I have feen) that their eafe and tranquillity is part of your care. I believe there's fome fatality in it, should always, from time to time, be doing those particular things that make me enamour'd

that

you

of you.

I write this from Windfor-Foreft, of which I come to take my laft look. We here bid our neighbours adieu, much as those who go to be hang'd do their fellow-prifoners, who are condemn'd to follow them a few weeks after. I parted with honeft Mr. D* with tenderness; and from old Sir William Trumbull as from a venerable prophet, foretelling with lifted hands the mifèries to come, from which he is juft going to be remov'd himfelf.

Perhaps, now, I have learnt fo far as

Nos dulcia linquimus arva,

my next leffon may be

Nos Patriam fugimus.

Let that, and all elfe be as Heaven pleafes! I have provided juft enough to keep me a man of honour. I believe you and I shall never be ashamed of each other. I know I wish my country well, and if it undoes me, it shall not make me with it otherwise.

Y

LETTER VII.

From Mr. BLOUNT.

March 24, 1715-16.

OUR letters give me a gleam of fatisfaction, in the midft of a very dark and cloudy fituation of thoughts, which it would be more than human to be exempt from at this time, when our homes muft either be left, or be made too narrow for us to turn in. Poetically fpeaking, I fhould lament the lofs Windfor-foreft and you fuftain of each other, but that, methinks, one can't fay you are parted, because you will live by and in one another, while verfe is verfe. This confideration hardens me in my opinion rather to congratulate you, fince you have the pleasure of the profpect whenever you take it from your shelf, and at the fame time the folid Gafh you fold it for, of which Virgil in his exile knew nothing in those days, and which will make every place easy to you. I, for my part, am not fo happy; my parva rura are fasten'd to me, fo that I can't exchange them, as you have, for more portable means of fubfiftance; and yet I hope to gather enough to make the Patriam fugimus supportable to ine: 'tis what I am refolved on, with my Penate. If therefore you afk me, to whom you shall complain ? I will exhort you to leave laziness and the elms of St. James's Park, and choose to join the other two propofals in one, fafety and friendship (the leaf of

which is a good motive for most things, as the other is for almost every thing) and go with me where War will not reach us, nor paultry constables fummon us to veftries.

The future epiftle you flatter me with, will find me still here, and I think I may be here a month longer. Whenever I go from hence, one of the few reasons to make me regret my home will be, that I fhall not have the pleasure of faying to you,

Hic tamen hanc mecum poteris requiefcere noctem, which would have render'd this place more agreeable, than ever it elfe could be to me; for I teft, it is with the utmost fincerity that I affure you, I am entirely,

pro.

Dear Sir,

Your, &c.

LETTER VIII.

June 22, 1717.

I

Fa regard both to public and private affairs may plead a lawful excufe in behalf of a negligent correfpondent, I have really a very good title to it. I cannot fay whether 'tis a felicity or unhappiness, that I am obliged at this time to give my whole application to Homer; when without that employment, my thoughts muft turn upon what is lefs agreeable, the violence, madnefs, and refentment of

. modern War-makers*, which are likely to prove (to fome people at leaft) more fatal, than the fame qualities in Achilles did to his unfortunate country

men.

Tho' the change of my fcene of life, from Windfor-forest to the fide of the Thames, be one of the grand Æra's of my days, and may be called a notable period in fo inconfiderable a history; yet you can scarce imagine any hero paffing from one stage of life to another, with fo much tranquillity, fo eafy a tranfition, and fo laudable a behaviour. I am become fo truly a citizen of the world, (according to Plato's expreffion) that I look with equal indifference on what I have left, and on what I have gained. The times and amusements past are not more like a dream to me, than those which are prefent : I lie in a refreshing kind of inaction, and have one comfort at least from obfcurity, that the darkness helps me to fleep the better. I now and then reflect upon the enjoyment of my friends, whom, I fancy, I remember much as feparate fpirits do us, at tender intervals, neither interrupting their own employments, nor altogether careless of ours, but in general conftantly wishing us well, and hoping to have us one day in their company.

Το grow indifferent to the world is to grow philofophical, or religious (which foever of thofe turns we chance to take) and indeed the world is fuch a thing, as one that thinks pretty much, must either

*This was written in the year of the affair of Prefton.

laugh at, or be angry with: but if we laugh at it, they fay we are proud; and if we are angry with it, they fay we are ill-natur'd. So the most politic way is to feem always better pleas'd than one can be, greater admirers, greater lovers, and in fhort greater fools than we really are: fo fhall we live comfortably with our families, quietly with our neighbours, favoured by our mafters, and happy with our miftreffes. I have filled my paper, and so adieu.

LETTER IX.

Sept. 8, 1717.

I

Think your leaving England was like a good man's leaving the world, with the bleffed confcience of having acted well in it; and I hope you have received your reward, in being happy where I believe, in the religious country you inyou are. habit, you'll be better pleased to find I confider you in this light, than if I compared you to thofe Greeks and Romans, whofe conftancy in fuffering pain, and whose refolution in purfuit of a generous end, you would rather imitate than boast of.

But I had a melancholy hint the other day, as if you were yet a martyr to the fatigue your virtue made you undergo on this fide the water. I beg, if your health be reftored to you, not to deny me the joy of knowing it. Your endeavours of fervice and good advice to the poor papills, put me in mind of