is in it: but a little too much folly or weakness might (I fear) appear, to make such a spectacle either inftructive or agreeable to others. I am reduced to beg of all my acquaintance to secure me from the like ufage for the future, by returning me any letters of mine which they may have preferved; that I may not be hurt, after my death, by that which was the happiness of my life, their partia. lity and affection to me. I have nothing of myself to tell you, only that I have had but indifferent health. I have not made a vifit to London: Curiofity and the love of Diffipation die apace in me. I am not glad nor forry for it, but I am very forry for those who have nothing elfe to live on. I have read much, but writ no more. I have small hopes of doing good, no vanity in writing, and little ambition to please a world not very candid or deferving. If I can preferve the good opinion of a few friends, it is all I can expect, confidering how little good I can do even to them to merit it. Few people have your candour, or are so willing to think well of another from whom they receive no benefit, and gratify no vanity. But of all the foft fenfations, the greateft pleasure is to give and receive mutual Trust. It is by Belief and firm Hope, that men are made happy in this life, as well as in the other. My confidence in your good opinion, and dependence upon that of one or two more, is the chief cordial drop I tafte, amidst the Infipid, the Difagreeable, the Cloying, or the Dead- · fweet, which are the common draughts of life. Some pleasures are too pert, as well as others too flat, to be relish'd long: and vivacity in fome cafes is worfe than dulnefs. Therefore indeed for many years I have not chofen my companions for any of the qualities in fashion, but almost entirely for that which is the most eut-of-fashion, fincerity. Before I am aware of it, I am making your panegyric, and perhaps my own too; for next to poffeffing the best of qualities, is the esteeming and diftinguishing those who poffefs it. I truly love and value you, and so I stop short. MY LORD, LETTER XXXIII. To the Earl of PETERBOROW. Aug. 24. 1728. Prefume you may before this time be returned, from I turned, from the contemplation of many Beauties, animal and vegetable, in Gardens; and poffibly some rational, in Ladies; to the better enjoyment of your own at Bevis-Mount. I hope, and believe, all you have feen will only contribute to it. I am not so fond of making compliments to Ladies as I was twenty years ago, or I would say there are some very reasonable, and one in particular there. I think you happy, my Lord, in being at least half the year almost as much your own master as I am mine the whole year: and with all the disadvantageous incumbrances of quality, parts, and honour, as mere a gardener, loiterer, and labourer, VOL. VI. H as he who never had Titles, or from whom they are taken. I have an eye in the last of these glorious appellations to the style of a Lord degraded or attainted: methinks they give him a better title than they deprive him of, in calling him Labourer: Agricultura, says Tully, proxima Sapientiæ, which is more than can be faid, by most modern Nobility, of Grace or Right Honourable, which are often proxima Stultitia. The Great Turk, you know, is often a Gardener, or of a meaner trade: and are there not (my Lord) some circumstances in which you would resemble the Great Turk? The two Paradifes are not ill connected, of Gardens and Gallantry; and some there are (not to name my Lord B.) who pretend they are both to be had, even in this life, without turning Muffel-men. We have as little politics here within a few miles of the Court (nay perhaps at the Court) as you at Southampton: and our Ministers, I dare fay, have less to do. Our weekly histories are only full of the feasts. given to the Queen and Royal Family by their fervants, and the long and laborious walks her Majesty takes every morning. Yet if the graver Hiftorians hereafter shall be filent of this year's events, the amorous and anecdotical may make posterity fome amends, by being furnished with the gallantries of the Great at home; and 'tis fome comfort, that if the Men of the next age do not read of us, the Women may. From the time you have been abfent, I've not been to wait on a certain great man, thro' modefty, thro' idleness, and thro' refpect. But for my comfort I fan cy, that any great man will as foon forget one that does him no harm, as he can one that has done him any good. Believe me, my Lord, yours. I LETTER XXXIV. From the Earl of PETERBORow. Muft confefs, that in going to Lord Cobham's I was not led by curiofity. I went thither to fee what I had seen, and what I was fure to like. I had the idea of thofe gardens fo fix'd in my imagination by many defcriptions, that nothing furprized me; Immenfity and Van Brugh appear in the whole, and in every part. Your joining in your letter animal and vegetable beauty, makes me use this expreffion: I confess the stately Sachariffa at Stow, but am content with my little Amoret. I thought you indeed more knowing upon the subject, and wonder at your mistake; why will you iniagine women infenfible to Praise, much lefs to yours? I have feen them more than once turn from their Lo ver to their Flatterer. I am fure the Farmerefs at Bevis in her highest mortifications, in the middle of her Lent *, would feel emotions of vanity, if the knew you gave her the character of a reasonable woman. You have been guilty again of another mistake, which hinder'd me fhewing your letter to a friend; when you join two ladies in the fame compliment, tho' * The Countess of Peterborow, a Roman catholic. you gave to both the beauty of Venus and the wit of Minerva, you would please neither. If you had put me into the Dunciad, I could not have been more disposed to criticise your letter. What, Sir, do you bring it in as a reproach, or as a thing uncommon to a Court, to be without Politics? With politics indeed the Richlieu's and fuch folks have brought about great things in former days; but what are they, Sir, who, without policy, in our times, can make ten Treaties in a year, and secure everlasting Peace? I can no longer disagree with you, tho' in jeft. Oh how heartily I join with you in your contempt for Excellency and Grace, and in your Efteem of that most noble title, Loiterer. If I were a man of many plums, and a good heathen, I would dedicate a Temple to Laziness: No man fure could blame my choice of fuch a Deity, who confiders, that, when I have been fool enough to take pains, I always met with some wife man able to undo labours. my Your, &c. did LETTER XXXV. were in a very polemic humour when you me the honour to answer my laft. I always understood, like a true controvertist, that to answer is only to cavil and quarrel: however, I forgive you; you did it (as all Polemics do) to fhew your parts. Elfe was it not very vexatious, to deny me to com. mend two women at a time? It is true, my Lord, |