of doing more than was expected from me, have done lefs than I ought.

For having defign'd four very laborious and uncommon fort of Indexes to Homer, I'm forc'd, for want of time, to publish two only; the defign of which you will own to be pretty, tho far from being fully executed. I've also been obliged to leave unfinish'd in my desk the heads of two Effays, one on the Theology and Morality of Homer, and another on the Oratory of Homer and Virgil. So they must wait for ftture editions, or perish: and (one way or other, no great matter which) dabit Deus his quoque finem. I think of you every day, I affure even without fuch good memorials of you as your fifters, with whom I fometimes talk of you, and find it one of the most agreeable of all fubjects to them. My Lord Digby must be perpetually remember'd by all who ever knew him, or knew his children. There needs no more than an acquaintance with your family, to make all elder fons wish they had fathers to their lives end.

you,

I can't touch upon the subject of filial love, without putting you in mind of an old woman, who has a fincere, hearty, old-fashion'd respect for you, and constantly blames her fon for not having writ to you oftener to tell you fo.

VOL. III.

E

I very

I very much with (but what fignifies my wifhing? my lady Scudamore wishes, your fifters with) that you were with us, to compare the beautiful contrafte this feafon affords us, of the town and the country. No ideas you could form in the winter can make you imagine what Twickenham is (and what your friend Mr. Johnson of Twickenham is) in this warmer feafon. Our river glitters beneath an unclouded fun, at the fame time that its banks retain the verdure of showers: our gardens are offering their first nofegays; our trees, like new acquaintance brought happily together, are stretching their arms to meet each other, and growing nearer and nearer every hour; the birds are paying their thanksgiving fongs for the new habitations I have made them; my building rifes high enough to attract the eye and curiofity of the paffenger from the river, where, upon beholding a mixture of beauty and ruin, he enquires what houfe is falling, or what church is rifing? So little taste have our common Tritons of Vitruvius; whatever delight the poetical gods of the river may take, in reflecting on their ftreams, my Tuscan Porticos, or Ionic Pilafters.

But (to defcend from all this pomp of style)

the beft account of what I am building, is, that

it will afford me a few pleasant roofs for fuch a friend as yourself, or a cool fituation for an hour or two for Lady Scudamore, when she will do me the honour (at this public house on the road) to drink her own cyder.

The moment I am writing this, I am furprized with the account of the death of a friend of mine; which makes all I have here been talking of, a mere jeft! Building, gardens, writings, pleasures, works, of whatever stuff man can raife! none of them (God knows) capable of advantaging a creature that is mortal, or of fatisfying a foul that is immortal! Dear Sir, I am, &c.

You

LETTER V.

From Mr. DIGBY.

May 21, 1720x

OUR letter, which I had two posts ago, was very medicinal to me; and I heartily thank you for the relief it gave me. I was fick of the thoughts of my not having in all this time given you any teftimony of the affection I owe you, and which I as conftantly indeed feel as I think of you. This indeed was a troublesome ill to me, till, after reading your letter, I found

E 2

I found it was a most idle weak imagination to think I could so offend you. Of all the impreffions you have made upon me, I never receiv'd any with greater joy than this of your abundant good-nature, which bids me be affured of fome share of your affections.

I had many other pleasures from your letter ; that your mother remembers me is a very fincere joy to me; I cannot but reflect how alike you are; from the time you do any one a favour, you think yourselves obliged as thofe that have received one. This is indeed an oldfashioned refpect, hardly to be found out of your houfe. I have great hopes however, to fee many old-fashioned virtues revive, since have made our age in love with Homer; I heartily with you, who are as good a citizen as a poet, the joy of feeing a reformation from your

you

works. I am in doubt whether I fhould congratulate your having finished Homer, while the two effays you mention are not completed; but if you expect no great trouble from finishing these, I heartily rejoice with you.

I have fome faint notion of the beauties of Twickenham from what I here fee round me. The verdure of showers is poured upon every tree and field about us; the gardens unfold variety of colours to the eye every morning, the hedges breath is beyond all perfume, and the

fong

fong of birds we hear as well as you. But tho' I hear and see all this, yet I think they would delight me more if you was here. I found the want of these at Twickenham while I was there with you, by which I guess what an increase of charms it must now have. How kind is it

in

you to with me there, and how unfortunate, are my circumstances that allow me not to vifit you? If I fee you, I must leave my Father alone, and this uneafy thought would difappoint all my propofed pleasures; the fame circumftance will prevent my profpect of many happy hours with you in Lord Bathurst's wood, and I fear of seeing you till winter, unless Lady Scudamore comes to Sherburne, in which cafe I shall prefs you to fee Dorfetfhire, as you propofed. May you have a long enjoyment of your new favourite Portico.

Your, &c.

LETTER VI.

From Mr. DIGBY.

Sherburne, July 9, 1720.

THE London language and converfation is, I find, quite changed fince I left it, tho' it is not above three or four months ago. No violent change in the natural world ever aftoE 3

nifhed