I LETTER LXXII. From Dr. SWIFT. Nov. I, 1734 Have yours with my Lord B's Postscript of September 15: it was long on its way, and for fome weeks after the date I was very ill with my two inveterate diforders, giddinefs and deafnefs. The latter is pretty well off; but the other makes me totter towards evenings, and much difpirits me. But I continue to ride and walk, both of which, although they be no cures, are at leaft amufements. I did never imagine you to be either inconftant, or to want right notions of friendship, but I apprehend your want of health; and it hath been a frequent wonder to me how you have been able to entertain the world fo long, fo frequently, fo happily, under fo many bodily diforders. My Lord B. fays you have been three months rambling, which is the best thing you can poffibly do in a fummer feafon; and when the winter recalls you, we will, for our own interefts, leave you to your fpeculations. God be thanked I have done with every thing, and of every kind that requires writing, except now and then a letter, or, like a true old man, fcribbling trifles only fit for children or school-boys of the loweft class at beft, which three or four of us read and laugh at to-day, and burn to-morrow. Yet, what is fingular, I never am without fome great work in view, enough to take up forty years of the moft vigorous healthy man: although I am convinced that I fhall never be able to finish three Treatifes, that have lain by me feveral years, and want nothing but correction. My Lord B. faid in his Poftfcript, that you would go to Bath in three days; we fince Ι heard heard that you were dangerously ill there, and that the news-mongers gave you over. But a gentleman of this kingdom, on his return from Bath, affured me he left you well, and fo did fome others whom I have forgot. I am forry at my heart that you are peftered with people who come in my name, and I profefs to you, it is without my knowledge. I am confident I fhall hardly ever have occafion again to recommend, for my friends here are very few, and fixed to the free-hold, from whence nothing but death will remove them. Surely I never doubted about your Effay on Man; and I would lay any odds, that I would never fail to discover you in fix lines, unless you had a mind to write below or befide yourself on purpose. I confess I did never imagine you were fo deep in Morals, or that fo many new and excellent rules could be produced fo advantageously and agreeably in that science, from any one head. I confefs in fome few places I was forced to read twice; I believe I told you before what the Duke of D-- faid to me on that occafion, How a Judge here, who knows you, told him that on the first reading thofe Effays, he was much pleased, but found fome lines a little dark: On the fecond most of them clear'd up, and his pleafure increased: On the third he had no doubt remain'd, and then he admir'd the whole. My Lord B-'s attempt of reducing Metaphyfics to intelligible fense and usefulnefs, will be a glorious undertaking, and as I never knew him fail in any thing he attempted, if he had the fole management, fo I am confident he will fucceed in this. I defire you will allow that I write to you both at prefent, and fo I fhall while I live: It faves your money, and my time; and he being your Genius, no matter to which it is addreffed. am happy that what you write is printed in large letters; otherwife, between the weakness of my eyes, and the thickness of my hearing, I fhould lofe the greatest pleasure that is left me. Pray command my Lord B- to follow that example, if I live to read his Metaphyfics. Pray God blefs you both. I had a melancholy account from the Doctor of his health. I will anfwer his letter as foon as I can, I am ever entirely yours. I LETTER LXXIII. Twickenham, Decemb. 19, 1734. am truly forry for any complaint you have, and it is in regard to the weakness of your eyes that I write (as well as print) in folio. You'll think (I know you will, for you have all the candor of a good understanding) that the thing which men of our age feel the most, is the friendship of our equals; and that therefore whatever affects thofe who are ftept a few years before us, cannot but fenfibly affect us who are to follow. It troubles me to hear you complain of your memory, and if I am in any part of my constitution younger than you, it will be in my remembering every thing that has pleased me in you, longer than perhaps you will. The two fummers we pass'd together dwell always on my mind, like a vifion which gave me a glympfe of a better life and better company, than this world otherwife afforded. I am now an individual, upon whom no other depends; and may go where I will, if the wretched carcafe I am annexed to did not hinder me. I rambled by very eafy journeys this year to Lord Bathurft and Lord Peterborow, who upon every occafion commemorate, love, and wifh for you. I now pafs my days between Dawley, London, and this place, not ftudious, nor idle, rather polifhing old works than hewing out new. I redeem now and then a paper that hath been abandoned feveral years; years; and of this fort you'll foon fee one, which I infcribe to our old friend Arbuthnot. Thus far I had written, and thinking to finish my letter the fame evening, was prevented by company, and the next morning found my felf in a fever, highly difordered, and fo continued in bed for five days; and in my chamber till now; but fo well recover'd as to hope to go abroad to-morrow, even by the advice of Dr. Arbuthnot. He himself, poor man, is much broke, tho' not worse than for these two last months he has been. He took extremely kind your letter. I wish to God we could once meet again, before that feparation, which yet, I would be glad to believe, fhall re-unite us: But he who made us, not for ours but his purposes, knows only whether it be for the better or the worse, that the affections of this life fhould, or fhould not continue into the other and doubtlefs it is at it should be. Yet I am fure that while I am here, and the thing that I am, I fhall be imperfect without the communication of fuch friends as you; you are to me like a limb loft; and buried in another country; tho' we feem quite divided, every accident makes me feel you were once a part of me. I always confider you fo much as a friend, that I forget you are an author, perhaps too much, but 'tis as much as I would defire you would do to me. However, if I could infpirit you to bestow correction upon those three Treatifes, which you fay are fo near completed, I fhould think it a better work than any I can pretend to of my own. I am almoft at the end of my Morals, as I've been long ago, of my Wit; my fyftem is a fhort one, and my circle narrow. Imagination has no limits, and that is a fphere in which you may move on to eternity; but where one is confined to Truth (or to fpeak more like a human creature, to the appearances of Truth) we foon find the shortnefs of our Tether. Indeed by the help of a metaphysical phyfical chain of Ideas, one may extend the circulation, go round and round for ever, without making any progrefs beyond the point to which Providence has pinn'd us: But this does not fatisfy me, who would rather fay a little to no purpofe, than a great deal. Lord B. is voluminous, but he is voluminous only to destroy volumes. I fhall not live, I fear, to fee that work printed; he is fo taken up ftill (in spite of the monitory hint given in the first line of my Effay) with particular men, that he neglects mankind, and is ftill a creature of this world, not of the Universe: This World, which is a name we give to Europe, to England, to Ireland, to London, to Dublin, to the Court, to the Caftle, and fo diminishing, till it comes to our own affairs, and to our own perfons. When you write (either to him or to me, for we accept it all as one) rebuke him for it, as a Divine if you like it, or as a Badineur, if you think that more effectual. What I write will fhew you that my head is yet weak. I had written to you by that gentleman from the Bath, but I did not know him, and every body that comes from Ireland pretends to be a friend of the Dean's. I am always glad to fee any that are truly fo, and therefore do not miftake any thing I faid, fo as to difcourage your fending any fuch to Adieu. me. LETTER LXXIV. From Dr. SWIFT. May 12, 1735 YOUR letter was fent me yesterday by Mr. Stopford, who landed the fame day, but I have not yet feen him. As to my filence, God 3 knows |