expensive entertainment I gave him from Terence.* I only want a proper person to dun him; and I know it will be done if my Lord Orrery will undertake it. Do not think me sanguine in this; for more unlikely and less reasonable favours have been granted. God knows whether, during my life, we shall have another scholar sent us for a lord lieutenant.

*

* * *

*

*

I wish you as much happiness as I have plague, which is enough for any honest man. I am, dear Sir, Your most obedient very humble servant, THOMAS SHERIDAN.

TO MR POPE.

February 7, 1735-6.

It is some time since I dined at the Bishop of Derry's, where Mr Secretary Cary told me, with great concern, that you were taken very ill. I have heard nothing since, only I have continued in great pain of mind, yet for my own sake and the world's more than for yours; because I well know how little you value life, both as a philosopher, and a Christian; particularly the latter, wherein hardly one in a million of us heretics can equal you. If you are well recovered, you ought to be reproached for not putting me especially out of pain, who could not bear the loss of you; although we must be for ever distant as much as if I were in the grave, for which my years and continual indisposition are preparing me every season. I have staid too long from pres

* This was a play of Terence, acted by the Doctor's scholars for the entertainment of the duke.-D. S.

sing you to give me some ease by an account of your health; pray do not use me so ill any more. I look upon you as an estate from which I receive my best annual-rents, although I am never to see it. Mr Tickel was at the same meeting under the same real concern; and so were a hundred others of this town who had never seen you.

I read to the Bishop of Derry the paragraph in your letter which concerned him, and his lordship expressed his thankfulness in a manner that became him. He is esteemed here as a person of learning, and conversation, and humanity, but he is beloved by all people.

I have nobody now left but you: pray be so kind as to outlive me, and then die as soon as you please, but without pain, and let us meet in a better place, if my religion will permit, but rather my virtue, although much unequal to yours. Pray let my Lord Bathurst know how much I love him; I still insist on his remembering me, although he is too much in the world to honour an absent friend with his letters. My state of health is not to boast of; my giddiness is more or less too constant; I sleep ill, and have a poor appetite. I can as easily write a poem in the Chinese language as my own: I am as fit for matrimony as invention; and yet I have daily schemes for innumerable essays in prose, and proceed sometimes to no less than half a dozen lines, which the next morning become waste paper. What vexes me most is, that my female friends, who could bear me very well a dozen years ago, have now forsaken me, although I am not so old in proportion to them, as I formerly was: which I can prove by arithmetic, for then I was double their age, which now I am not. Pray put me out of fear as soon as you can, about that ugly report

of your illness; and let me know who this Cheselden* is, that has so lately sprung up in your favour. Give me also some account of your neighbour who writ to me from Bath: I hear he resolves to be strenuous for taking off the test; which grieves me extremely, from all the unprejudiced reasons I ever was able to form, and against the maxims of all wise Christian governments, which always had some established religion, leaving at best a toleration to others.

Farewell my dearest friend; ever, and upon eye. ry account that can create friendship and esteem. JON. SWIFT.

FROM LADY BETTY GERMAIN.

February 10, 1735-6.

I AM Sorry to hear your complaints still of giddiness. I was in hopes you would have mended, like my purblind eyes, with old age. According to the custom of all old women, I must recommend to you a medicine, which is certainly a very innocent one, and they say does great good to that distemper, which is only wearing oil-cloth the breadth of your feet, and next to your skin. I have often found it to do me good for the headach.

I do not know what offences the Duke of Dorset's club, as you call them, commits in your eyes; but, to my apprehension, the parliament cannot but

* The celebrated surgeon and anatomist.-BOWLES.
+ Mr Pulteney.

behave well, since they let him have such a quiet session. And as to all sorts of politics, they are now my utter aversion, and I will leave them to be discussed by those who have a better skill in them.

Mr

If my niece has been humbled by being nine years older, her late inherited great fortune will beautify her in the eyes of a great many people; so she may grow proud again upon that. The Countess of Suffolk is your humble servant. Pope and she appear to have a true value for one another, so I suppose there is no doubt of it; I will answer for my friend's sincerity, and I do not question Mr Pope's. Why, pray, do you fancy I do not desire to cultivate Mr Pope's acquaintance? But perhaps, if I seek it too much, I might meet with a rebuff, as you say her M. did. However, we do often dine together at third places; and as to my own house, though he would be extremely welcome, he has too numerous friends and acquaintance already to spare me a day, unless you will come to England and then he might be induced to meet you here. Mrs Biddy Floyd has passed thus far of the winter in better health than usual, though her cough will not forsake her. She is much your humble servant, and so is most sincerely your old friend, E. GERMAIN,

TO MRS WHITEWAY.

MY DEAR MADAM,

February 18, 1735-6.

I PITY you and your family, and I heartily pray for both I pity myself, and my prayers are not

wanting but I pity not him. * I count already that you and I and the world must lose him: but do not lose yourself. I was born to a million of disappointments; I had set my heart very much upon that young man; but I find he has no business in so corrupt a world. Therefore pray take courage from Christianity, which will assist you when humanity fails: I wish I were in his condition, with his virtues. I am a little mending, to my shame be it spoken. I shall also lose a sort of a son as well as you; only our cases are different; for you have more, and it is your duty to preserve yourself for them. I am ever your most affectionate and obedient, &c.

JON. SWIFT.

FROM THE BISHOP OF KILMORE.†

REVEREND SIR,

February 23, 1735-6.

such as it is: I pursuant to your

I SEND you the whole piece, fear will find the addition, you hint, heavy; for I could not get my imagination warmed to the same degree as in the former part. I hope you will supply what shall be wanting of

* Theophilus Harrison, Esq. a young gentleman of three-andtwenty, who was then upon his death-bed.-D. S.

+ Dr Josiah Hort, afterward Archbishop of Tuam.-N. ‡ A satire on Quadrille, for which Mr Faulkner the printer, fell under the lash of government, and was imprisoned. The Dean was very indignant at the bishop's backwardness in not standing forth to save Faulkner. See his letter of 12th May 1736.