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Jove, nodding, shook the heavens, and said: "Offending race of human kind,

By nature, reason, learning, blind;

You who, through frailty, stepp'd aside;
And you, who never fell-through pride:
You who in different sects were shamm'd,
And come to see each other damn'd;
(So some folk told you, but they knew
No more of Jove's designs than you;)
-The world's mad business now is o'er,
And I resent these pranks no more.

-I to such blockheads set my wit!
I damn such fools-Go, go, you're bit.”

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October 14, 1710. Is that tobacco at the top of the paper,1 or what? I do not remember I slobbered. Lord, I dreamed of Stella, &c. so confusedly last night, and that we saw Dean Bolton and Sterne go into a shop; and she bid me call them to her, and they proved to be two parsons I knew not; and I walked without till she was shifting, and such stuff, mixed with much melancholy and uneasiness, and things not as they should be, and I know not how; and it is now an ugly gloomy morning. At night. Mr Addison and I dined with Ned Southwell, and walked in the Park; and at the coffeehouse I found a letter from the Bishop of Clogher, and a packet from MD. I opened the Bishop's letter; but put up MD's, and visited a lady just come to town, and am now got into bed, and going to open your little letter: and God send I may find MD well, and happy, and merry, and that they love Presto as they do fires. O, I will not open it yet! yes I will! no I will not; I am going; I can't stay till I turn over : what shall I do? my fingers itch: and I now have it in my left hand; and now I will open it this very moment.-I have just got it, and am cracking the seal, and cannot imagine what is in it; I fear only some letter from a Bishop, and

1 This work is in the form of a continuous series of letters detailing Swift's busy life from September 2, 1710, to June 6, 1713. Its charm lies in its easy naturalness, its humor, pathos, indignation, and self-assertion. It is almost the only work from which we can tell what Swift was like when he was expressing himself without constraint or ulterior purpose.-ED.

it comes too late: I shall employ no body's credit but my own. Well, I see though-Pshaw, 'tis from Sir Andrew Fountaine: what, another! I fancy that's from Mrs Barton; she told me she would write to me; but she writes a better hand than this: I wish you would inquire; it must be at Dawson's office at the Castle. I fear this is from Patty Rolt, by the scrawl. Well, I will read MD's letter. Ah, no; it is from poor Lady Berkeley, to invite me to Berkeley Castle this winter; and now it grieves my heart: she says she hopes my lord is in a fair way of recovery: poor lady. Well, now I go to MD's letter: faith it is all right; I hoped it was wrong. Your letter, N. 3, that I have now received, is dated Sept. 26, and Manley's letter, that I had five days ago, was dated Oct. 3, that's a fortnight's difference: I doubt it has lain in Steele's office, and he forgot. Well, there's an end of that: he is turned out of his place; and you must desire those who send me packets, to enclose them in a paper, directed to Mr Addison, at St James's Coffeehouse: not common letters, but packets: the Bishop of Clogher may mention it to the Archbishop when he sees him. As for your letter, it makes me mad: sliddikins, I have been the best boy in Christendom, and you come with your two eggs a-penny.—Well; but stay, I'll look over my book; adad, I think there was a chasm between my N. 2 and N. 3.1 Faith, I won't promise to write to you every week; but I'll write every night, and when it is full I will send it; that will be once in ten days, and that will be often enough: and if you begin to take up the way of writing to Presto, only because it is Tuesday, a Monday bedad, it will grow a task; but write when you have a mind.—No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,-Agad, agad, agad, agad, agad, agad;

1 Swift's letters to Esther Johnson were all numbered.— F. RYLAND.

no, poor Stellakins. Slids, I would the horse were in your-chamber. Have I not ordered Parvisol to obey your directions about him? and han't I said in my former letters, that you may pickle him, and boil him if you will? What do you trouble me about your horses for? Have I any thing to do with them!-Revolutions a hindrance to me in my business; revolutions-to me in my business? if it were not for the revolutions I could do nothing at all; and now I have all hopes possible, though one is certain of nothing; but to-morrow I am to have an answer, and am promised an effectual one. I suppose I have said enough in this and a former letter how I stand with new people; ten times better than ever I did with the old; forty times more caressed. I am to dine to-morrow at Mr Harley's; and if he continues as he has begun, has been ever better treated by another. What you say about Stella's mother, I have spoken enough to it already. I believe she is not in town; for I have not yet seen her. My lampoon is cried up to the skies; but nobody suspects me for it, except Sir Andrew Fountaine : at least they say nothing of it to me. Did not I tell you of a great man who received me very coldly? that's he; but say nothing; 'twas only a little revenge: I'll remember to bring it over. The Bishop of Clogher has smoked my "Tatler," about shortening of words, &c. But, God so! &c.

January 14, 1710-11. O faith, young women, I want a letter from MD; 'tis now nineteen days since I had the last; and where have I room to answer it, pray? I hope I shall send this away without any answer at all; for I'll hasten it, and away it goes on Tuesday, by which time this side will be full. I'll send it two days sooner on purpose out of spite, and the very next day after, you must know, your letter will come, and then 'tis too late,

and I'll so laugh, never saw the like!

'Tis spring with

Did you ever

Sir Andrew Fountaine lies

us already, I ate asparagus t'other day. see such a frostless winter? still extremely ill; it costs him ten guineas a-day to doctors, surgeons, and apothecaries, and has done so these three weeks. I dined to-day with Mr. Ford; he sometimes chooses to dine at home, and I am content to dine with him; and at night I called at the coffeehouse, where I had not been in a week, and talked coldly a while with Mr. Addison; all our friendship and dearness are off: we are civil acquaintance, talk words of course, of when we shall meet, and that's all. I have not been at any house with him these six weeks: t'other day we were to have dined together at the Comptroller's; but I sent my excuses, being engaged to the Secretary of State. Is not it odd? But I think he has used me ill, and I have used him too well, at least his friend Steele.

15. It has cost me three guineas to-day for a periwig. I am undone ! It was made by a Leicester lad, who married Mr Worrall's daughter, where my mother lodged; so I thought it would be cheap, and especially since he lives in the city. Well, London lickpenny: I find it true. I have given Harrison hints for another Tatler to-morrow. The jackanapes wants a right taste; I doubt he won't do. I dined with my friend Lewis of the secretary's office, and am got home early, because I have much business to do; but before I begin I must needs say something to MD, faith-No, faith, I lie, it is but nineteen days to-day since my last from MD. I have got Mr Harley to promise that whatever changes are made in the council, the Bishop of Clogher shall not be removed, and he has got a memorial accordingly. I will let the Bishop know so much in a post or two. This is a secret; but I know he has enemies, and they shal! not be gratified, if they designed any such thing, which

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