Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

and kiffed Mrs. E— at Mr. D's, but, he fays it will not do, and that he loves you as much as

ever.

Your, &c.

LETTER VIII.

To the fame.

F you afk how the waters agree with me, I must

I tell you to very well, that I queftion how you

and I should agree if we were in a room by ourfelves. Mrs. - has honeftly affured me, that but for fome whims which he can't entirely conquer, she would go and fee the world with me in man's cloaths. Even you, Madam, I fancy (if you would not partake in our adventures) would wait our coming in at the evening with fome impatience, and be well enough pleas'd to hear them by the fire-fide. That would be better than reading romances, unless lady M. would be our hiftorian. What raifes thefe defires in me, is an acquaintance I am beginning with my lady Sandwich, who has all the spirit of the laft age, and all the gay experience of a pleasurable life. It were as fcandalous an omiffion to come to the Bath and not to fee my lady Sandwich, as it had formerly been to have travelled to Rome without vifiting the Queen of Sweden. She is, in a word, the best thing this country has to boaft of; and as she has been all that a woman of spirit could be, so VOL. VIII.

L

fhe ftill continues that eafy and independent creature that a fenfible woman always will be.

I must tell you a truth, which is not, however, much to my credit. I never thought so much of yourself and your fifter, as fince I have been fourfcore miles distance from you. In the Foreft I look'd upon you as good neighbours, at London as pretty kind of women, but here as divinities, angels, goddeffes, or what you will. In the fame manner, I never knew at what rate I valued your life, till you were upon the point of dying. If Mrs.

and you will but fall very fick every season, I fhall certainly die for you. Seriously I value you both fo much, that I efteem others much the lefs for your fakes; you have robb'd me of the pleasure of esteeming a thousand pretty qualities in them, by fhowing me fo many finer in yourselves. There are but two things in the world which could make you indifferent to me, which, I believe, you are not capable of, I mean ill-nature and malice. I have feen enough of you, not to overlook any frailty you could have, and nothing lefs than a vice can make me like you lefs. I expect you should discover by my conduct towards you both, that this is true, and that therefore you should pardon a thousand things in me for that one difpofition. Expect nothing from me but truth and freedom, and I fhall always be thought by you what I always am,

Your, &c.

LETTER IX.

To the fame.

1714.

'Return'd home as flow and as contemplative after

*

from the Court and glory to his Country-feat and wife, a week ago. I found here a dismal defponding letter from the son of another great courtier who expects the fame fate, and who tells me the great ones of the earth will now take it very kindly of the mean ones, if they will favour them with a visit by day-light. With what joy would they lay down all their schemes of glory, did they but know you have the generofity to drink their healths once a day, as foon as they are fallen? Thus the unhappy, by the fole merit of their misfortunes, become the care of Heaven and you. I intended to have put this laft into verfe, but in this age of ingratitude my best friends forfake me, I mean my rhymes.

I defire Mrs. P- to stay her stomach with these half hundred Plays, till I can procure her a Romance. big enough to fatisfy her great foul with adventures. As for Novels, I fear the can depend upon none: from me but that of my Life, which I am ftill, as I have been, contriving all poffible methods to shorten, for the greater eafe both of the hiftorian and the reader. May the believe all the paffion and tender. nefs exprefs'd in thefe romances to be but a faint

image of what I bear her, and may you (who read nothing) take the fame truth upon hearing it from me. You will both injure me very much, if you don't think me a truer friend, than ever any romantic lover, or any imitator of their style could be.

The days of beauty are as the days of greatness, and fo long all the world are your adorers. I am one of those unambitious people, who will love you forty years hence when your eyes begin to twinkle in a retirement, and without the vanity which every one now will take to be thought

Your, &c.

THE

LETTER X.

HE more I examine my own mind, the more romantic I find myself. Methinks it is a noble spirit of contradiction to Fate and Fortune, not to give up those that are snatched from us; but to follow them the more, the farther they are remov'd from the fenfe of it. Sure, Flattery never travelled fo far as three thousand miles; it is now only for Truth, which overtakes all things, to reach you at this distance. 'Tis a generous piece of Popery, that pursues even those who are to be eternally absent into another world; whether you think it right or wrong, you'll own the very extravagance a fort of piety. I can't be fatisfied with ftrowing flowers over you, and barely honouring you as a

thing loft but muft confider you as a glorious tho' remote being, and be fending addreffes after you. You have carried away so much of me, that what remains is daily languithing and dying over my acquaintance here, and, I believe, in three or four months more I fhall think Aurat Bazar as good a a place as Covent-Garden. You may imagine this is raillery, but I am really fo far gone as to take pleafure in reveries of this kind. Let them fay I am romantic, fo is every one said to be, that either admires a fine thing or does one. On my confcience, as the world goes, 'tis hardly worth any body's while to do one for the honour of it: Glory, the only pay of generous actions, is now as ill paid as other just debts; and neither Mrs. Macfarland for immolating her lover, nor you, for conftancy to your lord, must ever hope to be compared to Lucretia or Portia.

I write this in fome anger; for having, fince you went, frequented thofe people moft, who feemed moft in your favour, I heard nothing that concerned you talked of so often, as that you went away in a black full-bottom'd wig; which I did but assert to be a bob, and was anfwered, Love is blind. I am perfuaded your wig had never fuffered this criticismn, but on the score of your head, and the two eyes that are in it.

Pray when you write to me, talk of yourself; there is nothing I fo much defire to hear of: talk a great deal of yourfelf; that the who I always

« ZurückWeiter »