a public spirit: for wat die is it possible for that man xore than sovelt people who never loved one' I communicated your letter to Mr. C thinks of you and talks of you as it as I do, and one last spr= ought. His health and ea we wish with all our soila pouvai We never meet but we atest kind of weekly fat your retory strow flowers of theory wt die man bara Priest of your praises, and on the muse I a departure, as women dat wa happy in this world, I dare trust your own virtue to do it in the other. I am Your, etc. LETTER XXIII. TO MRS. ARABELLA FERMOR. ON HER MARRIAGE. You are by this time satisfied how much the tenderness of one man of merit is to be preferred to the addresses of a thousand. And by this time the gentleman you have made choice of is sensible, how great is the joy of having all those charms and good qualities which have pleased so many, now applied to please one only. It was but just, that the same 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 so much good humour must infallibly give it to your husband. It may be expected, perhaps, that one who has the title of Poet should say something more polite on this occasion: but I am really more a wellwisher to your felicity, than a celebrater of your beauty. Besides, you are now a married woman, and in a way to be a great many better things than This Letter, though very elegant and well-turned, must yield to Waller's Letter to Saccharissa, on her marriage. a fine lady; such as an excellent wife, a faithful friend, a tender parent, and at last, as the consequence of them all, a saint in heaven. You ought now to hear nothing but that, which was all you ever desired to hear, (whatever others may have spoken to you,) I mean Truth: and it is with the utmost that I assure you, no friend you have can more rejoice in any good that befals you, is more sincerely delighted with the prospect of your future happiness, or more unfeignedly desires a long continuance of it. I hope you will think it but just, 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, etc. I RETURN you the book you were pleased to send me, and with it your obliging letter, which deserves my particular acknowledgment: for, next to the pleasure of enjoying the company of so good a friend, the welcomest thing to me is to hear from him. I expected to find, what I have met with, an admirable genius in those Poems, not only because they were Milton's, or were approved by Sir. Hen. 6 Secretary of State to King William the Third. P. ⚫ L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Lycidas, and the Masque of Comus. 'From hence it appears, that these four exquisite Poems of Milton were read, and relished, and recommended, by our author, much earlier than they are supposed to have been. He has taken many expressions from them in the Eloisa and the Temple of Fame, and other pieces. See the Preface to the second edition, 1791, p. 10, of Milton's smaller Poems, by T. Warton. That a |