long. You and Lord Bolingbroke are the only men to whom I write, and always in folio. You are indeed almost the only men I know, who either can write in this age, or whose writings will reach the next; others are mere mortals. Whatever failings such men may have, a respect is due to them, as luminaries whose exaltation renders their motion a little irregular, or causes it to seem so to others. I am afraid to censure anything I hear of Dean Swift, because I hear it only from mortals, blind and dull; and you should be cautious of censuring any action or motion of Lord B., because you hear it only from shallow, envious, or malicious reporters. What you writ to me about him I find, to my great scandal, repeated in one of yours to Whatever you might hint to me, was this for the profane? the thing, if true, should be concealed ;* but it is, I assure you, absolutely untrue, in every circumstance. He has fixed in a very agreeable retirement near Fontainbleau, and makes it his whole business vacare literis. But tell me the truth, were you not angry at his omitting to write to you so long? I may, for I hear from him seldomer than from you, that is twice or thrice a-year at most. Can you possibly think he can neglect you, or disregard you? If you catch yourself at thinking such nonsense, your parts are decayed. For believe me, great geniuses must and do esteem one another, and I question if any others can esteem or comprehend uncommon merit. Others only guess at that merit, or see glimmerings of their minds: a genius has the intuitive faculty: therefore imagine what you will,

* One of Bolingbroke's Letters to Sir Charles Wyndham, seems to explain this circumstance, written in the same year, in which he says, "it is reported among you, that I play the Celadon here," &c.-BOWLES.

you cannot be so sure of any man's esteem as of his. If I can think that neither he nor you despise me, it is a greater honour to me by far, and will be thought so by posterity, than if all the House of Lords writ commendatory verses upon me, the Commons ordered me to print my works, the universities gave me public thanks, and the king, queen, and prince, crowned me with laurel. You are a very ignorant man: you do not know the figure his name and yours will make hereafter: I do, and will preserve all the memorials I can, that I was of your intimacy; longo, sed proximus, intervallo. I will not quarrel with the present age; it has done enough for me, in making and keeping you two my friends. Do not you be too angry at it, and let not him be too angry at it; it has done, and can do, neither of you any manner of harm, as long as it has not, and cannot burn your works: while those subsist, you will both appear the greatest men of the time, in spite of princes and ministers; and the wisest, in spite of all the little errors you may please to commit.

Adieu. May better health attend you, than I fear you possess; may but as good health attend you always as mine is at present; tolerable, when an easy mind is joined with it.

SIR,

FROM MRS. PENDARVES.

Sept. 2, 1736.

I NEVER will accept of the writ of ease you threaten me with; do not flatter yourself with any such hopes: I receive too many advantages from your letters, to

drop a correspondence of such consequence to me. I am really grieved that you are so much persecuted with a giddiness in your head; the Bath and travelling would certainly be of use to you. Your want of spirits is a new complaint, and what will not only afflict your particular friends, but every one that has the happiness of your acquaintance. I am uneasy to know how you do, and have no other means for that satisfaction, but from your own hand; most of my Dublin correspondents being removed to Cork, to Wicklow mountains, and the Lord knows where. I should have made this inquiry sooner, but that I have this summer undertaken a work that has given me full employment, which is making a grotto in Sir John Stanley's garden at North End; it is chiefly composed of shells I had from Ireland. My life, for two months past, has been very like a hermit's; I have had all the comforts of life but society, and have found living quite alone a pleasanter thing than I imagined. The hours I could spend in reading have been entertained by Rollin's History of the Ancients, in French. I am very well pleased with it; and think your Annibals, Scipios, and Cyruses, prettier fellows than are to be met with now-a-days. Painting and music have had their share in my amusements. I rose between five and six, and went to bed at eleven. I would not tell you so much about myself, if I had anything to tell you of other people. I came to town the night before last; and if it does not, a few days hence, appear better to me than at present, I shall return to my solitary cell. Sir John Stanley has been all the summer at Tunbridge.

I suppose you may have heard of Mr. Pope's accident; which had like to have proved a very fatal one; he was leading a young lady into a boat, from his own stairs, her foot missed the side of the boat,

she fell into the water, and pulled Mr. Pope after her; the boat slipped away, and they were immediately out of their depth, and it was with some difficulty they were saved. The young lady's name is Talbot; she is as remarkable for being a handsome woman, as Mr. Pope is for wit. I think I cannot give you a higher notion of her beauty, unless I had named you instead of him. I shall be impatient till I hear from you again; being, with great sincerity, Sir, your most faithful humble servant,

M. PENDARVES.

P.S.-I forgot to answer, on the other side, that part of your letter that concerns my sister. I do not know whether you would like her person as well as mine, because sickness has faded her complexion; but it is greatly my interest not to bring you acquainted with her mind, for that would prove a potent rival; and nothing but your partiality to me as an older acquaintance could make you give me the preference.

I beg my particular compliments to Dr. Delany.* Sir John Stanley says, if you have not forgot him, he desires to be remembered as your humble ser

vant.

* Whom Mrs. Pendarves afterwards married.

DR. KING TO MRS. WHITEWAY,

AT HER HOUSE IN ABBEY-STREET, IN DUBLIN, BY

LONDON.

Recovered amongst Mr. Swift's papers, and now first printed.

MADAM,

I HOPE you received a letter which I wrote to you from Chester, immediately after I arrived at that place. Instead of going directly to London, as I first proposed, I took the advantage of a fine season, and have since rambled about 400 miles out of my way, as you perceive by the date of this letter. I have pretty well satisfied my curiosity, and shall set out for London in three or four days. Some time in the next month I intend to publish an advertisement for taking subscriptions, unless I receive a counter order from you, or the Dean. If he approves of it, I will prevail on Ramsay, the author of Cyrus, to translate the whole work into French; so that it may be published at the same time in both languages. The Dean need not be at a loss how to send me my manuscript, since my servant will go to Ireland the next term, with some papers relating to my law-suit. He is a sober

diligent fellow, and one I can trust. If you will be pleased to write to me as soon as you receive this, your letter will probably meet me in London on my arrival there.