I LETTER XXIII. Oct. 2, 1727. T is a perfect trouble to me to write to you, and your kind letter left for me at Mr. Gay's affected me fo much, that it made me like a girl. I can't tell what to say to you; I only feel that I with you well in every circumftance of life; that 'tis almost as good to be hated as to be loved, confidering the pain it is to minds of any tender turn, to find themselves fo utterly impotent to do any good, or give any ease to those who deferve most from us. I would very fain know, as foon as you recover your complaints, or any part of them. Would to God I could eafe any of them, or had been able even to have alleviated any! I found I was not, and truly it grieved me. I was forry to find you could think yourself easier in any house than in mine, tho' at the fame time I can allow for a tenderness in your way of thinking, even when it seem'd to want that tenderness. I can't explain my meaning, perhaps you know it: But the best way of convincing you of my indulgence, will be, if I live, to vifit you in Ireland, and act there as much in my own way as you did here in yours. I will not leave your roof, if I am ill. To your bad health I fear there was added fome difagreeable news from Ireland, which might occafion your fo fudden departure: For the laft time I faw you, you affured me you would not leave us this whole winter, unless your health grew better, and I don't find it did fo. I never comply'd fo unwillingly in my life with any friend as with you, in ftaying fo intirely from you: nor could I have had the conftancy to do it, if you had not promised that before you went, we fhou'd meet, and you would would fend to us all to come. I have given your remembrances to thofe you mention in yours: we are quite forry for you, I mean for ourselves. I hope, as you do, that we fhall meet in a more durable and more fatisfactory state; but the lefs fure I am of that, the more I would indulge it in this. We are to believe, we shall have something better than even a friend, there, but certainly here we have nothing fo good. Adieu for this time; may you find every friend you go to as pleas'd and happy, as every friend you went from is forry and troubled." Your's, &c. LETTER XXIV. From Dr. SWIFT. Dublin, Oct. 12, 1727. Have been long reafoning with myfelf upon the I condition par ng V in conclufion have thought it beft to return to what fortune hath made my home; I have there a large houfe, and fervants and conveniencies about me. I may be worse than I am, and I have no where to retire. I therefore thought it beft to return to Ireland, rather than go to any diftant place in England. Here is my maintainance, and here my convenience. If it pleafes God to restore me to my health, I fhall readily make a third journey; if not, we must part as all human creatures have parted. You are the beft and kindest friend in the world, and I know no-body alive or dead to whom I am so much obliged; and if ever you made me angry, it was for your too much care about me. I have often with'd that God almighty would be fo eafy to the VOL. IX. weakness F new body, or being: paullo minus ab angelis. I have often imagined to myself, that if ever all of us meet again, after fo many varieties and changes, after fo much of the old world and of the old man in each of us has been altered, that scarce a single thought of the one, any more than a fingle atome of the other, remains juft the fame; I've fancy'd, I fay, that we should meet like the righteous in the Millennium, quite in peace, divefted of all our former Paffions, fmiling at our paft follics, and content to enjoy the kingdom of the Juft in tranquillity. But I find you would rather be employ'd as an avenging Angel of wrath, to break your Vial of Indignation over the heads of the wretched creatures of this world: nay, would make them Eat your Book, which you have made (I doubt not) as bitter a pill for them as poffible. I won't tell you what defigns I have in my head (befides writing a fet of Maxims in oppofition to all Rochefoucault's principles *) till I see you here, face to face. Then you fhall have no reason to complain of me, for want of a generous disdain of this world, though I have not loft my Ears in yours and their fervice. Lord Oxford too (whom I have now the third time mentioned in this Letter, and he deferves to be always mentioned in every thing that is addrefs'd to you, or comes from you) expects you: That ought to be enough to bring you hither; 'tis a better reafon than if the nation expected you. For I really enter as fully as you can defire, into your principle of Love of Individuals: and I think the *This was only faid as an oblique reproof of the horrid mifanthropy in the foregoing Letter; and which he fuppofed, might be chiefly occafioned by the Dean's fondnefs for Rochefoucault, whofe Maxims are founded on the principle of an univerfal felfishness in human na ture. way way to have a public fpirit is firft to have a private one; for who can believe (faid a friend of mine) that any man can care for a hundred thousand people, who never cared for one? No ill-humour'd man can ever be a Patriot, any more than a Friend, I defigned to have left the following page for Dr. Arbuthnot to fill, but he is fo touch'd with the period in yours to me concerning him, that he intends to answer it by a whole letter. He too is bufy about a book, which I guess he will tell you of. So adieu -what remains worth telling you? Dean Berkley is well, and happy in the prosecution of his Scheme. Lord Oxford and Lord Bolingbroke in health, Duke Difney fo alfo; Sir William Wyndham better, Lord Bathurst well. Thefe and fome others, preferve their ancient honour and ancient friendship. Those who do neither, if they were d-d, what is it to a Proteftant prieft, who has nothing to do with the dead? I answer for my own part as a Papift, I would not pray them out of Purgatory. My name is as bad an one as yours, and hated by all bad Poets, from Hopkins and Sternhold to Gildon and Cibber. The first pray'd against me with the Turk; and a modern Imitator of theirs (whom I leave you to find out) has added the Chriftian to 'em, with proper definitions of each in this manner. The Pope's the Whore of Babylon, The Turk he is a few: The Chriftian is an Infidel LET I LETTER XIII. From Dr. SWIFT. Nov. 26, 1725. Should fooner have acknowledged yours, if a feverish disorder and the relics of it had not difabled me for a fortnight. I now begin to make excufes, 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 letters are counterparts of my heart. I fear I have not exprefs'd 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 Lord my Bolingbroke that I wish he were banish'd again, for then I fhould 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 an account of his fon's birth; which I immediately acknowledged, but before my letter could reach him, I wifh'd it in the fea: I hope I was more afflicted than his Lordship. 'Tis hard that Parfons and Beggars fhould be over-run with bratts, while fo great and good a family wants an heir to continue it. I have receiv'd his father's picture, but I lament (fub figillo confeffionis) that it is not so 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 wifh there were an Hofpital for its Despisers, where one might act with fafety, and it need not be a large building, only I would have it well endow'd. P** is fort chancellant whether he fhall turn Parson or no. |
