and flay in a Place I diflike. Might I not as well be a thoufand, as fifty Miles from you? The Diftance would not, I am fure, leffen my Affection; nor do I believe it would alter your's. You could write to me with the fame Tenderness, if I were in Paris, as in London'; and my Replies fhould always be as conftant, and as kind. Your Friends would then be fatiffied, there was no Engagement between us, and would leave us both at Peace. If our mutual Regards continued, 'till thofe Obftacles were furmounted, which now divide us, we fhould meet with double Gladness; and, if they are never to be conquered, Habit would supply the Place of Philofophy, and render our Separation, every Day, lefs painful. In fhort, I honeftly confefs, I never thought of leaving England with fo little Regret, as now; and fhould Lady

prefs me to go, but half as warmly as the did fome Time fince, nothing, but your Commands, fhall prevent me. I defire you will let me know your real Sentiments on this Subject, by Return

of the Poft.

I fhall, at your Defire, keep your last *; and, at my own, all your Letters. I fhall think myfelf much obliged, if you will either return, or deftroy mine: You have already paid me a greater Compliment, and I dare fay you will not refuse this, if we part. Though I have flightly

The laft Letter but one.

T

flightly touched on a Subject, that is to me most melancholy, yet, as I find myself in such a gloomy Caft of Mind, I will not venture to make any Reply to your Treatife on Suicide, left the Lowness of my Spirits fhould make me appear (though contrary to my Reason) an Advocate for a Crime, I look on with the greateft Horror.

I expect a very long Letter, by To-morrow's Poft, in Answer to the little Hundred, which I hope you have got of mine. I fhall, for the future, direct to, as I think it the fafeft Way. I fhall go to the Rock on Friday. Continue to direct to Bond-Street; and believe me

Very affectionately your's,

Frances.

LETTER CXCV.

My Dearest FANNY,

Mufaum.

T

O-MORROW is to be a very bufy Day with me, both at home and abroad; therefore I fhall dedicate this pleafant, tranquil Sunday Evening to you, left I should miss á Post. I am in Hafte too to finish Pliny, that I may fend it up along with the reft of your Books.

In a Note upon the twenty-feventh Epiftle of the seventh Book, we are informed of the Name of that Philofopher, who gave the famous Advice to Auguftus, to repeat the twenty-four Letters, whenever he found his Paffion rifing. I wifh I had feen this Paffage before the last Evening we spent at -The Advice, indeed, I have often heard of; but never knew the Author's Name before, or I fhould have honoured it. I have very feldom known the Charm put in Practice; but always imagined, when I saw a Man in a Paffion, that either he had never heard of it, or had never learnt his Alphabet : Upon which Hint, I am tempted sometimes to treat fuch Perfons like Children, and hang a Horn-Book about their Necks, faying, with Brutus,

"I will ufe thee for my Sport, yea, for my

"Laughter, when thou grow'ft waspish." The Cure for a Scold, a Poem in one of the Tatlers, is from fuch a Hint, as this of Athenodorus.

In the Obfervations upon this fame Epiftle, Lord Orrery inveighs against the Weakness and Credulity, with Regard to Ghofts and Apparitions. Now I cannot join with him in this Particular; because there are fome Stories of this Kind fo well attefted, that they should gain Credit, like other Parts of Hiftory, upon the fame Authority. The Belief of this Matter is a Thing

a Thing above our Reason, but not contrary to it; which is the proper Definition of Faith": And, if it were made an Article of our Creed, I do not think it would be amifs; for it is not contrary to Religion, as being vouched by Holy Writ: At leaft, I would not difcourage the Belief, fince it is a strong Proof of Life, after Death; which every Argument that tends to prove, adds Strength to Religion and Virtue. As to the Immortality of the Soul, which I lay hold of every Opportunity to discourse upon, it is a Thing, which a Chriftian cannot doubt of; because there is exprefs Authority for it in that Book, upon which his Faith is founded: And even to a Deist it may be proved, ex abfurbo; which is a Method of arguing in the Mathematics, when the Truth of a Propofition cannot be demonstrated in a direct Manner, the Affent is gained, by fhewing the Abfurdity of the contrary Opinion: As thus; If there be no Hereafter for Mankind, God is inconfiftent, and unjust; the first, in giving us Hopes (which we certainly have from the Light of Nature alone) that are never to be fulfilled; and the fecond, in fuffering Virtue, in any Shape, to go unrewarded. That Being, then, which is inconfiftent, or unjuft, cannot be God; ergo, a Mortalist Deift finks into an Atheist. I would treat an Atheist after the fame Manner that I mentioned juft now, and brand him with that

pupil Enfign, which is the proper Emblem of his extreme Ignorance; for, as the Pfalmift justly expreffes it,

"The Fool hath faid in his Heart, there is

"no God."

Orrery, in the Notes upon the twenty-eighth Epiftle, fays, this Letter fhould be placed the firft of the whole Collection; and he is certainly right: Proper Lights, and particular Points of View, are a great Advantage to every thing. He often complains of the Want of Order through the Whole; and I am angry at him, for not fetting this Matter right; for it would be as little Trouble, as the Obferving upon it. I have a Mind to do fo myself, when I have finished the Reading.

I am pleased with Pliny's Sentiment upon Ridicule, in the last Paragraph of the twentyninth Epiftle: And I approve of it as an admirable Weapon against Vice; and furely fitter here employed, than, as Shaftsbury recommends it, for the Teft of Truth. Almost any Man would rather undergo Fine, Imprisonment, or Pain itself, rather than the Mortification of being laughed at. Addison, and other ingenious Writers, have spoken fo admirably upon the Power of Shame, or Influence of Modefty, that, for very Shame, I fhall not attempt to pursue the Subject in this Light; but fhall take the Liberty, for the Honour of human Nature, to