What are they doing in England to the honour of Letters; and particularly what are you doing? Ipfe quid audes? Quæ circumvolitas agilis Thyma? Do you pursue the Moral plan you marked out, and feemed fixteen months ago fo intent upon? Am I to fee it perfected e'er I die, and are you to enjoy the reputation of it while you live? or do you rather chufe to leave the marks of your friendship, like the legacies of a will, to be read and enjoyed only by those who survive you? Were I as near you as I have been, I fhould hope to peep into the manufcript before it was finished. But alas! there is, and will ever probably be a great deal of land and fea between us. How many books have come out of late in your parts, which you think I should be glad to perufe? Name them: The catalogue, I believe, will not coft you much trouble. They must be good ones indeed to challenge any part of my time, now I have fo little of it left. I, who fquandered whole days heretofore, now husband hours when the glafs begins to run low, and care not to mifpend them on trifles. At the end of the Lottery of Life, our last minutes, like tickets left in the wheel, rife in their valuation: They are not of to much worth perhaps in themselves as those which preceded, but we are apt to prize them more, and with reafon. I do fo, my dear friend, and yet think the most precious minutes of my life ployed, in reading what you write. fatisfaction I cannot much hope for,

are well emBut this is a

and therefore

must betake myself to others lefs entertaining. Adieu! dear Sir, and forgive me engaging with one, whom you, I think, have reckoned among the heroes of the Dunciad. It was neceffary for me either to accept of his dirty Challenge, or to have fuffered in the efteem of the world by declining it.

My respects to your Mother; I fend one of thefe papers for Dean Swift, if you have an opportunity, and think it worth while to convey it. My Country at this distance feems to me a strange fight; I know not how it appears to you, who are in the midft of the scene, and yourself a part of it; I wish you would tell me. You may write fafely to Mr. Morice, by the honeft hand that conveys this, and will return into these parts before Christmas; sketch out a rough draught of it, that I may be able to judge whether a return to it be really eligible, or whether I should not, like the Chemift in the bottle, upon hearing Don Quevedo's account of Spain, defire to be corked up again.

After all, I do and muft love my Country, with all its faults and blemishes; even that part of the conftitution which wounded me unjustly, and itself through my fide, fhall ever be dear to me. My laft wish shall be like that of father Paul, Efto perpetua! and when I die at a distance from it, it will be in the fame manner as Virgil describes the expiring Peloponnefian,

Do I ftill live in the memory of my friends, as they certainly do in mine? I have read a good many of your paper fquabbles about me, and am glad to fee fuch free conceffions on that head, tho' made with no view of doing me a pleafure, but merely of loading another.

I am, &c.

I

LETTER XXV.

From the Bishop of ROCHESTER.
On the Death of his Daughter.

Montpelier, Nov. 20, 1729.
Am not yet Mafter enough of myself, after the

late wound I have receiv'd, to open my very heart to you, and am not content with less than that, whenever I converfe with you. My thoughts are at prefent vainly, but pleafingly employed, on what I have loft, and can never recover. I know well I ought, for that reafon, to call them off to other fubjects, but hitherto I have not been able to do it. By giving them the rein a little, and fuffering them to spend their force, I hope in fome time to check and fubdue them. Multis fortune vulneribus perculfus, huic uni me imparem fenfi, et pene fuccubui. This is weakness, not wisdom, I own';

and on that account fitter to be trufted to the bofom of a friend, where I may fafely lodge all my infirmities. As foon as my mind is in fome measure

corrected and calm'd, I will endeavour to follow your advice, and turn it to fomething of use and moment; if I have ftill life enough left to do any thing that is worth reading and preferving. In the mean time I shall be pleas'd to hear that you proceed in what you intend, without any fuch melancholy interruption as I have met with. Your mind is as yet unbroken by age and ill accidents, your knowledge and judgment are at the height: ufe them in writing fomewhat that may teach the prefent and future times, and if not gain equally the applause of both, may yet raise the envy of the one, and fecure the admiration of the other. Employ not your precious moments, and great talents, on little men and little things; but chuse a subject every way worthy of you, and handle it as you can, in a manner which no-body elfe can equal or imitate. As for me, my abilities, if I ever had any, are not what they were: and yet I will endeavour to recollect and employ them.

gelidus tardante fene&a

Sanguis hebet, frigentque effato in corpore vires. However, I should be ingrateful to this place, if I did not own that I have gained upon the gout in the fouth of France, much more than I did at Paris: tho' even there I fenfibly improved. I believe my cure had been perfected, but the earneft defire of meeting One I dearly loved, called me abruptly to Montpelier; where after continuing two months, under the cruel torture of a fad and fruitless expecta

tion, I was forced at last to take a long journey to Toulouse; and even there I had mifs'd the person I fought, had she not, with great fpirit and courage, I ventured all night up the Garonne to see me, which the above all things defired to do before she died. By that means fhe was brought where I was, between seven and eight in the morning, and liv'd twenty hours afterwards, which time was not loft on either fide, but pass'd in fuch a manner as gave great fatisfaction to both, and fuch as on her part, every way became her circumftances and character. For fhe had her fenfes to the very last gasp, and exerted them to give me, in those few hours, greater marks of Duty and Love than she had done in all her life time, tho' fhe had never been wanting in either. The laft words fhe faid to me were the kindeft of all; a reflection on the goodness of God, which had allow'd us in this manner to meet once more, before we parted for ever. Not many minutes after that, fhe laid herself on her pillow, in a fleeping posture, placidaque ibi demum morte quievit.

Judge you, Sir, what I felt, and ftill feel on this occafion, and spare me the trouble of defcribing it. At my Age, under my Infirmities, among utter Strangers, how shall I find out proper reliefs and fupports? I can have none, but those with which Reafon and Religion furnifh me, and those I lay hold on, and grasp as fast as I can. I hope that He, who laid the burthen upon me (for wife and good purposes no doubt) will enable me to bear it,