they may raise up and breed as irreproachable a young family as their parents have done. In a word, I fancy you all well, eafy, and happy, juft as I wish you; and next to that, I wish you all with me.

Next to God, is a good man: next in dignity, and next in value. Minuifti eum paullo minus ab angelis. If therefore I wifh well to the good and the deferving, and defire they only should be my companions and correfpondents, I muft very foon and very much think of you. I want your company, and your example. Pray make hafte to town, fo as not again to leave us: discharge the load of earth that lies on you, like one of the mountains under which the poets fay, the giants (the men of the earth) are whelmed: leave earth, to the fons of the earth, your conversation is in heaven. Which that it may be accomplish'd in us all, is the prayer of him who maketh this short Sermon; value (to you) three-pence. Adieu.

Mr. Blount died in London the following Year, 1726,

P.

LETTERS

LETTERS

To and from the

Hon. ROBERT DIG BY. DIGBY.

From 1717 to 1724.

I

LETTER I:

To the Hon. ROBERT DIGBY.

June 2, 1717.

Had pleas'd myfelf fooner in writing to you, but that I have been your fucceffor in a fit of fickness, and am not yet fo much recovered, but that I have thoughts of ufing your * physicians. They are as grave perfons as any of the faculty, and (like the ancients) carry their own medicaments about with them. But indeed the moderns are fuch lovers of raillery, that nothing is grave enough to escape them. Let them laugh, but people will ftill have their opinions: as they think our Doctors affes to them, we'll think them affes to our Doctors.

I am glad you are fo much in a better state of health, as to allow me to jest about it. My concern, when I heard of your danger, was so very ferious, that I almost take it ill Dr. Evans should tell you of it, or you mention it. I tell you fair

* Afles.

ly,

ly, if you and a few more fuch people were to leave the world, I would not give fix-pence to ftay in it.

I am not fo much concerned as to the point whether you are to live fat or lean: moft men of wit or honefty are usually decreed to live very lean : fo I am inclined to the opinion that 'tis decreed you fhall; however be comforted, and reflect, that you'll make the better Bufto for it.

'Tis fomething particular in you, not to be fatisfied with fending me your own books, but to make your acquaintance continue the frolic. Mr. Wharton forced me to take Gorboduc, which has fince done me great credit with feveral people, as it has done Dryden and Oldham some difkindness, in fhewing there is as much difference between their Gorboduc and this, as between Queen Anne, and King George. It is truly a scandal, that men fhould write with contempt of a piece which they never once faw, as those two Poets did, who were ignorant even of the fex, as well as fenfe, of Gorboduc *.

Adieu! I am going to forget you: this minute you took up all my mind; the next I fhall think of nothing but the reconciliation with Agamemnon, and the recovery of Brifeis. I fhall be Achilles's humble fervant these two months (with the good leave of all my friends.) I have no ambition so strong at present, as that noble one of Sir Salathiel Lovel, recorder of London, to furnish out a decent and plentiful execution, of Greeks and Trojans. It is not to be exprefs'd how heartily I with the death of all Homer's heroes, one after another. The Lord preferve me in the day of battle,

There is a correct edition of it in that valuable col

lection of old Plays published by DodЛley.

which is juft approaching! join in your prayers for me, and know me to be always

Your, &c.

T

LETTER II.

London, March 31, 1718.

O convince you how little pain I give my

felf in correfponding with men of good nature and good understanding, you fee I omit to answer your letters till a time, when another man would be ashamed to own he had received them. If therefore you are ever moved on my account by that fpirit, which I take to be as familiar to you as a quotidian ague, I mean the fpirit of goodness, pray never ftint it, in any fear of obliging me to a civility beyond my natural inclination. I dare truft you, Sir, not only with my folly when I write, but with my negligence when I do not; and expect equally your pardon for either.

If I knew how to entertain you thro' the reft of this paper, it fhould be fpotted and diverfified with conceits all over; you should be put out of breath with laughter at each fentence, and paufe at each period, to look back over how much wit you have pafs'd. But I have found by experience that people now-a-days regard writing as little as they do preaching: the moft we can hope is to be heard juft with decency and patience, once a week, by folks in the country. Here in town we hum over a piece of fine writing, and we whistle at a fermon. The stage is the only place we feem alive at there indeed we ftare, and roar, and clap hands for K. George, and the government. As for all other virtues but this loyalty, they are an obfolete train, fo ill-dress'd, that men, women,

and

and children hifs them out of all good company. Humility knocks fo fneakingly at the door that every footman outraps it, and makes it give way to the free entrance of pride, prodigality, and vainglory.

My Lady Scudamore, from having rufticated in your company too long, really behaves herself fcandaloufly among us: fhe pretends to open her eyes for the fake of seeing the fun, and to fleep because it is night; drinks tea at nine in the morning, and is thought to have faid her prayers before; talks, without any manner of fhame, of good books, and has not feen Cibber's play of the Nonjuror. I rejoiced the other day to fee a libel on her toilette, which gives me fome hope that you have, at least, a taste of scandal left you, in defect of all other vices.

Upon the whole matter, I heartily with you well; but as I cannot entirely defire the ruin of all the joys of this city, fo all that remains is to wish you would keep your happiness, to yourselves, that the happieft here may not die with envy at a blifs which they cannot attain to.

I am, &c.

I

LETTER III.

From Mr. DIGBY.

Coleshill, April 17, 1718.

Have read your letter over and over with delight. By your defcription of the town, I imagine it to lie under fome great enchantment, and am very much concerned for you and all friends in it. I am the more afraid, imagining, fince you do not fly thofe horrible monsters, raVOL. VIII.

D

my

pine,