be preferved, and my integrity alfo; which is too facred a thing to be forfeited, in confideration of any little (or what people of quality may call great) honour or diftinction whatever, which those of their rank can bestow on one of mine; and which indeed they are apt to over-rate, but never fo much as when they imagine us under any obligation to fay one untrue word in their favour. I can only thank you, my Lord, for the kind tranfition you make from common business, to that which is the only real business of every reasonable creature. Indeed I think more of it than you imagine, though not fo much as I ought. I am pleased with thofe Latin verses extremely, which are fo very good that I thought them yours, till you called them an Horatian cento, and then I recollected the disjecta membra poeta. I will not pretend I am fo totally in thofe fentiments which you compliment me with, as I yet hope to be. You tell me I have them, as the civileft method to put me in mind how much it fits me to have them. I ought, firit, to prepare my mind by a better knowledge even of good profane writers, especially the moralifts, c. before I can be worthy of tasting that fupreme of books, and fublime of all writings. In which, as in all the intermediate ones, you may (if your friendship and charity toward me continue fo far) be the best guide to Your, &c. LETTER XX. From the Bishop of ROCHESTER. * July 30, 1722. HAVE written to the Duchefs juft as you defired, and referred her to our meeting in town for a further account of it. I have done it the rather, because your opinion in the cafe is fincerely mine: and if it • Duchefs of Buckingham. had had not been fo, you yourself should not have induced me to give it. Whether, and how far fhe will acquiefce in it, I cannot fay; efpecially in a cafe where the thinks the Duke's honour concerned: but should fhe feem to perfift a little at prefent, her good fenfe (which I depend upon) will afterwards satisfy her that we are in the right. I go to-morrow to the Deanry, and, I believe, I shall ? ftay there, till I have faid " Duft to duft," and shut up that laft feene of pompous vanity*. It is a great while for me to ftay there at this time of year, and I know. I fhall often fay to myself, while I am expecting the funeral, O Rus, quando ego te afpiciam! quandoque licebit » In this cafe I fhall fancy I hear the ghost of the dead, thus intreating me, At tu facrata ne parce malignus arenæ Particulam dare Quanquam feftinas, non eft mora longa; licebit, There is an anfwer for me fomewhere in Hamlet to this request, which you remember, though I do not.— Poor Ghoft! thou shalt be fatisfied!—or fomething like it. However that be, take care you do not fail in your appointment, that the company of the living may make me fome amends for my attendance on the dead. + I know you will be glad to hear that I am well: I fhould always, could I always be here Sed me Imperiofa trahit Proferpina: vive, valeque. * This was the funeral of the Duke of Marlborough, at which the Bishop officiated as Dean of Westminster, in Auguft, 1722. You You are the first man I fent to this morning, and the last man I defire to converse with this evening, though at twenty miles diftance from you. Te, veniente die, te, decedente, requiro. LETTER XXI. From the Bishop of ROCHESTER.. DEAR SIR, ever. The Tower, April 10, 17238 THANK you for all the instances of your friendfhip, both before, and fince my misfortunes. A little time will complete them, and feparate you and me for But in what part of the world foever I am, I .will live mindful of your fincere kindness to me; and will please myself with the thought that I live ftill in your esteem and affection, as much as ever I did; and that no accidents of life, no distance of time or place, will alter you in that refpect. It never can me; who have loved and valued you, ever fince I knew you, and 、 fhall not fail to do it when I am not allowed to tell you fo; as the cafe will foon be. Give my faithful fervices to Dr. Arbuthnot, and thanks for what he fent me; which was much to the purpose, if any thing can be faid to be to the purpofe, in a cafe that is already determined. Let him know my defence will be fuch, that neither my friends need bluth for me, nor will my enemies have great occafion of triumph, though fure of: the victory. I shall want his advice before I go abroad, in many things. But I queftion whether I fhall be permitted to fee him, or any body, but fuch as are abfolutely neceffary towards the difpatch of my private affairs. If fo, God blefs you both! and may no part of the ill fortune that attends me, ever pursue either of you! I know not but I may call upon you at my hearing, to fay fomewhat about my way of spending my time at the Deanry, which did not feem calculated towards managing plots and confpiracies. But of that I fhall 2 7 hall confider.-You and I have spent many hours to gether upon much pleafanter fubjects; and, that I may preferve the old custom, I fhall not part with you now till I have clofed this letter, with three lines of Mil ton, which you will, I know, readily, and not without fome degree of concern, apply to your ever affection ate, &c. Some nat'ral tears he dropt, but wip'd then foon: LETTER XXI The Anfwer. April 20, 1723. IT is not poffible to exprefs what I think, and what I feel; only this, that I have thought and felt for nothing but you, for fome time paft; and fhall think. of nothing fo long for the time to come. The greateft comfort I had, was an intention (which I would have made practicable) to have attended you in your jour ney; to which I had brought that perfon to confent, who only could have hindered me, by a tie which, though it may be more tender, I do not think moreftrong, than that of friendfhip. But I fear there will be no way left me to tell you this great truth, that I remember you, that I love you, that I am grateful to you, that I entirely efteem and value you: no way but that one, which needs no open warrant to authorise it, or fecret conveyance to fecure it; which no bills can preclude, and no kings prevent; a way that can reach to any part of the world where you may be, where the very whisper, or even the wifh of a friend mul not be heard, or even fufpected: by this way, I dare tell my. efteem and affection of you, to your enemies in the gates, and you, and they, and their fons, may hear of it. You prove yourself, my Lord, to know me for the friend friend I am, in judging that the manner of your de fence, and your reputation by it, is a point of the highest concern to me, and affuring me it fhall be fuch, that none of your friends fhall blush for you. Let me further prompt you to do yourself the best and moft lafting juftice: the inftruments of your fame to pofterity will be in your own hands. May it not be, that Providence has appointed you to fome great and ufeful work, and calls you to it this fevere way? You may more eminently and more effectually ferve the public even now, than in the stations you have fo honourably filled. Think of Tully, Bacon, and Clarendon. Is it not the latter, the difgraced part of their lives, which you most envy, and which you would chuse to have lived? I am tenderly fenfible of the wifh you exprefs, that no part of your misfortune may pursue me. But God knows, I am every day lefs and lefs fond of my native country, (fo torn as it is by party-rage), and begin to confider a friend in exile as a friend in death; one gone before, where I am not unwilling nor unprepared to follow after, and where (however various or uncertain the roads and voyages of another world may be) I cannot but entertain a pleafing hope that we may meet again. I faithfully affure you, that in the mean time there is no one, living or dead, of whom I fhall think oftener, or better, than of you. I fhall look upon you as in a state between both, in which you will have from me all the paffions and warm wishes that can attend the living, and all the respect and tender sense of loss, that we feel for the dead. And I fhall ever depend upon your conftant friendship, kind memory, and good offices, though I were never to fee or hear the effects: of them like the truft we have in benevolent fpirits, who, though we never fee or hear them, we think, are conftantly ferving us, and praying for us. * Clarendon indeed wrote his best works in his banishment: but: the best of Bacon's were written before his difgrace, and the beft of Tully's after his return from exile. Whenever |