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glafs begin to run low, and care not to mifpend them on trifles. At the end of the Lottery of Life, our last minutes, like tickets left in the wheel, rife in their valuation: They are not of fo much worth perhaps in themselves as thofe which preceded, but we are apt to prize them more, and with reafon. I do so, my dear friend, and yet think the most precious minutes of my life are well employ'd, in reading what you write. But this is fatisfaction I cannot much hope for, and therefore muft betake myself to others less entertaining. Adieu! dear Sir, and forgive me engaging with one, whom you, I think, have reckoned among the heroes of the Dunciad. It was neceffary for me either to accept of his dirty Challenge, or to have fuffered in the efteem of the world by declining it.

My respects to your Mother; I fend one of these papers for Dean Swift, if you have an opportunity, and think it worth while to convey it. My Country at this diftance feems to me a ftrange fight, I know not how it appears to you, who are in the midst of the fcene, and yourself a part of it; I wifh you would tell me. You may write fafely to Mr. Morice, by the honest hand that conveys this, and will return into these parts before Christmas; sketch out a rough draught of it, thất Ĩ may be able to judge whether a return to it be really cligible, or whether I fhould not, like the Chemist in the bottle, upon hearing Don Quevedo's account of Spain, defire to be corked up again.

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After all, I do and muft love my Country, with all its fauts and blemishes; even that part of the cons ftitution which wounded me unjustly, and itself through my fide, fhall ever be dear to me. My laft wifh fhall

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be like that of father Paul, Efto perpetua! and when I did at a distance from it, it will be in the famne manner as Virgil describes the expiring Peloponnefian, PnGin: ri ag

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et dulces moriens reminifcitur Argos..

Do I ftill live in the memory of iny friends, as they certainly do in mine? I have read a good many of your paper fquabbles about me, and am glad to fee fuch free conceffions on that head, tho' made with no view of doing me a pleafure, but merely of loading another.

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On the Death of his Daugther.

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Am not yet Mater enough of myself, after the late wound I have receiv'd, to open my very heart to you, and am not content with lefs than that, whenever I converfe with you. My thoughts are at present vainly, but pleasingly employ'd, on what I have loft, and can never recover. I know well I ought, for that reafon, to call them off to other subjects, but hitherto I have not been able to do it. By giving them the rein al little, and, fuffering them to spend their force, I hope

in fome time to check and fubdue them. Multis for tunæ vulneribus perculfus, huic uni me imparem sensi, et pene fuccubui. This is weakness, not wisdom, I own; and on that account fitter to be trufted to the bofom of a friend, where I may safely lodge all my infirmities. As foon as my mind is in fome measure corrected and calm'd, I will endeavour to follow your advice, and turn it to fomething of use and moment;. if I have still life enough left to do any thing that is worth reading and preferving. In the mean time I shall be pleas'd to hear that you proceed in what you intend, without any fuch melancholy interruption as I have met with. Your mind is as yet unbroken by age and ill accidents, your knowledge and judgment are at the height: use them in writing fomewhat that may teach the present and future times, and if not gain equally the applause of both, may yet raise the envy of the one, and fecure the adiniration of the other. Employ not your precious moments, and great talents, on little men and little things; but chufe a fubject every way worthy of you, and handle it as you can, in a manner which no-body elfe can equal or initate. As for me, my abilities, if I ever had any, are not what they were: and yet I will endeavour to recollect and employ them.

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Sanguis hebet, frigentque effato in corpore vires. ·

However, I fhould be in grateful to this place, if I did not own that I have gained upon the gout in the south of France, much more than I did at Paris: tho' even there I fenfibly improved. I believe my cure had been VOL. VIII.

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perfected, but the earnest defire of meeting One I dearly loved, called me abruptly to Montpelier; where after continuing two months, under the cruel torture of a fad and fruitless expectation, I was forced at last to take a long journey to Toulouse; and even there I had mifs'd the perfon I fought, had fhe not, with great spirit and courage, ventured all night up the Garonne to fee me, which she above all things defired to do be. fore fhe died. By that means fhe was brought where I was, between seven and eight in the morning, and liv'd twenty hours afterwards, which time was not loft on either fide, but pafs'd in fuch a manner as gave great fatisfaction to both, and fuch as. on her part, every way became her circumftances and character. For fhe had her senses to the very laft gafp, and exerted them to give me, in those few hours, greater marks of Duty and Love than fhe had done in all her life time, tho' she had never been wanting in either. The laft words fhe faid to me were the kindeft of all; a reflection on the goodness of God, which had allow'd us in this manner to meet once more, before we parted for ever. Not many minutes after that, fhe laid herself on her pillow, in a fleeping posture,

· placidaque ibi demum morte quievit.

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Judge you, 'r, what I felt, and still feel on this occa fion, and spare me the trouble of defcribing it. At my Age, under my Infirmities, among utter Strangers, how fhall I find out proper reliefs and fupports? I can have none, but those with which Reason and Religion furand thofe I lay hold on,' and grasp as fast as I hope that. He, who laid the burthen upon me

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(for wife and good purposes no doubt) will enable me to bear it, in like manner as I have born others, with fome degree of fortitude and firmness.

You fee how ready I am to relapfe into an argument which I had quitted once before in this letter. I fhall probably again commit the fame fault, if I continue to write; and therefore I ftop fhort here, and with all fincerity, affection, and efteem, bid you adieu! till we meet either in this world, if God pleafes, or else in another.

I am, &c.

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