To his Sister Mrs. F. My Dearest Sister T Is now too late to expresse the passion I felt for what I hope you have recover'd onely this if a large part of what you suffer'd had been put upon my score I think I should have pick'd out delight in the affliction because I indur'd it for you will give me leave to be glad of your sufferings not because they were so but since Providence did ordaine them yours because they were no greater My Brother told me that the Disease was not likely to handle you so rudely as it usually doth others and I was willing to believe him because I wish'd it so It is fit you should believe that I am not only contented to wish you happy but would be glad I could make you so by something else beside words But providence thinkes it fit that I should still be unable to serve the friends I love and therefore defers my preferment by prolonging my unfortunate and costly malady Well the best of it is I have seen too much of the world to dote upon it and when I leave it nothing shall trouble me so much as that I could not serve my friends so well as I lov'd them in which number you hold the fore most rank in his affections that is Your really affectionate Brother to command R. L. LETTER XXXIV To his Brother Maj. W. Dear Brother THough to speak my self in your debt be not to pay the least scruple unlesse thankes go currant yet I cannot but acknowledge the fresh expressions of your friendship nor repeat my engagement to your last kind entertainment and conduct without calling my Stars penurious in allowing me no other power of requitall than a few cheap words But so you may credit it that if ever occasion shewes me how to shape it in better Characters I shall not be loth to wipe out the score In the meane time all I have to ask at your hands is to construe me right and believe my meaning quadrate to my words and nothing but want of power denies my actions the same proportion I burne to heare how my poor Brother does which I desire to receive from your pen as exactly as possible I have endeavour'd to find a convenience for our literall exchange by Lin but as yet cannot reach any that I dare trust to therefore pray send your Letters by London and direct them to my Shoomaker in Holborn Present my entire Love to my Sister to honest Mr. B. P. Don c. cordially and belive it you shall incurre no error to style me Sir Your most affectionate Brother and Servant R. L. LETTER XXXV To Mr. G. Dear Sir THat I had not a line or two from your hand by Mr D. I suppose was rather mischance than intention that I eagerly expected it may be credited from my frequent importunities from which I know not how you will defend your self so long as I tenebrize it here in this blind corner where I almost live like a flye in winter and onely play in the Sun-shine when I communicate with such friends as your self But he tells me a sad story of J. W's sickness which believe it does affect me as feelingly as can be requir'd from an unbiass'd friendship Let me conjure you to tell by the next how I may measure my unhappinesse by his danger I was ever entirely his from the cradle of our acquaintance but his last condescention to fetch me to my sick Brother makes my apprehension too big for my expression I pray do me the favour to receive all such Letters as shall be directed to me through your hands for he that did me the same courtesie I heare is lately dead of the new feaver I should blush to give you these troubles if your Commission had not emboldned me but if I do not requite I shall not forget to acknowledge Present me heartily to honest C. W. Mr. L. and promise your self a true friend in R. L. LETTER XXXVI To his Brother A. L. Deare Brother I Need not tell you I am now in Lincolneshire for I suppose you will easily read it in my literall intermission Thus to be out of the way is to be remote since now the motion of our Letters must be more than semicircular and they travell as people do in Wales round about the hill because they cannot crosse it in Diameter When I parted with the Major at London I confesse I engaged to give you and him a meeting at Holt but since our arrivall here it has pleas'd God to strike my Lord and Lady one with a fever the other with a Tertian Ague which in all probability wil resolve into the New Disease which extremely rages in these parts and murders abundance of people my Lord of Lincolnes onely Brother dyed of it last week This enforces a suspension of my purpose and bids me content my self to send you my imbraces at this distance In this same voyage to the Grave which we call Life our condition is so fraile and floating as we are nought else but living lumps of incertainty and irresolution so easie it is for Fortune or rather Providence to unravel our strongestwoven designes and unhinge our most serious intentions that like the withered leaves of Autumn we are the game of every blast and our health the prey of every sickly vapour But now Dear Brother how do you have you yet scap't the fangs of this new-spawn'd malady Pray tender your health very carefully for my part I should deem my self in great danger in this standing-pool of Aire where we live if the hole in my arm were not my friend in giving several passeports to infection and contagious vapours which so long as nature has power to thrust out at that Sally-port my danger is not great I pray let me know if my sister Janes health be yet perfected and how therest of my friends hold out against the batteries of a putrified Climate Present me as is due to all that know me preserve me in your Affections Wishes and Prayers and believe it your happiness shall be always mentioned in his addresses to heaven that is Dear Brother Your own indelibly R. L. POSTSCRIPT Pray let me hear from you as soon as you can Excuse my blots for I wrote it in haste in my Ladies chamber from whom I do not stir LETTER XXXVII To his Brother Mr. A.L. Dear Brother YOu have subdued me so entirely and tied the knot so strait that binds me to you that there is as much impossibility to undo it as ingratitude to cut it so as like the mistaken husband-man that tills an unfruitful Soil you must expect to receive a lean crop not because the earth is unthankful but unable After I had sent my last I received one of your Letters that plaid the Truant by the way with some pieces of the broken Glass which appeared like the disjoyned staves of a wrackt Vessel thrown ashore by the Tide the Pills came safe
line to arrive at my hands since I saw you when none of those that weekly travel between me and my remoter Friends ever met with the same fate Indeed I was glad to hear that Signior G. was yet among the living for I judg'd nothing but Death could have struck him so dumb I understood your desires and the reasons of them by Mr. H. to receive your Seamozzi which I presently communicated to your vale Milner and prevailed so well by perswasion as you will receive it by this Carrier I am sory my Lady D. does not accept your present I suppose Mr. H. will render you a larger account of it In the mean I shall using the Books carefully read over your Translation with the Originall and so keep them till your reply to this directs a further disposall Hast will now let me say no more than that I am Your constant Friend still ready to serve you R. L. LETTER CVII To Mr. A. SIR AN unexpected Command for Lincolnshire with my Lord beguiles me of the happiness to kisse your hands Before your Suff. Journey takes advantage of my defer'd writing and forces me to say nothing to my Brother by you to mend this unintended default you may much oblige me to summon him by a Messenger to B. while you are there I know his affection will carry him further at any time to hear of me where if you please to give him an account of what you know of me and my condition you will put me much in your debt tell him I will write by the next Carrier but desire him not to expect my coming over till I tell him I will come I pray let him know I received his last with the Picture in it Sir may the success of your journey compare with your wishes Present me kindly to all you meet that know me Forgive the haste that made these blots and be confident I am Your faithful friend and servant R. L. LETTER CVIII To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother MY last had not been followed at such a distance if the sudden news of a Lincolnshire-journey had not arrested my Pen in the very act My condition scatters uncertainty among the broken parcels of my time and I must be no less then a Prophet to foretell how I shall spend the next hour my firmest purposes being still curb'd with a conditional bridle Thus I utter the larger part of my indeavours as an instrument does sound that only talks over the instructions of an imperious hand Yet I cannot say that any new restraint does raise the price of my leisure but the continuance of my trouble which I now suspect will keep me company to the threshold of the other World in spite of all the aid of reason does often untune and discompose my soul that though I should blush to say so it even faints my industry slacks my carriere and makes me halt after such designs which otherwise I think I should pursue with vigour But I take it as a fatherly correction sent with commission to set me the way to Heaven and so I hope I shall use it We are now more then two years older since we last shak'd hands which when I look back upon at a lump methinks in reference to my self looks as if woven into a Chaos From some I have incountred affronts that have strook fire in my breast from other sweet ingenious spirits I have been fann'd with a gentle gale of serene affection such humerous waves have flow'd round my Bark as at the same hour have mildly kist my keel and spit foam at my top-sayl and for earth I am a double debtour to the constitution of my body and my fortunes that my Chaos has been plentifully furnisht with that melancholy element It cannot pose your conjecture to conceive how tenderly I would hug an occasion that might revive me the delight of so dear a society for if I deem aright you may easily cut out such an imagination by the pattern of your own heart But if I gain my health I taste what others call pleasure with a feaverish palate I am therefore loth to appear among the friends I love so well till I can bid adieu to a dull humour that now predominates and my soul may have elbow-room enough at least to render my company not tedious If Providence does intend me so dear a Present sure this succeeding Spring must bring it and then I shall venture to ask my first leave to play c. I do much applaud the disgust the creature made you I know you have a soul that loathes to sin so slavishly though tempted with fairer hopes then any can court you that way t is the badge of a worthy heart that can rather indure to appear less then to be less worthy and t is a rare disposition that will not suffer it self to be cheapened in such an age as this But though vertue sometimes sets a long day her pay is currant and sterling all the rest false coyn My Lady has newly got another swelling in the belly which I believe about five moneths hence will make us hoise fail for London for there they apprehend is the safest unlading for such fraights if I may meet you there you will give me more happiness then I have relisht since I last saw you And be confident your person and parts will find a more easie task in the purchase of preferment then mine have done in so many respects their inferiour and if you can safely manage the interest is still left you to make it last till then it cannot be amiss In the mean time you shall do me but right to promise your self the clearest advice attended by the most active diligence and ready indeavours that may be performed by the soul and body of Yours while he is his own R. L. LETTER CIX To Mrs. F. Honoured Aunt THe debt due to your obliging goodness I can better confess then satisfie and till Providence inrich me with serviceable power to pay the whole summe I must beg you will receive the interest of true thanks a coyn though often counterfeit has here the stamp of a true heart in the Mine of which your kind ingagements have digg'd for such mettal and though it be not precious t is beyond the power of an Ordinance to make it no currant pay for Heaven it self received it and if the impress be not forged returns an acquittance I promised you news but its scarcity bids me crave a longer day for the payment onely this The Scots c. You have the abridgement of what this Week produc'd if I may use my poor power any other way to serve you let me beg you will continue your favours in commanding Yours R. L. LETTER CX To my Brother Mr. A. W. SIR YOurs of the third of this Current was brought to my hands by your Brother and now mine a Gentleman so happily accomplish'd with what is brave and ingenious as
favour who is Love it self If there were any alteration in my condition since you received my last Letter I should be ready to let you know it as one that has no little Interest in me but while I am here my endeavors do but labour like a mil-horse still repeating their steps in a circle alwayes going round but not a foot forward in the path of preferment I am now once more in a course of Physick for my malady and in hope it will struggle successfully with it but I am like to buy these desires so dear that to recover my health will sicken my purse but of the two t is a Disease lesse grievous I pray present my much affectionate service to my excellent Aunt H. her good Mother with the rest of the Family salute the rest of my Friends with love or service as they are due and to your self Dear Sister take the heart of Your affectionate Brother R. L. LETTER CXXXVII To his Sister J. Dear Sister I Have long forborn to write out of an hopeful expectation to find thee such newes as might claim a just welcom but now I am forc'd to say that my failing in thy behalf is added to the rest of my own misfortunes I suppose my Brother acquainted thee with my hopes to prefer thee to the Lady A. W. a Lady in whose praise I will be silent lest I should too much vex thee with the misse of so much happiness and it was a narrow misse for I procur'd a Letter from my Lady to her in thy commendations so soon as I heard her Gentlewoman was to part from her upon which the motion was entertain'd willingly only she replyed that she had intreated her Aunt the Lady W. then at London to procure her one there but she would immediately write her word that she was provided which she had no sooner done but she received newes that her Aunt had already agreed with a Gentlewoman which was then coming down and in honour could not be refused Thus have my unfortunate endeavours born thee no other fruit than false hopes indeed this failing does the more afflict me because I know the value of what is mist though we should besides have liv'd most of this Winter together in a house a thing so passionately desir'd of us both but we must not repine too much at crosse events lest in it we upbraid Providence the younger Sister does yet take none but when she does thou art sure to have it Mr. W. in whom I repos'd most hopes to effect thy desires is now out of the Kingdom besides our residing in this barren Country will much disable my industry in thy behalf I shall conclude with such advice as I believe thy discreet goodness does daily practise be still the same thou ever wert of a sweet vertuous winning carriage ready to pleasure all loth to offend any and thou wilt ingage even Incivility it self to use thee civilly and Inconstancy to love thee constantly keep still the complexion of Lillies in thy innocence and of Roses in thy modesty for if once sully'd the water is hardly purchas'd that will restore its whiteness thy disposition was alwayes intimate with vertue endeavour daily to improve the amity and trust Heaven with the rest whose blessings though they be long a coming will richly pay thy patience lose not a grain of that pleasant temper which makes thy company so much courted for there is nothing so happy here as those calm souls that can make unforc'd smiles shine through a harmless jollity But thou art born to too rich a goodness to need the charity of my weak advice but give me my Present back again and I will take it kindly and be sure you love me truly or else you will die much in the debt of Your truly affectionate Brother R. L. LETTER CXXXVIII To his Sister K. L. Dear Sister HAd I met with any thing that might justly have deserved thy aâ—quaintance my hand could not have been so slothful to withhold thee from that knowledge but concerning my self though my endeavours have not proved altogether fruitless yet I cannot say their success has answered my wishes but be assured if kind Providence favour my designes I will own no good fortune but what you shall claim a share in I shall be suddenly called by my affaires to Yarmouth and if I see you not before my return it shall be the unkindness of my urgent occasions not my own neglect To conclude if ever Fortune be dispos'd to smile upon me I shall not debarre my Friends of its reflexion in the number of which thy active affection has deserv'd a place in the former rank and in that perswasion I remain Thy constant affectionate Brother R. L. LETTER CXXXIX Dear Brother THough my present imployment be something pressing and importunate yet it cannot disswade a reply to you with all the Arguments that Business caâ— urge for to hold my peace because time will not allow my fancy elbow-room is to be confuted in Friendship and non-plust in the proofs of affection I confess I love a little to be pos'd in these Lessons to inure my Faculties as well to violent as gentle Exercise and teach my Pen to run races as well as walk gravely Promptitude in dispatch when it keeps a fit distance to precipitation often commits a happy rape upon preferment and takes Reputation by surprizal while that serious exactness that weighes and poyses every hair and grain does but clamber to that which the other flies at and I think the maxime is equally fitted to this and Fowling the first aim is best But I should call back and unsay these words because I have hastily shot so wide from the purpose yet to you I dare draw my thoughts with bold strokes I thank you for your last inclosed though my intentions of printing my Letters be defer'd till Trinity if not till Michaelmas Terme by the late interposition of some Commands that have ingaged my Quill c. Whoever of my friends you incounter in your Journey pray give them my respects in a due proportion You seem to hint some design of your own by the way that may prove advantagious I shall be happy to hear it disclos'd because by that time I suppose it will be succesfully effected for I perceive you are master of that old prudential maxime Neve to reveal a design whilest it is in a capacity of failing I cannot chuse but applaud your happy blending of the Christian and Politician which gives you a buckler of caution to defend your self but not a revenging weapon to return blow for blow If you see my Sister F. before your return present me to her with much affection The Major sends you his affectionate respects and bids me mind you of a promise to send him some Pictures upon Muscovy-glasses I told you at first I was in hast but have confuted my self by the tedious progress but you know how to pardon all
greater man however I will call my self your Creature and resolve to be of that shape you will fashion me In the mean time I shall importune Heaven to furnish me with so happy a power as may render me in some acceptable service Sir Not onely your faithful but Your grateful Servant R.L. LETTER II. To Sir I. P. Sir IF the importunity of your affairs will consent to a digression look upon the tender of his true service that was alwayes yours If my Heart thought my Pen fit to be trusted with those Wishes that concern you I should be more ample but it needs not for I am confident you can read them at this distance To put you in mind of my desires were not to deserve their effects since I believe the intermitted Truce you take with greater imployments is nobly spent in a courteous parley with your friends more petty occasions would trouble you I will therefore bind up my true service in these few lines and rest Yours R. L. LETTER III. To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother I Had not failed you last Week if a sudden command from those whose breath can blow me any way had not arrested my pen and imposed a less pleasing imployment for there is no delight I can spare with more regret then these occasions of sending you my naked thoughts for Interest is now adored with such specious idolatry that it renders even common converse dangerous So the honest soul that courts good company must find it in his own thoughts to the stock of which your amity contributes no petty sum and when the vacancy of imployment releases me to these harmless recreations I endeavour to drop those heavy-moulded cares that smell of earth and fall a pruning the wings of some lively thoughts that play like nimble flies in the serenity of an unclouded mind and amidst the variety of those tasks I impose upon them the principal are dispatch'd to invite Content to come and dwell in the Valley of my humble Fortunes and sport it self upon those banks that are happily purpled with their own violets Protected thus with a little methinks I am proud that I have not enough to set the Covetous a desiring nor the Ambitious a scrambling Sometime I strive to build Reason as high a Tribunal as my thoughts can reare at the Bar of which I labour to accuse my own miscarriages and had I power to reform as well as censure them what could affront my felicity Sometimes I revise my readings in men and fall a setting the best Slips my observation can cull from others Gardens but I confess few of them grow Sometimes I prick at the footsteps that books have lately left in my memory which I find a very weak Conservatory and keeps my best observations but as people use to keep choice Posies fresh for a day or two and then let them fade and die Then perhaps I roll my thoughts upon Eternity and that helps me to deride the folly of those blind Wretches that so hotly scramble for sublunary trifles but withall pity their miserable mistake that run away from the true blessings while they pursue the false ones T is sport to consider how Fortune or rather Providence builds up these creatures like Scaffolds for a show with an intent to pull them down again Sometimes I am so weak to let my fancie ramble after Poetick raptures but in these I onely suffer her to aire her wings and so come home again With these agreeable diversions I often send my thoughts a gadding chiefly to deceive melancholy which of late has been much incroaching for my capital trouble increases and has got a giddiness to assist it I have not yet taken the Physick and now resolve to defer it till I arrive in the Countrey which will be about a fortnight hence If these afflictions can set me the right way to Heaven especially as it is now perplexed with so many oblique devious pathes of Error and Heresie I shall hug them heartily I should excuse this unravelling my Contemplations in such a ruffled manner but I use curiosity to those that have a less share of my affection then your self c. Your entirely affectionate Brother to command R. L. LETTER IV. To Mr. W. My dearest Friend THIS happy night I received your last Letter which how I took I wish some good thing above Man would tell you for I cannot Onely this the delights and joyes which are dandled by the World were base and drossie to what that brought me which is onely less pure then those that make the Angels clap their wings It has given me a happy but a hard task T is to let an Ocean through a Quill for t is the same difficulty for my Pen to express what my heart meanes you Methinks I would faine say something to you that is not ordinary but I can find no words that I do not suspect too faint to fit my affection onely this I do not love you the common way nor with such a kindnesse as doth usually blaze with the fresh resentment of a benefit and learne to coole and dye again unlesse it be renew'd with the same repeated fuell but I have an affection for you that is of the same piece with my soul as immortall and undecaying as it self and will go along with it to the other world and need not be asham'd even there to own its object The busie waves that roll betwixt us cannot keep me from you for t is with you I spend my gladdest hours When I set my thoughts to cast up the account of my large possessions in you I deride the poor rich ones of this Age and say Sure if they knew the right way they would leave the pursuit of their glorious follies learne to get a virtuous friend But pardon my transport Present me cordially to your excellent friend and intreat him to write me in the number of his faithfull servants for I cannot be lesse to him that is so to you tell him I will allow him the better roome in your breast so he not grudge me a harbour there to be expel'd which would gall my heart-strings No perplexities assault it but what you help to beat off no vexations pierce it to which a reflection upon my interest in you does not prove a Dictamnum and ejects those arrowes be sure then you be precious to your self and regard your health that you may stil be so to those that love you and then you must be so But I fear I grow tedious though I have not spoke halfe what I would fain say but the rest shall be refer'd to my next Well then conceive I imbrace you at this distance for all but my clay does May you arrive at so happy a condition that you may pitty your enemies and enjoy that serenity of soul that may make you so skilfull in virtue and be assured that bate but heaven there is nothing so dear as your self to
as I am and then you would never check your heart for being too lavish of affection I had no sooner rent my selfe from you for I found it requir'd some violence to reinforce my resolution to part but I far'd like one newly wak'd from a delightfull dreame and found himself despoil'd of all the joyes wich he borrow'd from the flattery of fancy This made Melancholy my companion to London in spite of all the facetious rousings of my merry Major On Friday night we lay at Woodford and reach'd home on Saturday Morning where before I would put my neck into the coller again we dip'd some choice healths but especially yours in the best Laurentian Liquour and so I tooke my leave of him and Sack Well I am now return'd again to my Oare and though I row against wind and tide of preferment yet it pleases me that my imployment raises no stormes in my Conscience I pray God I may keep it calme till Heaven thinkes fit to set me ashore in the safest Harbour I cannot want such thoughts as these so long as I carry my remembrancer about me of what I must be my malady which I confesse I should beare with lesse anxiety did I not fear it will knock me o' th head before I dye you know my meaning and make me survive my self But Gods will be done If the Doctor has consider'd of any thing he deemes fit to commend to my observation I shall gladly receive it I shall strive in my next to render him if it be possible a more perfect account of his Sons goods I dare not satisfie your desires concerning the grand affaires nor indeed can I justly there is so much fallacy in Fame that Reports are born and stifled the same hour c. I was in good hopes we should have gone for Nottingham but I think the old woman is about a little businesse that will quite spoil that design I mean dying Well my dear Brother no more but this you shall be happy in all that your wishes can dictate if the prayers may prevail of Your ever affectionate Brother to command R. L. LETTER XX. To Mr. H. Sir I Have yours wherein you have proved your self a double deserver first in shewing friendly kindnesse in doing courtesies and then a rare modesty in disclaiming their acknowledgment a disposition seldom known in such an age as this that can content it self rather to merit thanks then receive them But you must be lesse complemental to be believed unskilful in complement and though my weaknesse that way make me quit the lists to you yet I strive to over-match you as much in right down reality This contemptible Town can brag of no commodity but is chiefly barren of Intelligence as if Fame thought it not worthy of a report till it growes stale with the rest of the Kingdom and so we are served like the lowest rank of mortals with nought but her fragments c. I have something unwillingly obeyed your commands in inclosing this Epistle it being the first I ever enterprised in this kind which makes me advise you to distrust it as well as my self and not think it a fit forehead for your Book till a more artificial hand has fill'd up its native wrinkles and it has past the Correction and test of some sterling judgment such an one as Mr. W. would reward the pains of an earnest intreaty Yours R. L. LETTER XXI To Doctor B. Dear Doctor I Perceive by yours that I have a just quarrel to the Carriers carelesness who like an unskilful Archer shot my Letter beyond the mark and made it stay his leisure to bring it back again and indeed the reception you have given it is like the entertainment of a friend whose long absence has help'd to indear the meeting and deck the welcom I am onely sorry it had no better Title to what you have given it which is a Character that I can own with as little justice as I had either merit or confidence to ask it But Sir if these be not onely breathings of ingenuity and rather sallies of your fancy then opinion t is fit they should awake my endeavours to be what your friendly apprehension has fashon'd me which your amity has done not without some disadvantage to your judgement But though I fall short in every other proportion you guesse me at in affection with all the requisites of a true friend you shall ever find me good measure c. Be as happy as I wish my self and believe me ever deare Doctor perfectly and entirely Yours R. L. LETTER XXII To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother OPportunities have here but slender foretops I use them therefore here as passengers that waite for a wind and unfurle my papersayles when their gale is most promising Thus though my affection does not sympathize with the aires inclemencies and payes neither fainting tribute to the frying Dog starre nor shuddering to the Northern Bear yet it is now fore'd to make a leg to Fortune for these occasions and let fall its words as the Plow-man does his seed not at his own choice but when the season invites My last two Letters vext you with the tedious description of my malady and this has charge to tell you that I hope I shall give you no more such penances The cure of it being now undertaken by a man in this Countrey whose fortunate skill has triumph'd over strange Diseases which has got him the acclamations of his patients and the envy of his own tribe His story is this he was born well being the great Dr. B's Nephew most of whose receipts he has but bred meanly first bound Prentice to a Shoomaker in Nottingham from whom he ran away most ingeniously and return'd some years after a profest Physitian how far he fetch'd his Art or whether most beholding for it to bookes or men I know not and in it himself is resolutely silent but almost miraculous successe in the Calling made him quickly known and famous Presently after these sad times burst forth in which it was his fortune to side with the weaker party There are many not unhandsome stories told of his behaviour while the sword was unsheath'd among the rest this which I had from his own mouth He having command in a Garrison neer did often give some ungentle visits to his Townsmen at Nottingham and was for almost a year though a Physitian their continuall Ague at length in a skirmish neer Darby it was his fortune to be made Prisoner and thence was straitly guarded towards Nottingham where they intended to give him no worse reward than a hanging for his former courtesies By the way he invites his Conductors being sixteen Troupers to a Crowns-worth of Ale which he privately season'd with such a soveraigne ingredient that it suddenly cast them all in a profound sleep which done he at pleasure rifles their pockets and takes from them about 200. l. two Case of Pistols and two of
their best Horses payes the reckoning leaves them 13. d. ob and returnes merrily to his own Garrison Since the war his fame is growne much louder and his steps where ere he goes waited on by multitudes I cannot heare that he undertakes any in whose cure he failes he refuses to look on Urines and onely observes the wrist when the right hand is grip'd never failing to discover the nature cause and seat of the malady which he undertakes or rejects as he finds it either feasable or desperate I am now his Patient and though I yet can brag of little amendment by what I have taken yet his confidence bids me hope well he has let me blood under the Tongue and cut a veine in my eare asunder and I am now taking of Powders Electuaries and Purges The charge I find will be very great but I am resolv'd to buy off this plague at any rate though I pinch for it all my life after I lately receiv'd a Letter from my dear Mr. W. then at Antwerp which because it gives a hopefull dawning of some transmarine imployment I have sent you the Copy of it and to silence other likelihoods I suppose this winter will determinate my stay in this family but before that time I doubt not to exchange many such as these with you In the meane time be sure you believe that my heart loves you for it is truth it self and it shall clearly appeare if ever Providence smiles upon Your entirely affectionate brother to command for ever R. L. My dear friend All the good of Heaven Earth attend you you will easily believe my affection if you remember my industry to have enjoy'd you before I left the Kingdom and truly I call it my great unhappiness that I could not meet an opportunity till now to tell you I must be yours for ever Had I known how to have sent I had done it sooner but your Letter which directed me to you was in my trunke at London and I receiv'd it but a few daies since Wel then take me as much yours as you can desire and assure your selfe I study your good next my own and if God blesse me in the world I shall quickly make it evident In the meane know I am order'd for France where I have good assurance of some suitable imployment when I come there you shall know it and somewhat more of me than this hasty messenger will permit at present Pray therefore write to Mr. K. that he will receive and pay for my Letters that come to you by the French Post I cannot desire to heare from you where I am because my stay in these parts are uncertaine Though I must tell you truly I was never better pleas'd with any place in my life yet you are wanting to make me happy I am suffer'd to say no more onely what I dayly say to my selfe Live piously and vertuously and all that 's good must needs betide you then be to me as I am deare friend Your own entirely R. W. POSTSCRIPT Brother To another this might argue me of levity to send you things of such cheape moment and so much unconcerning your selfe but there is so little complement in him and so much love in you that as I know the one cannot dissemble so the other cannot but bid that welcome that may suite with his interest that so truely loves But bating you two I am reserv'd to all the world beside I stay my writing to my Sister J. till I can know whether she shall have the place or not I feare the worst Farewell LETTER XXIII To his Brother Mr. F. W. Sir I Receiv'd and resented your kind invitation for which you will do me but right to fancy me truly thankfull I shall take it kindly of my occasions when they will give me leave to obey your summons and will bring a heart along with me that will onely think it self unhappy that it must begin so late to know you I should injure my parcell of reason to give a faint applause to my Sisters choice since sounder judgements have spoke it happy and your own hand confirm'd it so I do not dote upon my own weaknesse so much as to think my opinion would have quit the cost of asking onely I could have wish'd my presence had inabled me to vote with the rest though it had been onely to shew I am not backward in the approbation of desert My request is but reasonable that you will suffer me to know you better and even at this distance to improve our acquaintance T is but an easie task for your Pen and will ingage mine to be responsal I am afraid you have taken my Character from my friends to my disadvantage I know they would speakno ill and therefore am jealous have done it too well for me to make good Pray present me most affectionately to your bed-fellow and tell her I am glad to hear that her want of health is onely like to make work for the Midwife My service to that Cousin of mine to whose fair report I am so much obliged and to the rest that know me and for your self you may safely believe that I am truly desirous to appear Sir Really yours both in Love and Service R. L. LETTER XXIV To Mr. C. S. Sir IF my expectations of kissing your hands my self had not been deluded my Pen had rendered you what I know of the Person yours is directed to of whom all the account I can give you may read in this inclosed paper which after you have perused I intreat you will seal up and deliver to Mr. H. to be sent back in one of his you will perceive by it that I must receive another before I can obey your commands in directing and dispatching yours which I expect daily Sir I thought it my ingagement to kiss your hands with these blots to undeceive your expectations lest you should think long for an answer of what cannot yet be sent I hope you will easily believe me sorry that I can serve you no better nor sooner in this and may be confident that I shall be glad of any power that may prove me what I really am Sir Your most humble and most faithful Servant R. L. LETTER XXV To Mr. H. KNowing how highly I value your society you cannot chuse but think me much displeased with those casual impediments that kept us so long asunder but repining never made Fortune lesse peevish but since you are there give me leave to husband the incommodity of your absence by intreating such courtesies as could we change places I should with much alacrity perform for your self My first request then is that if you latch any news that may prove a Cordial to our dying hopes you will not grudge to send it me as a friendly aid that may help to put some sad thoughts to flight My next is the prosecution of a former desire that you would inquire of M. or any other
Bookseller that is likely to inform you if there be any new French Book of an indifferent volume that is worth the Translating and not enterterprised by any other if there be let me desire you would send it me down with Cotgraves Dictionary of the last Edition and for what you disburse I shall appoint you where you shall receive it at London with some quantity besides which I shall desire you to send me You may well think me unable for such an undertaking but my worst successe will bestow a trebble benefit because I shall make it serve to beguile melancholy check idleness and better my knowledge in the Language for the book I am indifferent whether it be Romance Essay Treatise History or Divinity so it be worth the rendring in our language You may either send them by G. F. who lies at and comes neerest to Haughton or by B. that comes to Nottingham and lies at the c. or by your own Lincolnshire-Carrier Let me beg to hear from you by your next most pregnant opportunity and I shall be industrious to let you see you have not sown these favours in a barren Soil by conferring them upon one that will ever be studious to love and serve you R. L. LETTER XXVI To his Brother Mr. A.L. Dear Brother I Cannot step so far out of the way as not to find out a path to you distance having onely power to render me remote to my friend in my circumscriptive part while the unconfined without toyling with the method of motion or passing through a succession of places can be with you in a moment and indeed we carry that about us that confutes the custom of painting Angels with wings when we consider how suddenly our thoughts are charioted without the penetration of a medium to the farthest parts of the World by the help of that faculty which doubtlesse is neer akin to their Angelical natures since though a wing be the nimblest instrument of motion yet it confesses an order of it which those Divine Intelligences are never task'd to But why these Metaphysicks in a Letter will be your secret objection to which I have not roome enough to give any other answer than that I had rather say nothing to purpose than nothing at all We are now in a Town where most of the people get their bread by their water I meane the Bath and those that never knew how to governe themselves are yet guides to others of a City t is doubtless the prettiest of England in a double construction as it is little and handsome I have been something curious to inform my self of its Originall but the best account I could get does afford but poore satisfaction the soberest have onely told me my own Conjectures that the irruption of these hot Springs which certainly borrow their warmth in their passage through a sulphurous minerall was the cause of building this City but in the conveyance of particulars to posterity as the time founders with other circumstances Tradition has been very unfaithfull in suffering the truth to be swallow'd by a fable which goes very currant among the common people and talkes of a King call'd Bladud that being a great Necromancer I know not for what reason caus'd by the power of his Art these waters to be boil'd under-ground into such an immense quantity as hath serv'd to parboile all those that have since resorted hither to wash off their Diseases I have had but little time to try the virtue of it being forc'd to waite upon my Lords humour of perusing all the Townes and Houses of remarke round about it yet I have been already in it five times and sound so little virtue in those steepings as though I have us'd the hot Pumpe according to Dr. B's prescriptions for my head yet I find it has rather done me harme than good and halfe discourag'd my further triall I find my self daily more subject to your Splenitive malady which since I us'd the Bath has made it self known to me with more than an usuall vigour Besides I think I have gotten the Stone to boot If all these produce but the fruits of a Divine Correction I may think my selfe happy in my sufferings In my perusall of the Cathedrall here a structure that is rather handsome than magnificent and claimes as little admiration as contempt I met with an old Inscription upon the wall which at first startled me the words were these The Trees going to choose their King Said be to us thou Oliver King But upon inquiry I learn'd from a person that had read the ancient Records this Inscription was made in Honour of one Oliver King Abbot of a Monastery that laid the foundation of this Minster the Rebus is allusive to a passage in Judges where the Trees convented to choose them a King and pitch'd first upon the Olive though at last the Bramble carried it So this pittifull piece of wit was set up as a gratefull memoriall of that Abbot's piety We are going from hence into Devonshire and thence into Cornwall and are like to make it Michaelmas before we revisit London But wherever I go I will never go from my resolution of being deare Brother Your really affectionate Brother to command R. L. LETTER XXVII To his Sister F. CONCERNING PRAYER Dear Sister I Remember your frequent solicites gain'd a promise from me to compose you a Prayer for which though the sense of my own insufficiency might justly dig a grave in oblivion yet I have rather chose to deserve a censure for the bad performance than the totall forfeiture Prayer is the Golden Chaine that tyes Heaven and Earth together it is the pure Elementall flame whose property is to ascend upwards with which the soul like the Phoenix sets her nest afire and even expires in the midst of all those kindled odours it is a key that opens Heavens gates and locks Hells It is an Engine that if rightly planted and level'd breakes a passage through all Earthly opposition to the Throne of mercy It is the chief weapon us'd in our spirituall warfare nor do we stand to 't so stifly in any combate with our common enemy as when humble Devotion and tender Zeal makes us shorter by the whole length of the legs Thus we ascend by stooping thus we conquer by submission T is the best Physick for a sickly soul and penitent teares a soveraigne diet-drink for a diseas'd conscience But you alwaies lov'd it too well to need an incouragement from my weak description yet because I know you are not apt to take any advice ill that flowes from so true an affection as mine I will venture to give you these few short observations before you enter upon this duty Allow your self some time to consider the importance of this weighty affaire and try to fly as high in apprehension of the Divine wisdome power majesty mercy c. as the weak wings of your contemplation will suffer you these thoughts will
which I since took at twice loth to take proofs of so much kindness as sinners do the gifts of heaven not to use them but abuse them You give me more hope then I dare accept in reference to that check to all the delight I can either taste or fancie bating some divine Idea's that by a speculative transfiguring my desires lift me above all those inconsiderable toyes that the World ranges under the smiles and frowns of Fortune but from thence alas the weight of my own weakness weighs me down again and I return like an inconvertible thief to the same Prison from whence punishment so lately freed me But we cannot be more then men till we be stript of our clay and put on something in its stead that poses our apprehensions and is best described by negatives I must make one among the admirers of your excellent fancy that could retain the impression of a face that time might have wiped out without an almost just trespass of memory but you were born to these advantages and do but methodically imbellish those qualities in single and singular performances that nature gave you in lump and substance The old woman my last mentioned is with much ado gotten over the threshold of the other World and has bequeathed her Corps to a Nottingham-Grave whither I believe we shall wait upon them about a fortnight hence but t is yet an incertainty What ever the Major resolves there must be more then appearance that shall make me forsake my interest here though poor and contemptible I know the story of Aesops dog that let fall the flesh to catch the shadow and you the Moral The Clock has struck twelve and my eye-lids grow unruly therefore take it not ill if I give a dull Farewell and abruptly call my self Dear Brother Yours eternally R. L. LETTER XXXVIII To Mr. W. My dear friend YOu had sooner seen a reply to your last had we not still shifted places like feathers in the winds and too much motion staid my hand I am sorry my last gave so hard a task to your belief but am glad it provoked you to breathe your fancy so merrily I should lavish words to retort your ingenious glances onely this if you disliked the extravagancies in it suffer excess of joy to excuse it which oft like other passions breaks out disorderly Well my dear friend let it suffice there was not a fyllable that was not meant before it was said and meant because deserved But since you do not like such Transports I shall learn to talk soberer though never to love you with lesse ardor All women have yet appeared so indifferent as the whole Sex was never able to give me a passion much less such an one what the old woman that Fate has marked for mine will do I know not I think I shall honour her venerable wrinkles and reverence her spectacles but she must have better linings then that Sex use to wear within before I can love her like such a friend Another flood of rheume has lately confuted my opinion of a cure and made me recant my brags but I do not despair suddenly to make it find another channel I pray let your next tell me whether Mr. S. does yet mention the token to you for if you permit I can tell how to hint it without reflecting upon you I am much afflicted and upbraid the shortness of my chains when I find I cannot serve you as I would and do wrangle with every accessary to our stay in this dull Countrey but all alas to little purpose for our return to London is both uncertain and unlikely Our friends in Norfolk and Suffolk I hope are well onely my sister Fenner is now sick of the Small-Pox but in my next I will be able to render you a more particular account of yours which I shall receive from my Brother If you would write to any there t is but venturing a request to M. H. to deliver it to the Norfolk-Post and take their answers from him to send to you The man is honest and friendly and I know loves you enough to do much more I have excused you to him My Lord returns your respects with much affection and I think has much love for you Good Sir resalute your friend from his unknown servant with much respect and tell him I shall gladly do any thing that may deserve his love But I shall grow too talkative I have no more to say but to beg you will still understand me as I must ever be my dear friend Yours eternally R. L. LETTER XXXIX To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother IT were superfluous to repeat how little the treachery of new objects fresh acquaintance long absence change of place c. is able to do in quenching that affection which I shall keep alive with the same care that Vest al 's did their sacred flame This you have often had under my hand and seal and you may be confident it will never be forfeited We are again setled at Nottingham where the advantage of a larger leisure to write is checked by the scarcity of opportunities but rarity does raise the price of delight we set a trivial esteem upon joyes that come at a low rate but indulge those we sweat for and thus we shall entertain our Letters like our selves when we meet seldom nothing so much endearing the personal interview of friends as when some large portion of time has crept betwixt them As we came down one of Fortunes spightful tricks of which I thank her to me she has always been very liberal made me lose the taste of a pleasant journey which was thus The day of our setting our appointed I consented to the earnest solicites of my dear Mr. W. then in the Countrey to let him know it caus'd by a desire of his to meet me at S. Albans where we had decreed to shorten a night together with such mutual solace as would have suffered its houres to pass by untold in hope of this he came little less then fourty miles on purpose which trouble he would needs undertake in lieu of some petty services I was happy to do him in his absence but upon the brink of our taking leave a Whimsey predominated and we must needs go another way by Alesbury which though I opposed as far as I durst was carried against me and my hopes of so much delight were sacrificed to an inconvenience for we went ten miles about for a worse way lost a Gentleman and a Foot-man that were sent the other and my vertuous friend after two nights stay returned with abused expectations I never took a peevish chance with lesse patience My Malady still continues to afflict me I pray let the Doctor know with what little success I have observed his prescriptions and if he can bethink himself of any other course that may prove more effectual I shall gladly use it I see purging will not do it and
the powder never made me sneeze to purpose Pray tell him I have a strange conceit that some Chymical application should effect it You will much oblige me to propound it to as many skills as you shall converse with and to send me their several judgements at your best convenience while I strive to do as much where I am I would not dare to give you this trouble if I were not confident that you loved Your own R. L. POSTSCRIPT If I could but shift this unhappy trouble I would not yet doubt to adde figures to the cyphers of my thin fortunes LETTER XL. To his Nephew Mr. A. L. Dear Cousin I Cannot always content my self to shut up a speechless affection in my breast since that amity that wants a tongue may justly be suspected to want a heart and lie benumb'd like a Snake in Winter for though Memory and Fancy may possibly combine to keep Idea's and Images undefaced by the hand of time yet where action is and exercise wanting there is no more then possibility of life and that friendship that can alwayes lie still does at best but hide it self and makes as as little harmony as an unstrung Instrument Lest ours that grew up with our greenest years should fade and fall insensibly into such a trance suffer these blots to rouze it and invite your pen to contribute a preservative that may keep it fresh and vigorous With this Paper you shall receive a rude draught of mine by a French Original which I drew at idle houres when my Genius was neither prompt nor propitious to better studies Cousin your acceptance will more then requite it and if you chance to have patience enough to read it over t is all you will get by it I pray present my hearty service to my Brother and Sister P. and distribute my respective salutes among those friends where you think they are due and to your self take as faithful an affection as I am capable of cherishing or you of desiring from Your really affectionate kinsman to serve you R. L. LETTER XLI To his Brother Mr. A. L. Deare Brother MY designes of coming over have been so oft diverted by unexpected commands and accidentall emergencies as I feare my promises have almost lost their credit But if you knew the vehemencie of my longing to see you and the rest of my friends you would pitty my impatience the froward child of so many delayes Divines tell us this life is a Pilgrimage and if ever any people made it good in both senses I think t is our restless family The Sun in his annuall progresse through his 12. Celestiall Innes doth not oftener change his Quarters Ever since I knew them I have been nothing but a guest and must of necessity learne to be a wise man if ever I intend to be at home so long as I am with them About two months since I had appointed my day to set out when a suddain resolution for a Yorkshire-visit to my Lord F. his house retir'd thither to a private life since he ungenerall'd himself turn'd my horse head the contrary way From thence after a tedious stay with much adoe we return'd to Haughton and from thence are arriv'd at London a journey I scarce knew of 12. houres before I took it I am the more particular in my gests lest you should put my silence upon the account of neglect I had resolv'd again the last Monday to begin my motion East-ward and my foot was almost in the stirrop when meeting with Holt-Post he informed me that my Brother W. would be in Town this week and upon those grounds I defer'd my journey till he returnes home-ward about a fortnight hence if the sad increase of my malady which I much suspect does not arrest me here I daily feel it incroach upon me c. Whatever Heaven has design'd it for I am resolv'd to welcome But of this more when I see you if it will give me leave Pardon these perfunctory blots to my present indisposition and be confident I will cease to be when I am not deare Brother inviolably Yours to love and serve you R. L. LETTER XLII To his Brother Mr. A. L. Dear Brother I Wish my Pen were not so indebted to your opinion as to despaire of having right to that Character you have ever given it but what you call a Garden is little better than a wildernesse and the thornes and nettles which it plants are onely Roses in the deceiv'd eyes of affection Thus the yellow sands of Tagus first came by their Gold not because Midas did indeed there wash off his wish but because Midas and his wish too were made on purpose to raise the Rivers credit by the partiall ingenuity of its Countrimen Nay Tiber it self but a brook to our Thames would have made his visits to the Ocean with no more noise than his own streames make if it had not taken Rome in its way and glided by the walkes of her clear-witted Poets True Love is wilfully blind to the imperfections of its object and if the scars be not too broad she turnes away her head till her hands hide them in black patches imitating the great Architect upon the Chaos forcing beauty from deformity it self But to quit Metaphor I re-thank you you for the vigilance of your active endeavours in behalfe of my recovery if ever Providence intends me health which I have too much cause to doubt I think I shall owe it to your industry and indeed there is none to whom I would more willingly consent to be indebted nor more gladly find a power to requite than your self but I confess where there is such true amity these termes are superfluous I shall gladly receive any thing from the Doctor that may have reference to my cure but I am afraid I shall find some difficulty to be a circumspect observer of his prescriptions for we are here rather a crowd than a family and are rather quarter'd like an Army than lodg'd few chambers deserving better titles than huts But I hope we shall shortly march away however if I receive ought that may carry any pretence to a remedy I shall struggle hard both for time and place to take it as I ought I thank you for the History of your High Suffolk-journey I shall take some order to lay the storme of my Sister P's unkindnesse if the weake magick of my pen can do it for if there be any Art in it you know t is black For what concernes the Recognizance I shall say nothing till your progression teach me both how to speak and do I made no question but to be as big as my word when my last talk'd of your two stickes coming down but having since met with the Majors Masculine wife She tells me that it will be Michalemas before she makes any more but she has promis'd that the patience of your expectation shall be then rewarded with the Master-piece of her art Honest J.
promise to kiss your fair hands with a few lines though all their errand be onely to tender you the unfeigned service of the sender and to mention his wishes for the accomplishment of yours if the effects of which might but hold a proportion with your deserts you would be sufficiently happy I know you are Mistriss of goodness enough to pardon the flow payment of my word and it shall encourage me to amend it with future diligence You will much oblige to honour me with a line or two and let me know how the state stands in your Family and when we are like to bid you welcome into the Countrey One request more and I have done put me into the number of those that you count your most faithful friends for indeed I am and ever will be so c. R. L. LETTER LXVIII To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother I See you will make me an usurper against my will by laying desert enough to my charge to dazle the Eyes of Pretence and even stagger the stoutest undertaking resolution I confesse I cannot keep off some wishes to be what you would make me and if I could arme as much power as desire t is possible I might endanger the Fort you say I am Master of and I am contented to dislike my own weakness that I am not so but I have too much Earth about me to fit my selfe for such a flight that with dull inticement is still seducing me downwards to its own Element and hangs like a huge Plummet upon my pinions when they are stretching at such a pitch sure some pale flegmatick constellation threw a melancholy look upon my Nativity and gave my Soul these blunt ill-temper'd tooles to work with methinks I cannot behold the timely advantages of other Constitutions and not upbraid my own But certainly t is not amisse in some things to be unhappy for if wants do not ingender despair they must needes be fruitfull Wisdom is a Coy Dame to all the World but most inflexible to the Courtship of Fortunes Darlings and t is one of the best reasons why that blind Wenches smiles are dangerous because t is so hard a taske to tast her kindness and not surfeit and indeed not to overvalue those ingredients with which common opinion compounds her false felicity is the way to purchase the true one If I were able to shew you events as Astolfo's Logistilla shew'd the race of the House of Este before their Conception I would not hide them from you though I kept the rest of the World in ignorance but t is long since I left off the pretences to Delphick divination and resolv'd to shut the eyes of my Reason ever since she look'd through so false a Perspective Certainly they that are now in the Saddle do sit very sure and while they keep their feet in the stirrups of strength and vigilance though they may receive a rude shock it will be hard to unhorse them I should be glad if you could keep your shelter till the Clouds clear up but whensoever you leave it you have parts that will make room for you in the World whereever you direct your steps and I shall never take a temporal favour more gratefully of Providence than a capacity to serve you in such a design or any other I am now suffer'd to say no more but what I must ever say that I am and must ever be Principally yours R. L. LETTER LXIX To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother THough I had a confidence in your affection that can never be tempted to be lesse yet methinks I should not do right to your last if I did not confess that it set my apprehension to work upon your perfect friendship things may be incapable of addition that are not of agitation there are some generous liquors that never give so clear a proof that they have spirits as when motion calls them to their active task so these deare repetitions of profest amity from you though they cannot make me love you better they wake it into a better appearing and teach me to take a more exact account of my selfe of the right you have in me and these if you dare believe me are my pleasantest recreations since love the parent and framer of delight predominates in the employment If this world be well scann'd there is nothing valuable in it but a true Friend Community is not only the hinge of the Universe but the signet of every single delight for were it possible to domineere over the whole Earth pack'd into an intire Monarchy and to be Master of all that weares the stamp of sublunary happiness yet if the possessor be not allow'd to latch his own felicity at the rebound from others approbation he will but brood his tiresome pleasures as an Usurer does his Gold only own not use them and all his Joyes like Witches banquets will only seeme and serve to cheat the appetite with a few false promises of sweetness It were easie to prove that since communication coines our earthly delight that there it comes neerest to perfection where it receives a Copy of it selfe By this it is fit you should guesse how happy I deeme my selfe in your kind invitation which is backed with abundance of such tempting Arguments as Love and Reason when they are joyned in Commission do use to urge and believe it they are received as the legitimate issue of your intire affection what resentments such use to produce in a breast that has no harbour for ingratitude cannot pose your apprehension by that fancy the influence they must have in me and therein read my thankfulnesse But the quality of my imployment here is such as I know it cannot yet consent to make me so happy I have now almost destroyed a yeares time in this scurvy Country since we last wandred from London c. You may finde out many reasons to induce you to accept my Couzin C's invitation of your Company into Lincolnshire I shall not need to mention my wishes to see you there nor tell you how happy you will make me in such a meeting for the repetition is needless if you come while I am on this side London I will injoy you in spite of all my Fetters but make as much hast as you can for this morning my Lord told me we should set out for London in the beginning of May. Your Picture I received and am sory I have no token to return you that may deliver a visible Message of my gratitude it is applauded of all that see it onely your Pencil has left out some gray haires that the Epilogue of his misfortunes had planted on his visage I have inclos'd the translation of a mad fantastick Dream which is the fruit of my first Enterprise upon the French Tongue I met it in a Romance call'd Francion and it pleased me so well as I was easily inticed to spoyl it thus into English I was tempted to make
the whole Book speak the same Dialect but could not consent to lose so much time as the work would have demanded Read it over laugh at it and return it again when I come to London and now I have almost tyr'd my Pen and your patience it is time to subscribe my selfe as I ever must be Your truly affectionate Brother to Command R. L. LETTER LXX To Mr. L. Sir I Received yours delivered those inclosed to my two Lords the yonger has in this return'd a reply Sir the report of Mr. W. and others has given you so fair a character as I shall deem my self happy to inlarge your acquaintance in my Lords house and increase the number of your servants Mr. W. if not lately removed is still at Antwerp we do now and then exchange a line or two though many miscarry If you will venture yours in mine I shall do my best to make it reach his hands for he has right to much more service then I can do him we say nothing to one another but what we care not if it be construed by the way If Mr. B. once Fellow of Christs be in those parts I pray speak my service to him Sir if I may serve you here in ought else I desire your instructions that am Sir Your most humble servant R. L. LETTER LXXI To Mr. W. My dearest Friend IF the skie had been clear and the passage free your satisfaction had not been so long deferred The Letters mentioned are irrecoverably lost whether any busie hand or prying eye be guilty of their interception I know not but though I am confident there was nothing in them that could find work for a jealous construction yet better judgements concurre with my opinion to lose them quietly What you would say to the other two if you think fit speak it to me onely and if I do not get your desires effected the defect will onely be found in my power You are saluted with much kindnesse by the Gentleman and intreated to let him know by your next to me whether you received a Bill of Exchange of 5 l. which was sent in Compensation of the charges you expended in your visits to the Prisoner if it miscarried as he fears signifie so much and you shall receive another inclosed in my next Methinks you are very tardy in showing me how I may serve you I must never suffer any to love better and if you can think as it is my trustiness equivalent spare not to command Your own for ever R. L. LETTER LXXII To his Brother Mr. F. W. Sir THe mistake that begot what you call your trouble is become mine and I am much afflicted for being presented to you in an exceptious character by the misapprehension of another and should be more if it were no errour Indeed Sir I have severely examined my self for the words I let fall that might provoke this glosse and my memory can acknowledge none but those When your brother asked me when I would write to you I told him you were already in my score for a Letter and till you had leisure to reply to that I thought my silence might be well taken If these words will bearsuch a Comment as displeasure c. I am sorry I did not understand them and do beg the charity of your belief that I did not mean them as they are taken I have been taught to prize your good thoughts at a higher value then to forfeit them with such a frantick piece of arrogance which would render me as weak an understander of your worth as a deserver of your friendship I was in good hope when we left London if a sudden occasion had not prevented to pay you my personal thanks for your kind invitation but we rather dwelt then visited by the way at my Lords of Lincolnes and Westmerlands so as we are but newly arrived at Nottingham where my Commanders have found me such imployment as will scarce dispense with my absence on this side Christmas and when I come though I must bring that along with me that will give me a better title to your contempt then admiration yet I make my self happy with the hopes of an opportunity to assure you that I am not the same which misinterpretation had made but will ever be industrious to appear Sir A true respecter of your worth and an earnest desirer of your amity R. L. LETTER LXXIII To my Sister F. Dear Sister BY this time you have accused my absence and silence of much unkindness and I stand condemned by your judgement for a forgetful promise breaker and indeed did the reins lie loose upon my neck I should deserve the censure I confesse the receipt of a Letter from you that overflowed with Love and if I have not lost all my credit with you be confident I met it with as high a tide of affection I should have return'd a Paper to tell you so but that I cherisht some forward hopes to do the message with more content to us both in person When yours came we every day talk'd of leaving London though our stay was prolonged from day to day above six weeks after and when we did we consum'd as much time in coming down and thus my ardent desires to see my friends were dallied into torment and I brookt the delay so much the worse because I I had still a likelyhood in gaze but now I am forced to wait with an extended patience for a remoter opportunity for the Lady that I wait upon has got a belly so big as till that swelling falls and the thing be made a Christian 't is impossible I should break away I confess Dear Sister I have been so often forced to deceive your expectations as you may think I rather make then suffer these delayes but be assured they have been as unwelcome unto me as your self and if it be a property of love to desire the presence of the thing beloved I may claim the restoration of your good opinion for none is more desirous to see you then Dear Sister Your perfectly affectionate Brother to serve you R. L. LETTER LXXIV To his Sister J. Dear Sister I Have no other way to express my self to thee but the old one which is that I am still thy Brother as well in love as bloud I have contracted nothing from my acquaintance in three years absence that can deface the remembrance of thee and thy deserts for though the world preaches that doctrine it must ever find me unapt to learn the Lesson and believe it however you apprehend my condition I have no inticements here that may help to excuse the forgetting of my friends and kindred it is so little impaired or amended as I must desire you to understand it where it was onely in one respect rather worse by the help of my maladie's increase how the Divine hand intends to use me by that means I am uncertain but will learn to welcome the worst And
now dear Sister I will give thee back thine own frequent expressions I do impatiently long to see thee and the rest of mine and cannot fancy the world has a delight that exceeds the pleasure I shall then reap and what ever you think I have often fallen out with my narrow fortunes that have thus transplanted me Well I will set no more times of my coming lest I be forced as formerly to falsifie against my will but when least expected t is probable I may surprise a welcome and be restor'd the happiness of appearing what I must ever profess my self Dear Sister Thine own R. L. LETTER LXXV To his Brother Major W. Dear Brother YOurs came very welcome to my hands for it brought me a present that I have laid up in my breast I mean the confirmation of your amity and now t is no more a guest but a dweller no longer hath a single Lodging but commands the Mansion and shall do till time demolishes the Fabrick in requital I represent you with a Copy of it self or another of the same and intreat you to keep it with as fair an allowance of credit as I shall make it or at least would have it deserve and I hope nothing but a summons for one of us to leave the world shall perswade us to draw stakes But I cannot pocket your praises without despoyling my self of a parcel of modesty that I must not spare I would tell you they are more due to their Author but that I hate flattery so heartily as I scarce dare speak the full truth lest I seem to design it in the mean time pray take them back and keep them for me till I have learned to deserve them But now after all this I could almost consent to chide you for representing me to your Brother in so unbecoming a character that has made him charge me in his Letter with taking offence unkindness c. at his silence of which he has almost made it an intire deprecation indeed I was not willing to be apprehended so exceptious and thus before I am seen to be known by a solecisme in good manners was not convenient and considering how much his worth outweighes me I ought to have stayd his leisure of writing with lesse impatience than you have made him sancy But I apprehend your generous clear ingenuity in it and that stops my mouth I pray you give your Pen leave to make me acquainted how it is now imploy'd with what kind of gale Fortune kisses your Sayles whether you intend still to anchor there or to hoyst for another Port and what time you will take to aire your ingenuity in Norfolk these Queries are not the children of a bare Curiosity but of such an affection as must ever render me deare Brother Yours in all requisites of a Friend and Servant R. L. LETTER LXXVI To Mr. W. My Deare Friend YOur last indearing lines I perus'd with as much delight as ever love ingendred I found things there not only worth the reading but the using and which is not ordinary gather'd beauty and medicine from the same stalk I will not be ashamed to confesse I have received much assistance from it for it was capable to charm the most unquiet thoughts and to assure the most unsetled and irresolute spirit By this you may judge it came welcome though not to welcome me home for my Norfolk-journey is yet to take and I think must be per force defer'd till the Spring and so I shall be welcom'd with Nose-gayes the reason is besides the inclemency of the season my Lady c. I hope my last that gave a particular account to your desires got safe to your hands I pray let your next tell me whether Mr. K. hath done any thing in what I intimated concerning the young Gentleman c. Your own R. L. LETTER LXXVII To his Brother Mr. A. L. Deare Brother I Am glad to see you are so well arm'd against your Domestick Enemies and can pull out the stings of vexation so dexterously t is a Science that comprizes the whole art of living happily and he that has perfectly learn'd it is rich in despite of the frowns and without an obligation to the fawnes of Fortune Discontent is the Gout of the minde and so much the harder to be cur'd because it is hereditary and as old as succession in posterity but if we often repair to the great Physitian he is alwayes able and for the most part willing to ease us though it springs from the wombs of various causes that are themselves complex'd in the concupiscible and irascible faculties yet most commonly it proceedes from a surfeit of unsatisfied desires which run madding after that they cannot have or if sometimes they chance to overtake it commonly they are as much tyr'd with the fruition as before perplext with the defect and like Huntsmen reap more delight in the game than the Quarrie But I draw faces with a blunt Coal We are suddenly resolv'd to morrow without fail to begin our Journey to the Bath and so from thence almost to the Lands end Westward which precipitate resolution does almost put me to my wits end having so little elbow-roome of time for preparation this makes me that I can yet say nothing to the latter part of your Letter and when my leisure is largest my poor abilities will not let me say much to purpose however I shall stretch them to an equall contribution in that charitable design My multiplicity of business does you a kindness and shortens your trouble by inforcing me to subscribe my selfe Dear Brother Yours in the very abstract and spirits of affection R. L. LETTER LXXVIII To his Brother Mr. A. L. Deare Brother I Am advised by many reasons to copy your content for my neerer approches but none so powerfull as what you alledged for believe it I study nothing with more circumspection and delight than to preserve the perfect heat and health of our friendship from those cold Diseases that use to ruine others I am proud of my friends affection though not their praises yet I could wish though only to save the credit of their Judgements that the one were as due as the other Pray return my service to Mr. S. when you see him next and tell him I am much in his debt for being preserv'd in his thoughts I could never be at quiet with a Book-seller till I promised to make him ready the second part of Hymens Praeludia against the next Terme but my short allowance of time will inforce me to huddle it up in such hast as if I got any credit by the first I have much reason to feare the second will forfeit it he offer'd to be at the charge of cutting my own face for the Frontispiece but I rejected his offer resolving the World should have no cause to smile at the vanity in putting my Picture to a paltry Translation but finding him still eager to put a gay before
happiness by it in serving you but I fall short in every thing but affection which makes and will preserve me Eternally yours R. L. LETTER LXXXII To Doctor B. Deare Doctor I perceive by an hint in Mr. H. his last that the Carrier has been the miscarrier of two Letters that were level'd at your hands and seduc'd by his neglect to an irregular motion if Chance ever yet conducts them to their Centre they will tell you the same that this has Commission to say though perhaps in another dresse like several Structures that express variety of shape and contrivance though they derive their pedigre from the same Quarry and Architect And now D. D. I am sory I was never so great a favourite of Fortune or Nature as to raise any just pretence to the tribute you speake of all that I dare claim is but the due to such a friendship as you have character'd and drawn so lively as it would bring the most unapt soul in love with the love that feeds it In the mean time I can give no precedency to those wishes of yours that would cut off the large distance betwixt us since I have some of the same mould and making of an equall ardor but since necessity votes them down do but send H. to London as oft as I shall L. to H. and we need not court a dispensation of her severe Lawes for a meeting Pray mention my due respects to your vertuous Bedfellow Mr. H. honest C. B. and the rest that know me and do him the right cujus pectori nunquam decedat amicitia vespere surgente nec rapidum fugiente salum to let him keep the same place in your affections that will ever continue Dear Doctor Immortally yours R. L. LETTER LXXXIII To his Brother Mr. A. L. Dear Brother MY last weeks failing was not because I did not write but I think my woman was drunk that usually calls for my Letters and so let the last lie like a dead Commodity in my hands resembling some insects here that are born live and die to no purpose I shall not have room enough in this to raise a bank against the overflow of your unmerited praises and confute the height of your esteem as I ought but it shall be my task to make the best use of them and make that my mark which you have made my Quarry for since they are not Essences as your good opinion would have them t is but fit I should keep them by me here as Idea's for imitation I know not the constitution of your Interests where you are and therefore cannot judge whether they be healthful or sickly onely I know your ingenuity is so well tempered with Judgement as you need no assistance at the forge of your own fortunes all then I have to do in relation to that is to wish all your hopes prophets and your feares impostors I know not what to say to the Bark you spoke of because I am ignorant how she is built and therefore can give no opinion whether she be worth the manning but t is yours and not mine that must either keep you ashore or set you aboard in the mean time methinks her Lading is not inconsiderable especially being to be coupled with your industry I delivered your Letter to Mr. M. W. who resents your well-exprest affection very kindly and desired me to give it you so with his service I need not say more of my vertuous Friend Mr. W. than you find or at least may apprehend by judging what he is by what he sayes and believe it he is no dissembler There was nothing but my hast in fault that I did not acquaint you with the contents of my Sister J's Letter and therefore you might have spar'd that excuse for breaking up her answer there is nothing in it but you are equally concern'd in with my self and were your Interest lesse I never had cause to think a secret lesse safe in your breast than mine I hope I need not conjure you by all that here is dear betwixt us to strain your endeavours in J's behalf who has deserv'd so well of us all her other Friends that approve Mr. B's Propositions may perhaps look no further then the Bark but I know you will not content your self with likelyhoods and appearances without a subtile and solid penetration into true beings and realities and I shall never doubt that metall that comes with approbation from your touch-stone c. My Messenger stayes for my Letter which posts me to a period Dear Brother Ever yours with all my heart and soul R. L. LETTER LXXXIV To his Brother Mr. F. W. Dear Brother THough you owe me for a Letter yet I am so much in your debt for things of greater value as I cannot be unwilling to lessen the ingagement though such petty payments are like to wipe out but little of the score I have ventur'd to send you by this bearer the mis-shapen issue of my idle houres hatch'd at such sittings when my wanton Genius was too lazie to follow the pursuit of more serious studies I confess it has some deformities which I am not guilty of I mean grosse faults escaped in the Presse which you will easily find amend if you lose so much time as to read it over but if you think it unworthy you are of my minde and may bestow it on some that does not exact from himself so weighty an account of his houres I have no more to say but what I must ever say Your really affectionate Brother to serve you R. L. LETTER LXXXV To Mr. R. W. SIR I cannot suffer the Fate of my former Letters to discourage me into silence for if but one scapes Ship-wreck it will do the business of the rest and tell you all that they treated of though with lesse variety which is that I am perfectly yours and till you find out some command that may ingage my pen to some other discourse I must still only talk upon the same subject You know I was never prone to meddle with newes but now it is forbidden with a penalty I hug my aversion The other day I casually met this inclosed page in a Pamphlet and though it was directed to a Gentleman I know not yet being dated from A. and subscribed with R. W. I guess'd your acquaintance Mr. the Author if you have interest enough in him to wish him well let him see it for his future caution if I be mistaken I hope the error will find an easie pardon I have not yet been long enough in London to give you account of your Eastern friends I hope my next will do it I must still repeat my desires that you will use me while I am here for I must ever be Entirely yours R. L. LETTER LXXXVI To his Brother Mr. A. L. Dear Brother I Should be as unwilling to be overpriz'd as undervalu'd since every man is oblig'd to preserve as strict a guard of modesty
as courage There are some species of vertue according to Moralists though they all aim at the same mark and agree in their end yet in their operation are so vastly discrepant not to say contrarious as they are scarce compatible in the same subject and thus unless the oeconomy of our selves be very cautiously manag'd to con one vertue thoroughly is to forget another nor can there be an higher proof of wisdom nor is man ever so exact a Microcosme as when in imitation of the Elements opposite qualities are equally mingled to a just temperament and so tame themselves to a perfect harmony But to return to yours had the Frontispiece of it been drawn by another Pen it would have been constu'd Complement but from you I give it the usuall reception and only believe though the expressions much overtop me Love guided your hand when you set down those mistakes To judge aright is a task so difficult as they that come neerest bating things demonstrative may be rather said to fancy then attain it especially every man being subject at least sometimes either to opinion passion or partiality great enemies to a cleare Judgement but I shew the weakness of mine by tiring you with these unnecessaries This week contributes little satisfaction to your appetite of newes c. But I out-run the Constable Dear Brother Unconfinably yours to serve you R. L. LETTER LXXXVII To Mr. E. Good Landlord I Received a Letter from our Friend inclosed in one of Mr. H's by which I perceive he found it unsafe to abide in a place so unworthy of his residence 't is a sad world that your treacherous Ocean should only rage with such storms as threaten wrack to none but the vertuous and deserving but you had the advantage of me and had a tast of his society which I pine for but love you not so ill to grudge it he tells me you are suddenly to remove to Bristow which renders me though sensible of my own loss in the discontinuance of our friendly intercourse truly glad for the advancement of your condition I never found it a difficult task to make my own interest do homage to my friends felicity which if you purchase I shall taste the fruit of my own well-wishes For my Trunk I desire you would use the means to send it down to my Landlords in Holborn I will write to him to pay for the carriage My true love and respects to my good Landlady and Mrs. B. with the rest and if ever my affaires carry me neer Bristol you shall see you are not forgotten by Your true friend R. L. LETTER LXXXVIII To Mr. W. Sir THough this shall run the hazard of missing the way to your hands yet I cannot content my self onely to remember you without indeavouring to tell you so I received yours dated the fifteenth the last of May which pain'd me with no little regret that Mr. R. finds his affaires in so bad a condition and my judgment of them so erroneous I have not yet left admiring the last rare proof of your affection nor reproching Fortunes spite that would not let me tell you how tenderly I resented it I am not friends with our fruitless residence here when I consider how I might serve you at London and I blush to think how little I have performed to deserve your ingenious acknowledgments but my remote abode does now increase my despair of mending those faults I am not able to tell you how well I love you for I have it better expressed within then I am able to utter but of this be assured I would not be master of all my other wishes on condition not to render them serviceable to yours whose joyes and griefs shall be infeparably twisted with those of Your unalterable friend and faithful servant R. L. LETTER LXXXIX To Mr. H. Sir I Am sorry for the first impediment your pen acknowledges viz. the want of good news for the second you must give me leave to imitate yours and play with it for even my own imperfections do delight me when they make you merry Your profession of a ragged garb is but a modest disguise of your inward bravery thus you go backward in your own esteem that you may take the farther leap into others thus being over-lavish in my commendations you are too much a niggard in denying your own abilities Mrs. B. is nothing so much beholding to your pleasant humour as my self for it has created her an unworthy servant and made me a very deserving Mistriss before I thought of it but I believe distance and absence will conspire to continue it still a jest as sure you meant it however Sir notwithstanding you forbid it I must renew the profession of my ingagements to you and do but wish for so much power as may make you find that the reality which you suspect the complement of Your truly affectionate friend and servant R. L. LETTER XC To his Brother Mr. A. L. Deare Brother WHat you are pleased to miscall extravagancies of your Pen are better construed by him that receives them who never reads these welcome repetitions and confirmations of your amity but referred to that he boldly concludes himself happy in spite of all the affronts of Fortune and defects of Nature by this you may guess how deeply you may oblige me in being still so extravagant You had not been last Week unsaluted if an accidental emergency had not snatcht my Pen out of my hand and alarum'd my obedience to an indispensable imployment imposed by the commands of those I serve which swallowed all the time that offered the opportunity I hope my sister J. received my last Weeks Letter which had layen three or four dayes by me ready written or else she had missed as well as you I am contented she should think me willing to the matrimonial bargain she has made and am sorry my inforced absence has rendred me incapable of disposing my indeavours to serve a person I love so dearly in an affair of so much importance though since you condescended to accept the Province of treating concluding in her behalf my confidence in your caution and prudence tells me that all other assistants would be superfluous and supernumerary I am extremely melancholi'd at your dilated resolutions of seeing London and the rather so because I fear we shall spend the two following Tearms in the Country and so misse the happiness of your society I have not yet received so much as a tittle from the Lord C. when I do you are sure to have a sudden account You will oblige Mr. W. to inquire of his friends present condition and welfare I have here inclosed his little token to you the stone may boast a very ancient pedigree between his birth and his present being the face was intended for one of the Roman Emperours but whether the hand was happy that grav'd it is best referr'd to your judgment Let me intreat you to pay my
respects as they are due to all my friends you shall encounter in your voyage especially at L. hall If I may have the oportunity of writing once more before you set forward I will venture to trouble you with a book or two to L. and my Nephew When you next see Mr. P. pray return him my respects proportion'd to his civilities I have much sorrow for my poor sister W. and as much wonder at her husbands silence from whom I have not received a line this half year Present me very kindly to my Cousin W. and tell him since he lik't the first part so well if I knew how to send it he should have the second But I have made no conscience of tiring your patience Pardon all my faults and believe me Dear Brother Your own to honour love and serve you R. L. LETTER XCI To his Cousin A. L. Dear Cousin T Is time to recover my credit that I doubt almost languishes in your esteem through the slow performance of my promise But sure you have goodness enough to make the interpretation gentle and I hope faith enough to believe what I profess without a spot of complement that I am to you all that you can desire in affection though less then what I passionately wish to be in the proofs of it would my occasions have allow'd time enough I should have ventured fair for the best of Titles I mean a Peace-maker between you and your Father-in-law but that was denied by the severity of my affairs requiring more time then I was master of and indeed treaties of that nature are better let alone then not perfected I know not how your Mother interprets my forbearance of an expected visit but I fear unkindly though indeed onely these considerations and not any coldness of affection to her would hase it so Well if you want any thing that London affords within the reach of my poor power I am here to serve you for take my word I desire nothing with more ardour then to appear as I am Sweet Cousin Your truly affectionate Uncle and servant R. L. LETTER XCII To Mr. G. Dear Sir I Am once more grown into a condition to claim your promise of correspondency and shorten the distance betwixt us by a literal intercourse Upon Saturday night we reacht the Bath and as if the Heavens intended to inure us by degrees to what we went for we were bath'd by the way by an almost continued rain thus against our wills imitating natures method in the conduct of her master-piece Man to his perfect growth first she teaches him to creep then go and so forward so we began with drops and are now succeeded to Fountains but whether those will like Bethsaida's Poole cure our Diseases is yet an Embryo in the womb of Time when their own resolutions are better known to themselves perhaps like the nature of weighty things they may descend to me however to give you my guesse I think we are travelled to the West like a Winters Sun where our stay will take up more then our voyage and to make the Simile run upon more wheels all the dayes I stay here will be as tedious as so many long nights without sleep Present me cordially to my Brother and tell him if I thought I should not lose my labour he should not receive them thus by a glance but by a level point-blanck from my pen. You may assure Polycarpus I have no more leaves to take unless he will give me leave to wish his wit may never shrink in the wearing nor his mirth in the wetting so long as he has use for them If you can let me feel how the great pulse beats and preserve me in your belief as I am Sir J. Your most affectionate Friend R. L. LETTER XCIII To Mr. G. Dear Sir I Had sooner given you a receipt for your last if the motion of my head would have given my hands the liberty for since our arrival here my Lord and I like Don Quixot and his Sancho have done nothing but seek adventures visiting all the Towns of remark and inchanted Castles we could hear of as if we intended to give the World a more exact Geography of the place and mend Cambdens Map of the County only we have charg'd no Windmills yet nor any thing else but his purse We are now issuing out upon a second enterprise upon Bristol but I think we shall quickly finish that adventure unless we meet with some distressed Damosels The I's and No's you speak of put them and their power all together I think spell nothing but I nose I would fain live to see the day that the sweet singer may have cause given him to set his Psalms to the Tune of Lachryme first hang up his Harp and then himself for an imitable example to the whole Congregation in the Chappel methinks the Members falling out about the reckoning upon the marriage day of their new authority expounds the Fable of the Lapithes or Centaurs make you the construction We are now in a Town where most of the people get their bread by their water I mean the Bath and to strengthen the Paradox those that never knew how to govern themselves are yet guides to others Of a City t is doubtless the prettiest of England in a double sense as it is little and handsome Most of the inhabitants live the life of fishes in Summer and Flies in Winter for then they have nothing else to do but sleep in their crannies He that comes of the best house of the B is come to Bath and we drank your health yesterday Present me as is due to all but t is time to make an end and call my self Dear Sir Yours perfectly to his power R. L. LETTER XCIV To his Brother Mr. A. L. Deare Brother I Am very glad your Ague has once more taken his leave in a double respect because it has released you at present and in all likelihood of future trouble at least remov'd them to a remote distance it being the property of those concussive maladies resembling a friends reproof or a Parents correction to trouble the body into amendment and pinch health into a greater purity and indeed methinks the turns of health and sickness like the vicissitudes of joy and grief while they overflow not their banks are not only tolerable but sometimes necessary no Halcion-day so pleasant as that which succeedes the precedency of a lowring morning Your decoction no doubt was very safe and the admixture of Diagridium and Sal Absynthii not improper but believe it this constant taking away the bran by an artificial Sive does but tye the hands of Nature which if let loose at liberty no doubt would do it better her self health hastened by a Physical assistance is like fruits ripen'd by artificiall glasses which are neither so fair to the eye grateful to the tast nor so lasting as those that stay the leisure of time for a genuine maturity
assurance I know not whether you should more skill in the diminution of your own or extolling my deserts in the first act put on the face of modesty in the second of kindness and fighting with such Weapons she cannot chuse but triumph I dare not enter the lists that way but if an honest heart that speaks plainly and meanes well that takes care to preserve its own simplicity from such mixtures as will harm it I have it for you and will keep it so Present my dear respects to my Sister and tell her I wish you may make her Mother to a numerous off-spring on condition they may all prove as so many accessaries to the Parents happiness by that time this is like to reach your hands perchance the guests and gossips may be assembled at the Christning to each of which if I know them I beseech you Sir present me as is due I cannot chuse but mention honest Mr. H. Mr. B. Mr. D. c. So oft as your Pen gives me a taste of your welfare I relish much happiness for Sir believe it you cannot lose any confidence upon my affection that desires to appear to you All that is requisite in perfect Amity and Service R. L. LETTER XCVIII For Mr. J. E. SIR I Received your last with your thanks for those blots whose ill contrivance may rather summon my own blushes than your acknowledgement all the disposall I will challenge in the noble proffer of your heart is still to reserve him a harbor there who is never so angry with his stars unkindness as when he considers he can pay down no greater earnest of desert for these favours than a few cheap words Sir I know no greater incouragement to any indeavour than obedience to your Commands for which the imployment it self would be an ample recompence and I should reap a plenteous Harvest in the very tillage I know you are all thirsty of happy newes but this week affords not a drop to quench it you have not deserv'd to be cheated with hopes for realities nor do I think it fit to send you Conjectures for Positives The strongest incounter with our feares is given by the c. what that may produce I leave to the steadier ballance of your Judgement Our expectations have been so oft like the early blessings of a forward Spring been betrayed to the tyranny of a following Frost that I am resolved mine shall bud no more till the uneclipsed Sun shall chase keen winter before his victorious rayes c. R. L. LETTER XCIX To Mr. R. W. My dearest Friend I Received those lovely Copies of a vertuous and knowing soul in the last lines with such a gladness as none but you that had power to create it can fancy this Paper will not hold the description and therefore think it but the result of an affection so simply pure as has long since left off the capacity of growth and decay and then you have it You do well to say we cannot be divided for the remotest corner of the Earth cannot hide you from me and even at such times when I know not where you are I visit you you have put such sweetness and yet so much gravity in your words as I know not whether I am more ravish'd or instructed and have much adoe to scape self-love because I am so lov'd though I do more then like the Character of dispositions observation of national propensions and proper distempers your tracing the foot-steps skilful reading upon the decayd skeletons of Antiquity with the rich imbroidery of a clear judgement upon all yet when such a Bee flies among Flowers I cannot wonder if she carries home store of Honey when so active a fancy incounters such apt materialls to frame Idea's t is not strange if she brings rich ladings to the understanding But above all my dear Friend I must remember to thank you for those sweet and candid insinuations of Piety and Vertue which with a cunning affection you gently communicate by presupposing that I have them already and thus your skill and kindness combine to interweave delight and profit and conspire my happiness Well could I but take my visible Example where I had my Precept the Lesson would be lesse difficult and I sooner shap'd to your mind for though I strive to love as perfectly as possible yet I dare not think my self qualified enough to deserve such a Friend c. Eternally yours R. L. LETTER C. To Madam I Cannot pocket your excellent lines without expressing my own unhappiness in aspiring to what I should only have been contented to admire had I but gaz'd and then given over the impression had not gone so deep and I might have outworn the wound but it was too hard a task to begin to understand you and not suffer Love to undo me with ambition Had my eyes only betray'd me and your face and feature ty'd on my chains I might have trusted time and absence for a Cure and read for it in the variety of other cheeks that are white and red but t is your diviner part has charm'd me that Soul of vertue and discretion that guided your Pen took me prisoner nor can I hope a release from Reason since Reason it self is a fellow-captive with the rest I confess I am stagger'd as well as you in my resolution of seeing of you no more and fory I did not except visits when I forswore addresses but t is in your power to interpret the Oath with that condition and though more reviewes cannot mend the sculpture of your Image in my heart nor a perpetuity of absence deface it yet I could willingly before the wind carries me away take incouragement from you once to see the dear cause of my unpittied sufferings which you may safely grant because I re-inforce my promise to let alone that subject that so much offends you and torments your servant I should now endeavour to confute the modest injury you have done your own deserts and tell you how your striving to extinguish increas'd the ardour that you vainly bestow the title of Candour and Sincerity upon the same thing you scorn or at least misprize besides I should gratefully mention the cruel charity of your wishes that would have no thought of your self disquiet me which you know is impossible but this would be to answer your Letter and coldly to dispute which my present transport will not allow well though you have raced it out I must ever fasten the Epithet of loving to the title of Your eternal Servant R. L. LETTER CI. To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother YOur last undated Letter I received last night and perus'd the well-woven variety in it with so clear a delight as it resembled the Suns victorious glory in a Cloudy morning dispelling the mists of melancholy which has lately got a trick to sit something heavy on my dull spirit but I am resolv'd to rowse it how Sir J. has digested my
mistake and the stupid effects of it I know not nor do I much disturb my thoughts about it for he has parted with much of his Candor if he does not resent true affection in it though ill exprest It is not in my power to overvalue your last kindness such cordiall condescensions in a true Friend being like the greatest number in Arithmetick impossible to be exprest and had my will a power adequate you would soon see the requital would much furmount the acknowledgement I suppose my last if it scap'd the danger of so long a Journey told you that I am now a Patient to one Mr. D. whose Physick I still daily take though yet with little apparent success but he is confident and therefore I do not despair however if you have a Recipe from Dr. B. of some soveraign lotium it will be gratefully welcom I am invective against cruel Interest and do upbraid my narrow condition that will not suffer me to meet you at Norwich so much love being the inviter and would fain be the Guest but my Chain is not long enough to reach so farre and till opportunity growes ripe I am losh to break it I will therefore content my self to wish your meeting happily divided betwixt successe and delight I cannot disapprove the Character of the Gentleman and not be Cynical only I could have wish'd for my Sisters sake that his mind had not held most of his Treasure but it seemes affection makes her willing to accept of an Utopian Joynture The joyes are confest more purely genuine that wait at those Nuptials where Love makes the match and not Interest but this age is sway'd with such a blind injustice that it even forces a by as upon the most prudent vertue Indeed I alwayes observ'd in her a discreet foreseeing Providence while she stood at the stern of her own Cockboat In which if he does match her as well as in affection no doubt but the bigger bark of their Family will be well Piloted and so by a joynt Industry their stock daily increased I do exceedingly applaud the solidity of your caution in making sure of that summe but if I were able to advise better as I am not it would be fruitless since you know with resolution all counsel is incompatible This day I wrote to my Sister J. and inclosed it in one to my Sister F. wherein I do not without much regret acquaint her with my unfortunate failing in her behalf though I stirred in it with as much dexterity both of minde and body as was possible but the main cause of our failing was that I knew not the opportunity soone enough I am not now in so good a condition to serve my Cousin C. as I was when my Lord of Lincoln resided at Tattershall within four miles of his Uncle for now he is come to Sempringham much more remote where I think he will winter so as I do much upbraid my own negligent omission to see him before I came from thence to Haughton though I was fool'd into it by a promise of my Ladies to return thither in ten dayes though we have already worn out the tedious Age of six weeks in this unfrequented Cave nor do I look for a sudden deliverance from this solitary confinement but indeed it is not much unsuitable with my present disposition which can relish nothing delightful till I get rid of this deplorable trouble but when we return into Lincolnshire it shall go hard if I break not prison for one day to see the old Midas and then I shall not forget to urge what you hinted concerning the c. Excuse the extravagancy of these inconsequent diversions and expect method when health bequeaths me a more fixt temper but you should never be thus assaulted with the sallies of these petty discontents if you were not perfectly confided in and peculiarly lov'd by Your most faithfully affectionate Brother to command R. L. LETTER CII To Mr. J. P. Dear Jack I Am sory thou couldst not carry health out of Town but here is never a shop that sells that Commodity I hope it waited in the Country to welcom thee home for if well-wishes may make thee well I have redeemed it for thee and thou art restored to its possession My pawned promise is redeemed by this inclosed which though it be too plain to be pretious I would be loth to forfeit it to a Friend I prethee intreat sweet Mrs. Mary and thy self not to spoyl these course lines with expectation My hast has done it too much already they being the deformed issue of a few minutes stolne from my serious occasions but if my mistake did not misse your directions I have not shot much wide of the design My belief has been so often abused with newes that I am resolved not to adventure the cheating of thee with some such unwilling falshood Let me injoyn the happiness in my behalf to kisse Mr. M ' s. fair hand and lay the presentation of my service at her foot and let her know that if the dull performance of this first has not discouraged her bounty in bestowing further commands I question not but to give her a better taste of my zeal to serve her In the mean time honest Jack if it requires it I commit thy peccant body to belly-racking discipline of thy guilded Pills but thy mind and senses to the soveraign cordial of her pretious society and rest Thy cordial friend to serve thee R. L. LETTER CIII To Mr. W. My dearest friend VVE are at last got loose from our Western entertainment and deliver'd from the punishment of an importunate kindness which was alwayes in travel and every day delivered of an overflow but I hope we have escaped all the danger viz. of surfets for which we ought to keep a solemn thanksgiving and are safely arrived at London which we shall onely make a baiting-place by the way into Lincolnshire and there spend the remains of the Summer At my return to London I met a pair of your Letters that had long stayd my coming I flew to their perusal with a greediness as great as ever was the child of a teeming impatience and found that in them which at the same time sated and justified my longing I was truly glad to hear my friend had so happily pleased my Lady L. in his Factorship which was confirmed by a Letter I received from her out of the Countrey for they left London upon the brink of our arrival which commanded me to return you with her thanks by Bill of exchange as a gratuity for your prudent care in her behalf and a request from my Lord that you would if possible procure him some more Italian songs I have inclosed this Bill from your friend Mr. B. whereof I desire you will signifie the receipt with as much expedition as possible and direct your letters again to for I shall be out of Town till Michaelmas But now my dearest friend I
know of those Censors if preceding Ages by a like design had not providently inoculated some of the fairest Cions of forraign fruits upon our English stock whether our barbarous Tongue would ever have been comprehensive of such rich and rational expressions or grown up to that strength and beauty it now possesses nor does my judgment deal less severely then theirs with such rumbling fustian words big with nought but wind that some affect this were to humour Midas opinion that preferr'd Pan's Pipe before Apollo's Harp because it made more noise The word Raillery you return'd me for interpretation signifies a kind of jesting scoffing dissimulation and is now grown here so common with the better sort as there are few of the meaner that are not able to construe it which makes me wonder by what mischance it should scape the knowledge of that living Library of Languages Mr. F. to whom I pray return my service but he must allow me the Liberty to think he knows too little of the French to rank it justly with the rest of his Languages but enough of that And I now eagerly wish your proposal were improv'd to a resolution of seeing London next Term since I am more then half assur'd we shall not turn our backs upon it till that be expired and then whether we shall steer our course West-ward or North-ward is not yet concluded in the thoughts of those that sit at the helm But I am sorry I cannot wind you up to any forward expectation in what refers to my Lord R. for I daily perceive the fruits of my indeavours that way do rather wither then ripen and I am glad you are struck in with so friendly a man mender If you have not taken an oath of secresie I should gladly welcome the participation of those rare Recipe's you speak of Major W. is overjoy'd at your promise to see London he sayes he hopes to deprecate your censure for neglecting to give you his thanks for your kind token which he is very proud of under his hand I cannot yet learn by my inquiry that my Lord W. has any such design for a Plantation as you speak of But I have made no conscience of your patience Dear Brother farewell Your own intirely sincerely religiously R. L. LETTER CXXXV To Mr. W. My dearest Friend THis should not have contracted an answer to two Letters if the waiting a return of some others from Lincolnshire had not retarded my hand but I know not how to construe their silence and cannot tell whether I may call it sloth or design however my hopes are yet big enough to make my judgement charitable and till we see more so I would have yours By this time you have found out the reason of my hopes to see you on this side the channel and the event that defeated them wherein you have liberty to deride my pur-blind judgement that has so much adoe to see her much more to see into the nature of such affaires I never could make so strong a Party of Reason as might keep out the invasion of over-forward expectations t is the hardest humane Lesson to learn to judge aright which granted a light reflexion upon my weak capacity will soon get my Pardon with a promise of endeavour to leave out my Errata's in the next Impression And now my dearest Friend accept as many thanks and as reall ones as ever came from a true heart for jogging my drowsie soul with those excellent Memento's of vertue and piety it showes your Friendship has chosen the best basis and you desire to cast mine in the same mold well my dear Friend though the Scholar be very unapt he loves his Master well and especially because he gives such Lessons I long for that same meeting you speak of with more impatience than I can well justifie since we must wait Providence with a totall resignation or else we cannot say that Fat c. Indeed I would fain knock off my bolts here but would do it so that I might not afterwards repent it I am still here like a wild Beast in a Gaol who though he walks up and down in it all the day yet at night he is got no further than where he was i th' morning I am glad with all my soul to find you the first proposer of L's affaires I see you are confirm'd and could you read my heart at this distance you would see I do not waver but while here I must be inslav'd and at least in exterior subjecting selfe to that same Video meliora proboque c. I am as sick of this World as ever poor passenger was of a storm at Sea and would blesse the hand that could set me ashore where I might learn to look upon the vanities of it in their full proportion and so despise them I have no cause to boast my health and the lesse because my disposition comes in such disguise as poses my self and all the World beside I am sory for the losse you dread so passionately but whatever happens say but that same Fiat voluntas c. heartily and all will be well again I will never release that promise you have made me to let me hear from you whereever you go for none has more interest in your happiness or misfortunes than my dearest Friend Your own for ever R. L. LETTER CXXXVI To his Sister F. Deare Sister THough since my Pen last saluted you there has not past a day wherein you have not found work for my memory and been concern'd in my well-wishes yet lest you should give silence the name of neglect an error familiar with tender affections I am content to think it business enough for a Letter to repeat what I have so often made the onely business of my Pen and tell you that I truly love you this from a stranger perhaps would ask more than a single proof to be believed not Complement but from a Brother that has so often shewed you his heart I know you cannot sin so much as to doubt it and let me say this to the commendation of our honest-hearted Family that though we are below others in the rich gifts of Fortune and Nature yet for perfect integrity unmixt with what they call politick ends and sincere spotless affection one to another we are not exceld by any that ever yet my observation medled with and since it traded with variety of humours and dispositions it has not been altogether pur-blind If there needed arguments to keep this affectionate temper from a cold decay I would strain hard for such as should restore us the beauty of this lovely loving inclination but I know there is little want of such restoratives in you and I borrow a confidence from experience that bids me say as much for all the rest well then let us still cherish this mutual affection that makes our souls as neer akin as our bodies for by loving one another t is the way to purchase his
of a fog I have been such an useless thing to my self and others as if I had left my soul behind me at London and only liv'd at the charge of my sensitive faculty and I have suffered such an amphibious interthing betwixt health and sickness as it has pos'd me to christen it I have had such a languishing pain in the head ever since my arrival with such a drowsiness to boot as if the Heavens had mingled poppy with their dew and shed it upon this Climate and I have slept like a Snake in winter to that excess as nothing but a Lethargy which I half fear'd could out do it but quantus quantus sum I am still yours at the same height and vigour of affection as when the double discovery of your excellent qualities and inclinations to love me first finish'd the fabrick of our friendship and took me in your toyles and though there may be allow'd an Infancy and a pubescency in friendship yet when once it hath climb'd by degrees to the full stature none but bastard affections can grow old and shew their wrinkles as the scars of time or accident since that friendship that is not ever equall uniform and constant was never so but you shall ever finde it invulnerable from him that will cease to be himself if not Yours in service and true friendship R. L. LETTER CXLIV To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother NOthing but impossibility could have forc'd me to intermit my weekly salute for the last week we consum'd at my Lord of Westmerlands in Kent where my Lady suffered her resolutions of a short stay to be overcome by the importunities of a gentile entertainment my affection has as great a quarrel to the narrowness of my expressions as yours and does even upbraid my Pen with the disgraces that its ill guidance puts upon it but t is well I am not able to draw it in its full dimensions lest the abundance should discredit the reality and even pose your belief into suspition with the incredible quantity But upon better thoughts I could be angry with my self for suffering such words to get loose from my Pen and could willingly punish them with a great blot if I had time to write new ones for I am confident you do match me too well with the same materials to doubt its purity and we never wonder at any thing that we can pattern in our selves your flint is a true Embleme of perfect friendship which in the bosom carries fire ready to start forth at the summons of occasion how soon I would obey such an alarum to serve you I hope you will finde prov'd in my future endeavours but I have not skill enough to add beauty to that which never had a blemish My old Cough with a great cold to boot do constrain me at this time to be bad Company which you may easily perceive by the languor of my stile this Cough I find has lately fed upon my flesh carried away enough from the poor store I had to make me doubt a Consumption but whatsoever the hand of Heaven sends me I shall endeavour to bid welcome I pray let us not fail in our intercourse while we are so neer My present indisposition with some hast beside will let me say no more but that I am and ever will be Your own to love and serve you R. L. LETTER CXLV To Mr. J. G. Houest Mr. J. I Acknowledge the receipt of yours with a Diurnal Proverbs and Tobacco besides many other preceding civilities and courtesies which believe it have rendred me perfectly yours You may safely take my word this is really meant and will be as cordially confirm'd when any occasion shall becken me to it We are arrivd at our Countrey habitation where in a double sense we may be said to be out of the lines of communication we dwell at large and people it as our forefathers colloniz'd the World in its Nonage Melancholy that they wanted partners in their vast possessions and thus like the Children of Israel we are come out of Egypt into the Wilderness only we have the flesh-pots still and therefore none of the Manna This Countrey is so barren of good company though fruitful of all things else that even tir'd out with solitude I am forc'd sometimes to make shift with the Parson of the Parish and he more then half a Presbyterian you will say that 's a hard case for one that has been us'd to Mr. G's company But I confess these defects are not ill suppli'd by my dumb society Besides Books we have good Horses handsome Walks pleasing Groves which represent variety of objects and they Idaea's enough to make Fancy a good companion and Thoughts my recreation By the help of them I oft remove London into the Countrey and injoy the friends I left behind as well as fancy can present them in the formost rank of which Mr. G. is plac't Pray render me very kindly to Captain Wh. and tell him when I see the Major I shall not forget to speak his desires Mention me kindly to honest P. Mr. A. and the rest that know me and to your self take me as I must ever be Your real friend R. L. LETTER CXLVI To Major W. Dear Brother I Shall not need strain a sinew in my invention to frame an excuse for deluding your expectations of me at Holt for as if we had left London on purpose to come and take up diseases in the Countrey and Pandora had staid the second opening of her boxe till our coming our Family has been so infested with that they call the New-disease which like the Elements blended in the Chaos is but an accumulation of all other maladies as they have made me a Prisoner though not yet a Patient and disabled me to point at the time when I may be in case to be as good as my word This disease is of late grown more cruel then ordinary and become the Messenger of Fate to many Persons of quality amongst which it has murder'd Mr. R. F. your old acquaintance but I hope it will use my Lord and Lady more gently who are both sick of it at this present And now my dear Brother since I cannot see you let me beg this satisfaction from your Pen to let me know how your self and the rest of my friends enjoy your selves and health both in community and particular how the air company and entertainment of Holt arrides your liking and how much of the Winter you design upon that Climate when and how long the Cardinal was with you from whom I have not received a sillable since our parting Let yours give me the condition of my friends in reference to this Epidemick Malady among whom pray distribute my affectionate respects Speak me cordially to my Brother and Sister W. Sister F. c. and to your self promise all that is due to a perfect friend from Dear Brother Eternally your own to dispose of R. L.
LETTER CXLVII SIR I Must not give you cause to suspect I can forget you by the neglect of so fair an oportunity to kiss your hands with a Letter but I confess I had rather if there were no Remora have taken my Pens employment upon my self how oft have I wisht for a Mercurial Caducaeus to insomniate the Argus-eyes of jealous people that I might safely steal a visit with it the enjoyment of your happy society till when I shall account my self but a slave to that piece of liberty I now am Master of since its narrow limits shut out a large share of my highly-valued happiness The malice of the times extends beyond the suspensation of estates to the separation of friends yet they cannot be truly said to be absent whose free-born souls not inslav'd to the bodies restraint can hold a mutual commerce and an intelligential converse one with another nor can I so much distrust Providence as to suspect this corporal sequestration can prove an utter privation My deceiving fancy sometimes in a slumber strives to make me believe I am at L. yet in the dream it self I suspect it is but a dream I could wish methinks that Plato's year were no fiction so the revolution might be speedy and we again happily revise and live in the Sunshine of our former Halcion dayes Sed jam deserunt ut omnia Mortalium assolent I cannot dart my thoughts so eagerly upon other things as to lose a restraining power of calling them home to the memory of my friends and they are best imploy'd in absence when they help to draw themselves in white and black I am not of that Philosophers opinion who affirm'd Silena could not hurt for too much is a disease in love and helps to intomb friendship in the dark Grove of Oblivion when the dumb Language of a Pen can like the Phaenix remove it from its own ashes and keep it strong and healthful c. By the World those are accounted the onely Cowards which dare not do that which is ill which concludes no such solecism in policy as the intire friendship twixt tongue and heart Honesty is grown ridiculous Integrity scofft at and amity it self never found so few friends Those intentions are contemptibly thought mean and shallow with whose vertuous rectitude Meandrous falshood is inconsistent the Worlds erroneous Estimation has married Vertue to Caution Justice to Self-injury Religion to a Scarcrow Honesty to Self-deceit Faith to Folly for the execution of particular ends Vice filtches Vertues apparel though her want of skill in wearing them often discovers her imposturous deformities whil'st thus Reasons eye is put out or at least blinded the souls mortality forgotten and the Almighty rejected and eternity disrespected this Pigmy statur'd life is the onely Idol we wickedly adore the oblations to which are the many horrid Acheloon shapes our serpentine wills and actions are transformed to still to reserve and encrease our Cornucopia what long-breath'd flatteries perfum'd with fictious Rhetorick we ventilate the warmth of great mens favours in the Sunshine of whose smiles we play like flies buzzing forth our own shames and vertues injuries R. L. LETTER CXLVIII To Mr. W. My dearest Friend I Lately received your last of the sixteenth of November for though our Letters glide nimbly when they are once aboard yet they do but crawl by land and contrary to natural violent motions do make least haste when they are neerest their journeys end and I have nothing to say to your overprizing my barren indeavours in your behalf and undervaling your own but onely to entreat you to call to your own knowledge for the true definition of perfect amity and that will tell you I am the indebted person and the occasions you have given me to serve You have instructed me to set so many steps toward my own happiness But now my dear friend I would I could find it fit to leave the rest out and if I had not cause to love you for discretion as well as goodness I confess I should leave you to know this accident from some other Quill but I know you are skilful in all the dictates of wisdom and can ballance mortal accidents without oppressing the scale with too much passion this gives me more confidence to tell you I received a late Letter from my Brother whom I engaged to send me an account of your friends which tells me that your father fell sick upon the sixteenth of September of a Flux and left the World the tenth of October and now I conjure you by all those clear proofs of your prudent temper and to speak something for my own ends as well as yours by my interest in you to preserve us both from the injuries of an over-sad resentment you have all the reason that I can urge and much more why you should not abandon your self to an immoderate sorrow and therefore I will throw no more drops into your Ocean only this do not chew the Pill that will work better if you swallow it c. Your Sister seem'd much to bewail your absence at such a time and desir'd my Brother who presents his affectionate service to you to use some means to let you know this and entreat you would entertain no prejudicial conceit of her self or her Husband Let me intreat you to answer this as soon as you can and tell me what I may do further to serve you if you love your self and me let not sadness shrink your spirits but let us reserve our selves for that same happy meeting you speak of I confess I do more than suspect a Consumption and if that be designed to fetch me from this World I think I shall go without reluctancy for I have already received enough of the Divine hand to make me admire his bounty but I have fair hopes of a recovery Well my dear Friend you know how to be happy in spite of this World and that you would be so is the earnest intreaty of Yours Eternally R. L. LETTER CXLIX To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother I Think Providence has given a larger Commission to Fortune than formerly for I confess I was nipt with the same Passion you complain of viz. the unkindness of Oblivion now I see 't was caus'd by the stragling of our Letters mine were sent by W. out of Lincolnshire and because they promised a faithful care in their deliverance I thought it a better way for expedition than to send them about by London but it seemes Haste brought forth her blind child Error Yours after my expectations had lost many longings as if they had stayed for one anothers company came almost all together and that 's my Landlords fault for which I shall school him but we have as little cause to lay the injuries of Chance to one anothers charge as to quarrel with a River because some adventitious Dam forbids the freedom of its course If there be a possibility to raise such pure
and unmixt desires from our souls as will not be dawb'd with the clay they are confin'd to I have such to ask and claim your Friendship and thus in spite of all our Leaden frailty we may take a taste of Heaven and relish the joyes we cry up with such impotent expressions in that one word perfect amity I do now begin to be so unweildy to my self and I doubt so troublesom to others though they express not so much that I borrow reasons from my Capitall infirmities to excuse those you may account the Disease of my mind c. But if this trouble be design'd to fetch me from this World I think I shall go without reluctancy I am still here in relation to my dependency like an unskilful Passenger at Sea that knowes not how long to promise himself a calm nor when to expect a storm If I may vant to have pleas'd in any thing 't is my fidelity which amounts to no more than You have done as becomes you I am glad I was not born to stand at the Sterne of an ample fortune to favour my self the best I can I should have abus'd the Divine bounty and perhaps imploy'd it chiefly in paying dearer for my sins than I have done I have receiv'd enough to make me admire the goodness of him that gave it me and indeed did not his grace help me to contrary thoughts 't were enough to make me an unequal Arbiter of mine own imperfections to act such conceptions as these is a business to which we should sacrifice no cold endeavours we live to no purpose unless in this life we learn to bid it adieu handsomly Doing well is the only requisite mark of mans Industry and he that aimes at any other mistakes that for a white which is but a spot there are so many examples of such as angle here for happiness and sometimes with ruine to boot as methinks to observe should be enough to take heed how many mount Fortunes ladder and break the staves as they go up so as they have no way to come down but by a Precipice many shoot wide and perhaps hit most happiness by missing what they fancied for it I could mention more mistakers but to close it there is no man studies the other life better than he that studies this enough to despise it It is not my desire to be understood skilful in this Science for I am bound to confesse my self subject to most wicked reluctations and there passe few houres that are not witnesses not only to stumblings but grosse falls from my best resolutions but I want your pardon I thank you for the account of my Friends which I desire you would renew as you are hinted by any extraordinary accidents I have this day wrote the sad newes to Mr. W. but I confess left out some of the Circumstances lest he should chew the bitter Pill too much that he ought to swallow I have presented you to him as you ordered and mentioned your endeavours for his satisfaction I have been so often call'd away while I was writing this as 't is no wonder if my words sit not handsomly upon my meaning when I am forc'd to make so many seames I pray present me to those friends that oblige me with remembrance in a grateful garb and believe it for 't is truth it self you are first in the soul of Your affectionate and most desirous Brother to serve you R. L. LETTER CL. To Mr. W. Dear Friend YOur last I received which by the date I perceive has halted by the way like some of his Predecessors but it had not half done its message to my eyes before I confest an ample amends for the loitering and if there be a word that may speak more then welcome conceive it uttered for indeed it is meant I see you have made use of that which has made you alwayes happy to sustain the shock of what might have stagger'd a resolution less fortified with prudence and I wish my power were as great as my desire to copy that and the rest so long as you compound and apply these soveraign medicines of piety and discretion 't is impossible your better part should grow sickly c. I inclos'd the Note to your Sister in a Letter to my Brother and oblig'd him to be very careful in sending it and to shew her the way to return you an answer of it to my hands If no weighty impediment intervenes I intend to visit my Eastern friends about the beginning of April therefore I pray prepare your commands And now my dear friend I find my health tender'd by your with such an over-flowing of affection as it hath taught me to wish it with the more ardour because I may possible incounter with occasions that may render me able to shew how highly I relish such an indearing kindness But pardon me t is more then I can do when I write to you not to be guilty of too many words so loth I am to come to an end but my comfort is you know me for what I am Yours to perpetuity R. L. FINIS Courteous Reader These Books following with others are printed for Nath. Brook and are to be sold at his Shop at the Angel in Cornhill Excellent Tracts in Divinity Controversies Sermons Devotions THe Catholick History collected and gathered out of Scripture Councils and Ancient Fathers in Answer to Dr. Van 's Lost Sheep returned home by Edward Chesensale Esquire Octavo 2. Bishop Morton on the Sacrament in Folio 3. The Grand Sacriledge of the Church of Rome in taking away the sacred Cup from the Laity at the Lords Table by D Featly D. D. Quarto 4. The Quakers Cause at second hearing being a full answer to their Tenets 5. Re-assertion of Grace Vindiciae Evangelii or the Vindication of the Gospel a reply to Mr. Anâ—hony Burghess Vindiciae Lâ—gis and to Mr. Ruthford by Robert Town 6. Anabaptists anatomized and silenced or a Dispute with Mr. Tombs by Mr. J. Grag where all may receive clear satisfaction in that Controversie The best extant Octavo 7. The Zealous Magistrate a Sermon by T. Threscot Quarto 8. Britannia Rediviva A Sermon before the Judges Aug. 1648. by J. Shaw Minister of Hull 9. The Princess Royal in a Sermon before the Judges March 24. by J. Shaw 10. Judgment set and Books opened Religion tried whether it be of God or Man in several Sermons by J. Webster Quarto 11. Israels Redemption or the Prophetical History of our Saviours Kingdom on Earth by R. Matton 12. The Cause and Cure of Ignorance Error and Profaneness or a more hopeful way to Grace and Salvation by R. Young Octavo 13. A Bridle for the Times tending to still the murmuring to settle the wavering to stay the wandering and to strengthen the fainting by J. Brinslâ—y of Yarmouth 14. The sum of Practical Divinity or the grounds of Religion in a Catechistical way by Mr. Christopher Love late Minister of the
some remarkable Passages in the holy Life and happy Death of Mrs. Dorothy Shaw Wife of Mr. John Shaw Preacher of the Gospel at Kingston upon Hull collected by her dearest Friends especially for her sorrowful Husband and six Daughters consolation and imitation 14. The so long expected Work the New World of English Words or a general Dictionary containing the Terms Etymologies Definitions and perfect Interpretations of the proper signification of hard English words throughout the Arts and Sciences Liberal or Mechanick as also other subjects that are useful or appertain to the Language of our Nation to which is added the signification of Proper Names Mythology and Poetical Fictions Historical Relations Geographical Descriptions of the Countries and Cities of the World especially of these three Nations wherein their chiefest Antiquities Battels and other most me morable Passages are mentioned by E. P. 15. A learned Commentary on Psalm the fifteenth by that Reverend and Eminent Divine Mr. Christopher Cartwright Minister of the Gospel in York to which is prefixed a brief account to the Authors life and of his Work by R. Bolton 16. The way to Bliss in three Books being a learned Treatise of the Philosophers Stone made publick by Elias Ashmole Esquire 17. Wit restored in several Select Poems not formerly publisht by Sir John Mennis Mr. Smith and others 18. The Modern Assurancer the Clerks Directory containing the Practick Part of the Law in the exact Forms and Draughrs of all manner of Presidents for Bargains and Sales Grants Feoffments Bonds Bills Conditions Covenants Jointures Indentures c. And all other Instruments and Assurances now in use by John Hern. 19. Naps upon Parnassus A sleepy Muse nipt and pincht though not awakened Such voluntary and Jovial Copies of Verses as were lately received from some of the WITS of the Universities in a Frolick dedicated to Gondibert's Mistress by Captain Jones and others c. 20. The compleat Midwife's Practice in the high and weighty Concernments of Mankinde the second Edition corrected and enlarged with a full Supply of such most useful and admirable Secrets which Mr. Nicholas Culpepper in his brief Treatise and other English Writers in the Art of Midwifry have hitherto wilfully passed by kept close to themselves or wholly omitted by T. Chamberlain M. P. 21. America Painted to the Life the History of the Conquest and first Original undertakings of the advancement of the Plantations in those Parts with an exquisite Map by F. Gorges Esquire 22. Culpeper's School of Physick or the Experimental Practice of the whole Art so reduced either into Aphorismes or choice and tried Receipts that the free-born Students of the three Kingdoms may in this Method finde perfect wayes for the operation of such Medicines so astrologically and Physically prescribed as that they may themselves be competent Judges of the Cures of their Patients by N. C. 23. Blagrave's admirable Ephemerides for the Year 1659. 24. History and Policy Reviewed in the Heroick transactions of his most Serene Highness Oliver late Lord Protector declaring his steps to Princely Perfection drawn in lively Parallels to the Ascents of the great Patriarch Moses to the height of 30 degrees of Honor by H. D. Esquire 25. J. Cleaveland Revived Poems Orations Epistles and other of his Genuine Incomparable Pieces never before published 26. England's Worthies Select Lives of the most eminent Persons of the three Nations from Constantine the Great to these times by W. Winstanly 27. Loveday's Letters Domestick and Forrein to several Persons occasionally distributed in Subjects Historical Political and Philosophical by Robert Loveday the late admired Translator of the three first parts of the Renowned Romance Cleopatra 28. The History of the Life and Death of his most Serene Highness Oliver late Lord Protector Wherein from his Cradle to his Tomb are impartially transmitted to Posterity the most weighty Transactions forreign or Domestique that have happened in his Time either in Matters of Law Proceedings in Parliaments or others Affairs in Church or State by S. Carrington 29. The right Lozenges publickly sold by Edmund Buckworth in St. Katherines Court for Coughs and Consumption of the Lungs c. are to be had at Nath. Brook's and John Grismond's in Ivy-lane and at no other place FINIS