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attendance on this melancholy occafion. Once more adieu, and write to one who is truly disconfolate.

Dear Sir,

I am forry that the renewal of our correspondence fhould be upon fuch a melancholy occafion. Poor Mr. Gay died of an inflammation, and, I believe, at laft a mortification of the bowels, it was the most precipitate cafe I ever knew, having cut him off in three days. He was attended by two Physicians befides myfélf. I believed the distemper mortal from the beginning. I have not had the pleasure of a line from you these two years; I wrote one about your health, to which I had no answer. I wish you all health and happiness, being with great affection and refpect, Sir, Your, &c.

LETTER

LXII.

Dublin, 1732-3.

I

Received yours with a few lines from the Doctor, and the account of our lofing Mr. Gay, upon which event I fhall fay nothing. I am only concern'd that long-living hath not harden'd me: for even in this kingdom and in a few days past, two perfons of great merit, whom I loved very well, have died in the prime of their years, but a little above thirty. I would endeavour to comfort myself upon the lofs of friends, as I do upon the lofs of money; by turning to my account book, and feeing whether

I have enough left for my fupport; but in the former cafe I find I have not, any more than in the other; and I know not any Man who is in a greater likelyhood than myself to die poor and friendless. You are a much greater loser than me by his death, as being a more intimate friend, and often his companion; which latter I could never hope to be, except perhaps once more in my life for a piece of a fummer. I hope he hath left you the care of any writings he may have left, and I with, that, with thofe already extant, they could all be published in a fair edition under your infpection. Your Poem on the Ufe of Riches hath been juft printed here, and we have no objection but the obfcurity of feveral paffages by our ignorance in facts and perfons, which makes us lofe abundance of the Satire. Had the printer given me notice, I would have honeftly printed the names at length, where I happened to knowthem; and writ explanatory notes, which however would have been but few, for my long abfence hath made me ignorant of what paffes out of the scene where I am. I never had the least hint from you. about this work, any more than of your former, upon Tafte. We are told here, that you are preparing other pieces of the fame bulk to be infcribed to other friends, one (for inftance) to my Lord Bolingbroke, another to Lord Oxford, and so on.-Doctor Delany prefents you his moft humble fervice: he behaves himself very commendably, converfes only with his former friends, makes no parade, but entertains them.

constantly at an elegant plentiful table, walks the ftreets as ufual, by day-light, does many acts of charity and generofity, cultivates a country-house two miles diftant, and is one of those very few within my knowledge, on whom a great accefs of fortune hath made no manner of change. And particularly he is often without money, as he was before. We have got my Lord Orrery among us, being forced to continue here on the ill condition of his estate by the knavery of an Agent; he is a most worthy Gentleman, whom, I hope, you will be acquainted with. I am very much obliged by your favour to Mr. P—, which, I defire, may continue no longer than he shall deferve by his Modefty, a virtue I never knew him to want, but is hard for young men to keep, without abundance of ballaft. If you are acquainted with the Duchefs of Queensbury, I defire you would prefent her my moft humble fervice: I think the is a greater lofer by the death of a friend than either of us. She feems a Lady of excellent fenfe and fpirit. I had often postscripts from her in our friend's letters to me, and her part was fometimes longer than his, and they made up great part of the little happiness I could have here. This was the more generous, because I never faw her fince she was a girl of five years old, nor did I envy poor Mr. Gay for any thing fo much as being a domestic friend to fuch a Lady. I defire you will never fail to fend me a particular account of your health. I dare hardly enquire about Mrs. Pope, who, I am told, is but juft

among the living, and confequently a continual grief to you: fhe is fenfible of your tenderness, which robs her of the only happiness she is capable of enjoying. And yet I pity you more than her; you cannot lengthen her days, and I beg fhe may not shorten

yours.

LETTER LXIV.

Feb. 16, 1732-3.

It's indied to on fu ir apurable

T is indeed impoffible to speak on such a subject

one.

But I fend you what I intend for the infcription on his tomb, which the Duke of Queensbury will fet up at Westminster. As to his writings, he left no Will, nor spoke a word of them, or any thing elfe, during his fhort and precipitate illness, in which I attended him to his laft breath. The Duke has acted more than the part of a brother to him, and it will be ftrange if the fifters do not leave his papers totally at his difpofal, who will do the fame that I would with them. He has managed the Comedy (which our poor friend gave to the playhouse the week before his death) to the utmoft advantage for his relations; and proposes to do the fame with fome Fables he left finished.

There is nothing of late which I think of more than Mortality, and what you mention, of collecting the best monuments we can of our friends, their

own images in their writings: (for those are the best, when their minds are fuch as Mr. Gay's was, and as yours is.) I am preparing alfo for my own, and have nothing fo much at heart, as to fhew the filly world that men of Wit, or even Poets, may be the moft moral of mankind. A few loose things fometimes fall from them, by which cenforious fools judge as ill of them as poffibly they can, for their own comfort and indeed, when fuch unguarded and trifling Jeux d'Esprit have once got abroad, all that prudence or repentance can do, fince they cannot be deny'd, is to put 'em fairly upon that foot; and teach the public (as we have done in the preface to the four volumes of Mifcellanies) to distinguish betwixt our studies and our idleneffes, our works and our weakneffes. That was the whole end of the laft Vol. of Mifcellanies, without which our former declaration in that preface, "That these volumes con"tained all that we have ever offended in that way," would have been difcredited. It went indeed to my heart, to omit what you called the Libel on Dr. D—, and the beft Panegyric on myself, that either my own times or any other could have afforded, or will ever afford to me. The book as you obferve, was printed in great hafte; the cause whereof was, that the bookfellers here were doing the fame, in collecting your pieces, the corn with the chaff; I don't mean that any thing of yours is chaff; but with other wit of Ireland which was so, and the whole in your name. I meant principally to oblige them to

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