will may fpare, they have given me that which no man can be happy without.

Reflection and habit have rendered the world fo indifferent to me, that I am neither afflicted nor rejoiced, angry nor pleased at what happens in it, any farther than perfonal friendships intereft me in the affairs of it, and this principle extends my cares but a little way. Perfect Tranquillity is the general tenour of my life: good digeftions, ferene weather, and fome other mechanic fprings, wind me above it now and then, but I never fall below it; I am fometimes gay, but I am never fad. I have gained new friends, and have loft fome old ones; my acquifitions of this kind give me a good deal of pleasure, because they have not been made lightly: I know no vows fo folemn as thofe of friendship, and therefore a pretty long noviciate of acquaintance fhould methinks precede them my loffes of this kind give me but little trouble; I contributed nothing to them; and a friend who breaks with me unjustly, is not worth preserving. As foon as I leave this Town (which will be in a few days) I fhall fall back into that courfe of life, which keeps knaves and fools at a great distance from me: I have an averfion to them both, but in the ordinary course of life I think I can bear the fenfible knave better than the fool. One must indeed with the former be in fome or other of the attitudes of thofe wooden men whom I have feen before a fword-cutler's fhop in Germany; but

even

even in these constrained postures the witty Rafcal will divert me; and he that diverts me does me a great deal of good, and lays me under an obliga tion to him, which I am not obliged to pay him in another coin. The fool obliges me to be almost as much upon my guard as the knave, and he makes me no amends; he numbs me like the Torpor, or he teazes me like the Fly. This is the Picture of an old Friend, and more like him than that will be which you once asked, and which he will send you, if you continue ftill to defire it.Adieu, dear Swift, with all thy faults I love thee entirely; make an effort, and love me on with all mine.

LETTER IX.

FROM DR. SWIFT.

Dublin, September 20, 1723.

RETURNING from a fummer expedition of four

months on account of my health, I found a letter from you, with an appendix longer than yours from Lord Bolingbroke. I believe there is not a more miferable malady than an unwillingness to write letters to our best friends, and a man might be philofopher enough in finding out reasons for it. One thing is clear, that it fhews a mighty difference betwixt Friendship and Love, for a lover (as I have heard) is

always

always fcribbling to his mistress. If I could permit myself to believe what your civility makes you fay, that I am still remembered by my friends in England, I am in the right to keep myself here-Non fum qualis eram. I left you in a period of life when one year does more execution than three at yours, to which if you add the dulnefs of the air, and of the people, it will make a terrible fum. I have no very ftrong faith in you pretenders to Retirement; you are not of an age for it, nor have gone through either good or bad fortune enough to go into a corner, and form conclufions de contemptu mundi & fuga fæculi, unless a Poet grows weary of too much applause, as Minifters do of too much weight of businefs.

Your happiness is greater than your Merit; in chufing your Favourites so indifferently among either Party; this you owe partly to your Education, and partly to your genius employing you in an Art in which Faction has nothing to do, for I fuppofe Virgil and Horace are equally read by Whigs and Tories. You have no more to do with the Conftitution of Church and State, than a Christian at Constantinople; and you are fo much the wifer and the happier, because both Parties will approve your Poetry as long as you are known to be of neither.

Your notions of Friendship are new to me'; I believe every man is born with his quantum, and he

y Yet they are the Chriftian notions.

cannot

W.

cannot give to one without robbing another. I very well know to whom I would give the first places in my Friendship, but they are not in the way: I am condemned to another scene, and therefore I diftribute it in Penny-worths to thofe about me, and who displease me least; and fhould do the fame to my fellow prisoners if I were condemned to jail. I can likewise tolerate Knaves much better than Fools, because their knavery does me no hurt in the com. merce I have with them, which however I own is more dangerous, tho' not fo troublefome, as that of Fools. I have often endeavoured to establish a Friendfhip among all men of Genius, and would fain have it done: they are feldom above three or four Contemporaries, and if they could be united, would drive the world before them. I think it was fo among the Poets in the time of Auguftus: but Envy, and Party, and Pride, have hindered it among us. I do not include the Subalterns, of which you are feldom without a large Tribe. Under the name of Poets and Scribblers I suppose you mean the Fools you are content to see sometimes, when they happen to be modeft; which was not frequent among them while I was in the world.

I would defcribe to you my way of living, if any method could be fo called in this Country. I chuse my companions among thofe of leaft confequence and most compliance: I read the moft trifling books I can find, and whenever I write, it is upon the most trifling

7

trifling fubjects: but riding, walking, and fleeping take up eighteen of the twenty-four hours. I procraftinate more than I did twenty years ago, and have feveral things to finish which I put off to twenty years hence; Hac eft vita folutorum, etc. I fend you the compliments of a friend of who hath passed yours, four months this fummer with two grave acquaintance at his country-house without ever once going to Dublin, which is but eight miles diftant; yet when he returns to London, I will engage you fhall find him as deep in the Court of Requests, the Park, the Opera's, and the Coffee-house, as any man there. I am now with him for a few days.

You must remember me with great affection to Dr. Arbuthnot, Mr. Congreve, and Gay.-I think there are no more eodem tertio's between you and me except Mr. Jervas, to whose house I address this for want of knowing where you live: for it was not clear from your last whether you lodge with Lord Peterborow, or he with you.

I am ever, etc.

VOL. IX.

Ε