from you; always glad to fee you, whatever accidents or amusements have interven❜d to make me do either less than ufual. I not only frequently think of you, but conftantly do my best to make others do it, by mentioning you to all your acquaintance. I defire you to do the fame for me to thofe you are now with: do me what you think justice in regard to those who are my friends, and if there are any, whom I have unwillingly deserved fo little of as to be my enemies, I don't defire you to forfeit their opinion, or your own judgment in any cafe. Let time convince those who know me not, that I am an inoffensive perfon; tho' (to fay truth) I don't care how little I am indebted to Time, for the world is hardly worth living in, at leaft to one that is never to have health a week together. I have been made to expect Dr. Arbuthnot in town this fortnight, or else I had written to him. If he, by never writing to me, feems to forget me, I confider It do the fame seemingly to him, and yet I don't believe he has a more fincere friend in the world than I am therefore I will think him mine. I am his, Mr. Congreve's, and

Your, &c.

LETTER X.

Faithfully affure you, in the midst of that melancholy with which I have been fo long encompaffed, in an hourly expectation almoft of my Mother's death; there was no circumftance that rendered it more infupportable to me, than that I could not leave her to fee you. Your own present escape from fo imminent danger, I pray God may prove lefs precarious than my poor Mother's can be; whofe life at beft can be but a fhort repreive, or a

longer dying. But I fear, even that is more than God will please to grant me; for, thefe two days paft, her most dangerous fymptoms are returned upon her; and, unless there be a fudden change, I muft in a few days, if not in a few hours, be deprived of her. In the afflicting profpect before me, I know nothing that can fo much alleviate it as the view now given me (Heaven grant it may increase!) of your recovery. In the fincerity of my Heart, I am exceffively concern'd, not to be able to pay you, dear Gay, any part of the debt, I very gratefully remember, I owe you on a like fad occafion, when you was here comforting me in her laft great Illnefs. May your health augment as faft as, I fear, hers muft decline: I believe that would be very faftmay the Life that is added to you be past in good fortune and tranquillity, rather of your own giving to yourself, than from any expectations or truft in others. May you and I live together, without wifhing more felicity or acquifitions than Friendship can give and receive without obligations to Greatnefs. God keep you, and three or four more of those I have known as long, that I may have fomething worth the furviving my Mother. Adieu, dear Gay, and believe me (while you live and while I live)

Your, &c.

As I told you in my laft letter, I repeat it in this: Do not think of writing to me. The Doctor, Mrs. Howard, and Mrs. Blount give me daily accounts of you.

LET

LETTER XI.

I Truly rejoyced to fee

Sunday Night.

your hand-writing, though I feared the trouble it might give you. I wish I had not known that you are still so exceffively weak. Every day for a week past I had hopes of being able in a day or two more to fee you. But my Mother advances not at all, gains no strength, and feems but upon the whole to wait for the next cold day to throw her into a Diarrhoea, that muft, if it return, carry her off. This being daily to be fear'd, makes me not dare to go a day from her, left that should prove to be her laft. God send you a speedy recovery, and fuch a total one as, at your time of life, may be expected. You need not call the few words I writ to you, either kind, or good; that was, and is, nothing. But whatever I have in my nature of kindness, I really have for you, and whatever good I could do, I would, among the very firft, be glad to do to you. In your circumftance the old Roman farewell is proper, Vive memor noftri.

Your, &c.

I fend you a very kind letter of Mr. Digby, between whom and me two letters have pass'd concerning you.

N

LETTER XII.

O words can tell you the great concern I feel for you; I affure you it was not, and is not leffened, by the immediate apprehenfion I have now every day lain under of lofing my Mother. Be af fur'd, no duty less than that fhould have kept me

one

one day from attending your condition: I would come and take a room by you at Hampstead, to be with you daily, were the not ftill in danger of death. I have conftantly had particular accounts of you from the Doctor, which have not ceas'd to alarm me yet. God preferve your life, and reftore your health. I really beg it for my own fake, for I feel I love you more than I thought in health, tho' I always loved you a great deal. If I am fo unfortunate as to bury my poor mother,, and yet have the good fortune to have my prayers heard for you, I hope we may live most of our remaining days together. If, as I believe, the air of a better clime, as the Southern part of France, may be thought ufeful for your recovery, thither I would go with you infallibly; and it is very probable we might get the Dean with us, who is in that abandon'd ftate already in which I fhall fhortly be, as to other cares and duties. Dear Gay, be as chearful as your fuf-. ferings will permit: God is a better friend than a Court; even any honeft man is a better. I promise you my entire friendship in all events, heartily praying for your recovery.

Your, &c.

Do not write, if you are ever so able: the Doctor tells me all.

I

LETTER XIII.

Am glad to hear of the progrefs of your recovery, and the oftner I hear it, the better, when it becomes eafy to you to give it me. Ifo well remember the confolation you were to me in my Mother's former illnefs, that it doubles my concern at this time not to be able to be with you, or you able

to be with me. no where else but with you during your confinement. I have now past five weeks without once going from home, and without any company but for three or four of the days. Friends rarely ftretch their kindness fo far as ten miles. My Lord Bolingbroke and Mr. Bethel have not forgotten to vifit me the reft (except Mrs. Blount once) were contented to fend meffages. I never paffed fo melancholy a time, and now Mr. Congreve's death touches me nearly. It was twenty years and more that I have known him: Every year carries away fomething dear with it, till we outlive all tenderneffes, and become wretched individuals again as we begun. Adieu! This is my birth-day, and this is my reflection upon it.

Had I loft her, I would have been

With added days if life give nothing new,
But, like a Sieve, let ev'ry Pleafure thro';
Some Foy fill loft, as each vain Year runs o'er,
And all we gain, fome fad Reflection more!
Is this a Birth-day?-Tis, alas ! too clear,
'Tis but the Fun'ral of the former year.

Your, &c.

LETTER XIV.

To the Honourable Mrs.

June 20.

W congratulate you upon the encrease of

E cannot omit taking this occafion to

your family, for your Cow is this morning very happily deliver'd of the better fort, I mean a female calf; fhe is as like her mother as fhe can

ftare.