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phical diet, for a time, may give you a higher relish of that elegant way of life you will enter into after. I desire to know by the first post how soon I may hope for you.

I am a little scandalized at your complaint that your time lies heavy on your hands, when the Muses have put so many good materials into your head to employ them. As to your question, What I am doing? I answer, Just what I have been doing some years, my duty; secondly, relieving myself with necessary amusements or exercises, which shall serve me instead of physic as long as they can; thirdly, reading till I am tired; and, lastly, writing when I have no other thing in the world to do, or no friend to entertain in company.

My mother is, I thank God, the easier, if not the better, for my cares; and I am the happier in that regard, as well as in the consciousness of doing my best. My next felicity is in retaining the good opinion of honest men, who think me not quite undeserving of it; and in finding no injuries from others hurt me, as long as I know myself. I will add the sincerity with which I act towards ingenious and undesigning men, and which makes me always (even by a natural bond) their friend ;* therefore believe me very affectionately Your, &c.

* That this sincerity was unaffected, may appear by the manner in which Pope spoke of Fenton after his death, and by the epitaph with which he honoured his memory.

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LETTER XXXIII.*

FROM DR. SWIFT TO MR. POPE.

Dublin, Jan. 10, 1721.

A THOUSAND things† have vexed me of late years, upon which I am determined to lay open my mind to you. I rather chuse to appeal to you than to my Lord Chief Justice Whitshed, under the situation I am in. For I take this cause properly to lie before you: You are a much fitter judge of what concerns the credit of a writer, the injuries that are done him, and the reparations he ought to receive. Besides, I doubt whether the arguments I could suggest to prove my own inno

* This letter Mr. Pope never received. Nor did he believe it was ever sent.

Pope.
Warburton.

No piece of Swift contains more political knowledge, more love of the English constitution, and national liberty, than appears in this celebrated letter; and it is not a little wonderful that Pope should affirm he never received it. Warton.

Whatever were in fact the political opinions of Swift, it is evident that at the time this letter was written he had by no means relinquished the idea of accepting promotion, and perhaps of obtaining some share in the direction of public affairs. It is in fact a disavowal of his Tory principles, although expressed with dignity and caution; and its object is to shew that neither his opinions nor his conduct had ever been such as could justify his total exclusion from public life, even under a Whig administration. In the course of this vindication he has asserted the true principles of the British constitution with an energy and a clearness not often exceeded; and has demonstrated the necessity of maintaining them, in language scarcely less suitable to the present times than to his own.

cence, would be of much weight from the gentlemen of the long-robe to those in furs, upon whose decision about the difference of style or sentiments, I should be very unwilling to leave the merits of

my cause.

Give me leave then to put you in mind (although you cannot easily forget it) that about ten weeks before the queen's death, I left the town, upon occasion of that incurable breach among the great men at court, and went down to Berkshire, where you may remember that you gave me the favour of a visit. While I was in that retirement, I writ a discourse which I thought might be useful in such a juncture of affairs, and sent it up to London; but, upon some difference in opinion between me and a certain great minister* now abroad, the publishing of it was deferred so long, that the queen died, and I recalled my copy, which hath been ever since in safe hands. In a few weeks after the loss of that excellent princess, I came to my station here; where I have continued ever since in the greatest privacy, and utter ignorance of those events which are most commonly talked of in the world. I neither know the names nor number of the royal family which now reigns, further than the Prayer-book informs me. I cannot tell who is chancellor, who are secretaries, nor with what nations we are in peace or war. And this manner of life was not taken up out of any sort of affectation,

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but merely to avoid giving offence, and for fear of provoking party zeal.

I had indeed written some Memorials of the four last years of the queen's reign, with some other informations, which I received, as necessary materials to qualify me for doing something in an employment then designed me. But as it was at the disposal of a person who had not the smallest share of steadiness or sincerity, I disdained to accept it.

These papers, at my few hours of health and leisure, I have been digesting into order by one sheet at a time, for I dare not venture any further, lest the humour of searching and seizing papers should revive; not that I am in pain of any danger to myself, (for they contain nothing of present times or persons, upon which I shall never lose a thought while there is a cat or a spaniel in

Warton.

Historiographer. †These papers some years after were brought finished by the Dean into England, with an intention to publish them. But Lord Bolingbroke, on whose judgment he relied, dissuaded him from that design. He told the Dean there were several facts he knew to be false, and that the whole was so much in the spirit of partywriting, that though it might have made a seasonable pamphlet in the time of the administration, it was a dishonour to just history. It is to be observed that the Treasurer Oxford was the hero of the story. The Dean would do nothing against his friend's judgment, yet it extremely chagrined him. And he told a common friend, that since Lord Bolingbroke did not approve his history, he would cast it into the fire, though it was the best work he had ever written. However, it did not undergo this fate, and is said to be yet in being. It has been since published. Warburton.

Lord Bolingbroke, in a letter to Sir William Wyndham, expresses his opinion of this work as very partial and defective.

Bowles.

the house,) but to preserve them from being lost among messengers and clerks.

I have written in this kingdom,* a discourse to persuade the wretched people to wear their own manufactures instead of those from England. This treatise soon spread very fast, being agreeable to the sentiments of the whole nation, except of those gentlemen who had employments, or were expectants. Upon which a person in great office here immediately took the alarm. He sent in haste for the chief justice, and informed him of a seditious, factious, and virulent pamphlet, lately published with a design of setting the two kingdoms at variance; directing at the same time that the printer should be prosecuted to the utmost rigour of law. The chief justice had so quick an understanding, that he resolved, if possible, to out-do his orders. The grand-juries of the county and city were practised effectually with to represent the said pamphlet with all aggravating epithets, for which they had thanks sent them from England, and their presentments published for several weeks in all the newspapers. The printer was seized, and forced to give great bail. After his trial the jury brought him in not guilty, although they had been culled with the utmost industry; the chief justice sent them back nine times, and kept them eleven hours, until being perfectly tired out, they were forced to leave the matter to the mercy of the judge, by

* A Proposal for the universal Use of Irish Manufactures.

Pope.

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