which he will return home in full fatisfaction, and in

proper time die in peace.

My poetical fountain is drained; and I profefs I grow gradually fo dry, that a rhyme with me is almost as hard to find as a guinea; and even profe fpeculations tire me almost as much. Yet I have a thing in profe, begun above twenty-eight years ago, and almost finished. It will make a four-fhilling volume; and is fuch a perfection of folly, that you fhall never hear of it till it is printed, and then you shall be left to guess*. Nay I have another + of the fame age, which will require a long time to perfect, and is worse than the former, in which I will ferve you the fame way. I heard lately from Mr -,who promises to be lefs lazy in order to mend his fortune. But women who live by their beauty, and men by their wit, are feldom provident enough to confider, that both wit and beauty will go off with years, and there is no living upon the credit of what is past.

I am in great concern to hear of my Lady Bolingbroke's ill health returned upon her; and, I doubt, my Lord will find Dawley too folitary without her. In that, neither he nor you are companions young enough for me; and I believe the best part of the reason why men are faid to grow children when they are old, is, because they cannot entertain themselves with thinking; which is the very cafe of little boys and girls, who love to be noify among their play-fellows. I am told Mrs Pope is without pain; and I have not heard of a more gentle decay, without uneafinefs to herself or friends: yet I cannot but pity you, who are ten times the greater fufferer, by having the perfon you most love, fo long before you, and dying daily; and I pray God it may not affect your mind or your health.

VOL. IV.

N

LET

-Polite converfation, vol. 7. † Directions to fervants, vol. 73

Dec. 5. 1732.

T is not a time to complain that you have not anfwered me two letters, (in the laft of which I was impatient under fome fears). It is not now indeed a time to think of myself, when one of the neareft and longest ties I have ever had, is broken all on a fudden, by the unexpected death of poor Mr Gay. An inflammatory fever hurried him out of this life in three days. He died last night at nine o'clock, not deprived of his fenfes entirely at laft, and poffeffing them perfectly till within five hours. He afked of you a few hours before, when in acute torment by the inflammation in his bowels and breast. His effects are in the Duke of Queenfberry's cuftody. His fifters, we fuppofe, will be his heirs, who are two widows; as yet it is not known whether or no he left a will.- -Good God! how often are we to die before we go quite off this ftage? in every friend we lose a part of ourselves, and the best part. God keep thofe we have left! few are worth praying for, and one's felf the leaft of all.

I fhall never fee you now, I believe; one of your principal calls to England is at an end. Indeed he was the most amiable by far, his qualities were the gentleft; but I love you as well and as firmly. Would to God the man we have loft had not been fo amiable, nor fo good! but that's a wish for our own fakes, not for his.. Sure, if innocence and integrity can deferve happiness, it must be his. Adieu. I can add nothing to what you will feel, and diminish nothing from it. Yet write to me, and foon. Believe no man now living loves you better, 1 believe no man ever did, than

A. POPE.

DR

* "On my dear friend Mr Gay's death. Received December "15 but not read till the 20th, by an impulfe, foreboding fone "misfortune." [This note is indorfed on the original letter Dr Swift's hand]. Pope.

DR Arbuthnot, whofe humanity you know, heartily commends himself to you. All poffible diligence and affection has been shown, and continued attendance, on this melancholy occafion. Once more adieu, and write to one who is truly difconfolate.

P. S. BY DR ARBUTHNOT.

Dear SIR,

I am forry that the renewal of our correfpondence fhould be upon fuch a melancholy occafion. Poor Mr Gay died of an inflammation, and, I believe, at last a mortification of the bowels. It was the most precipitate case I ever knew, having cut him off in three days. He was attended by two phyficians befides myself. I believed the diftemper mortal from the beginning. I have not had the pleasure of a line from you these two years; I wrote one about your health, to which I had no answer. I wish you all health and happiness; being, with great affection and refpect, Sir,

LETTER LXIV:

Your, &c.

Dublin, 1732-3.

Received yours with a few lines from the Doctor, and the account of our lofing Mr Gay; upon which event I fhall fay nothing. I am only concerned that long living hath not hardened me: for even in this kingdom, and in a few days paft, two perfons of great merit, whom I loved very well, have died in the prime of their years, but a little above thirty. I would endeavour to comfort myself upon the lofs of friends, as I do upon the lofs of money; by turning to my accounthook, and feeing whether I have enough left for my fupport: but in the former cafe I find I have not, any more than in the other; and I know not any man who is in a greater likelihood than myself to die poor and friendless. You are a much greater lofer than me by his death, as being a more intimate friend, and often Vas companion; which latter I could never hope to be, Naza

except

except perhaps once more in my life for a piece of a fummer. I hope he hath left you the care of any wrings he may have left; and I wish, that, with thofe already extant, they could be all published in a fair edition under your infpection. Your poem on the ufe of riches hath been juft printed here; and we have no objection but the obfcurity of feveral paffages by our ignorance in facts and perfons, which makes us lofe abundance of the fatire. Had the printer given me notice, I would have honestly printed the names at length, where I happened to know them; and writ explanatory notes; which however would have been but few, for my long abfence hath made me ignorant of what paffes out of the scene where I am. I never had the least hint from you about this work, any more than of your former, upon taste. We are told here, that you are preparing other pieces of the fame bulk to be inscribed to other friends, one (for inftance) to my Lord Bolingbroke, another to Lord Oxford, and fo on.- -Dr Delany prefents you his most humble fervice. He behaves him felf very commendably; converfes only with his former friends, makes no parade, but entertains them constantly at an elegant plentiful table; walks the streets, as ufual, by day light; does many acts of charity and generofity; cultivates a country-house two miles diftant; and is one of thofe very few within my knowledge, on whom a great accefs of fortune hath made no manner of change. And particularly he is often without money, as he was before. We have got my Lord Orrery among us, being forced to continue here on the ill condition of his estate by the knavery of an agent. He is a moft worthy gentleman, whom, I hope, you will be acquainted with. I am very much obliged by your favour to Mr P; which I defire may continue no longer than he shall deferve by his modefty; a virtue I never knew him to want, but is hard for young men to keep, without abundance of ballaft. If you are acquainted with the Duchefs of Queenfberry, I defire you will prefent her my most humble fervice. I think he is a greater lofer by the death of a friend than either of She feems a Lady of excellent fenfe and fpirit. I had often poffcripts from her in our friend's letters

us.

me;

me; and her part was fometimes longer than his, and they made up great part of the little happiness I could have here. This was the more generous, because I never faw her fince fhe was a girl of five years old, nor did I envy poor Mr Gay for any thing fo much as being. a domeftic friend to fuch a lady.. I defire you will ne-ver fail to fend me a particular account of your health. I dare hardly inquire about Mrs Pope, who, I am told, is but juft among the living, and confequently a conti nual grief to you: fhe is fenfible of your tenderness; which robs her of the only happiness fhe is capable of enjoying. And yet I pity you more than her; you can, not lengthen her days, and I beg she may not fhorten

yours..

I

Feb. 16. 1732-37

T is indeed impoffible to speak on fuch a fubject as the lofs of Mr Gay, to me an irreparable one. But I fend you what I intend for the infcription on his tomb, which the Duke of Queensberry will fet up at Weftminfter. As to his writings, he left no will, nor fpoke a word of them, or any thing elfe, during his. fhort and precipitate illness, in which I attended him to his lat breath. The Duke has acted more than the part of a brother to him; and it will be ftrange if the fifters do not leave his papers totally to his difpofal, who will do the fame that I would with them. He has managed the comedy (which our poor friend gave to the playhouse the week before his death) to the utmost advantage for his relations; and propofes to do the fame with fome fables he left finished..

THERE is nothing of late which I think of more than mortality, and what you mention, of collecting the best monuments we can of our friends, their own images in their writings; for those are the beft, when their minds are fuch as Mr Gay's was, and as yours is. I am preparing alfo for my own; and have nothing fo much at heart, as to fhew the filly world, that men of wit, or even poets, may be the most moral of mankind. A few

N 3

loofe