TO THE SAME. *

IF you knew how many little difficulties there are in sending letters to you, it would remove five parts in six of your quarrel; but since you lay hold of my promises, and are so exact to the day, I shall promise you no more, and rather choose to be better than my word than worse. I am confident you eame chiding into the world, and will continue so while you are in it. I was in great apprehension that poor Molkin was worse, and till I could be satisfied in that particular, I would not write again : but I little expected to have heard of your own ill health, and those who saw you since made no mention to me of it. I wonder what Molkin meant by shewing you my letter; I will write to her no more, since she can keep secrets no better.

It was the first love-letter I have writ these dozen years, and since I have such ill success, I will write no more. Never was a belle passion so defeated, but the Governor † I hear is jealous, and upon your word you have a vast deal to say to me about it. Mind your nurse-keeping, do your duty, and leave off your huffing. One would imagine you were in love, by dating your letter August 29th, by which means I received it just a month before it was written. You do not find I answer your questions to your satisfaction: prove to me first that it was possible to answer anything to your satisfaction, so as that you would not grumble in half an hour. I am

* Some very imperfect extracts from this letter have already been published.

+ See note on p. 426.

glad my writing puzzles you, for then your time. will be employed in finding it out; and I am sure it cost me a great many thoughts to make my letter difficult. Sure Glassheel is come over, and gave me a message from J. B. † about the money on the jewels, which I will answer. Molkin will be so glad to see Glassheel; ay Molkin! Yesterday I was half way towards you, where I dined, and returned weary enough. I asked where that road to the left led? and they named the place. I wish your letters were as difficult as mine, for then they would be of no consequence if they were dropt by careless messengers. A stroke thus signifies everything that may be said to Cad, at the beginning or conclusion. It is I who ought to be in a huff, that any thing written by Cad should be difficult to Skinage. I must now leave off abruptly, for I intend to send this letter to-day, August 4.

To Miss Essy.

FROM MISS VANHOMRIGH.

Cell Bridge, 1720.

CAD you are good beyond expression, and I will never quarrel again if I can help it; but,

* This seems a cant name; and there is no indication of the individual whom it designates: an Irish gentleman, of course, for his country-house is afterwards mentioned.

+ John Barber, as afterwards appears. He had, at Swift's instance, assisted Miss Vanhomrigh in some pecuniary matters, and was now desirous of being repaid.

with submission, 'tis you that are so hard to be pleased, though you complain of me. I thought the last letter I wrote you, was obscure and constrained enough. I took pains to write it after your manner; it would have been much easier for me to have wrote otherwise. I am not so unreasonable as to expect you should keep your word to a day, but six or seven days are great odds. Why should your apprehensions for Molkin hinder you from writing to me? I think you should have wrote the sooner to have comforted me. Molkin is better, but in a very weak way. Though those who saw me told you nothing of my illness, I do assure you I was for twenty-four hours as ill as 'twas possible to be, and live. You wrong me when you say, I did not find that you answered my questions to my satisfaction; what I said was, I had asked those questions as you bid, but could not find them answered to my satisfaction. How could they be answered in absence, since Somnus is not my friend? We have had a vast deal of thunder and lightning ;-where do you think I wished to be then, and do you think that was the only time I wished so, since I saw you. I am sorry my jealousy should hinder you from writing more loveletters; for I must chide sometimes, and I wish I could gain by it at this instant, as I have done, and hope to do. Is my dating my letter wrong the only sign of my being in love? Pray tell me, did not you wish to come where that road to the left would have led you? I am mightily pleased to hear you talk of being in a huff; 'tis the first time you ever told me so; I wish I could see you in one. I am now as happy as I can be without seeing.... CAD, I beg you will continue happiness to your own Skinage.

FROM MISS VANHOMRIGH.

CAD, I am, and cannot avoid being in the spleen to the last degree. Every thing combines to make me so. Is it not very hard to have so good a fortune as I have? and yet no more command of that fortune, than if I had no title to it. One of the Drs is.. . I don't know what to call him. He behaved himself so abominably to me the other day, that had I been a man he should have heard more of it. In short he does nothing but trifle and make excuses. I really believe he heartily repents that ever he undertook it, since he heard the counsel first plead, finding his friend more in the wrong than he imagined. Here am I obliged to stay in this odious town, attending and losing my health and humour. Yet this and all other disappointments in life I can bear with ease, but that of being neglected by. Cad. He has often told me that the best maxim in life, and always held by the wisest in all ages, is to seize the moments as they fly, but those happy moments always fly out of the reach of the unfortunate. Pray tell. Cad, I dont remember any angry passages in my letter, and I am very sorry if they appeared so to him. Spleen I cannot help, so you must excuse it. I do all I can to get the better of it; and it is too strong for me. I have read more since I saw Cad, than I did in a great while passed, and chose those books that required most attention, on purpose to engage my

* Doctors perhaps. Some of her affairs were under reference; and she was, it seems, discontented with the referees.

thoughts, but I find the more I think the more unhappy I am.

I had once a mind not to have wrote to you, for fear of making you uneasy to find me so dull, but I could not keep to that resolution, for the pleasure of writing to you. The satisfaction I have in your remembering me, when you read my letters, and the delight I have in expecting one from

Cad, makes me rather choose to give you some uneasiness, than to add to my own.

FROM DR SWIFT TO MISS VANHOMRIGH.*

May 12, 1819.

[ON vous a trompé en vous disant que je suis parti pour trois jours; des affaires assez impertinentes m'ont tirée sitost, et je viens de quitter cette place pour aller voir quelques amis plus loin, purement pour le retablissement de ma santé.

Je

Croyez moi, s'il y a chose croyable au monde, que je pense tout ce que vous pouvez souhaiter de moy, et que tous vos desirs seront obei, comme de commandmens qu'il sera impossible de violer. pretends de mettre cette lettre dans une ville de poste où je passeray. J'iray en peu de tems visiter un seigneur; mais je ne sçay encore le nom de sa maison, ni du pais où il demeure. Je vous conjure de prendre guarde de votre santé. J'espere que vous

*An extract from the latter part of this letter has been printed. The passages marked with crotchets are restored.