nary a thing to make a copy of verses in a voyage over the Alps as to write an heroic poem in a hackney coach, and I believe I am the first that ever thought of Parnassus un Mount Cenis. At Florence I had the honor to have about three days' conversation with the Duke of Shrewsbury, which made me some amends for the missing Sir Th. Alston's company, who had taken another road for Rome. I find I am very much obliged to yourself and him, but will not be so troublesome in my acknowledgments as I might justly be. I shall only assure you that I think Mr. Montagu's acquaintance the luckiest adventure that I could possibly have met with in my travels. I suppose you are in England as full of politics as we are of religion at Geneva. I hope you will give me a little touch of it in your letters.

The rake Wood is grown a man of a very regular life and conversation, and often begins our good friends' health in England. I am, dear sir, your most affectionate humble servant, J. ADDISON

December, 9th, 1701.

XXV. то

O CHAMBERLAIN DASHWOOD, ESQ.
[The person alluded to in Letter xxiii.-G.]

DEAR SIR-About three days ago Mr. Bocher put a very pretty snuff-box in my hand. I was not a little pleased to hear that it belonged to myself, and was much more so when I found it was a present from a gentleman that I have so great an honor for. You did not probably foresee that it would draw on you the trouble of a letter, but you must blame yourself for it. For my part I can no more accept of a snuff-box without returning my acknowledgments, than I can take snuff without sneezing after it. This last I must own to you is so great an absurdity that I should he ashamed to confess it, were not I in hopes of correcting 't very VOL. II.-21

*

speedily. I am observed to have my box oftener in my hand than those that have been used to one these twenty years, for I cannot forbear taking it out of my pocket whenever I think of Mr. Dashwood. You know Mr. Bays recommends snuff as a great provocative to wit, but you may produce this letter as a standing evidence against him. I have, since the beginning of it, taken above a dozen pinches, and still find myself much more inclined to sneeze than to jest. From whence I conclude that wit and tobacco are not inseparable, or to make a pun of it, though a man may be master of a snuff-box,

"Non cuicunque datum est habere Nasam."

I should be afraid of being thought a pedant for my quotation, did not I know that the gentleman I am writing to always carries a Horace in his pocket. But whatever you may think me, pray sir, do me the justice to esteem me your most, &c.

To Chamberlain Dashwood, Esq. Geneva, July, 1702.

[English Envoy at the court of Vienna, who had raised himself to notice by his poetical talents and classic attainments, and was, like Addison, under the patronage of Lord Halifax. The friendship formed on the occasion of Addison's visit to Vienna, lasted till Mr. Stepney's death.—G.]

SIR-That I may be as troublesome to you in prose as in verse, I take the liberty to send you the beginning of a work that I told you I had some design of publishing at my return into England. I have wrote it since my being at Vienna, in hopes that it might have the advantage of your correction. I cannot hope that one who is so well acquainted with the persons of our present modern princes, should find any pleasure in a discourse on the faces of such as made a figure in the world above a thousand years ago. You will see, however, that I have endeavored

to treat my subject, that is in itself very bare of ornaments, as divertingly as I could. I have proposed to myself such a way of instructing as that in the dialogues on the Plurality of Worlds. The very owning of this design will, I believe, look like a piece of vanity, though I know I am guilty of a much greater in offering what I have wrote to your perusal. I am, sir, &c.

To Mr. Stepney, Envoy at the Court of Vienna. November, 1702.

XXVII. TO MR. STEPNEY.

SIR-If I trouble you with another letter so soon after my last, you must impute it to the frequency of the favors I receive from you. It is to them we owe all the pleasures we find at Dresden, as well as what we met with at Vienna. Since our leaving Prague we have seen nothing but a great variety of winter pieces, so that all the account I can give you of the country is, that it abounds very much in snow. If it has any other beauties in it, this is not a time of year to look for them when almost every thing we see is of the same color, and scarce any thing we meet with except our sheets and napkins that is not white. &c. &c.

January 3d, 1702–3.

XXVIII. TO THE EARL OF WINCHELSEA.

[Charles, third Earl of Winchelsea, probably an Oxford acquaintance, is thus spoken of by a contemporary:-"He hath neither genius nor gusto for business; loves hunting and a bottle; was an opposer to his power of the measures of King William's reign; and is zealous for the monarchy and the church in the highest degree. He loves jests and puns, and that sort of low wit." "He was brought into the government by the Earl of Nottingham, and held some appointments at the beginning of Queen Anne's reign."-G.]

MY LORD-I can no longer deny myself the honor of troubling your lordship with a letter, though Hamburgh has yet fur

nished me with very few materials for it. The great business of the place is commerce and drinking: as their chief commodity, at least that which I am best acquainted with, is Rhenish Wine. This they have in such prodigious quantities that there is yet no sensible diminution of it, though Mr. Perrot and myself have been among them above a week. The principal curiosity of the town, and what is more visited than any other I have met with in my travels, is a great cellar filled with this kind of liquor. It holds more hogsheads than others can bottles, and I believe is capable of receiving into it a whole vintage of the Rhine. By this cellar stands the little English chapel, which your lordship may well suppose is not altogether so much frequented by our countrymen as the other. I must, however, do them the justice, as they are all of them loyal sons of the church of England, to assure your lordship that her majesty can have no subjects in any part of her dominions that pray more heartily for her health, or drink to it oftener. We are this evening to take a bottle with Mr. Wyche and Stratford. To draw us in they tell us it shall be to my Lord Winchelsea's health. I dare not let you know, my lord, how often we have already made this an excuse for a meeting, lest at the same time that I would show our zeal for your lordship, I should give you a very small opinion of our sobriety: but as all here are extremely disappointed in not having the honor of your company at Hamburgh, they think this is the only way they have left of showing their high esteem for your lordship. I hoped my stay at Hamburgh would have given me occasion to have written a much longer letter, but as I can find no better a subject to entertain your lordship with, I am sensible I have already made it too long. I am, my lord, with all possible respect, your lordship's, &c.

To the Right Honorable the Earl of Winchelsea,

Envoy Extraordinary to Hanover. March, 1702-3.

XXIX, TO MR. WYCHE.

[A diplomats st of note, whose acquaintance Addison formed at Ham burgh, where he was employed as English resident.—G.]

DEAR SIR-My hand at present begins to grow steady enough for a letter, so that the properest use I can put it to, is to thank the honest gentleman that set it a shaking. I have had this morning a desperate design in my head to attack you in verse, which I should certainly have done could I have found out a rhyme to rummer. But though you have escaped for the present, you are not yet out of danger, if I can a little recover my talent at crambo. I am sure in whatever way I write to you, it will be impossible for me to express the deep sense I have of the many favors you have lately shown me. I shall only tell you that Hamburgh has been the pleasantest stage I have met with in my travels. If any of my friends wonder at me for living so long in that place, I dare say it will be thought a very good excuse when I tell them Mr. Wyche was there. As your company made our stay at Hamburgh agreeable, your wine has given us all the satisfaction that we have found in our journey through Westphalia. If drinking your health will do you any good, you may expect to be as long-lived as Methuselah, or to use a more familiar instance, as the oldest hock in the cellar. I hope the two pair of legs that we left a swelling behind us, are by this time come to their shapes again. I cannot forbear troul ing you with my hearty respects to the owners of them, and desi ing you to believe me al ways, dear sir, yours, &c.

To Mr. Wyche, her Majesty's Resident at Hamburgh. May, 1'08