this world: nay would make them Eat your Book, which you have made (I doubt not) as bitter a pill for them as poffible. I won't tell you what defigns I have in my head (befides writing a fet of Maxims in oppofition to all Rochefoucault's principles *) till I fee you here, face to face. Then you fhall have no reason to complain of me, for want of a generous difdain of his world, though I have not loft my Ears in yours and their fervice. Lord Oxford too (whom I have now the third time mentioned in this Letter, and he deferves to be always mentioned in every thing that is addrefs'd to you, or comes from you) expects you: That ought to be enough to bring you hither; 'tis a better reafon than if the nation expected you. For I really enter as fully as you can defire, into your Principle of Love of Individuals and I think the way to have a public fpirit is firft to have a private one; for who can believe (faid a friend of mine) that any man can care for a hundred thoufand people, who never cared for one? No ill-humoured man can ever be a Patriot, any more than a Friend. 1 defigned to have left the following page for Dr. Arbuthnot to fill, but he is fo touch'd with the period in yours to me concerning him, that he intends to answer it by a whole letter. He too is bufy about a book, which I guess he will tell you of. So adieu-what remains worth telling you? Dean Berkley is well, and happy in the profecution of his Scheme. Lord Oxford and Lord Bolingbroke in health, Duke Difny fo alfo; Sir William Wyndham better, Lord Bathurst well. Thefe and some others, preferve their ancient honour and ancient friendfhip. Thofe who do neither, if they were d--'d, what is it to a Proteftant Prieft, who has nothing to do with the dead? I anfwer for my own part as a Papift, I would not pray them out of Purgatory. My name is as bad an one as yours, and hated by all bad Poets, from Hopkins and Sternhold to Gildon and Cibber. The firft prayed againft me with the Turk; and a modern Imitator of theirs (whom I leave you to find out) has added the Chriftian to 'em, with proper definitions of each in this manner, This was only faid as an oblique reproof of the horrid mifanthropy in the foregoing Letter; and which he fuppofed, might be chiefly occafioned by the Dean's fondness for Rochefoucault, whofe Maxims are tounded on the principle of an univerfal feltishnets in human nature. I The Pope's the Whore of Babylon, LETTER XIII, From Dr. SWIFT. Nov. 26, 1725. Should fooner have acknowledged yours, if a feverish diforder and the relicks of it had not difabled me for a fortnight. I now begin to make excufes, because I hope I am pretty near fecing you, and therefore I would cultivate an acquaintance; because if you do not know me when we meet, you need only keep one of my letters, and compare it with my face, for my face and letters are counterparts of my heart. I fear I have not exprefs'd that right, but I mean well, and I hate blots: I look in your letter, and in my confcience you fay the fame thing, but in a better manner. Pray tell my Lord Bolingbroke that I wifh he were banished again, for then I fhould hear from him, when he was full of philofophy, and talk'd de contemptu mundi. My Lord Oxford was fo extremely kind. as to write to me immediately an account of his fon's birth; which I immediately acknowledg'd, but before my letter could reach him, I wifhed it in the fea: I hope I was more afflicted than his Lordship. 'Tis hard that Parsons and beggars fhould be over-run with brats, while fo great and good a family wants an heir to continue it. I have receiv'd his Father's picture, but I lament (fub figillo confeffionis) that it is not fo true a refemblance as I could wifh. Drown the world! I am not content with defpifing it, but I would anger it, if I could with fafety. I wish there were an Hofpital built for its Defpifers, where one might act with fafety, and it need not be a large building, only I would have it well endow’d. P** is fort chancellant whether he fhould turn Parfon or no. But all employments here are engaged, or in reverfion. Caft Wits and caft Beaux have a proper fanctuary in the church: yet we think it a fevere judgment, that a fine gentleman, and fo much the finer for hating Ecclefiaftics, fhould be a domeftic humble retainer to an Irish Prelate. He is neither Secretary nor Gentleman-ufher, yet ferves in both capacities. He hath published feveral reafons why he never came you came to fee me, but the beft is, that I have not waited on his Lordfhip. We have had a Poem fent from London in imitation of that on Mifs Carteret. It is on Mifs Harvey of a day old; and we fay and think it is yours. with it were not, because I am against monopolies.-You might have fpared me a few more lines of your Satire, but I hope in a few months to fee it all. To hear boys, like you, talk of Millenniums and tranquillity! I am older by thirty years, Lord Bolingbroke by twenty, and you but by ten, than when we laft were together; and we fhould differ more than ever, you coquetting a maid of honour, my Lord looking on to fee how the gamefters play, and I railing at you both. I defire and all my friends will take a special care that my Dilaffection to the world may not be imputed to my Age, for I have credible witneffes ready to depofe, that it hath never varied from the twenty-firft to the f-ty-eighth year of my life (pray fill that blank charitably). I tell you after all, that I do not hate mankind, it is vous autres who hate them, because you would have them reasonable Animals, and are angry at being disappointed: I have always rejected that definition, and made another of my own. I am no more angry with-than I was with the Kite that laft week flew away with one of my chickens; and yet I was pleafed when one of my fervants fhot him two days after. This I fay, becaufe you are fo hardy as to tell me of your intentions to write Maxims in oppofition to Rochefoucault, who is my favourite, because I found my whole character in him; however I will read him again, because it is poffible I may have fince undergone fome alterations.-Take care the bad Poets do not outwit you, as they have ferved the good ones in every age, whom they have provoked to tranfmit their names to pofterity. Mævius is as well known as Virgil, and Gildon will be as well known as you, if his name gets into your Verfes and as to the difference between good and bad fame, 'tis a perfect trifle. I ask a thousand pardons, and fo leave you for this time, and will write again without concerning myself whether you write or no. : I am, etc. LETTER LETTER XIV. Decemb. 10, 1725. I Find myself the better acquainted with you for a long abfence, as men are with themfelves for a long Afflic tion: Abfence does but hold off a Friend, to make one fee him the more truly. I am infinitely more pleas'd to hear you are coming near us, than at any thing you seem to think in my favour; an opinion which has perhaps been aggrandized by the diftance or dulnefs of Ireland, as objects look larger through a medium of fogs: and yet I am infinitely pleas'd with that too. I am much the happier for finding (a better thing than our Wits) our Judgments jump, in the notion that all Scriblers fhould be past by in filence. To vindicate one's felf against such nafty flander, is much as wife as it was in your countryman, when the people imputed a ftink to him, to prove the contrary by fhewing his backfide. So let Gildon and Philips reft in peace! what Virgil had to do with Movius, that he should wear him upon his fleeve to all eternity, I don't know. I've been the longer upon this, that I may prepare you for the reception both you and your works may poffibly meet in England. We your true acquaintance will look upon you as a good man, and love you; others will look upon you as a Wit, and hate you. So you know the worft; unless you are as vindicative as Virgil, or the aforefaid Hibernian. I wifh as warmly as you for an Hofpital in which to lodge the Defpifers of the world; only I fear it would be filled wholly like Chelfea, with maimed Soldiers, and fuch as had been difabled in its fervice. I would rather have those, that, out of fuch generous principles as you and I, despise it, fly in its face, than retire from it. Not that I have much anger against the Great, my spleen is at the little rogues of it; it would vex one more to be knock'd on the head with a Pifs-pot, than by a Thunderbolt. As to great Oppreffors, they are like Kites or Eagles, one expects mifchief from them; but to be squirted to death (as poor Wycherley faid to me on his death-bed) by Apothecaries Apprentices, by the under ftrappers of under-fecretaries to fecretaries who are no fecretariesthis wou'd provoke as dull a dog as Ph-s himself. So much for enemies, now for friends. Mr. L-thinks all this indifcreet: The Dr. not fo; he loves mifchief the bef beft of any good-natur'd man in England. Lord B. is above trifling: when he writes of any thing in this world, he is more than mortal; if ever be trifles, it must be when he turns a Divine. Gay is writing Tales for Prince William : I fuppofe Mr. Philips will take this very ill, for two reafons; one that he thinks all childish things belong to him, and the other because he'll take it ill to be taught that one may write things to a child without being childish. What have I more to add? but that Lord Oxford defires earnestly to fee you and that many others whom you do not think the worft of, will be gratified by it: none more, be affured, than Yours, etc. I P. S. Pope and you are very great Wits, and I think very indifferent Philofophers: If you defpifed the world as much as you pretend, and perhaps believe, you would not be fo angry with it. The founder of your fect, that noble Original whom you think it fo great an honour to resemble, was a flave to the worst part of the world, to the Court; and all his big words were the language of a flighted Lover, who defired nothing fo much as a reconciliation, and feared nothing fo much as a rupture. I believe the world hath used me as fcurvily as most people, and yet I could never find in my heart to be thoroughly angry with the fimple, falfe, capricious thing. fhould bluth alike, to be difcover'd fond of the world, or piqued at it. Your definition of Animal Rationis capax, inRead of the common one Animal Rationale, will not bear examination define but Reason, and you will fee why your diftinction is no better than that of the Pontiff Cotta; between mala ratio, and bona ratio. But enough of this: make us a visit, and I'll subscribe to any fide of these important questions which you please. We differ less than you imagine, perhaps when you wifh'd me banifh'd again; but I am not lefs true to you and to philofophy in England, than I was in France. Yours, etc. B. LETTER XV. From Dr. SWIFT. London, May 4, 1726. I Had rather live in forty Irelands than under the fre quent difquiets of hearing you are out of order. I álways apprehend it most after a great dinner, for the leaft Seneca, Tranf |