<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0265" id="link2H_4_0265"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCLXIV </h2>
<h3> BATH, December 18, 1763 </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: I received your letter this morning, in which you reproach
me with not having written to you this week. The reason was, that I did
not know what to write. There is that sameness in my life here, that EVERY
DAY IS STILL BUT AS THE FIRST. I see very few people; and, in the literal
sense of the word, I hear nothing.</p>
<p>Mr. L———and Mr. C——-I hold to be two very
ingenious men; and your image of the two men ruined, one by losing his
law-suit, and the other by carrying it, is a very just one. To be sure,
they felt in themselves uncommon talents for business and speaking, which
were to reimburse them.</p>
<p>Harte has a great poetical work to publish, before it be long; he has
shown me some parts of it. He had entitled it "Emblems," but I persuaded
him to alter that name for two reasons; the first was, because they were
not emblems, but fables; the second was, that if they had been emblems,
Quarles had degraded and vilified that name to such a degree, that it is
impossible to make use of it after him; so they are to be called fables,
though moral tales would, in my mind, be the properest name. If you ask me
what I think of those I have seen, I must say, that 'sunt plura bona,
quaedam mediocria, et quaedam——'</p>
<p>Your report of future changes, I cannot think is wholly groundless; for it
still runs strongly in my head, that the mine we talked of will be sprung,
at or before the end of the session.</p>
<p>I have got a little more strength, but not quite the strength of Hercules;
so that I will not undertake, like him, fifty deflorations in one night;
for I really believe that I could not compass them. So good-night, and God
bless you!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0266" id="link2H_4_0266"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCLXV </h2>
<h3> BATH, December 24, 1763. </h3>
<p>DEAR FRIEND: I confess I was a good deal surprised at your pressing me so
strongly to influence Parson Rosenhagen, when you well know the resolution
I had made several years ago, and which I have scrupulously observed ever
since, not to concern myself, directly or indirectly, in any party
political contest whatsoever. Let parties go to loggerheads as much and as
long as they please; I will neither endeavor to part them, nor take the
part of either; for I know them all too well. But you say, that Lord
Sandwich has been remarkably civil, and kind to you. I am very glad of it,
and he can by no means impute to you my obstinacy, folly, or philosophy,
call it what you please: you may with great truth assure him, that you did
all you could to obey his commands.</p>
<p>I am sorry to find that you are out of order, but I hope it is only a
cold; should it be anything more, pray consult Dr. Maty, who did you so
much good in your last illness, when the great medicinal Mattadores did
you rather harm. I have found a Monsieur Diafoirus here, Dr. Moisy, who
has really done me a great deal of good; and I am sure I wanted it a great
deal when I came here first. I have recovered some strength, and a little
more will give me as much as I can make use of.</p>
<p>Lady Brown, whom I saw yesterday, makes you many compliments; and I wish
you a merry Christmas, and a good-night. Adieu!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0267" id="link2H_4_0267"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCLXVI </h2>
<h3> BATH, December 31, 1763 </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: Gravenkop wrote me word, by the last post, that you were
laid up with the gout: but I much question it, that is, whether it is the
gout or not. Your last illness, before you went abroad, was pronounced the
gout, by the skillful, and proved at last a mere rheumatism. Take care
that the same mistake is not made this year; and that by giving you strong
and hot medicines to throw out the gout, they do not inflame the
rheumatism, if it be one.</p>
<p>Mr. Wilkes has imitated some of the great men of antiquity, by going into
voluntary exile: it was his only way of defeating both his creditors and
his prosecutors. Whatever his friends, if he has any, give out of his
returning soon, I will answer for it, that it will be a long time before
that soon comes.</p>
<p>I have been much out of order these four days of a violent cold which I do
not know how I got, and which obliged me to suspend drinking the waters:
but it is now so much better, that I propose resuming them for this week,
and paying my court to you in town on Monday or Tuesday seven-night: but
this is 'sub spe rati' only. God bless you!</p>
<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0268" id="link2H_4_0268"></SPAN></p>
<h2> LETTER CCLXVII </h2>
<h3> BLACKHEATH, July 20, 1764. </h3>
<p>MY DEAR FRIEND: I have this moment received your letter of the 3d from
Prague, but I never received that which you mention from Ratisbon; this
made me think you in such rapid motion, that I did not know where to take
aim. I now suppose that you are arrived, though not yet settled, at
Dresden; your audiences and formalities are, to be sure, over, and that is
great ease of mind to you.</p>
<p>I have no political events to acquaint you with; the summer is not the
season for them, they ripen only in winter; great ones are expected
immediately before the meeting of parliament, but that, you know, is
always the language of fears and hopes. However, I rather believe that
there will be something patched up between the INS and the OUTS.</p>
<p>The whole subject of conversation, at present, is the death and will of
Lord Bath: he has left above twelve hundred thousand pounds in land and
money; four hundred thousand pounds in cash, stocks, and mortgages; his
own estate, in land, was improved to fifteen thousand pounds a-year, and
the Bradford estate, which he——-is as much; both which, at
only five-and twenty years' purchase, amount to eight hundred thousand
pounds; and all this he has left to his brother, General Pulteney, and in
his own disposal, though he never loved him. The legacies he has left are
trifling; for, in truth, he cared for nobody: the words GIVE and BEQUEATH
were too shocking for him to repeat, and so he left all in one word to his
brother. The public, which was long the dupe of his simulation and
dissimulation, begins to explain upon him; and draws such a picture of him
as I gave you long ago.</p>
<p>Your late secretary has been with me three or four times; he wants
something or another, and it seems all one to him what, whether civil or
military; in plain English, he wants bread. He has knocked at the doors of
some of the ministers, but to no purpose. I wish with all my heart that I
could help him: I told him fairly that I could not, but advised him to
find some channel to Lord B——-, which, though a Scotchman, he
told me he could not. He brought a packet of letters from the office to
you, which I made him seal up; and keep it for you, as I suppose it makes
up the series of your Ratisbon letters.</p>
<p>As for me, I am just what I was when you left me, that is, nobody. Old age
steals upon me insensibly. I grow weak and decrepit, but do not suffer,
and so I am content.</p>
<p>Forbes brought me four books of yours, two of which were Bielefeldt's
"Letters," in which, to my knowledge, there are many notorious lies.</p>
<p>Make my compliments to Comte Einsiedel, whom I love and honor much; and so
good-night to 'seine Excellentz'.</p>
<p>Now our correspondence may be more regular, and I expect a letter from you
every fortnight. I will be regular on my part: but write oftener to your
mother, if it be but three lines.</p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
1 of 2
2 of 2
Previous
Next
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.