moment it was given, for you pleas'd or inform'd me the minute you answer'd. I must now be contented with more flow returns. However, 'tis some pleasure, that your thoughts upon paper will be a more lafting poffeffion to me, and that I fhall no longer have caufe to complain of a lofs I have fo often regretted, that of any thing you faid, which I happen'd to forget. In earneft, Madam, if I were to write to you as often as think of you, it must be every day of my life. I attend you in fpirit thro' all your ways, I follow you through every stage in books of travels, and fear for you thro' whole folio's; you make me shrink at the paft dangers of dead travellers; and if I read of a delightful profpect, or agreeable place, I hope it yet fubfifts to please you. I enquire the roads, the amusements, the company, every town and country thro' which you pass, with as much diligence, as if I were to set out next week to overtake you In a word, no one can have you more conftantly in mind, not even your Guardian-angel (if you have one) and I am willing to indulge fo much Popery as to fancy fome Being takes care of you, who knows your value better than you do yourself: I am willing to think that Heaven never gave fo much felf-neglect and refolution to a woman, to occafion her calamity; but am pious enough to believe those qualities must be intended to conduce to her benefit and her glory.

of

Your firft fhort letter only ferves to fhow me you are alive it puts me in mind of the first dove that

:

return'd

return'd to Noah, and juft made him know it had found no reft abroad.

There is nothing in it that pleases me, but when you tell me you had no fea-fickness. I beg your next may give me all the pleasure it can, that is, tell me any that you receive. You can make no difcoveries that will be half fo valuable to me as those of your own mind. Nothing that regards the ftates or kingdoms you pafs thro', will engage fo much of my curiofity or concern, as what relates to yourfelf: Your welfare, to fay truth, is more at my heart than that of Christendom.

I am fure I may defend the truth, tho' perhaps not the virtue, of this declaration. One is ignorant, or doubtful at best, of the merits of differing religions and governments: but private virtues one c can be fure of. I therefore know what particular Perfon has defert enough to merit being happier than others, but not what Nation deferves to conquer or oppress another. You will fay, I am not public spirited; let it be so, I may have too many tendernesses, particular regards, or narrow views: but at the fame time I am certain that whoever wants these, can never have a Public fpirit: for (as a friend of mine fays) how is it poffible for that man to love twenty-thoufand people, who never loved one?

I communicated your letter to Mr. C, he thinks of you and talks of you as he ought, I mean as I do, and one always thinks that to be just as it ought. His health and mine are now fo good, that

we wish with all our fouls you were a witness of it. We never meet but we lament over you: we pay a kind of weekly rites to your memory, where we ftrow flowers of rhetoric, and offer fuch libations to your name as it would be prophane to call Toasting. The Duke of Bm is fometimes the High Priest of your praifes; and upon the whole, I believe there are as few men that are not forry at your departure, as women that are; for, you know, most of your fex want good fenfe, and therefore must want generofity: You have fo much of both, that, I am sure, you pardon them; for one cannot but forgive whatever one defpifes. For my part I hate a great many women for your fake, and undervalue all the rest. 'Tis you are to blame, and may God revenge it upon you, with all thofe bleffings and earthly profperities, which, the Divines tell us, are the cause of our perdition; for if he makes you happy in this world, I dare trust your own virtue to do it in the other. Į

am

Your, &c.

LETTER

XXIII.

To Mrs. ARABELLA FERMOR.

YOU

On her Marriage.

OU are by this time fatisfied how much the tenderness of one man of merit is to be preferred to the addreffes of a thousand. And by this

time the Gentleman you have made choice of is fenfible, how great is the joy of having all thofe charms and good qualities which have pleased so many, now applied to please one only. It was but juft, that the fame Virtues which gave you reputation, should give you happiness; and I can wish you no greater, than that you may receive it in as high a degree yourself, as fo much good humour muft infallibly give it to your husband.

It may be expected, perhaps, that one who has the title of Poet fhould fay fomething more polite on this occafion: But I am really more a well-wisher to your felicity, than a celebrater of your beauty. Befides, you are now a married woman, and in a way to be a great many better things than a fine lady; fuch as an excellent wife, a faithful friend, a tender parent, and at laft, as the confequence of them all, a faint in heaven. You ought now to hear nothing but that, which was all you ever defired to hear (whatever others may have spoken to you) I mean Truth and it is with the utmoft that I affure you, no friend you have can more rejoice in any good that befals you, is more fincerely delighted with the profpect of your future happiness, or more unfeignedly defires a long continuance of it.

I hope, you will think it but juft, that a man who will certainly be spoken of as your admirer, after he is dead, may have the happiness to be esteemed, while he is living,

Your, &c.

LET.

Oct. 19, 1705.

Return you the Book you were pleased to send me, and with it your obliging letter, which deferves my particular acknowledgment; for, next to the pleasure of enjoying the company of fo good a friend, the welcomeft thing to me is to hear from him. I expected to find, what I have met with, an admirable genius in thofe Poems, not only because they were Milton's t, or were approved by Sir Hen. Wooton, but because you had commended them;

* Secretary of State to King William the Third.

† L'Allegro, Il Penferofo, Lycidas, and the Mafque of Comus.

and