I want time and eyes. I can't fufficiently tell you both my pleasure and my gratefulness, in and for your two laft letters, which fhew your zeal fo ftrong for that piece of my idlenefs, which was literally written only to keep me from fleeping in a dull winter, and perhaps to make others fleep unless awakened by my Commentator; no uncommon case among the learned. I am every day in expectation of Lord Bolingbroke's arrival; with whom I fhall feize all the hours I can; for his ftay (I fear by what he writes) will be very fhort.--I do not think it impoffible but he may go to Bath for a few weeks, to fee (if he be then alive, as yet he is) his old fervant- In that cafe I think to go with him, and if it fhould be at a feafon when the waters are beneficial (which agree particularly with him too) would it be an impoffibility to meet you at Mr. Allen's? whofe house, you know, and heart are yours. Tho' this is a mere chance, I fhould not be forry you saw so great a genius, tho' he and you were never to meet again.-Adieu. The world is not what I wish it; but I will not repent being in it while two or three live.

I am, &c.

T

LETTER CXII.

Bath, Nov. 27, 1742.

HIS will fhew you I am ftill with our friend,

but it is the last day; and I would rather you heard of me pleased, as I yet am, thạn chagrin'd as I fhall be in a few hours. We are both pretty well. I wish you had been more explicite if your leg be quite well. You fay no more than that you got home well. I expect a more particular account of you when you have repofed yourfelf a while at your

own

own fire-fide. I fhall inquire as foon as I am in London, which of my friends have feen you? There are two or three who knew how to value you: I wish I was as fure they would study to ferve you.- A project has arifen in my head to make you, in fome measure, the Editor of this new edition of the Dunciad*, if you have no fcruple of owning fome of the graver notes, which are now added + to thofe of Dr. Arbuthnot. I mean it is a kind of prelude, or advertisement to the public, of your Commentaries on the Ejays on Man, and on Criticism, which I propose to print next in another volume proportioned to this. I only doubt whether an avowal of these notes to fo ludicrous a poem be fuitable to a character fo eftablished as yours for more serious studies. It was a sudden thought fince we parted; and I would have you treat it as no more; and tell me if it is not better to be fupprefs'd; freely and friendlily. I have a particular reason to make you intereft yourself in me and my writings. It will caufe both them and me to make the better figure to pofterity. A very mediocre poet, one Drayton, is yet taken fome notice of, becaufe SELDEN writ a few notes on one of his

poems.

Adieu. May every domeftic happiness make you unwilling to remove from home; and may every friend, you do that kindness for, treat you so as to make you forget you are not at home.

I am, &c.

* That is, of the four books complete.

+Added in the three first books, and diftinguished in

this edition of his works.

LET

LETTER CXIII.

Dec. 28, 1742.

Have always fo many things to take kindly of I you, that I don't know which to begin to thank you for. I was willing to conclude our whole account of the Dunciad, at leaft, and therefore staid till it was finifhed. The encouragement you gave me to add the fourth book firft determin'd me to do fo; and the approbation you feem'd to give it was what fingly determined me to print it. Since that, your Notes and your Difcourfe in the name of Ariftarchus have given its last finishings and ornaments. -I am glad you will refresh the memory of fuch readers as have no other faculty to be readers, efpecially of fuch works as the Divine Legation. But ĺ hope you will not take too much notice of another and duller fort; thofe who become writers thro' malice, and muft die whenever you please to shine out in the completion of the Work: which I with were now your only answer to any of them : except you will make use of that fhort and excellent one you gave me in the ftory of the reading-glass.

The world here grows very bufy. About what time is it you think of being amongst us? My health, I fear, will confine me, whether in town or here, fo that I may expect more of your company as one good refulting out of evil.

I write, you know, very laconically. I have but one formula which fays every thing to a friend, "I am yours, and beg you to continue mine." Let me not be ignorant (you can prevent my being fo of any thing, but firft and principally) of your health and well being; and depend on my fenfe of all the Kindness over and above all the Justice you fhall ever do me.

I never

I never read a thing with more pleasure than an additional fheet to* Jervas's preface to Don Quixote. Before I got over two paragraphs I cried out, Aut Erafmus aut diabolus! I knew you as certainly as the antients did the Gods by the firft pace and the very gait. I have not a moment to express myself in, but could not omit this which delighted me fo greatly.

My Law-fuit with L. is at an end.-Adieu! Believe no man can be more yours. Call me by any title will but a Doctor of Oxford; Sit tibi cura mei, fit tibi cura tui.

you

LETTER CXIV.

Jan. 18, 1742.

AM forced to grow every day more laconic in my letters, for my eyefight grows every day fhorter and dimmer. Forgive me then that I anfwer you fummarily. I can even lefs bear an equal part in a correfpondence than in a converfation with you. But be affured once for all, the more I read of you, as the more I hear from you, the better I am inftructed and pleased. And this misfortune of my own dulnefs, and my own abfence, only quickens my ardent with that fome good fortune would draw you nearer, and enable me to enjoy both, for a greater part of our lives in this neighbourhood; and in fuch a fituation, as might make more beneficial friends, than I, esteem and enjoy you equally,—I have again heard from Lord ** and another hand, that the Lord † I writ to you of, declares an intention to ferve you, My

*On the origine of the books of Chivalry.

Lord G.

anfwer (which they related to him) was, that he would be fure of your acquaintance for life, if once he served, or obliged you; but that, I was certain, you would never trouble him with your expectation, tho' he would never get rid of your gratitude. Dear Sir, adieu, and let me be fometimes certified of your health. My own is as usual ; and my affection the fame, always yours.

I

LETTER XIX.

Twitenham, March 24, 1743.

WRITE to you amongst the very few I now defire to have my Friends, merely, Si valeas, valeo. 'Tis in effect all I fay: but it is very literally true, for I place all that makes my life defirable in their welfare. I may truly affirm, that vanity or intereft have not the least share in any friendship I have; or caufe me now to cultivate that of any one man by any one letter. But if any motive fhould draw me to flatter a great man, it would be to fave the friend I would have him ferve from doing it. Rather than lay a deferving perfon under the neceffity of it, I would hazard my own character and keep his in dignity. Tho', in truth, I live in a time when no measures of conduct influence the fuccefs of one's applications, and the best thing to trust to is chance and opportunity.

I only meant to tell you, I am wholly yours, how few words fo ever I make of it.-A greater pleasure to me is, that I chanced to make Mr. Allen fo, who is not only worth more than — intrinsically; but, I forefee, will be effectually more a comfort and glory to you every year you live. My confidence in any man lefs truly great than an honest one is but fmall.