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the Rhine with his army, I am apt to think we fhould not have attempted to swim over in oppofition to him: if we had, the fuccefs would have been more doubtful. That, however, would have been no more than what Alexander did in paffing the Granicus. He made good his paffage with forty thoufand men, in fpite of a hundred thousand that oppofed him. Had he failed, it is true, the attempt would have been branded with folly; and its fuccefs only has made it be confidered as the most gallant action in war."

"Chafeu, August 16, 1674 I heard you were very ill, my dear coufin; and, being in pain for the event, I confulted an able phyfician in this neighbourhood on your cafe. He tells me that women of a full habit, like you, who continue really widows, and confequently undergo fome degree of felf-denial, are fubject to the vapours. pours. This difpelled my apprehenfions of a more dangerous mala-, dy; for, in fhort, the remedy being in your own hands, 1 flatter myfelf you neither hate life fo much as not to use it, nor will make any hefitation in chufing between a gal

Madame de Sevigny to Count de lant and an emetic.

Buffy.

Monjou, July 22, 1672. ALL your reafonings are juft, my dear Count. Nothing is more true, than that the event of war conftitutes a madman or a hero. If the Count de Guiche had been repulfed in paffing the Rhine, he would have fuffered univerfal difgrace, as he was only defired to examine if the river was fordable. He wrote that it was, although it really was not fo; and it is only because the pasfage fucceeded that he is covered with glory.

The faying of the Prince of Orange pleafes me much. I believe in faith it is true; and that the greater part of girls flatter themfelves-I fay not how far, on the point in queftion. As to the churchmen, my opinion was not entirely the fame with theirs, but it was very little different. You did well to undeceive me. I begin to breathe again."

Count de Buffy to Madame de Sevigny.

You ought, my dear coufin, to follow my prescription; and fo much the more fo as you cannot fufpect me of any interested views : for though you should agree to put the remedy in practice, a hundred leagues diftance will furely free me from the imputation of selfishness.”

Madame de Sevigny to Count de
Bully.

"Paris, Sept. 5, 1674.

YOUR phyfician, who fays that my diforder is the vapours, and you, who propose the method of cure, are not the first who have advifed me to a certain remedy; but the fame reafon that hindered me from preventing these vapours by fuch means, hinders me from curing them.

That difintereftedness which you would have me admire, in the counfel you give me, is not fo meritorious as it would have been when we were twenty years younger : then, indeed, one might have valued it: but a hundred leagues, perhaps, would not fo completely N 2

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have afcertained its reality. Be that as it may, however, I am refolved to fuffer; and fhould I fall a martyr to this malady, my death at leaft will be glorious, and you shall be intrufted with the care of my epitaph.

"Chafeu, Oct. 19, 1675. I received your letter yefterday, Madam, which gives me the pleafure that your letters are wont to give me. Your neice is on the point of paffing the threshold; she will foon find what the feeks.

A propos of feeking; this brings

Madame de Sevigny to Count de to my mind the poor Chevalier de

Bully

"Rochers, Oct. 9. 1675. SO the marriage of Mademoifelle de Buffy is fettled. Believe me, I am very happy at it. I have received a handfome compliment on the occafion from M. de Colligny. You have not failed, I perceive, to tell him that I am your relation, and that my approbation is a thing which at least will do him no hurt. A propos of that, I will relate an anecdote which I heard the other day. A boy being accufed before a juftice of having got a girl with child, defended himfelf by faying, May it please your worship, I own I have been there; but the child is not mine; for I am fenfible I did not hurt her.'

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Pardon me, coufin, for this impertinence; I was pleafed with the fimplicity of the lad's anfwer; and if you have got a little anecdote to contraft it, be not under any reftraint. But to return to M. de Colligny, it is certain that my approbation will do him no hurt. His letter appears to me very good fense: and the man who has occafion to pay a compliment of that kind, fo fimple and fo juft, ought to have both wit and understanding. I with him to have thefe, and more, for the fake of my niece, whom I love."

Count de Buffy to Madame de Sevigny.

Rohan, who meeting fomewhat late one evening, at Fountainbleau, Madame de **** alone, whom he pas fed in one of the galleries, he asked her what the fought. 'Nothing, faid the. C By G-d, Madam!' replied he, I should not wish to have loft what you feek.'

This, Madam, is my little anecdote. You defired me to be under no conftraint, and I have taken the liberty you gave me. I found your's truly laughable. This I may fay with franknefs, and without being fufpected of compliment, unless to myfelf; for it requires wit to difcern its delicate pleasantry."

He thus defcribes his reception at court after his long exile, which fhews how much the sentiments of men are influenced by circumftances ; "When the King permitted me to return to court, he said to me, in a moft gracious manner, 'I am glad to fee you; it is long fince we have feen each other.' It is, not less than feventeen years, Sire; but I am overjoyed that from my return and your condefcending affability to me, I may conclude that all my mifdemeanors are forgot. ten.' Yes, Buffy, all I have been difpleafed with you, but that has been over for fome time.'

It would never have been fo, Sire, if you could have feen the inward ardour and refpect of my heart for your Majefty. The King with a fmile fqueezed my fhoulder, and

went

went into his clofet. Immediately after I thought I fhould have been ftifled by the careffes of the courtiers: friends, enemies, and indiffferent perfons, all strove to out-do each other; every one aped the fovereign."

A Letter written by the late Reverend
Mr. Sterne.

HE first time I have dipped

"THE

this week paft is to write to you, and to thank you moft fincerely for your kind epiftle. Will this be a fufficient apology for my letting it be ten days upon my table without anfwering it? I truft it will: I am fure my own feelings tell me fo; because I felt it impoffible for me to do any thing that is ungracious towards you. It is not every hour, or day, or week of a man's life, that is a fit feafon for the duties of friendship. Sentiment is not always at hand; pride and folly, and what is called bufinefs, oftentimes keep it at a distance; and, without fentiment, what is friendship-a name! a fhadow! But to prevent a mifapplication of all this (though why should I fear it from fo kind and gentle a fpirit as yours) you muft know, that by careleffness of my curate, or his wife,or his maid, or fome one within his gates, the parfonage house at--was about a fortnight ago burnt to the ground, with the furniture which belonged to me, and a pretty good collection of books. The lofs about three hundred and fifty pounds. The poor man, with his wife, took the wings of the next morning and filed away. This has given me real vexation; for fo much was my pity

and efteem for him, that, as fcon as I heard of this difafter, I fent to defire he would come and take up his abode with me till another habita. tion was ready to receive him : but he was gone, and, as I am told, through fear of my perfecution. Heavens! how little did he know me, to fuppofe I was among the number of those wretches that heap misfortune upon misfortune! portable, ftill add to the weight. and when the load is almost insup

God, who reads my heart, knows it to be true, that I wish rather to

fhare than to increase the burden

of the miferable; to dry up instead of adding a fingle drop to the ftream of forrow. As for the dirty the lofs of it does not coft me a trash of this world,I regard it not! figh; for, after all, I may say with the Spanish captain, that I am as good a gentleman as the king, only not quite fo rich-But to the point.

Shall I expect you here this fummer? I much with that you may make it convenient to gratify me in a vifit for a few weeks: I will give you a roaft fowl for your dinner, and a clean table cloth every day, and tell you a ftory by way of defert. In the heat of the day, we will fit in the fhade, and in the evening the fairest of all the milkmaids, who pafs by my gate, fhall 、weave a garland for you. If I should not be fo fortunate as to fee you here, do contrive to meet me here the beginning of October. I fhall ftay there about a fortnight, and then feek a kindlier climate. This plaguy cough of mine feems to gain ground, and will bring me at laft to my grave, in fpite of all I can do; but while I have ftrength to run away from it, I will-I have been wrestling with it for these

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twenty

twenty years paft; and, what with laughter and good fpirits, have prevented it giving me a fall; but my antagonist preffes clofer than ever upon me, and I have nothing left on my fide but another abroad. Apropos,-are you for a fceme of that fort? If not, perhaps you will be fo good as to accompany me fo far as Dover, that we may laugh together on the beach, to put Neptune in a good humour before I embark. God blefs you.

Adieu.

that he has, at leaft, a common claim to fuch a penfion: he has a vote in the moft auguft affembly in the world; he has an eftate that puts him above wanting it; but he has, at the fame time, (though he fays it) an elevation of fentiment, that makes him not only defire, but (pardon, dread Sir, an expreffion you are used to) infift upon it.

That your petitioner is little apt, and always unwilling, to speak advantageously of himself; but as, after all, fome juftice is due to one's felf, as well as to others, he begs leave to reprefent, That his L. STERNE." loyalty to your majefty has always

Petition of the late Lord Chesterfield.

To the KING's most excellent

Majefty.

The humble Petition of PHILIP,
Earl of CHESTERFIELD,Knight
of the most noble Order of the
Garter.

Sheweth,

TH

HAT your Petitioner being rendered, by deafnefs, as ufelefs and infignificant as moft of his equals and cotemporaries are by nature, hopes, in common with them, to fhare Your Majefty's royal favour and bounty; whereby he may be enabled either to fave or fpend, as he fhall think proper, more than he can do at prefent.

That your petitioner having had the honour of ferving your majefty in feveral very lucrative employments, feems thereby entitled to a lucrative retreat from bufinefs, and to enjoy otium cum dignitate; that is, leifure and a large penfion.

Your petitioner humbly prefumes,

been unfhaken, even in the worst of times; that, particularly, in the late unnatural rebellion, when the pretender advanced as far as Derby, at the head of at least three thoufand undifciplined men, the flower of the Scottish nobility and gentry, your petitioner did not join him, as unquestionably he might have done, had he been fo inclined; but, on the contrary, raifed fixteen companies, of one hundred men each, at the public expence, in fupport of your majefty's undoubted right to the imperial crown of thele realms; which diftinguished proof of his loyalty is, to this hour, unrewarded.

Your majesty's petitioner is well aware, that your Civil Lift must, neceffarily, be in a very low and languid ftate, after the various, frequent, and profufe evacuations, which it has of late years under-‹ gone; but, at the fame time, he prefumes to hope, that this argument, which feems not to have. been made ufe of against any other perfon whatsoever, fhall not, in his fingle cafe, be urged against him ; and the lefs fo, as he has good

reafons

reafons to believe, that the deficiencies of the penfion fund are, by no means, the laft that will be made good by parliament.

Your petitioner begs leave to obferve, That a small penfion is difgraceful and opprobrious, as it intimates a fhameful neceffity on one part, and a degrading fort of charity on the other; but that a great one implies dignity and affluence on one fide, on the other regard and efteem; which, doubtlefs, your majefty must entertain, in the higheft degree, for thofe great perfonages, whofe refpectable names ftand upon your eleemofynary lift. Your petitioner, therefore, humbly perfuades himself, upon this principle, that lefs than three thousand pounds a year will not be propofed to him: if made up gold, the more agreeable, if for life, the more marketable.

Your petitioner perfuades himfelf, that your majefty will not fufpect this his humble application to proceed from any mean interefted motive, of which he has always had the utmost abhorrence. No, Sir, he confeffes his own weakness; honour alone is his object; honour is his paffion; honour is dearer to him than life. To honour he has always facrificed all other confiderations; and upon this generous principle, fingly, he now folicits that honour, which, in the most fhining times, diftinguished the greatest men of Greece, who were fed at the expence of the public.

Upon this honour, fo facred to him as a peer, fo tender to him as a man, he moft folemnly affures your majesty, that, in cafe you fhall be pleafed to grant him this his humble request, he will gratefully and honourably fupport, and pro

mote with zeal and vigour, the worst measure that the worst minifter can ever fuggeft to your majefty; but, on the other hand, fhould he be fingled out, marked, and branded by a refufal, he thinks himself obliged in honour to declare, that he will, to the utmost of his power, oppofe the best and wifest measures that your majesty yourself can ever dictate.

And your majesty's petitioner fhall ever pray.

Effay on Friendship, written by the late Dr. Oliver Goldsmith.

(Never published in his works.)

THERE are few fubjects which

have been more written upon and lefs understood, than that of friendship; to follow the dictates of fome, this virtue, instead of being the affuager of pain, becomes the fource of every inconvenience. Such speculatifts, by expecting too much from friendship, diffolve the connection, and by drawing the bands too clofely, at length break them. Almoft all our romance and novel writers are of this kind; they perfuade us to friendships, which we find impoffible to fuftain to the laft; fo that this sweetener of life, under proper regulations, is, by their means, rendered inacceffible or uneafy. It is certain, the best method to cultivate this virtue is by letting it, in fome measure, make itself; a fimilitude of minds or ftudies, and even fometimes a diverfity of purfuits, will produce alt. the pleasures that arife from it. The current of tendernets widens, as it proceeds; and two men imperceptibly find their hearts warm with N 4

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