are yet too ftupid to apprehend. I grieve with the old, for fo many additional inconveniencies and chagrins, more than their small remain of life feemed destined to undergo; and with the

young, for fo many of thofe gaieties and pleafures (the portion of youth) by this means be deprived of.

which they will.

This brings into my mind one or other of those I love best, and among them the widow and fatherlefs, late of. As I am certain no people living had an earlier and truer fenfe of others misfortunes, or

a more generous refignation as to what might be their own, fo I earneftly wish that whatever part they must bear, may be render'd as fupportable to them, as it is in the power of any

friend to make it.

But I know you have prevented me in this thought, as you always will in any thing that is good, or generous: I find by a letter of your lady's (which I have feen) that their ease and. tranquillity is part of your care. I believe there's fome fatality in it, that you fhould always, from time to time, be doing those particular things that make me enamour'd of you.

I write this from Windfor-Forest, of which I am 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 af

ter.

ter. I parted from honeft Mr. D* with tendernefs; and from old Sir William Trumbull as from a venerable prophet, foretelling with lifted hands the miferies to come, from which he is just going to be remov'd himself.

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 pleases! I have provided juft enough to keep me a man of honour. I believe you and I shall never be afhamed of each other. I know I wish my Country well, and, if it undoes me, it shall not make me with it otherwife.

LETTER VII.

From Mr. BLOUNT.

March 24, 1715-16.

YOUR letters give me a gleam of fatif

faction, in the midst 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 speaking, I should lament the loss 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 verse is verse. This confideration hardens me

in my opinion rather to congratulate you, fince you have the pleasure of the prospect whenever you take it from your fhelf, and at the fame time the folid cash 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 so happy; my parva rura are faften'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 fupportable to me: 'tis what I am refolved on, with my Penate. If therefore you ask 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 proposals in one, fafety and friendship (the leaft 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 ftill here, and I think I may be here a month

a month longer. Whenever I go from hence, one of the few reafons to make me regret my home will be, that I shall not have the pleafure of faying to you,

Hic tamen hanc mecum poteris requiefcere noctem,

which would have render'd this place more agreeable, than ever it else could be to me; for I protest, it is with the utmost fincerity that I affure you, I am entirely,

Dear Sir,

Your, &c.

LETTER VIII.

June 22, 1717.

I

F a regard both to public and private affairs may plead a lawful excufe in behalf of a negligent correspondent, 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, madness, and refentment of modern Warmakers, which are likely to prove (to fome

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

1

people at least) more fatal, than the fame qualities in Achilles did to his unfortunate country-men.

Tho' the change of my fcene of life, from Windfor-foreft 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 hiftory; yet you can scarce imagine any hero paffing from one stage of life to another, with fo much tranquillity, fo eafy a transition, 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 amufements paft 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 separate spirits 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