ou are heartily welcome, my dear litYou tle coufia, into this unquiet world; long may you continue in it, in ail the happiness it can give, and beftow enough on all your friends to anfwer fully the impatience with which you have been expected. May you grow up to have every accomplishment that your good friend, the Bishop of Derry, can already imagine in you; and in the mean time may you have a nurfe with a tuneable voice, that may not talk an immoderate deal of nonfenfe to you. You are at prefent, my dear, in a very philofophical difpofition; the gaieties and follies of life have no attraction for you, its forrows you kindly commiferate! but however, do not fuffer them to disturb your flumbers, and find charms in nothing but harmony and re. pofe. You have as yet contracted no partialities, are entirely ignorant of party distinctions, and look with a perfect indifference on all human fplendour. You have an abfolute diflike to the vanities of dress; and are likely for many months to obrve the Bishop of Bristol's firit rule cf converfation, Silence; though tempted to tranfgrefs it by the novelty and frangeness of all objects round you. As you advance further in life, this philofophical temper will by degrees wear off: the first object of your admiration will probably be the candle, and thence (as) we all of us do) you will contract a taite for the gaudy and the glaring, without making one moral reflection upon the danger of fuch falfe admiration, as leads people many a time to burn their fingers. You will then begin to thew great partiality for fome very good aunts, who will contribute all they can towards fpoiling you; but you will be equally fond of an excellent mamma, who will teach you, by her example, all forts of good qualities; only let me warn you of one ing, my dear, and that is, not to learn of her to have fuch an immoderate love

"Secker is decent." Pope, ut fup.

of home, as is quite contrary to all the privileges of this polite age, and to give up fo entirely all thofe pretty graces of whim, flutter, and affectation, which fo many charitable pocts have declared to be the prerogative of our fex: oh! my poor coufin, to what purpose will you boat this prerogative, when your nurse tells you with a pious care, to fow the feeds of jealoufy and emulation as early as poffible, that you have a fine little brother come to put your nofe out of joint? There will be nothing to be done what, believe me, admits of very little then but to be mighty good, and prove difpute (though it has occafioned abundance), that we girls, however people give themfelves airs of being difappointed, are by no means to be defpifed; but the men unenvied fhine in public; it is them; and if they provoke us, no lefs unwe must make their homes delightful to fwer this letter yet awhile; but as I dare comfortable. I do not expect you to anfay you have the greatest intereft with your papa, will beg you to prevail upon him that we may know by a line (before his time is engroffed by another fecret committee) that you and your mamma are well; in the mean time, I will only affure you, that all here rejoice in your existence extremely, and that I am, my very young correfpondent, molt affectionately your's, &c.

LETTER XXV.

Dr. Thomas Rundle to Archdeacon S. Dear Sir, Dublin, March 22, 1742-3. A alive when this comes to your hands DIEU-for ever-Perhaps I may be

more probably not;-but in either condition, your fincere well-wither.fort in this world, but a life of virtue and Believe me, my friend, there is no compiety; and no death fupportable, but one comforted by chriftianity, and its real and rational hope.

The firit, I doubt not, you experience daily-May it be long before you experience the fecond! -I have lived to be Conviva

fatur,pafed through good report and evil report ;—have not been injured more than outwardly by the laft, and folidly benefited by the former. May all who love the truth in Chrift Jefus, and fin004 cercly

cerely obey the gofpel, be happy! for they deferve to be fo, who (xλybevelv aya) feek trash in the fpirit of love.

Adieu!-i have no more ftrength.My affectionate laft adieu to your lady.

LETTER XXVI.

Dr. Herring to William Duncombe, Elg. Dear Sir, Barley, Aug. 20, 1728. RECEIVED your letter yesterday at this place, upon my return home, having been for a fortnight upon a vifit to fome friends at Norwich †. Your letter unfortunately came hither the day after I left the place. I call it "unfortu"nately," becaufe, though it was a circumftance I could not help, I am really concerned that fo kind and obliging a remembrance of me should be fo long with out a fuitable acknowledgment. You will excufe me if I take the opportunity from this last favour to profefs myself much obliged to you for others which I have received from you, more particular ly for that which stands diftinguifhed in my memory as one of the molt generous and difinterested offers of friendship which ever I received from any one, fince I have been acquainted with the world f. It is a circumftance in my life, which I remember with very particular gratitude

Near Royston, in Hertfordshire. Dr. Herring had been collated to this rectory, by Bishop Fleetwood, of Ely, to whom he was chaplain, Dec. 7, 1722. He was at this time alfo preacher to the fociety of Lincoln's Inn, having been fo appointed in 1726.

Dr. Herring was born in Norfolk, at Walfoken, of which his father was rector, in 1693.

This refers to two letters (first printed, with out a nime, in the Whitehall Evening Poft, in March and April, 172S) in juftification of the doctrine maintained in a formon preached by Dr. Herring, at Lincoln's-inn chapel, which had occafioned a great clamour, on account of its alluding to the Beggar's Opera, then exhibiting at the neighbouring theatre, and prefuming to condemn it as of pernicious cont rucnce to the practice of morality and christian virtue. Experience confirmed the truth of this obfervation, by the many robberies committed daily in the streets during the reprefentation of that piece, beyond the example of

former times; and feveral thieves and robbers afterwards confelled in Newgate, that they raised their courage at the playhouie, by the fongs of their hero Macheath, before they fallied forth on their defperate nocturnal exploits.

to you and pleafure to myfelf. You are very kind again to follow me into my country retirement, and to withdraw yourself from the converfation of your friends in town to pay me a visit here; for, next to doing it in perfon, a letter is the moit acceptable thing.-It is next to the countenance of a friend, and, Eke that, infpires a certain cheerfulness and vivacity; a thing which is fometimes wanted in the country; for, whatever we may think of the pleafures of folitude and contemplation, in the noife and hurry of company and bufinefs, life cannot pass off any where agreeably, without the intercourfe of friendship and converfation; and this intimation you will please to ac cept from me as befpeaking a contineance of that correfpondence, which you have fo obligingly begun.

I have not feen the pamphlet you men tion, but am exceedingly pleafed win the paffages which you have quoted on: of it. The clearness of the reafoning, and the ftrength of it, bespeak either Dr. Clarke its author, or fome other very able hand. As to the question itself, my fenfe of it is, that the reasonableness of virtue is its true foundation; and the Creator has formed our minds to fuch a quick perception of it, that it is, in almot every occurrence of human life, selfevident; but then I am for taking in every poffible help to fupport and ftrengthen virtue, beauty, moral fenfe, affettion, and even interest; and it feems to me, as if the Creator had adapted various arguments to fecure the practice of it, t the various tempers of men and the at ferent folicitations which they meet with And virtue, thus fecured and guarded. may, perhaps, not unfitly be compars to thofe buildings of a Gothic tafte, which. though they have a good foundation, are furnished neverthelets (againft all acc dents with many outward fupports and buttrelles, but fo contrived and adjust by the architect that they do not detract from, but even add to the beauty an! grandeur of the building.

I fhall expect, with great pleafure, your critical eflay, which will be tafely conveyed to me if left for that purpos with Mr. Herring, a draper, at the Golden Artichoke in Lombard-treet. I am, &c.

I

LETTER XXVII.

From the fame to the fame.

Dear Sir,

Barley, Sept. 16, 1728. HAVE a letter of yours now before me which I cannot tell how to answer in

the manner which I ought; it is fo very obliging that I cannot fatisfy myself with only returning thanks for it in the ufual ftyle, unless you will promife to give a much stronger fignification to "the ufual "ftyle," than it commonly bears; and in that fenfe, let it be as high as you please, I defire my thanks may be conveyed to you. This is the more due to you, becaufe we correfpond upon fuch unequal terms; and while you fend me letters full of entertainment, I make my return in letters full of-nothing.

I was exceedingly pleafed with the verfes to Euryalus, and never read any in that strain which are good without reflecting how well it would go with the world if the mufes were always retained

in the fervice of virtue.

I have read over your criticisms upon Tindal's tranflation †, and think them exceedingly juft and neceffary; fuch hafty mercenary tranflators really put an affront upon the public, and feem to take for granted that men have neither taste nor judgment. The inaccuracies of style and lowneffes of expreffion, and the many omiffions in this tranflation, are prodigioufly offenfive. The hiftory of Rapin Thoyras is fo much debafed and mangled by them, that one would think the tranflator had a defign upon his character, and intended to make him appear ridiculous, by putting him into an awkward English drefs; for really, if Mr. Tindal does not take a little more pains, Rapin Thoyras will become of the fame clafs with the rest of our English hiftorians. The Guardian, I remember, has made

Mr. John Carleton, on his coming of age. + Of Rapin's Hiftory, in a pamphlet, entitled, "Remarks on Mr. Tindal's Tranflation, &c. In a letter to S. T. [Sigifmund Trafford] Efq." The concluding paragraph is as follows: "Mr. Dryden's elegant verfion of father Maimbourg's Hif❝tory of the League, is, with regard to style and lan guge, a much better model for any one who "will oblige the public with an accurate tranfla

44

tion of M. de Rapin Thoyras's Hiftory, than

"Sir Roger L'Eftrange's tranflation of Jofephus, "or of Quevedo's Vifions."

Vol. 1. No. xxv.

a few very juft obfervations upon the ftyle of the great Lord Verulam, which if Mr. Tindal had confidered, he would not have fallen, as he often does, into that very vulgar and abject manner of expreffion.

The most confiderable

part of your letter is ftill behind; for I do affure you, notwithstanding it was all acceptable to me in a peculiar manner, there was a little poftfcript at the bottom of it, which drew my attention more than all the reft. There was fomething fo genteel, and at the fame time fo fincerely kind in it, that I muft put it upon you as a friend, to help me out in making my acknowledgments. It feems you call fuch fervices trifles, I do not think them fo; but if your judgment was true, Mrs. Duncombe has fhewed that she has fo much of her fex's art, as to fet off even trifles to prodigious advantage.

October now draws near, and if you retain your defign of coming this way, I fhall be glad to fee you at Barley; but must infift upon it, that you acquaint me with the time, that I may be fure not to be at Cambridge. I am, &c.

I

LETTER XXVIII. From the fame to the fame. Dear Sir, Barley, Sept. 20, 1730. HAVE been rambling ever fince our commencement, and am but just returned to the place, where in duty I ought to have been refident; but we bachelors being an unfettled generation of people, our friends think we have no home of our own, and that they have a claim to as much of us as they please. I received your very kind and agreeable letter with moft particular pleasure, and can truly fay, that your epiftolary visit gave me as much entertainment as any I have received or paid fince I faw you, though I have spent a good deal of time among my choiceft friends. You gratify me more than you are aware of, in imagining that I am a lover of children, and I am particularly pleafed to hear that your little boy thrives fo well with you. I can affure you, in a little time I fhall expect an account of the young gentleman in his own hand-writing, for I have a fmall correfpondent about his fize, who had rather take the pen into his

mouth

- Yar

2

Dr. H.

was born in Norfolk, at Walfofather was rector, in 1693. refers to two latter, ffirit printed, with era n.me, in the Whitehall Evening Post, in and April, 1720, in juftification of the cut to furtained in a fermon preached by Dr. Hering, at Lincoins inn chapel, which had oc

and a geat c'amour, on account of its alluding to the Beggar, Opera, then exhibiting at the Braking theatre, a prefuming to condemn - porn coas conféquence to the practice of

monly and critian virtue. Experience confirmed the truth of this obfervation, by the many robity committed daily in the streets during the rentation of that piece, beyond the example of

former times; and feveral thieves and robbers afterwards confuffed in Newgate, that they raifed their Craze at the playhouse, by the fongs of their Euro Macheath, before they fallied forth on their desperate nocturnal exploits.

tion, and even inte me, as if the Creatine & adorned arguments to Secord them the d the vanons tempers of men and t ferent folcitations which they meet y And virtue, thus fecured and gar may, perhaps, not unitly be compund though they have a good foundati to thefe buildings of a Gothic take, wIKh furnished nevertnekis again all ach dents, with many outward fupport: 2. by the architect that they do not detr buttrelles, but fo contrived and adjus from. but even add to the beauty an grandeur of the building.

your critical effay, which will be fatey I fhall expect, with great pleafare. conveyed to me if left for that purpos with Mr. Herring, a draper, at the Golde Artichoke in Lombard-ftreet. I am, &t.