on Womankind, the Pains of becoming a Mother. May her Firft-born be none of her own Sex, nor fo like her, but that he may resemble her Lord as much as herself. May fhe, that always affected Silence and Retiredness, have the Houfe filled with the Noife and Number of her Children, and hereafter of her Grandchildren; and then may the arrive at that great Curse fo much declined by fair Ladies, old Age. May The live to be very old, and yet feem young; be told fo by her Glafs, and have no Aches to inform her of the Truth: and when she shall appear to be mortal, may her Lord not mourn for her, but go hand in hand with her to that Place, where we are told there is neither marrying nor giving in Marriage: that being there divorced, we may all have an equal Intereft in her again. My Revenge being immortal, I wish all this may alfo fall upon their Pofterity to the World's End, and afterwards. To you, Madam, I wish all good Things; and that this Lofs may, in good Time, be happily supplied with a more conftant Bedfellow of the other Sex.

Madam, I humbly kifs your Hands, and beg Pardon for this Trouble from

Your Ladyfhip's most humble Servant,
E. WALLER.

LETTER II.

Dr. Tillotson to Lord Shrewsbury.

My Lord,

IT was a great Satisfaction to me, to be any

ways inftrumental in the gaining your Lord'fhip to our Religion, which I am really perfuaded to be the Truth; but I am, and al

ways

1

ways was, more concerned that your Lordship fhould continue a virtuous and good Man, than become a Proteftant; being affured that the Ig norance and Errors of Mens Understanding will find a much easier Forgiveness with God, than the Faults of the Will: I remember that your Lordship once told me, that you would endea vour to juftify the Sincerity of your Change, by a confcientious Regard to all other Parts and Actions of your Life; I am fure you cannot more effectually condemn your own Act, than by being a worfe Man after your Profeffion to have embraced a better Religion. I will certainly be one of the laft to believe any thing of your Lordship that is not good; but I always feared I fhould be one of the first that fhould hear it: the Time I laft waited upon your Lordship, I had heard fomething that affected me very fenfibly, but I hop'd it was not true, and was therefore, loth to trouble your Lordship about it; but having heard the fame from thofe who I believe bear no Ill-will to your Lordship, I now think it my Duty to acquaint you with it. To speak plainly, I have been told that your Lordfhip is of late fallen into a Converfation, dangerous both to your Reputation and Virtue; two of the tendereft and dearest things in the World. I believe your Lordship to have a great Command and Conduct of yourself, but I am very fenfible of human Frailty, and of the dangerous Temptations to which Youth is expofed in this diffolute Age. Therefore I earnestly befeech your Lordship, to confider befides the high Provocation of Almighty God, and the Hazard of your Soul, whenever you engage in a bad Courfe, what a Blemifh you will bring upon a fair and unspotted B 2

Re

Reputation, what Uneafinefs and Trouble you will create to yourself, from the severe Reflections of a guilty Confcience, and how great a Violence you will offer to your good Principles, your Nature, and your Education. Do not imagine you can ftop when you please: Experience fhews us the contrary, and that nothing is more vain, than for Men to think they can fet Bounds to themselves in any thing that is bad. I hope in God no Temptation has yet prevailed upon your Lordship, fo far as to be guilty of any loose Act; if it has, as you love your Soul, let it not proceed to an Habit; the Retreat is yet eafy and open, but will every Day become more difficult and obstructed. God is fo merciful, that upon your Repentance and Refolution of Amendment, he is not only ready to forgive what is paft, but to affift us by his Grace, to do better for the future. But I need not enforce thefe Confiderations upon a Mind fo capable of, and eafy to receive good Counfel. I fhall only defire your Lordship to think again and again, how great a Point of Wisdom it is, in all our Actions to confult the Peace of our Minds; and to have no Quarrel with the conftant and infeparable Companion of our Lives: If others difpleafe us, we may quit their Company, but he that is difpleafed with himfelf, is unavoidably unhappy, because he has no Way to get rid of himfelf.

My Lord, for God's Sake and your own, think of being happy, and refolve by all means, to fave yourself from this untoward Generation. Determine rather upon a speedy Change of your Condition, than to gratify the Inclinations of your Youth, in any thing but what is lawful and honourable; and let me have the Satisfaction

faction to be affured from your Lordship, either that there has been no Ground for this Report, or that there shall be none for the future; which will be the welcomest News to me in the World. I have only to beg of your Lordship, to believe, that I have not done this to fatisfy the Formality of my Profeffion, but that it proceeds from the trueft Affection and Good-will, that one Man can poffibly bear to another. I pray to God every Day, for your Lordfhip, with the fame Conftancy and Fervour as for myfelf, and do now earnestly beg that this Counsel may be acceptable and effectual.

I am, &c.

LETTER III.

Earl of Rochester to the Honourable Henry Saville.

Dear Saville,

Do a Charity becoming one of your pious Principles, in preferving your humble Servant Rochefter, from the imminent Peril of Sobriety; which for want of good Wine, more than Company, (for I can drink like a Hermit betwixt God and my own Confcience) is very like to befal me: remember what Pains I have formerly taken to wean you from your pernicious Refolutions of Difcretion and Wisdom! and,

if

you have a grateful Heart, (which is a Miracle amongst you Statefmen) fhew it, by directing the Bearer to the best Wine in Town; and pray let not this highest Point of facred Friendship be perform'd flightly, but go about it with all due Deliberation and Care, as holy Priefts to Sacrifice,"

or as difcreet Thieves to the wary Performance of Burglary and Shop-lifting. Let your welldifcerning Pallate (the beft Judge about you) travel from Cellar to Cellar, and then from Piece to Piece, till it has lighted on Wine fit for its noble Choice and my Approbation. To Τα engage you the more in this Matter, know, I have laid a Plot may very probably betray you to the drinking of it. My Lord will in

form you at large.

Dear Saville! as ever thou doft hope to outdo Machiavel, or equal me, fend fome good Wine! fo may thy wearied Soul at last find Reft, no longer hovering 'twixt the unequal Choice of Politicks and Lewdnefs! may'ft thou be admir'd and lov'd for thy domeftick Wit; belov'd and cherish'd for thy foreign Interest and Intelligence. ROCHESTER.

Harry, γου

LETTER IV.
To the SAME.

OU cannot shake off the Statesman intirely; for, I perceive, you have no Opinion of a Letter, that is not almoft a Gazette: now, to me, who think the World as giddy as myfelf, I care not which way it runs, and am fond of no News, but the Profperity of my Friends, and the Continuance of their Kindnefs to me, which is the only Error I wish to continue in 'em: for my own part, I am not at all ftung with my Lord M's mean Ambition, but Ï afpire to my Lord I's generous Philofophy:

they