blow all I can bring myself to is, to bear mortification from the Fair Sex with patience.

You seem to think it vexatious that I shall allow you but one woman at a time, either to praise or love. If I dispute with you upon this point, I doubt every jury will give a verdict against me. So, Sir, with a Mahometan indulgence, I allow you pluralities, the favourite privilege of our church.

tell

I find you do not mend upon correction; again I you, you must not think of women in a reasonable way; you know we always make Goddesses of those we adore upon earth; and do not all the good men tell us, we must lay aside Reason in what relates to the Deity?

"Tis well the Poets are preparing songs of joy: 'tis well to lay in antidotes of soft rhyme, against the rough prose they may chance to meet with at Westminster. I should have been glad of any thing of Swift's Pray, when you write to him next, tell him I expect him with impatience, in a place as odd and as much out of the way, as himself.

Yours.

LETTER XXXVIII.

FROM THE SAME.

WHENEVER you apply as a good Papist to your female Mediatrix, you are sure of success; but there is not a full assurance of your entire submission

7 Lady Peterborow, a rigid Papist.

to mother church, and that abates a little of your authority. However, if you will accept of country letters, she will correspond from the hay-cock, and I will write to you upon the side of my wheelbarrow: surely such letters might escape examination.

Your Idea of the Golden age is, that every shepherd might pipe where he pleased. As I have lived longer, I am more moderate in my wishes, and would be content with the liberty of not piping where I am not pleased.

8

Oh how I wish, to myself and my friends, a freedom which Fate seldom allows, and which we often refuse ourselves! Why is our Shepherdess in voluntary slavery? why must our Dean submit to the colour of his coat, and live absent from us? and why are you confined to what you cannot relieve?

I seldom venture to give accounts of my journies before hand, because I take resolutions of going to London, and keep them no better than quarrelling lovers do theirs. But the devil will drive me thither about the middle of next month, and I will call upon you to be sprinkled with holy water before I enter the place of Corruption.

8 Mrs. H. W.

Your, etc.

LETTER XXXIX.

FROM THE SAME.

1732.

I AM under the greatest impatience to see Dr. Swift at Bevis-Mount, and must signify my mind to him by another hand, it not being permitted me to hold correspondence with the said Dean, for no letter of mine can come to his hands.

And whereas it is apparent, in this protestant land, most especially under the care of divine providence, that nothing can succeed or come to a happy issue but by Bribery; therefore let me know what he expects to comply with my desires, and it shall be remitted unto him.

For though I would not corrupt any man for the whole world, yet a benevolence may be given without any offence to conscience; every one must confess, that gratification and corruption are two distinct terms: nay at worst many good men hold, that for a good end, some very naughty measures may be made use of.

But, Sir, I must give you some good news in relation to myself, because I know you wish me well;

9 This year Lord Peterborow and Pope paid a visit from Southampton to Winchester College, and gave prizes to the scholars for the best copy of verses that should be written, on a subject proposed to them by Mr. Pope himself-The Campaign of Valentia. The prizes were sets of Pine's Horace. Hampton, the excellent Translator of Polybius, at that time very young, gained one of these prizes: Mr. Whitehead another.

I am cured of some diseases in my old age, which tormented me very much in my youth.

I was possessed with violent and uneasy passions, such as a peevish concern for Truth', and a saucy love for my Country.

When a Christian Priest preached against the Spirit of the Gospel, when an English Judge determined against Magna Charta, when the Minister acted against Common Sense, I used to fret.

Now, Sir, let what will happen, I keep myself in temper: As I have no flattering hopes, so I banish all useless fears: but as to things of this world, I find myself in a condition beyond expectation; it being evident from a late Parliamentary inquiry, that I have as much ready money, as much in the funds, and as great a personal estate, as Sir Robert S-tt-n.

If the Translator of Homer find fault with this unheroic disposition, or (what I more fear) if the Draper of Ireland accuse the Englishman of want of spirit: I silence you both with one line out of your own Horace: Quid te exempta juvat spinis de pluribus una? For I take the whole to be so corrupted, that a cure in any part would be of little avail.

Your, etc.

1 As may be seen from his transactions with Fenwick in the

Year 1696-7.

LETTER XL.

DR. SWIFT TO THE EARL OF PETERBOROW.

MY LORD,

I NEVER knew or heard of any person so volatile, and so fixed as your Lordship: you, while your imagination is carrying you through every corner of the world, where you have or have not been, can at the same time remember to do offices of favour and kindness to the meanest of your friends; and in all the Scenes you have passed, have not been able to attain that one quality peculiar to a great man, of forgetting every thing but injuries. Of this I am a living witness against you; for being the most insignificant of all your old humble servants, you were so cruel as never to give me time to ask a favour, but prevented me in doing whatever you thought I desired, or could be for my credit or advantage.

I have often admired at the capriciousness of Fortune in regard to your Lordship. She hath forced Courts to act against their oldest, and most constant maxims; to make you a General because you had courage and conduct; an Ambassador, because you had wisdom and knowledge in the interests of Europe; and an Admiral on account of your skill in maritime affairs: whereas, according to the usual method of Court proceedings, I should have been at the head of the Army, and you of the Church, or rather a Curate, under the Dean of St. Patrick's.

The Archbishop of Dublin laments that he did not