friend Aristippus did to Dionysius; " you have mo

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;

ney, which I want; I have wit and knowledge, "which you want." I long to see your travels* for, take it as you will, I do not retract what I said. I will undertake to find, in two pages of your bagatelles, more good sense, useful knowledge, and true religion, than you can show me in the works of nineteen in twenty of the profound divines and philosophers of the age.

I am obliged to return to Paris in a month or six weeks time, and from thence will send you my picture. Would to Heaven I could send you as like a picture of my mind: you would find yourself, in that draught, the object of the truest esteem, and the sincerest friendship.

FROM DR. SNAPE.

REVEREND SIR,

WINDSOR, APRIL 23, 1722.

I TAKE the opportunity of two of our choir going

over to try their fortune in your country, at once to return my thanks for a very obliging letter you favoured me with some years ago, and your kind interpretation of my endeavours at that time to assert the cause of our establishment against a prelate who was undermining it: and also to recommend to your favour the bearer, Mr. Elford; who upon the encouragement of your worthy primate, is going to

* Gulliver's.

+ Bishop Hoadly.

settle

settle at Armagh. I cannot pretend to say, he has the same compass of voice with his late brother, whom the good queen so much admired; but I will venture to say, he has a greater compass of understanding; and upon the whole, that he is a good choirman. The other, that bears him company, was a very useful chorister to us. His voice, since its breaking, is somewhat harsh, but I believe will grow mellower. If you find either of them for your purpose, especially the bearer, when you have a vacancy in your church, I shall be much obliged to you for any favour you are pleased to show him, and be ready to approve myself, on any occasion, reverend sir, your most obliged and affectionate servant,

A. SNAPE.

TO VANESSA.

CLOGHER, JUNE 1, 1722.

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THE weather has been so constantly bad that I have wanted all the healthy advantages of the coun try, and it seems likely to continue so. It would have been infinitely better once a week to have met at Kendal, and so forth, where one might pass or four hours in drinking coffee in the morning, or dining tête-à-tête, drinking coffee again till seven. God send you through your lawsuit, and your reference. And remember that riches are nine parts in ten of all that is good in life, and health is the tenth;

tenth; drinking coffee comes long after, and yet it is the eleventh; but without the two former you cannot drink it right: and remember the china in the old house, and Rider street, and the colonel's journey to France, and the London wedding, and the sick lady at Kensington, and the indisposition at Windsor, and the strain by the box of books at London. Last year I writ you civilities, and you were angry. This year I will write you none, and you will be angry; yet my thoughts were still the same-Croyez que je serai toujours tout ce que vous désirez. Adieu.

I

TO THE SAME.

LOUGHGALL, COUNTY OF ARMAGH,

JULY 13, 1722.

AM well pleased with the account of your visit, and the behaviour of the ladies. I see every day as silly things among both sexes, yet endure them for the sake of amusement. The worst thing in you and me is, that we are too hard to please; and whether we have made ourselves so, is the question; at least I believe we have the same reason. One thing that I differ from you in is, that I do not quarrel with my best friends. I believe you have ten angry passages in your letter, and every one of them enough to spoil two days apiece of riding and walking. We differ prodigiously in one point: I fly from the spleen to the world's end; you run out

of

of your way to meet it. I doubt the bad weather has hindered you much from the diversions of your country house, and put you upon thinking in your chamber. The use I have made of it, was to read, I know not how many, diverting books of history and travels. I wish you would get yourself a horse, and have always two servants to attend you, and visit your neighbours; the worse the better there is a pleasure in being reverenced; and that is always in your power, by your superiority of sense, and an easy fortune. The best maxim I know in this life is, to drink your coffee when you can; and when you cannot, to be easy without it while you continue to be splenetick, count upon it, I will always preach. Thus much I sympathise with you, that I am not cheerful enough to write; for I believe coffee, once a week, is necessary to that. I can sincerely answer all your questions as I used to do; but then I give all possible way to amusements, because they preserve my temper, as exercise does my health; and without health and good humour I would rather be a dog. I have shifted scenes oftener than ever I did in my life, and I believe have lain in thirty beds since I left town, and always drew up the clothes with the clothes with my left hand; which is a superstition I have learned these ten years. I long to see you in figure and equipage. Pray do not lose that taste. Farewel.

ΤΟ

TO THE SAME.

AUGUST 7, 1722.

I AM this hour leaving my present residence; and if I fix any where shall let you know it.

A long vacation.-Law lies asleep, and bad weather. How do you wear away the time? Is it among the groves and fields of your country seat, or among your cousins in town; or thinking in a train that will be sure to vex you; and then reaping, and forming teasing conclusions from mistaken. thoughts. The best companion for you is a philosopher; whom you would regard as much as a sermon. I have read more trash since I left you, than would fill all your shelves, and am abundantly the better for it, though I scarce remember a syllable. What a foolish thing is time; and how foolish is man, who would be as angry if time stopped, as if it passed. But I will not proceed at this rate; for I am writing, and thinking myself fast into the spleen, which is the only thing I would not compliment you by imitating. So adieu till the next place I fix in.

VOL. XII.

G

ΤΟ