost in your cradle; that your contempt for a fine petticoat is an infallible mark of difaffection; which is further confirmed by your ill tafte for Wit, in preferring two old fafhioned poets before Duck or Cibber. Befides, you fpell in fuch a manner as no court-lady can read, and write in fuch an old-fashioned ftyle, as none of them can understand.-You need not be in pain about Mr. Gay's ftock of health. I promife you he will spend it all upon lazinefs, and run deep in debt by a winter's repofe in town; therefore I entreat your Grace will order him to move his chops lefs and his legs more for the fix cold months, else he will spend all his money in phyfic and coach-hire. I am in much perplexity about your Grace's declaration, of the manner in which you difpofe what you call your love and refpect, which you fay are not paid to Merit but to your own Humour. Now, Madam, my misfortune is, that I have nothing to plead but abundance of Merit, and there goes an ugly obfervation, that the Humour of ladies is apt to change. Now, Madam, if I fhould go to Aimfbury, with a great load of merit, and your Grace happen to be out of humour, and will not purchase my merchandize at the price of your respect, the goods may be damaged, and no body else will take them off my hands. Befides, you have declared Mr. Gay to hold the first part, and I but the second; which is hard treatment, fince I shall be the newest acquaintance by fome years; and I will appeal to all the rest of your fex, whether fuch an innovation ought to be allowed? I should be ready to fay in the common forms, that I was much obliged to the Lady who wish'd she could give the best living, &c.

if I did not vehemently fufpect it was the very fame Lady who spoke many things to me in the fame ftyle, and alfo with regard to the gentleman at your elbow when you writ, whofe Dupe he was, as well as of her Waiting-woman; but they were both arrant knaves, as I told him and a third friend, though they will not believe it to this day. I defire to prefent my most humble refpects to my Lord Duke, and with my heartiest prayer for the profperity of the whole family, remain your Grace's, &c.

LETTER LXI.

To Mr. PoPE.

Dublin, June 12, 1732.

Doubt, habit hath little power to reconcile us with ficknefs attended by pain. With me, the lownefs of fpirits hath a moft unhappy effect; I am grown lefs patient with folitude, and harder to be pleas'd with company; which I could formerly better digeft, when I could be eafier without it than at prefent. As to fending you any thing that I have written fince I left you (either verfe or profe) I can only fay, that I have ordered by my Will, that all my Papers of any kind fhall be deliver'd you to difpofe of as you please. I have feveral things that I have had fchemes to finish, or to attempt, but I very foolishly put off the trouble, as finners do their repentance: for I grow every day more averfe from writing, which is very natural, and, when I take a pen, fay to myself a thousand times, non eft tanti. As to those papers of four or five years paft, that you are pleas'd to require foon; they confift of little accidental things writ in the country; family amufements, never intended further than to divert our

felves and fome neighbours: or fome effects of anger on Public Grievances here, which would be infignificant out of this kingdom. Two or three of us had a fancy, three years ago, to write a Weekly paper, and call it an Intelligencer. But it continued not long; for the whole Volume (it was reprinted in London, and, I find, you have seen it) was the work only of two, myself and Dr. Sheridan. If we could have got fome ingenious young man to have been the manager, who fhould have published all that might be fent to him, it might have continued longer, for there were hints enough. But the printer here could not afford fuch a young man one farthing for his trouble, the fale being fo fmall, and the price one half-penny; and fo it.dropt. In the Volume you faw (to answer your questions) the 1, 3, 5, 7, were mine. Of the 8th I writ only the. Verses, (very uncorrect, but against a fellow we all hated) the gth mine, "the cth only the Verses, and of those not the four laft flovenly lines; the 15th is a Pamphlet of mine printed before with Dr. Sh's Preface, merely for laziness not to difappoint the town; and fo was the 19th, which contains only a parcel of facts relating purely to the miferies of Ireland, and wholly ufclefs and unentertaining. As to other things of mine fince I left you; there are in profe a View of the State of Ireland; a Project for eating Children; and a Defence of Lord Carteret; in verse a Libel on Dr. D~~ and Lord Carteret; a Letter to Dr. D- on the Libels writ againft him; the Barrack (a ftolen Copy) the Lady's Journal; the Lady's Dreffing-room (a ftolen Copy) the Plea of the Damn'd (a ftolen Copy;) all thefe have been printed in London. (I forgot to tell you that the Tale of Sir Ralph was fent from England.) Befides these there are five or fix (perhaps more) Papers of Verfes writ in the North, but perfect Family-things, two or three of which

may

may be tolerable; the reft but indifferent, and the humour only local, and fome that would give offence to the times. Such as they are, I will bring them, tolerable or bad, if I recover this lameness, and live long enough to see you either here or there. I forget again to tell you, that the Scheme of paying Debts by a Tax on Vices, is not one fyllable mine, but of a young Clergy-man whom I countenance; he told me it was built upon a paffage in Gulliver, where a Projector hath something upon the fame Thought. This young Man is the most hopeful we have: a book of his Poems was printed in London; Dr. D~~ is one of his Patrons: he is marry'd and has children, and makes up about 100l. a year, on which he lives decently. The utmost stretch of his ambition is, to gather up as much fuperfluous money as will give him a fight of you, and half an hour of your prefence; after which he will return home in full fatisfaction, and in proper time die in peace.

My poetical fountain is drain'd, and I profefs, I grow gradually fo dry, that a Rhime with me is almoft as hard to find as a Guinea; and even profe fpeculations tire me almost as much. Yet I have a thing in profe, begun above twenty-eight years ago, and almost finish'd. It will make a four fhilling Volume, and is fuch a perfection of folly, that you shall never hear of it till it is printed, and then you fhall be left to guess*. Nay I have another of the fame age, which will require a long time to perfect, and is worse than the former, in which I will ferve you the fame way. I heard lately from Mr. who promises to be lefs lazy in order to mend his fortune. But women who live by their beauty, and men by their wit, are feldom provident enough to confider that both Wit and Beauty will

Polite Converfation.

go

go off with years, and there is no living upon the credit of what is past.

I am in great concern to hear of my Lady Bo lingbroke's ill health returned upon her, and, I doubt, my Lord will find Dawley too folitary without her. In that, neither he nor you are companions young enough for me, and, I believe, the best part of the reason why men are faid to grow children when they are old, is because they cannot entertain themselves with thinking; which is the very cafe of little boys and girls, who love to be noify among their play-fellows. I am told Mrs. Pope is without pain, and I have not heard of a more gentle decay, without uneafiness to herself or friends; I cannot but pity you, who are ten times the greater fufferer, by having the person you most love, fo long before you, and dying daily; and I pray God it may not affect mind or your your

yet

I

LETTER LXII.

health.

*Mr. POPE to Dr. SwIFT.

Dec. 5, 1732.

T is not a time to complain that you have not answered me two letters (in the laft of which I was impatient under fome fears :) It is not now indeed a time to think of myself, when one of the nearest and longest tyes I have ever had, is broken all on a fudden, by the unexpected death of poor Mr. Gay. An inflammatory fever hurried him out

"On my dear friend Mr. Gay's death: Received "December 15, but not read till the 20th, by an Im"pulfe, foreboding fome Misfortune." [This note is indors'd on the original letter in Dr. Swift's hand]

VOL. IX.

M

of