God forgive him, but not till he puts himself in a state to be forgiven. Upon reafoning with myself, I should hope they are gone too far to discard you quite, and that they will give you fomething; which, although much less than they ought, will be (as far as it is worth) better circum ftantiated: And fince you a!ready juft live, a middling help will make you just tolerable. Your latenefs in life (as you fo foon call it) might be improper to begin the world with, but almost the eldest men may hope to fee Changes in a Court. A Minifter is always feventy: You are thirty years younger; and confider, Cromwell himself did not begin to appear till he was older than you. I beg you will be thrifty, and learn to value a fhilling, which Dr Birch faid was a serious thing. Get a ftronger fence about your 1000 7. and throw the inner fence into the heap, and be advised by your Twickenham landlord and me about an annuity. You are the most refractory, honeft, good-natur'd man I ever have known; I could argue out this paper-I am very glad your Opera is finished, and hope your friends will join the readier to make it fucceed, because you are ill-used by others.

I have known Courts thefe thirty-fix years, and know they differ; but in foine things they are extremely conftant: Firft, in the trite old maxi1n of a minifter's never forgiving thofe he hath injured: Secondly, in the infincerity of those who would be thought the best friends: Thirdly, in the love of fawning, cringing, and tale-bearring: Fourthly, in facrificing thofe whom VOL. VI. Bb

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we really with well, to a point of interest, or intrigue : Fifthly, in keeping every thing worth taking, for those who can do fervice or dif-service.

Now, why does not Pope publifh his dulnefs? the rogues he marks will die of themselves in peace, and so will his friends; and fo there will be neither punishment, nor reward.-Pray inquire how my Lord St John does? there's no man's health in England I am more concerned about than his.- I wonder whether you begin to tafte the pleasure of Independency? or whether you do not fometimes leer upon the Court, oculo retorto? Will you not think of an Anuuity, when you are two years older, and have doubled your purchafe money? Have you dedicated your Opera, and got the ufual dedication-fee of twenty guineas? How is the Doctor? does he not chide that you never cal. led upon him for hints? Is my Lord Bolingbroke at the moment I am writing, a planter, a philofopher, or a writer? Is Mr Pultney in expectation of a fon, or my Lord Oxford of a new old Manuscript!

I bought your Opera to-day for fixpence, a curfed print. I find there is neither dedication nor preface, both which wants I approve; it is in the grand gout.

We are as full of it pro modulo nostre as London can be; continually acting, and houfes cramm'd, and the Lord Lieutenant several times there laughing his heart out. I did not understand that the fcene of Locket and Peachum's quarrel was an imitation of one between Brutus and Caffius, till I was told it. I wish Mackheath, when he was going to be hang'd, had imi

tated Alexander the Great when he was dying: I would have had his fellow-rouges defire his commands about a Succeffor, and he to anfwer, Let it be the moft worthy, &c. We hear a million of ftories about the Opera, of the applaufe at the fong, That was le= vell'd at me, when two great Ministers were in a box together, and all the world ftaring at them. I am heartily glad your Opera hath mended your purse, though perhaps it may spoil your court.

Will you defire my Lord Bolingbroke, Mr Pultney, and Mr Pope, to command you to buy an annuity with two thousand pounds? that you may laugh at courts, and bid Ministers.

Ever preserve some spice of the Alderman, and prepare against Age, and Dulness, and Sickness, and Coldnefs or Death of Friends. A Whore has a refource left, that she can turn bawd; but an old decay'd Poet is a creature abandon'd, and at mercy, when he can find none. Get me likewife Polly's Meffotinto. Lord, how the school-boys at Westminster, and Universitylads adore you at this juncture! Have you made as many men laugh, as Ministers can make weep?

I will excufe Sir- the trouble of a letter: When Ambaffadors came from Troy to condole with Tiberius upon the death of his Nephew, after two years; the Emperor anfwered, that he likewife condoled with them for the untimely death of Hector. I always loved and respected him very much, and do still as much as ever; and it is a return fufficient, if he pleaLes to accept the offers of my most humble service.

The Beggars's opera hath knock'd down Gulliver; I hope to fee Pope's Dulness knock down the Beggar's Opera, but not till it hath fully done its jobb.

To expofe vice, and make people laugh with innocence, does more public service than all the Ministers of ftate from Adam to Walpole, and fo adieu.

LETTER XXVIII.

Lord BOLINGBROKE to Dr SWT.

OPE charges himself with this letter; he has been here two days, he is now hurrying to London, he will hurry back to Twickenham in two days more, and before the end of the week he will be, for ought I know, at Dublin. In the mean time his * Dulness grows and flourishes as if he was there alrea dy. It will indeed be a noble work: the many will ftare at it, the few will finile, and all his Patrons from Bickerstaff to Gulliver will rejoice, to fee themselves adorn'd in that immortal piece.

I hear that you have had some return of your illness which carried you fo fuddenly from us (if indeed it was your own illness which made you in fuch hafte to be at Dublin.) Dear Swift take care of your health, I'll give you a receipt for it, a la Montagne, or which is better, à la Bruyère. Nourier bien vôtre corps; ne le fatiguer jamais: laiffer rouiller 1 efprit meuble inutil, voire outil dangereux: Laiffer fonner vos cloches le matin pour eveiller les chanoines, et pour faire dormir le

* The Dunciad.

Doyen d'un fommeil doux et profond, qui luy procure de beaux fonges: Lever vous tard, et aller à l'Eglife, pour vous faire payer d'avoir bien dormi et bien dejuné. As to myself (a perfon about whom I concern myfelf very little) I must say a word or two out of complaifance to you. I am in my farm, and here I fhoot strong and tenacious roots; I have caught hold of the earth (to use a Gardener's phrase) and neither my enemies nor my friends will find it an eafy matter to transplant me again. Adieu; let me hear from you, at leaft of you: I love you for a thousand things, for none more than for the just esteem and love which you have for all the fons of Adain.

P. S. According to Lord Bolingbroke's account, I fhall be at Dublin in three days. I cannot help adding a word, to defire you to expect my foul there with you by that time; but as for the jade of a body that is tack'd to it, I fear there will be no dragging it af ter. I affure you I have few friends here to detain me, and no powerful one at Court abfolutely to forbid my journey. I am told the Gynocracy are of opinion, that they want no better writers than Cibber and the British journalist; fo that we may live at quiet, and apply ourselves to our more abftrufe ftudies. The only Courtiers I know, or have the honour to call my friends, are John Gay and Mr Bowry; the former is at prefent fo employed in the elevated airs of his Opera, and the latter in the exaltation of his high dignity, (that of her Majesty's Waterman) that I can fearce obtain a categorical anfwer from either to any thing I