month longer. Whenever I go from hence, one of the few reasons to make me regret my home will be, that I fhall not have the pleasure of saying to you,

Hic tamen banc mecum poteris requiefcere noctem, which would have rendered this place more agreeable, than ever elfe it could be to me; for I proteft, it is with the utmost fincerity that Į affure you, I am entirely,

Dear Sir,

Your, &c.

LETTER VIIĘ,

June 22, 1717.

F a regard both to public and private affairs may plead a lawful excuse behalf of a negligent correfpondent, I have really a very good title to it. I cannot fay whether 'tis a felicity or unhappiness, that I am obliged at this. time to give my whole application to Homer; when without that employment, my thoughts' muft turn upon what is lefs agreeable, the violence, madness, and refentment of modern War-makers, which are likely to prove (to fome people at leaft), more fatal, than the 2 This was written in the year of the affair of Prefton. P.

fame

fame qualities in Achilles did to his unfortunate

countrymen.

Tho' the change of my scene of life, from Windfor-foreft to the fide of the Thames, be One of the grand Æra's of my days, and may be called a notable period in so inconfiderable a history; yet you can scarce imagine any hero paffing from one stage of life to another, with fo much tranquillity, fo eafy a tranfition, and fo laudable a behaviour. I am become fo truly a citizen of the world (according to Plato's expreffion) that I look with equal indifference on what I have left, and on what I have gained. The times and amusements past are not more like a dream to me, than those which are prefent: I lie in a refreshing kind of inaction, and have one comfort at leaft from obfcurity, thatthe darkness helps me to fleep the better. I now and then reflect upon the enjoyment of my friends, whom, I fancy, I remember much as feparate fpirits do us, at tender intervals, neither interrupting their own employments, nor altogether careless of ours, but in general constantly wishing us well, and hoping to have us one day in their company.

Το grow indifferent to the world is to grow philofophical, or religious (which foever of thofe turns we chance to take) and indeed the world is fuch a thing, as one that thinks pretty much,

much, muft either laugh at, or be angry with: but if we laugh at it, they say we are proud; and if we are angry with it, they say we are illnatured. So the most politic way is to seem always better pleased than one can be, greater admirers, greater lovers, and in short greater fools, than we really are: fo fhall we live comfortably with our families, quietly with our neighbours, favoured by our mafters and happy with our mistreffes. I have filled my paper, and fo adieu.

LETTER IX.

Sept. 8, 1717.

Think

I your leaving England was like a good

man's leaving the world, with the bleffed confcience of having acted well in it; and I hope you have received your reward, in being happy where you are. I believe, in the religious country you inhabit, you'll be better pleased to find I confider you in this light, than if I compared you to thofe Greeks and Romans, whose conftancy in fuffering pain, and whose refolution in pursuit of a generous end, you would rather imitate than boast of.

But I had a melancholy hint the other day, as you were yet a martyr to the fatigue your virtue

2

1

virtue made you undergo on this fide the water I beg, if your health be restored to you, not to deny me the joy of knowing it. Your endea vours of fervice and good advice to the poor papists, put me in mind of Noah's preaching forty years to thofe folks that were to be drowned at laft. At the worst I heartily with your Ark may find an Ararat, and the wife and family (the hopes of the good patriarch) land fafely after the deluge upon the fhore of Totnefs.

If I durft mix prophane with facred history, I would chear you with the old tale of Brutus the wandering Trojan, who found on that very coaft the happy end of his peregrinations and adventures.

I have very lately read Jeffery of Monmouth (to whom your Cornwall is not a little beholden) in the tranflation of a clergyman in my neighbourhood. The poor man is highly concerned to vindicate Jeffery's veracity as an historian; and told me he was perfectly astonished, we of the Roman communion could doubt of the legends of his Giants, while we believe those of our faints. I am forced to make a fair. compofition with him; and, by crediting fome of the wonders of Corinæus and Gogmagog, have brought him fo far already, that he speaks refpectfully of St. Chriftopher's carrying Christ,

and

and the refufcitation of St. Nicholas Tolentine's chicken. Thus we proceed apace in converting each other from all manner of infidelity.

Ajax and Hector are no more to be compared to Corinæus and Arthur, than the Guelphs and Ghibellines are to the Mohocks of ever dreadful memory. This amazing writer has made me lay afide Homer for a week, and when I take him up again, I fhall be very well prepared to tranflate, with belief and reverence, the fpeech of Achilles's Horfe.

You'll excufe all this trifling, or any thing elfe which prevents a fheet full of compliment: and believe there is nothing more true (even more true than any thing in Jeffery is falfe) than that I have a conftant affection for you, and am, &c.

P.S. I know you will take part in rejoicing for the victory of prince Eugene over the Turks, in the zeal you bear to the Chriftian intereft, tho' your Coufin of Oxford (with whom I dined yefterday) fays, there is no other difference in the Chriftians beating the Turks, or the Turks. beating the Chriftians, than whether the Emperor fhall firft declare war against Spain, or Spain declare it against the Emperor.

LE T