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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65151	Familiar and courtly letters written by Monsieur Voiture to persons of the greatest honour, wit, and quality of both sexes in the court of France ; made English by Mr. Dryden, Tho. Cheek, Esq., Mr. Dennis, Henry Cromwel, Esq., Jos. Raphson, Esq., Dr. -, &c. ; with twelve select epistles out of Aristanetus, translated from the Greek ; some select letters of Pliny, Jun and Monsieur Fontanelle, translated by Mr. Tho. Brown ; and a collection of original letters lately written on several subjects, by Mr. T. Brown ; to which is added a collection of letters of friendship, and other occasional letters, written by Mr. Dryden, Mr. Wycherly, Mr. -, Mr. Congreve, Mr. Dennis, and other hands.	Voiture, Monsieur de (Vincent), 1597-1648.; Brown, Thomas, 1663-1704.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700.; Congreve, William, 1670-1729.; Wycherley, William, 1640-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing V682; ESTC R34733	165,593	438

the Empire of Reason Our Ministers of State have formerly behaved themselves with so much Indifference as if it would have lessen'd them to have taken any care of Letters They have shewn themselves as perfectly unconcern'd as if not one had discover'd that at a time when our Neighbours are grown so knowing the Publick Safety depends on the Progress of Learning and that to Patronize Science is to take care of the State Besides too many of our States-men have been engag'd in unjust Designs Most of our Politicians have done their Endeavour to encroach on the Crown or to attempt on the People Few have had Capacity and Integrity enough to keep the Balance so steady as to maintain Prerogative at once and assert Privilege to serve the King Zealously and their Country Faithfully to possess at the same time the Favour of the one and the Hearts of the other to such a degree as to be courted by the People to serve as their Representative at the very time that they are employ'd by the King in Mat●rs of the highest Importance Instead of that most of them have had reason to be afraid of the King or the Commons and Men who have been sollicitous for their own Safety have seldom appear'd concern'd for the good of others Few then have been and are in a Condition to be Protectors of Learning and therefore those happy Few deserve all the Honours which we are able to pay them Of those Sir you appear in the foremost Rank and are to the Commonwealth of Learning what you are to the State a great Defence and a shining Ornament You have warmly encouraged all sorts of Studies but have been justly and nobly partial to those for which the State has made no Provision Which is enough to gain you the Esteem of all who have any Regard for Learning and to win the very Souls of all who like me are charm'd with the softer Studies of Humanity For which your Zeal has been so diffusive that it has extended it self even to me tho' a bare Inclination to cultivate Eloquence and Poetry was the only thing which could recommend me to you Yet even this has been encourag'd by the Promise of your Protection and by the Humanity of your Receiving me The Access which I have had to you has been the greatest Obligation that you could lay upon a Man who has still valu'd Merit above all the World and who has sought his Improvement more than he has his Advancement When I have at any time approach'd you I have found in you none of those Forbidding Qualities of which they accuse the Great Instead of those I have found an Attractive and a Humane Greatness the generous Sincerity of the Man of Honour joyn'd with the Grace and Complaisance of the Courtier and a Deportment Noble without Pride and Modest without Descending Nature has made me something averse from making my Court to Fortune But I am proud to attend upon real Greatness and to wait upon you since first you encouraged me has been at once my Duty and my Ambition The Permission which you gave me to approach you was so great an Incitement to me that I believe it might have brought me to write well if I had not a very just reason to resolve to attempt it no more You had given me one great Encouragement before I had the honour to see you and that was by leaving off Writing your self For Vanity is a greater Incitement to Poets than Pensions and even Want depresses the Spirits less than the thought of being surpassed Therefore while Mr. Montague sung he sung alone We admir'd indeed our Conquering Monarch but we admir'd in Silence We rever'd the Greatness of your Genius and neglected our Talents Indeed the Strength and Sweetness of your Voice was fit to charm us alone and we who followed were only fit for the Chorus But you have left a Province which you have made your own to the Administration of those who are under you and are gone on in your victorious Progress to the Acquisition of new Glory From which I am sensible that I detract by detaining you For your Actions are your best Encomiums and the loud Consent of the Nation your best Panegyrick It was a glorious one that was spoken to you by the People of Westminster in the Request that they made to you to serve as their Member in the present Parliament at a time when they were Caballing all over the Kingdom and Gentlemen were depriving Peasants of their little Reason in order to obtain their Voices Mr. Montague's Merit while he was silent sollicited for him so importunately that it prevail'd upon a number of considerable Inhabitants of the Politer Parts of the Town to come and make it their humble Request to you to Honour them by Representing them which puts me in mind of a Saying of De la Bruiere That the People are then at their height of Happiness when their King makes Choice for his Confidents and for his Ministers of the very same Persons that the People would have chosen if the Choice had been in their Power This at present is our own Case for doubtless the same People who without any Brigue or the least Corruption came voluntarily to entreat you to suffer them to place you in the Great Council of the Kingdom would if the Choice had been in their power have plac'd you in the Privy-Council and they who frankly offer'd to trust you with the Disposal of the Mony which is in their Houses would have trusted you had it been in their power with the Intendency of that in the Treasury So that the Peoples Proffer to Chuse you seems to me to be a loud Approbation of the Choice which the King had made before of you and of your Ministration upon that Choice But I injure the Publick while I detain you Yet give me leave to end with my zealous Wishes for you that the Happiness may be multiplied on you which you so nobly seek to communicate that you may encrease in Riches and Honours faster than you advance in Years till you arrive at that Height of Prosperity which may be answerable to your high Desert and till Fortune may be said to pour down her Gifts upon you in Emulation of Art and Nature Yet Envy after all shall be forced to declare that Mr. Montague sprung from an Illustrious Stock and loaded with Plenty and Honours is yet Nobler by Desert than he is by Descent and Greater by Virtue than he is by Fortune I am Sir Your most humble and most obedient Servant JOHN DENNIS TO THE READER I Once resolved to have along Preface before this little Book but the Impression has been so long retarded by the Fault of those who had the Care of it that I have now neither Time nor Humour to execute what I intended I shall therefore only give a Compendious Account of what I proposed to have treated of more at large I

of every Coach as nicely as a young Boy at the University do the Return of the Carrier and ply at all Corners of the Streets 〈…〉 egularly as the Watermen do at the 〈…〉 ple Stairs But it has long ago been 〈…〉 ed of you as of the Lawyers that they will find or make Work where-ever they come and accordingly I knew a little Town in Essex where the Inhabitants time out of mind had lived in as uninterrupted Tranquility as the happy Indians did in America before the Spaniards came to beat up their Quarters but upon an Attorney's coming to reside amongst 'em the Face of Affairs was immediately alter'd Tenants conspir'd against their Landlords Hostlers revolted from their Masters and the Apprentices took up Arms against their lawful Tyrants Not a Tithe-egg could be had without an Action nor a Pig under a Suit in Chancery a Spirit of Division had crept into every Family Maids betray'd their Mistresses Girls rebell'd against their Grandmothers and Sweethearts deserted their confiding Damsels in short every Man stood as much upon his own Guard as if he had been in an Enemy's Country these were the blessed Effects of the Lawyer 's living amongst ' em Now Doctor it were a very hard Case if having so much Credit at the Bath you cou'd not do as much for your self as the above mention'd Attorney did to promote his own Business if you cou'd not Philosophically Reason People into Distempers they were never troubled with like the Fanatick Parsons that Fly-blow their Hearers with Scruples they knew nothing of before If you cou'd not cure'em of Ails they never felt and leave behind you Maladies you never found upon ' em But I am inform'd that the Tub-Preachers are very much dissatisfied that you invade their Territories and encroach upon their Prerogative of Hell Your hot and cold Baths they say put their Brimstone and Ice out of Countenance and 't is reported that by the skilful Management of your Torments by scalding your Patients at the Bath in July and freezing them at Islington in December you 've broke half the Retailors of the Terrours of Pluto's Kingdom But to come now to the News of the Town we have had an Apparition lately here stranger than any in Glanvill or Aubry for it has appeared in the Streets at noon Day and thousands of People are ready to depose that they have seen it By this strange Apparition I mean the White Parson so call'd for his wearing a White Hat-band Scarf and Sursingle by which he distinguishes himself from the rest of his Brethren I cou'd wish you had been here in Holbourn t'other Morning to have seen his Cavalcade He rode up the Hill as great as a Prince and like other Princes signalized his Entry with printed Declarations with a great Rabble of loud-mouth'd Hawkers Male and Female bellowing it on every side of him and 't is supposed by the Learned in Astrology that he will keep this Declaration as Religiously as some other Princes beyond Sea have kept theirs In short he pretends to preach the Gospel Gratis and indeed as he manages it it is pity he shou'd have a Farthing for it He calls the rest of his Cloth Hirelings tho' unless the Fellow is bely'd he wou'd accept of a Pot of Ale from a Chimney-sweeper and has preach'd a hundred times upon a Joint-stool for a pickl'd Herring and a Poringer of burnt Brandy The Rozinante on which this Don Quixote rode had a Laurel-garland about his Head and I dare swear deserv'd the Bays as well as his Master for the Wretch as I am inform'd is troubled with a Whore to his Wife and his Muse is an arrant Jilt the latter is the more common Prostitute of the two But dear Doctor News are as scarce in Town as Fees at the Bath and it falls out unluckily for you and me that we must change Places to find what we want for I hear you have a Mint at the Bath for Scandal as we have here for Money so that 't is but shifting the Scene and we may draw Bills upon one another to answer our several Occasions till when I am Melanissa to Alexis GIve me leave my dearest Alexis give me leave who love you better than my Life and if I make bold to reproach you with your Failings you will easily forgive this freedom unless I am mightily mistaken in the Humour of my Alexis when you find it wholly regard your own Interest and Welfare It is not without a sensible Concern that I see you abandon your self so to the Bottle of late A young Fellow but especially one like Alexis ought to devote himself to another Divinity old Age indeed may be allow'd to supply its defect of Warmth with Wine but Youth as it needs it not so Nature advises it to pursue a more agreeable Game But can any thing in the World be so absurd as to surfeit our selves with Cordials when we have not the least Indisposition To convince you then that my Complaint is neither junust nor unreasonable I who know so little of the World and have nothing but Nature to guide me I who am a Stranger to Language and Style and consequently must maim my Thoughts for want of knowing how properly to express 'em will endeavour to describe to you a Night as it passes away in the Embraces of an agreeable Mistress accompany'd with all the Transports and Tendernesses of Love and the Night as it is commonly spent by what the Town call Men of Wit and Pleasantry at the Rose or Blew-posts The Play is now over and the Sparks who while it was Acting rallied the Vizard-Masques laugh'd aloud at their own No-jests censur'd the Dress and Beauty of all the Ladies in the Boxes and in short minded every thing but the Representation that brought them thither begin now to File off and gravely debate how and where the Evening is to spent At last the Tavern is pitch'd upon the Room taken and our learned Criticks in Pleasures seat themselves round the Table The Master of the House is the first Person they send to Advise with who after a few Cringes and Scrapes tells 'em He has the best Champagne and Burgundy in Town and is sure to ask an exorbitant Price for 't tho' 't is a vile nasty Mixture of his own Brewing After a long and foolish Dispute the Rate is adjusted Napkins are called for the Muff Sword and Periwigg nicely laid up and now something-like Business comes forward When these grand Preliminaries are settl'd the next important Debate is what they must eat so the Cook is sent for who recommends to 'em something Nice and Dear this Difficulty with much a-do got over the Glasses plentifully walk round to blunt and weaken that Appetite which they pretend to excite by it And now their Hearts begin to open and their Tongues to communicate their most secret Thoughts The topping Beauties of the Town are the first Subjects of their Conversation

are execrable I deny it Sir for she has but one that is bad But you must grant me her Chin is too long by three Inches But do you apprehend the Reason 'T is because her Neck is too short by two I see Sir said he with some little heat you are obstinately bent to oppose the Power of Truth but I hope you are not so far prejudiced as to maintain her Breath to be sweet That Infirmity Sir replied I is the Effect of the Foulness of her Lungs and not of her Mouth and if her Lungs are rotten is it her Ladiship 's Fault or Nature's And then her Ga●e says he is the most disagreeble in the World You have betrayed at once Sir said I both your Malice and your Ignorance if you had the least Acquaintance with her Ladiship you must have known better Alas poor Lady she has not walkt without Crutches these ten Years But then her Conduct I hope you will not undertake to justifie that how does it become old Eve think you to Patch and Paint Intrigue read Romances and Love-verses talk Smuttily look Amorously dress Youthfully insomuch that if it were not for her Looks you could not distinguish her from her Daughter Under favour Sir you mistake 't is her Grand-daughter you mean And then to keep a young Fellow of five and twenty to satisfie her brutal Lust. 'T is false I have heard Mr. affirm a thousand times she was Insatiable He would have proceeded in his Defamations but I desired him to omit all farther Discourse on that Subject for that I could not with Patience support that a Woman of your Ladiship 's Merit and Virtue and a Woman for whom I had so particular an Honour should be so impudently Vilified and Blasphemed to my Face I hope by this time you are made sensible Madam that I am quite another Per-son than you apprehended me to be and that I am so far from having any disrespectful Thoughts of your Ladiship that no one of your Grand-children the nearest Relation you have remaining could have gone farther in your Vindication But I would not have you attribute my Defence of your Ladiship altogether to Respect give it a tenderer and truer Name and call it Love I say Love for let me die Madam if I have not a violent Passion for your Ladiship I know you may very well suspect the Truth of what I say for Love in me you will tell me ought to imply Beauty in you But Love you know very well creates Beauty no less frequently than Beauty does Love And if by the help of Imagination I can find out Charms in you which no Body else can discover I think I have reasonable Foundation enough for my Passion there is something I know not where to fix it 't is not in your Face or Shape or Mien or Air or any part of your Body much less in your Mind but something there is so very agreeable something I know not what nor where so bewitching that 't is not in my power to defend my Heart against you Perhaps the malicious World will say you are Old but we know old Wine intoxicates more than new and an aged Oak is stronger than a young one 'T is with your Ladiship 's Beauty as with old Buildings when they fall it destroys with its Ruins As I profess my self an Admirer of Antiquity by consequence I should have no small Passion for your Ladiship For I must tell you Madam there are finer Fragments of Antiquity in your Face than any Greece or Italy can boast of and more Beauty lies buried in one Wrinkle of yours than in the Ruins of the most stately Arches or most magnificent Temples You cannot therefore question the Sincerity of my Profession when I tell you I am Madam with all Reality Your Ladiship 's most passionate Adorer and most obedient humble Servant To a Lady that had got an Inflamation in her Eyes Madam YOu will hardly believe perhaps how much People talk of your Indisposition The late Eclipse when the Sun it self was in Labour occasion'd not half the Discourse as the present Distress your Eyes are in throughout the whole Empire of your Beauty that is throughout the whole Kingdom Nothing is more generally talk'd of or more universally lamented Those beautiful Eyes which were wont to spread Joy in all Hearts now diffuse Sorrow in every Breast at the same time they raise different Passions the Women pity what they envy and the Men lament what they adore 'T is true there are some discontented Persons that perhaps have formerly felt your Rigour who let drop bold Expressions they say your Eyes are deservedly punish'd for the many Violences and Barbarities they have committed that 't is but just they should be afflicted who have made so many poor Men suffer and that it seems a manifest Judgment of Heaven that the Distemper shou'd attacque you in the very Place where you assault Mankind These are the Murmurs of some few Men Madam whom we except from the Multitudes who bewail the Calamities of your Eyes Sir Thomas who you know speaks fine things did me the honour of a Visit Yesterday and commands me to tell you That had he as many Eyes as Argus to give yours one Moment's ease he wou'd pluck them all out and throw them as he wou'd himself and his Fetters at your Feet For my own part Madam who have but two Eyes one of 'em is at your Ladiship 's Service the other I am unwilling to lose because I am unwilling to lose the sight of you Your grave Vnkle likewise gives his Service to you 't was my Fortune to meet him at my Lady 's Lodgings where your Ladiship and your present Indisposition being the Subject of our Discourse the old Gentleman who moralises on every thing under the Sun lifting up his Eyes to Heaven and laying his Hand upon his sage Breast Alas says he see the Vanity of all Things here below See Ladies see Gentlemen see how frail is Beauty how uncertain its Possession the finest Eyes in the Universe are in danger of losing their beautiful Lustre How imperfect are the most perfect Things Alas alas Vanity of Vanity all is Vanity says the Preacher When the Oracle had ceased Sir said I with an affected grave Look I remember well you were wont frequently to tax your Niece with Pride don't you think Providence design'd this present Affliction as a Lesson of Humility to her Does it not seem the very Intention of Heaven by this Indisposition that those very Eyes which may justly make her proud shou'd teach her to be humble that where she is strongest she shou'd find her self weak that where she is most divine she shou'd confess her self mortal Very religiously and solidly reflected says old Solomon I profess I am surprized to find so much Maturity in so much Youth Go on in the Ways of Wisdom and prosper Thus Madam like a faithful Historian as I am I have

other side by a Man of Wit I do not mean every Coxcomb whose Imagination has got the Ascendant of his little Reason but a Man like you Sir or our most ingenious Friend in whom Fancy and Judgment are like a well-match'd Pair the first like an extraordinary Wife that appears always Beautiful and always Charming yet is at all times Decent and at all times Chast the second like a prudent and well-bred Husband whose very Sway shews his Complaisance and whose very Indulgence shews his Authority I am dear Sir your most humble Servant JOHN DENNIS To Mr. Dryden Sir THo' no Man writes to his Friend with greater Ease or with more Chearfulness than my self and tho' I have lately had the Presumption to place you at the Head of that small Party nevertheless I have experienc'd with Grief that in writing to you I have not found my old Facility Since I came to this place I have taken up my Pen several times in order to write to you but have constantly at the very beginning found my self damp'd and disabled upon which I have been apt to believe that extraordinary Esteem may sometimes make the Mind as Impotent as a violent Love does the Body and that the vehement Desire we have to exert it extremely decays our Ability I have heard of more than one lusty Gallant who tho' he could at any time with Readiness and Vigour possess the Woman whom he lov'd but moderately yet when he has been about to give his Darling Mistress whom he has vehemently and long desir'd the first last Proof of his Passion has found on a sudden that his Body has jaded and grown resty under his Soul and gone backward the faster the more he has spurr'd it forward Esteem has wrought a like Effect upon my Mind my extraordinary Inclination to shew that I honour you at an extraordinary rate and to shew it in words that might not be altogether unworthy Mr. Dryden's Perusal incapacitates me to perform the very Action to which it incites me and Nature sinks in me under the fierce Effort But I hope you will have the Goodness to pardon a Weakness that proceeds from a Cause like this and to consider that I had pleas'd you more if I had honoured you less Who knows but that yet I may please you if you encourage me to mend my Fault To which if you know but the Place I am in Charity would engage you tho' Justice could not oblige you For I am here in a Desart depriv'd of Company and depriv'd of News in a Place where I can hear nothing at all of the Publick and what proves it ten times more a Desart nothing at all of you For all who are at present concern'd for their Country's Honour hearken more after your Preparatives than those for the next Campaign These last may possibly turn to our Confusion so uncertain are the Events of War but we know that whatever you undertake must prove Glorious to England and tho' the French may meet with Success in the Field by you we are sure to Conquer them In War there are a thousand unlook'd-for Accidents which happens every Day and Fortune appears no where more like her self but in a Combat of Wit the more Humane Contention and the more Glorious Quarrel Merit will be always sure to prevail And therefore tho' I can but hope that the Confederate Forces will give Chase to De Lorge and Luxemburgh I am very confident that Boileau and Racine will be forced to submit to you Judge therefore if I who very much love my Country and who so much esteem you must not with a great deal of Impatience expect to hear from you I am Sir your most humble Servant To Mr. Dryden Dear Sir YOu may see already by this presumptuous Greeting that Encouragement gives us as much Assurance to Friendship as it imparts to Love You may see too that a Friend may sometimes proceed to acknowledge Affection by the very same Degrees by which a Lover declares his Passion This last at first confesses Esteem yet owns no Passion but Admiration But as soon as he is animated by one kind Expression his Look his Style and his very Soul are altered but as Sovereign Beauties know very well that he who confesses he Esteems and Admires them implies that he Loves them or is enclin'd to Love them a Person of Mr. Dryden's exalted Genius can discern very well that when we Esteem him highly 't is Respect restrains us if we say no more For where great Esteem is without Affection 't is often attended with Envy if not with Hate which Passions detract even when they commend and Silence is their highest Panegyric 'T is indeed impossible that I should refuse to Love a Man who has so often given me all the Pleasure that the most insatiable Mind can desire when at any time I have been dejected by Disappointments or tormented by cruel Passions the Recourse to your Verses has calm'd my Soul or rais'd it to Transports which made it contemn Tranquility But tho' you have so often given me all the Pleasure I was able to bear I have reason to complain of you on this account that you have confin'd my Delight to a narrower Compass Suckling Cowley and Denham who formerly ravish'd me in ev'ry part of them now appear Tastless to me in most and Waller himself with all his Gallantry and all that admirable Art of his Turns appears three quarters Prose to me Thus 't is plain that your Muse has done me an Injury but she has made me Amends for it For she is like those extraordinary Women who besides the Regularity of their charming Features besides their engaging Wit have secret unaccountable enchanting Graces which tho' they have been long and often enjoy'd make them always New and always Desirable I return you my hearty Thanks for your most obliging Letter I had been very unreasonable if I had repin'd that the Favour arriv'd no sooner 'T is allowable to grumble at the Delaying a Payment but to murmur at the Deferring a Benefit is to be impudently Ungrateful beforehand The Commendations which you give me exceedingly sooth my Vanity For you with a Breath can bestow or confirm Reputation a whole numberless People proclaims the Praise which you give and the Judgments of three mighty Kingdoms appear to depend upon yours The People gave me some little Applause before but to whom when they are in Humour will they not give it and to whom when they are Froward will they not refuse it Reputation with them depends upon Chance unless they are guided by those above them They are but the Keepers as it were of the Lottery which Fortune sets up for Renown upon which Fame is bound to attend with her Trumpet and Sound when Men draw the Prizes Thus I had rather have your Approbation than the Applause of Fame Her Commendation argues Good Luck but Mr. Dryden's implies Desert Whatever low Opinion I