to resist any giddy impulse or ill-placed inclination which shall induce you to entertain a thought prejudicial to your own honor, and repugnant to your virtue.

I too, madam, am far from being insensible. I, too, have passions; and would my situation, a few years ago, have allowed me a possibility of succeeding, I should legally have solicited that happiness which you are now ready to bestow. I had the honor of supping at Mr. D.'s, where I first saw you; and I shall make no scruple in declaring, that I never saw a person so irresistibly beautiful, nor a manner so excessively engaging; but the superiority of your circumstances prevented any declaration on my side, although I burnt with a flame as strong as ever fired the human breast. I labored to conceal it. Time and absence at length abated a hopeless passion, and your marriage with my patron effectually cured it. Do not, madam, endeavor to rekindle that flame; do not destroy a tranquillity I have just begun to taste, and blast your own honor, which has been hitherto unsullied. My best esteem is yours; but should I promise more, consider the fatal necessity I should be under, of removing myself 'rom an intercourse so dangerous. In any other commands, dispose of, Madam, Your humble servant.

LXVII. TO AMBROSE PHILIPS.

April 25, 1710.

DEAR SIR-Upon the receipt of your first letter I consulted with Mr. Pulteney, who is very much your friend, and extremely desirous to serve you, but as the province to which Muscovy belongs is under Mr. Boyle, he did not think it proper for me to move any one else in that affair, designing to mention you to the secretary, who you know is his intimate friend, upon the first favorable opportunity. Since that I have received your second.

and have got Mr. Hopkins to join with me in the affair of Geneva to my Lord Sunderland, but his Lordship tells us that Dairolle has been named to that post for some time. I knew the Marquis du Caen applied to the Duke of Marlborough upon the same account. I have been several times to speak to my Lord Sommers upon this occasion, but could not find him at home till about three days ago, and then he was just going out with Lord Oxford. However, I took his Lordship aside, and upon my telling him your desire in regard to Geneva, his Lordship promised that he would move in it. I told him at the same time what I had heard of Dairolle, and that probably you would be very well pleased to succeed Dairolle at the Hague. I likewise told his Lordship of the vacancy that might possibly happen in Muscovy, and begged his Lordship to turn it in his thoughts to your advantage. He was very particularly attentive to me, and by the very kind manner that he received what I had to say, and that he formerly has spoken to me of you, I promise myself that something may rise out of it for your good. I intend to mention you once more to his Lordship before I go for Ireland, and I believe it would not be amiss for you to ground a letter of thanks upon the gracious hearing he has already given me. I must beg you to present my most humble respects to Mr. Pulteney, and I hope you have already let him know how much I love and honor him. Farewell, dear Philips, and believe me to be more than I am able to express, your most affectionate and most faithful humble servant, J. ADDISON.

Dick Steele and I remember you once a day. Little Thomson is the same excellent youth he was."

From the original MS. in the possession of John Scott, Esq., Westminster.

LXVIII. TO THE SAME.

[Without date, but evidently from Ireland from the allusion to the Pastorals between 1709-10.-G.]

DEAR SIR-I am very much obliged to you for sending me my letters from Mr. Vandewaters, but more for the copy of your pastoral. I have read it over with abundance of pleasure, and like extremely well the alterations you have made in it. You have an admirable hand at a sheep-crook, though I must confess the conclusion of your poem would have pleased me better had it not been for that very reason that it was the conclusion of it. I hope you will follow the example of your Spenser and Virgil in making your pastorals the prelude of something greater. He that can bewail Stella's death in so good a copy of verses would be able to anatomize her after it in a better. I intend for England within a day or two, and should be very glad if I could be any way serviceable to you there.

Your faithful, humble servant,

[Addressed to Ambrose Philips.]

J. ADDISON.

From "The Autograph Portfolio." London, 1837, 4to. Literatim.

LXIX. TO MR. KEALLY, A FRIEND IN IRELAND.

London, April 13, 1710.
Little Ben'

SIR-We are here in a great puzzle of politics. winks, speaks half sentences, and grows more mysterious than ever. Dick Steele is entirely yours. Lord Halifax, after having talked of you in a friendly manner, desired me to give you his humble service when I wrote to you, &c.

1 Little Ben-Mr, afterwards Bishop, Hoadley. He had recently been recommended to the Queen by the House of Commons for writing against Bishops Bramhall and Atterbury.-G.

[Mr. Desmaizeaux. Supposed to be a French refugee. He had written a life of Bayle, and edited the works of St. Evremond. Addison took him with him to Ireland.-V. Steele's Correspondence, v. 1, 188.-G.]

Dublin Castle, Aug. 1, 1710.

SIR-I did not care for answering your letter till I could do it in some measure to your satisfaction. I have at last watched a convenient season to move my Lord Lieutenant for your license of absence, which he has granted till December next. I am afraid I shall not then be in a capacity to serve you any further in this particular, but if I can you may depend upon it. I heartily wish you joy of your new post, and am ever, sir, your most faithful humble servant, J. ADDISON.

Mr. Desmaizeaux.

LXXI. MR.

ADDISON TO DR. SWIFT.

[Swift and Addison were always friends in spite of their difference in politics.-G.]

Dublin Castle, July 23, 1710.

DEAR SIR-About two days ago I received the enclosed, that is scaled up; and yesterday that of my friend Steele, which requiring a speedy answer, I have sent you express. In the mean while I have let him know that you are out of town, and that he may expect your answer by the next post. I fancy he had my Lord Halifax's authority for writing. I hope this will bring you to town. For your amusement by the way I have sent you some of this day's news; to which I must add that Doctors Bisse and Robinson are likely to be Bishops of Bristol and St. Davids: that our politicians are startled at the breaking off the negotiatious and fall of stocks; insomuch that it is thought they will not ven

ture at dissolving the parliament in such a crisis. I am ever, dear sir, yours entirely.

Mr. Steele desires me to seal yours before I deliver it: but this you will excuse in one who wishes you as well as he or any body living can do.

LXXII.

[Fragment of a letter to Mr. Keally.-G. ]

"The Bank have represented that they must shut up upon the first issuing out of new writs; and Sir Francis Child, with the rest of the moneyed interest on the Tories' side have declared to the Duke of Shrewsbury, that they shall be ruined if so great a blow be given to the public credit as would inevitably follow upon a dissolution. We hear from all parts of England that the people daily recover their senses, and that the tide begins to turn so strongly, that it is hoped the next parliament will be of the same stamp with this in case of a dissolution."

LXXIII. TO THE MARQUIS OF WHARTON.

[V. Macaulay's Essay, p. xlv.]

London, August 14, 1710.

MY LORD-This morning I had the honor of a visit from Mr. Bertie, who upon my acquainting him with your Lordship's concern for his brother's election, declared himself very much obliged to your Lordship, but said his brother was so tired of sitting in the house, that he would not be in it again upon any consideration.

I hear from my Lord Dartmouth's office that all the particulars which I had in charge for your Lordship have been already complied with, except that about proroguing the parliament,