XXI. TO THE EARL OF

MANCHESTER.

[English ambassador during Addison's visit to Paris, and husband to the lady complimented in the verses, vol. i., p. 214. There is no date to this letter, but from that of the Earl's appointment, it would seem to have been written from Italy in 1702.-G.]

MY LORD-I was extremely glad to hear your Lordship had entered on a post that would give you an occasion of advancing so much the interest and reputation of your country; but I now find that I have more particular reasons to rejoice at your promotion, since I hear you have lately done me the honor to mention me kindly to my Lord Halifax. As this is not the first favor you have been pleased to show me, I must confess I should be very ambitious of an opportunity to let you know how just a sense I have of the gratitude and duty that I owe to your Lordship. And if you think me fit to receive any of your commands abroad, it shall not be for want of diligence or zeal for your Lordship's service if they are not executed to your satisfaction. I could not dispense with myself from returning my most humble thanks for the notice you have been pleased to take of me, as I dare not presume any longer to encroach upon your time that is filled up with affairs of so much greater consequence.

I am, my Lord, &c.

To my Lord Manchester, Principal Secretary of State.

MY LORD-I have for a long time denied myself the honor of writing to your Lordship, as knowing you have been so taken up with matters of greater importance that any information I could give you of foreign curiosities would have seemed impertinent: but having lately heard that I am still kindly remembered by

your Lordship, I could not forbear troubling you with a letter, lest what I design for respect should look too much like ingratitude. As I first of all undertook my travels by your Lordship's encouragement, I have endeavored to pursue them in such a manner as might make me best answer your expectations; and, though I dare not boast of any great improvements that I have made in them, I am sure there is nothing that I more desire than an opportunity of showing my utmost abilities in your Lordship's service. I could almost wish that it was less for my advantage than it is to be entirely devoted to your Lordship, that I might not seem to speak so much out of interest as inclination : for I must confess, the more I see of mankind, the more I learn to value an extraordinary character, which makes me more ambitious than ever of showing myself, my Lord, your Lordship's, &c. To my Lord Halifax, March, 1701–2.

XXIII.

[The original of this letter, according to the Addisoniana, in which it was first published, is in the Bodleian library. It is written evidently from Rome, though without date of place, or year, and, as it now stands without address; though the contents show that this unknown correspondent was some fellow-traveller of congenial tastes-why not Mr. W. Montagu? It is interesting, also, as showing how he collected the materials for his Dialogues on Medals.-G.]

DEAR SIR-I hope this will find you safe at Geneva; and that the adventure of the rivulet, which you have so well celebrated in your last, has been the worst that you have met with in your journey thither. I cannot but envy your being among the Alps, where you may see frost and snow in the dog-days: we are here quite burnt up, and are at least ten degrees nearer the sun than when you left us. I am very well satisfied that it was in August that Virgil wrote his " O, qui me gelidis sub montibus

Hæmi!" &c. Our days at present, like those in the first chapter of Genesis, consist only of the evening and the morning; for the Roman noons are as silent as the midnights in other countries. But among all these inconveniences, the greatest I suffer is from your departure, which is more afflicting to me than the canicule. I am forced, for want of better company, to converse with pic tures, statues, and medals; for you must know, I deal very much in ancient coin, and can count out a sum in sesterces with as much ease as in pounds sterling. I am a great critic in rust, and can tell you the age of it at first sight; I am only in some danger of losing my acquaintance with our English money, for at present I am much more used to the Roman. If you glean up any of our country news, be so kind as to forward it this way Pray give [ ] Mr. Dashwood, and my very humble service to Sir Thomas, and accept of the same yourself, from,

Dear sir, your most affectionate humble servant,

Aug. 7.

My Lord Bernard, &c., give their service.

J. ADDISON

XXIV. TO MR. WORTLEY

MONTAGUE.

DEAR SIR-I am just arrived at Geneva by a very troublesome journey over the Alps, where I have been for some days together shivering among the eternal snows. My head is still giddy with mountains and precipices, and you cannot imagine how much I am pleased with the sight of a plain, that is as agreeable to me at present, as a shore was about a year ago, after our tempest at Genoa. During my passage over the mountains, I made a rhyming epistle to my Lord Halifax, which perhaps I will trouble you with the sight of, if I don't find it to be nonsense upon a review. You will think it, I dare say, as extraordi

nary a thing to make a copy of verses in a voyage over the Alps as to write an heroic poem in a hackney coach, and I believe I am the first that ever thought of Parnassus on Mount Cenis. At Florence I had the honor to have about three days' conversation with the Duke of Shrewsbury, which made me some amends for the missing Sir Th. Alston's company, who had taken another road for Rome. I find I am very much obliged to yourself and him, but will not be so troublesome in my acknowledgments as I might justly be. I shall only assure you that I think Mr. Montagu's acquaintance the luckiest adventure that I could possibly have met with in my travels. I suppose you are in England as full of politics as we are of religion at Geneva. I hope you will give me a little touch of it in your letters.

The rake Wood is grown a man of a very regular life and conversation, and often begins our good friends' health in England. I am, dear sir, your most affectionate humble servant, J. ADDISON.

December, 9th, 1701.

XXV.

TO CHAMBERLAIN DASHWOOD, ESQ.

[The person alluded to in Letter xxiii.-G.]

DEAR SIR-About three days ago Mr. Bocher put a very pretty snuff-box in my hand. I was not a little pleased to hear that it belonged to myself, and was much more so when I found it was a present from a gentleman that I have so great an honor for. You did not probably foresee that it would draw on you the trouble of a letter, but you must blame yourself for it. For my part I can no more accept of a snuff-box without returning my acknowledgments, than I can take snuff without sneezing after it. This last I must own to you is so great an absurdity that I should be ashamed to confess it, were not I in hopes of correcting it very

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speedily. I am observed to have my box oftener in my hand than those that have been used to one these twenty years, for I cannot forbear taking it out of my pocket whenever I think of Mr. Dashwood. You know Mr. Bays recommends snuff as a great provocative to wit, but you may produce this letter as a standing evidence against him. I have, since the beginning of it, taken above a dozen pinches, and still find myself much more inclined to sneeze than to jest. From whence I conclude that wit and tobacco are not inseparable, or to make a pun of it, though a man may be master of a snuff-box,

"Non cuicunque datum est habere Nasam."

I should be afraid of being thought a pedant for my quotation, did not I know that the gentleman I am writing to always carries a Horace in his pocket. But whatever you may think me, pray sir, do me the justice to esteem me your most, &c.

To Chamberlain Dashwood, Esq. Geneva, July, 1702.

[English Envoy at the court of Vienna, who had raised himself to notice by his poetical talents and classic attainments, and was, like Addison, under the patronage of Lord Halifax. The friendship formed on the occasion of Addison's visit to Vienna, lasted till Mr. Stepney's death.-G.]

SIR-That I may be as troublesome to you in prose as in verse, I take the liberty to send you the beginning of a work that I told you I had some design of publishing at my return into England. I have wrote it since my being at Vienna, in hopes that it might have the advantage of your correction. I cannot hope that one who is so well acquainted with the persons of our present modern princes, should find any pleasure in a discourse on the faces of such as made a figure in the world above a thousand years ago. You will see, however, that I have endeavored