spoke to me the sense or nonsense of the weak part of his party very fairly, that the good people took it ill of me, that I writ with Steele, tho' upon never fo indifferent fubjects. This, I know you will laugh at as well as I do; yet I doubt not but many little calumniators and perfons of four difpofitions will take occafion hence to befpatter me. I confess I fcorn narrow fouls, of all parties, and if I renounce my reason in religious matters, I'll hardly do it in any other.

I can't imagine whence it comes to pass that the few Guardians I have written are fo generally known for mine: that in particular which you mention I never difcover'd to any man but the publisher, till very lately: yet almost every body told me of it.

As to his taking a more Politic turn, I cannot any way enter into that fecret, nor have I been let into it, any more than into the rest of his politics. Tho' 'tis faid he will take into these papers also several subjects of the politer kind, as before: But, I affure you, as to myself, I have quite done with them for the future. The little I have done, and the great respect I bear Mr. Steele as a man of wit, has rendered me a fufpected Whig to fome of the violent; but (as old Dryden faid before me) 'tis not the violent I defign to please.

I gene

I generally employ the mornings in painting with Mr. Jervas, and the evenings in the converfation of fuch as I think can most improve my mind, of whatever denomination they are. I ever must set the highest value upon men of truly great, that is honeft principles, with equal capacities. The best way I know of overcoming calumny and mifconftruction, is by a vigorous perfeverance in every thing we know to be right, and a total neglect of all that can enfue from it. 'Tis partly from this maxim that I depend upon your friendfhip, because I believe it would do justice to my intention in every thing; and give me leave to tell you, that (as the world goes) this is no small affurance I repose in you. I am Your, &c.

ing what thoughts came up in the whirl of the fancy, that were worth communicating to you in a letter. But I am at length convinced that

* See the Epiftle to him in verfe, writ about this time. P.

my

my rambling head can produce nothing of that fort; fo I must e'en be contented with telling you the old ftory, that I love you heartily. I have often found by experience, that nature and truth, tho' never fo low or vulgar, are yet pleafing when openly and artleffly represented: It would be diverting to me to read the very letters of an infant, could it write its innocent inconfiftencies and tautologies juft as it thought them. This makes me hope a letter from me will not be unwelcome to you, when I am confcious I write with more unrefervedness than ever man wrote, or perhaps talk'd to another. I truft your good-nature with the whole range of my follies, and really love you fo well, that I would rather you fhould pardon me than efteem me; fince one is an act of goodness and benevolence, the other a kind of conftrained deference.

You can't wonder my thoughts are scarce confiftent, when I tell you how they are diftracted. Every hour of my life my mind is ftrangely divided; this minute perhaps I am above the stars, with a thousand systems round about me, looking forward into a vast abyss, and lofing my whole comprehenfion in the boundless space of Creation, in dialogues with Whifton and the Aftronomers; the next moment I am below all trifles groveling with T*

in

in the very centre of nonfense: Now I am recreated with the brifk fallies and quick turns of wit which Mr. Steele in his livelieft and freeft humours darts about him; and now levelling my application to the infignificant obfervations and quirks of Grammar of C* and D*. Good God! what an incongruous animal is man! how unfettled in his best part, his foul; and how changing and variable in his frame of body? the conftancy of the one fhook by every notion, the temperament of the other affected by every blast of wind! What is he altogether but one mighty inconfiftency; fickness and pain is the lot of one half of him: doubt and fear the portion of the other! What a bustle we make about paffing our time, when all our space is but a point? what aims and ambitions are crowded into this little inftant of our life, which (as Shakespear finely words it) is rounded with a fleep? Our whole extent of being is no more in the eye of him who gave it, than a fcarce perceptible moment of duration. Those animals whose circle of living is limited to three or four hours, as the naturalifts tell us, are yet as long-lived and poffefs as wide a scene of action as man, if we confider him with a view to all Space, and all Eternity. Who knows what plots, what atchievements a

mite may perform in his kingdom of a grain of duft, within his life of fome minutes; and of how much less consideration than even this, is the life of man in the fight of God, who is from ever, and for ever?

Who that thinks in this train, but must see the world and its contemptible grandeurs, leffen before him at every thought? 'Tis enough to make one remain stupify'd in a poize of inaction, void of all defires, of all defigns, of all friendships.

But we must return (thro' our very condition of being) to our narrow felves, and those things that affect ourselves: our paffions, our interests flow in upon us, and unphilofophize us into mere mortals. For my part, I never return fo much into myself, as when I think of you, whose friendship is one of the best comforts I have for the infignificancy of myself. I am Your, &c.

You

LETTER XV.

To Mr. ADDISON.

Jan. 30, 1713-14.

OUR letter found me very bufy in my grand undertaking, to which I must VOL. VII.

T

wholly