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to put you in mind of beftowing another. more favourable you are to me, the more diftinctly I fee my faults: Spots and blemishes, you know, are never fo plainly discovered as in the brightest funfhine. Thus I am mortified by thofe commendations which were defigned to encourage me: for praise to a young wit, is like rain to a tender flower; if it be moderately beftowed, it chears and revives; but if too lavishly, overcharges and depreffes him. Moft men in years, as they are generally discouragers of youth, are like old trees, that being past bearing themselves, will fuffer no young plants to flourish beneath them: but as if it were not enough to have out-done all your coævals in wit, you will excel them in good nature too. As for my (a) green effays, if you find any pleasure in them, it must be fuch as a man naturally takes in observing the first fhoots and buddings of a tree which he has raised himself and 'tis impoffible they should be esteemed any otherwife, than as we value fruits for being early, which nevertheless are the most infipid, and the worft of the year. In a word, I must blame you for treating me with fo much compliment, which is at beft but the fmoak of friendship. I neither write, nor converse with you, to gain your praise, but your affection. Be fo much my friend as to appear my enemy, and tell me my faults, if not as a young man, at least as an unexperienced Writer.

I am, &c.

(a) His Paftorals, written at 16 Years of Age.

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YOUR

LETTER IV.

From Mr. Wycherley.

March 29, 1795.

OUR letter of the twenty-fifth of March I have received, which was more welcome to me than any thing could be out of the country, tho' it were one's rent due that day; and I can find no fault with it, but that it charges me with want of finceri. ty, or juftice, for giving you your due; who should not let your modefty be fo unjust to your merit, as to reject what is due to it, and call that compliment, which is so fhort of your defert that it is rather degrading than exalting you. But if compliment be the fmoak only of friendship, (as you fay) however you must allow there is no fmoak but there is fome fire; and as the facrifice of incenfe offered to the Gods would not have been half fo fweet to others, if it had not been for its fmoak; fo friendship, like love, cannot be without fome incenfe, to perfume the name it would praise and immortalize. But fince you fay you do not write to me to gain my praife, but my affection, pray how is it poffibfe to have the one without the other? we must admire before we love, You affirm, you would have me fo mnch your friend as to appear your enemy, and find out your faults rather than your perfections; but (my friend) that would be fo hard to do, that I who love no difficulties can't be perfuaded to it. Befides, the vanity of a fcribler is fuch, that he will never part with his own judgment to gratify another's; efpecially when he

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must take pains to do it and tho' I am proud to be of your opinion, when you talk of any thing or man but your felf, I cannot fuffer you to murder your fame with your own hand, without oppofing you; especially when you fay your last letter is the worst (fince the longeft) you have favoured me with; which I therefore think the beft, as the longeft life (if a good one) is the best, as it yields the more variety and is the more exemplary; as a chearful fummer's day, 'tho longer than a dull one in the winter, is lefs tedious and more enter taining. Therefore let but your friendship be like your letter, as lafting as it is agreeable, and it can never be tedious, but more acceptable and obliging to

Your, &c.

I

* LETTER V.

From Mr. Wycherley.

April 7, 1705. Have received yours of the fifth, wherein your modefty refuses the juft praises I give you, by which you lay claim to more, as a bishop gains his bishoprick by faying he will not epifcopate; but I muft confefs, whilft I difplease you by commending you, I please my self juft as incenfe is fweeter to the offerer than the deity to whom 'tis offered, by his being fo much above it: For indeed every man partakes of the praise he gives, when it is fo justly given.

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As to my enquiry after your intrigues with the Mufes, you may allow me to make it, fince no old man can give fo young, fo great, and able a favourite of theirs, jealoufy. I am, in my enquiry, like old Sir Bernard Gascoign, who used to fay that when he was grown too old to have his vifits admitted alone by the ladies, he always took along with him a young man to enfure his welcome to them; for had he come alone he had been rejected, only because his vifits were not fcandalous to them. So I am (like an old rook, who is ruined by gaming) forced to live on the good fortune of the pushing young men, whofe fancies are fo vigorous that they enfure their fuccefs in their adventures with the Mufes, by their ftrength of imagination.

Your papers are fafe in my custody (you may be fure) from any one's theft but my own; for 'tis as dangerous to truft a fcribler with your wit, as a gamester with the custody of your money.. If you happen to come to town, you will make it more difficult for me to leave it, who am

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Your, &c.

LETTER VI.

I

April 30, 1705.

Cannot contend with you. You must give me leave at once to wave all your compliments, and to collect only this in general from them, that your defign is to encourage me. But I feparate from all the reft that paragraph or two, in which you make me fo warm an offer of your Friendship. Were I poffeffed

poffeffed of that, it would put an end to all those fpeeches with which you now make me blufh; and change them to wholsome advices, and free fentiments, which might make me wifer and happier. I know 'tis the general opinion, that friendship is beft contracted betwixt perfons of equal age; but I have fo much intereft to be of another mind, that you must pardon me if I cannot forbear telling you a few notions of mine, in oppofition to that opinion.

In the first place 'tis obfervable, that the love we bear to our friends is generally caused by our finding the fame difpofitions in them, which we feel in our felves. This is but felf-love at the bottom: whereas the affection betwixt people of different ages cannot well be fo, the inclinations of fuch being commonly various. The friendship of two young men is often occafioned by love of pleasure or voluptuousness, each being defirous for his own fake of one to affift or encourage him in the courses he purfues; as that of two old men is frequently on the fcore of fome profit, lucre, or defign upon others. Now, as a young man who is lefs acquainted with the ways of the world, has in all probability lefs of intereft; and an old man, who may be weary of himself, has, or should have lefs of felf-love; fo the friendship between them is the more likely to be true, and unmixed with too much felf-regard. One may add to this, that fuch a friendship is of greater ufe and advantage to both; for the old man will grow gay and agreeable to please the young one; and the young man more difcreet and prudent by the help of the old one: fo it may prove a cure of thofe epidemical diseases of age and youth, fournefs and madnefs. I hope you will not need many arguments to convince you of the poffibility of this; one

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