better than the fcraps of old philofophers, which were the prefents, munufcula, that Stoical fop Seneca used to fend in every epiftle to his friend Lu cilius. P. S. My Lord has spoken juftly of his lady: why not I of my mother? Yefterday was her birthday, now entering on the ninety-first year of her age; her memory much diminished, but her fenfes very little hurt, her fight and hearing good; fhe fleeps not ill, eats moderately, drinks water, fays her prayers; this is all the does. I have reafon to thank God for continuing fo long to me a very good and tender parent, and for allowing me to exercise for fome years those cares which are now as neceffary to her as hers have been to me. An object of this fort daily before one's eyes, very much foftens the mind; but perhaps may hinder it from the willingness of contracting other ties of the like domeftic nature, when one finds how painful it is even to enjoy the tender pleafures. I have formerly made fome ttrong efforts to get and to deferve a friend: perhaps it were wifer never to attempt it; but live extempore, and look upon the world only as a place to pafs through, juft pay your hofts their due, difperfe a little charity, and hurry on. Yet am I juft now writing (or rather planning) a book, to make mankind look upon this life with comfort and pleasure, and put morality in good humour.-And juft now too I am going to fee one I love very tenderly; and to morrow to entertain feveral civil people, whom if we call friends, it is by the courtefy of England. Sic, fic juvat ire fub umbras. While we do live, we must make the beft of life, Cantantes licet ufque (minus via lædat) eamus. as the fhepherd faid in Virgil, when the road was long and heavy. I am your's. LETTER LETTER XLIX. Lord BOLINGBROKE to Dr. SWIFT. You may affure yourself, that if you come over this fpring, you will find me not only got back into the habits of study, but devoted to that hiftorical task which you have fet me thefe many years. I am in hopes of some materials which will enable me to work in the whole extent of the plan I propose to myself. If they are not to be had, I must accommodate my plan to this deficiency. In the mean time Pope has given me more trouble than he or I thought of; and you will be furprifed to find, that I have been partly drawn by him, and partly by myfelf, to write a pretty large volume upon a very grave and very important fubject; that I have ventured to pay no regard whatever to any authority except facred authority; and that I have ventured to start a thought, which muft, if it is pufhed as fuccefsfully as I think it is, render all your metaphyfical theology both ridiculous and abominable. There is an expreffion in one of your letters to me, which makes me believe you will come into my way of thing on this fubject; and yet I am perfuaded, that divines and freethinkers would both be clamorous against it, if it was to be fubmitted to their cenfure, as I do not intend that it fhall. The paffage I mean, is that where you fay, that you told Dr. ** the grand points of Chriftianity ought to be taken as infallible revelations, &c. In this maxim all bigotted divines and freethinking politicians agree; the one for fear of difturbing the established religion; the other left that difturbance fhould prove injurious to their adminiftration of government. Warb. It 1 It has happened, that whilft I was writing this to you, the Doctor came to make me a vifit from London, where I heard he was arrived fome time ago. He was in hafte to return, and is, I perceive, in great hafte to print. He left with me eight differtations †, a fmall part, as I understand of his work; and defired me to perufe, confider, and obferve upon them against Monday next, when he will come down again. By what I have read of the two first, I find myself unable to ferve him. The principles he reafons upon are begged, in a difputation of this fort; and the manner of reafoning is by no means close and conclufive. The fole advice I could give him in confcience, would be that which he would take ill, and not follow. I will get rid of this task as well as I can ; for I efteem the man, and fhould be forry to difoblige him where I cannot ferve him. As to retirement and exercife, your notions are true. The first should not be indulged fo much as to render us favage, nor the laft neglected fo as to impair health. But I know men, who, for fear of being favage, live with all who live with them, and who, to preferve their health, faunter away half their time. Adieu. Pope calls for the paper. P. S. I hope what goes before will be a ftrong motive to your coming. God knows if ever I fhall fee Ireland; I fhall never defire it, if you can be got hither; or kept here. Yet I think I fhall be, too foon, a freeman.- Your recommendations I conftantly give to those you mention; though fome of them I fee but feldom, and am every day more. retired. I am lefs fond of the world, and lefs curious about it; yet no way out of humour, difappointed, or angry; though, in my way, I receive as many injuries as my betters; but I don't feel Revelation examined with candor, them; them; therefore I ought not to vex other people, nor even to return injuries. I pafs almost all my time at Dawley and at home. My Lord (of which I partly take the merit to myself) is as much estranged from politics as I am. Let philofophy be ever fo vain, it is lefs vain now than politics, and not quite fo vain at present as divinity. I know nothing that moves ftrongly but fatire; and those who are afhamed of nothing else, are fo of being ridiculous. I fancy, if we three were together but for three years, fome good might be done even upon this age. I know you'll defire fome account of my health. It is as ufual, but my fpirits rather worfe. I write little or nothing. You know I never had either a taste or talent for politics, and the world minds nothing else. I have perfonal obligations which I will ever preferve, to men of different fides; and I wish nothing so much as public quiet, except it be my own quiet. I think it a merit, if I can take off any man from grating or fatirical fubjects, merely on the score of party and it is the greatest vanity of my life, that I have contributed to turn my Lord Bolingbroke to fubjects moral, useful, and more worthy his pen. Dr 's book is what I can't commend fo much as Dean Berkeley's*, though it has many things ingenious in it, and is not deficient in the writing part: but the whole book, though he meant it ad populum, is, I think, purely ad clerum. Adieu. A fine original work, called, The Minute Philofoper, LETTER I Dublin, March 19. 1729. Deny it. I do write to you according to the old ftipulation; for when you kept your old company, when I writ to one I writ to all. But I am ready to enter into a new bargain, fince you are got into a new world, and will anfwer all your letters. You are firft to prefent my most humble refpects to the Duchefs of Queensberry; and let her know, that I never dine without thinking of her, altho' it be with fome difficulty that I can obey her, when I dine with forks that have but two prongs, and when the fauce is not very confiftent. You must likewise tell her Grace, that the is a general toast among all honeft folks here, and particularly at the deanery, even in the face of my Whig fubjects, ----I will leave my money in Lord Bathurst's hands, and the management of it (for want of better) in yours and pray keep the intereft-money in a bag wrapt up and fealed by itself, for fear of your own fingers under your carleffnefs. Mr. Pope talks of you as a perfect ftranger; but the different purfuits, and manners, and interefts of life, as Fortune hath pleased to dispose them, will never fuffer thofe to live together, who, by their inclinations, ought never to part. I hope when you are rich enough, you will have fome little œconomy of your own in town or country, and be able to give your The following letters from Dr. Swift to Mr. Gay, from let. 50. to let. 61. inclufive, were found among Mr. Gay's papers, and resurned to Dr. Swift by the Duke of Queensberry and Mr. Pope. |