and I think a man of fenfe and merit like him, is bound in confcience to preferve his health for the fake of his friends, as well as of himself. Upon his own ac count I could not much defire the continuance of his life, under fo much pain, and fo many infirmities. Years have not yet hardened me; and I have an addition of weight on my fpirits fince we loft him; tho' I faw him fo feldom, and poffibly, if he had liv'd on, fhould never have feen him more. I do not only wish as you ask me, that I was unacquainted with any deferving perfon, but almost that I never had a friend. Here is an ingenious good-humoured Phyfician, a fine gentleman, an excellent fcholar, easy in his fortunes, kind to every body, hath abundance of friends, entertains them often and liberally, they pafs the evening with him at cards, with plenty of good meat and wine, eight or a dozen together; he loves them all, and they him. He has twenty of these at command; if one of them dies, it is no more than poor Tom! he gets another, or takes up with the reft, and is no more mov'd than at the lofs of his cat; he offends nobody, is easy with every body - Is not this the true happy man? I was defcribing him to my Lady A-, who knows him too, but he hates him mortally by my character, and will not drink his health: I would give half my fortune for the fame temper, and yet I cannot fay I love it, for I do not love my lord who is much of the Doctor's nature. I hear Mr. Gay's fecond Opera, which you mention, is forbid; and then he will be once more fit to be advised, and reject your advice. Adieu. LETTER XXXVI. Dr. SWIFT to Lord BOLINGBROKE. You Dublin, March 21, 1729. YOU tell me you have not quitted the defign of collecting, writing, etc. This is the answer of every finner who defers his repentance. I with Mr. Pope were as great an urger as I, who long for nothing more than to fee truth under your hands, laying all detraction in the dust—I find myfelf difpofed every year, or rather every month, to be more angry and revengeful; and my rage is fo ignoble, that it defcends even to re. fent the folly and bafenefs of the enslaved people among whom I live. I knew an old Lord in Leicestershire, who amufed himfelf with mending pitchforks and fpades for his Tenants gratis. Yet I have higher ideas left, if I were nearer to objects on which I might employ them; and contemning my private fortune, would gladly cross the channel and ftand by, while my betters were driving the Boars out of the garden, if there be any probable expectation of fuch an endeavour. When I was of your age I often thought of death, but now after a dozen years more, it is never out of my mind, and terrifies me lefs. I conclude that Providence hath order'd our fears to decrease with our fpirits; and yet I love la bagatelle better than ever: for finding it troublesome to read at night, and the company here growing tafteless, I am always writing bad profe, or worfe verfes, either of rage or raillery, whereof fome few efcape to give offence or mirth, and the rest are burnt. They print fome Irish trash in London, and charge it on me, which you will clear me of to my friends, for all are spurious except one* paper, for which Mr. Pope very lately chid me. I remember your Lordship us'd to fay, that a few good fpeakers would in time carry any point that was right; and that the common method of a majority, by calling, To the queftion, would never hold long when reason was on the other fide. Whether politics do not change like gaming by the invention of new tricks, I am ignorant; but I believe in your time you would never, as a Minister, have fuffered an act to pass thro' the H. of C――s only because you were fure of a majority in the H. of L-ds to throw it out; because it would be unpopular, and confequently a loss of reputation. Yet this we are told hath been the cafe in the qualification-bill relating to Penfioners. It fhould feem to me that Corruption, like avarice, hath no bounds. I had opportunities to know the proceedings of your ministry better than any other man of my rank; and having not much to do, I have often compar'd it with these last fixteen years of a profound peace all over Europe, and we running feven millions in debt. I am forc'd to play at small game, to set the beafts here a madding, merely for want of better game, Tentanda via eft qua me quoque poffim, etc. The Dthofe politics, where a Dunce might govern for a dozen years together. I will come in perfon to England, if I am provok'd, and fend for the Dictator from the plough. I difdain to say, O mihi praeteritos cruda deo viridifque fene&us. Pray, my Lord, how are the Gardens? Have you taken down the mount, and remov'd the yew hedges? Have you not bad weather for the fpring corn? Has Mr. Pope gone farther in his Ethic Poems? and is the head land fown with wheat? and what fays Polybius? and how does my Lord St. take but • Entituled, A Libel on Dr. Delany, and a certain great Lord. John which laft queftion is very material to me, because I love Burgundy, and riding between Twickenham and Dawley.I built a wall five years ago, and when the mafons play'd the knaves, nothing delighted me fo much as to stand by, while my fervants threw down what was amifs: I have likewife feen a Monkey overthrow all the dishes and plates in a kitchen, merely for the pleasure of feeing them tumble, and hearing the clatter they made in their fall. I wish you would invite me to such another entertainment; but you think, as I ought to think, that it is time for me to have done with the world, and fo I would if I could get into a better before I was called into the best, and not die here in a rage, like a poison'd rat in a hole. I wonder you are not afhamed to let me pine away in this kingdom while you are out of power. I come from looking over the Melange above-written, and declare it to be a true copy of my prefent difpofition, which muft needs pleafe you, fince nothing was ever more difpleafing to myfelf. I defire you to prefent my most humble respects to my Lady. I LETTER XXXVII. Dr. SWIFT to Lord BOLINGBROKE. Dublin, April 5, 1729. Do not think it could be poffible for me to hear better news than that of your getting over your scurvy fuit, which always hung as a dead weight on my heart; I hated it in all its circumftances, as it affected your fortune and quiet, and in a fituation of life that must make it every way vexatious. And as I am infinitely obliged to you for the juftice you do me, in fuppofing your affairs do at least concern me as much as my own; fo I would never have pardoned your omitting it. But before I go on, I cannot forbear mentioning what I read last summer in a news-paper, that you were writing the hiftory of your own times. I fuppose such a report might arife from what was not fecret among your friends, of your intention to write another kind of history; which you often promis'd Mr. Pope and me to do; I know he defires it very much, and I am fure I defire nothing more for the honour and love I bear you, and the perfect knowledge I have of your public virtue. My Lord, I have no other notion of Oeconomy than that it is the parent of Liberty and Eafe, and I am not the only friend you have who have chid you in his heart for the neglect of it, though not with his mouth, as I have done. For there is a filly error in the world, even among friends otherwife very good, not to intermeddle with mens affairs in fuch nice matters. And, my Lord, I have made a maxim, that should be writ in letters of diamonds, That a wife man ought to have Money in his head, but not in his heart. Pray, my Lord, enquire whether your prototype, my Lord Digby, after the Restoration when he was at Bristol, did not take fome care of his fortune, notwithstanding that quotation I once fent you out of his fpeech to the H, of Commons? In my confcience, I believe Fortune, like other drabs, values a man gradually lefs for every year he lives. I have demonstration for it; because if I play at piquet for fixpence with a man or a woman two years younger than myfelf, I always lofe; and there is a young girl of twenty, who never fails of winning my money at Backgammon, tho' fhe is a bungler, and the game be Ecclefiaftic. As to the public, I confefs nothing could cure my itch of meddling with it but thefe frequent returns |