GENERAL APPENDIX.

VOL. X.

R

GENERAL APPENDIX.

No. I.

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS.

LETTER 474.

TO MR. ELPHINSTONE. (1)

April 20. 1749. Sir, I have for a long time intended to answer the letter which you were pleased to send me, and know not why I have delayed it so long, but that I had nothing particular either of inquiry or information to send you; and the same reason might still have the same consequence, but I find in my recluse kind of life that I am not likely to have much more to say at one time than at another, and that therefore I may endanger, by an appearance of neglect long continued, the loss of such an acquaintance as I know not where to supply. I therefore write now to assure you how sensible I am of the kindness you have always expressed to me, and how much I desire the cultivation of that benevolence which perhaps nothing but the distance between us has hindered from ripening before this time into friendship. Of myself I have very little to say, and of any body else less; let me however be

(1) [See antè, Vol. I. p. 245.]