Epistolary correspondence. Letters from August 1714, to September 1724

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Archibald Constable and Company Edinburgh; White, Cochrane, and Company and Gale, Curtis, and Fenner, London; and John Cumming, Dublin., 1814

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Page 471 - In happy climes, the seat of innocence, Where nature guides and virtue rules, Where men shall not impose for truth and sense The pedantry of courts and schools: There shall be sung another golden age, The rise of empire and of arts, The good and great inspiring epic rage, The wisest heads, and noblest hearts.
Page 483 - And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel ? God forbid : as the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground ; for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan, that he died not.
Page 204 - The Earl of Oxford was removed on Tuesday,— " the Queen died on Sunday! What a world is " this, and how does Fortune banter us !" says Bolingbroke.* * Letter to Swift, Aug.
Page 100 - he shall not begin to print till I have a thousand guineas for him.' Lord Treasurer, after leaving the Queen, came through the room, beckoning Dr. Swift to follow him, — both went off just before prayers.
Page 248 - Poor philosopher Berkeley has now the idea]- of health, which was very hard to produce in him ; for he had an idea of a strange fever upon him so strong, that it was very hard to destroy it by introducing a contrary one.
Page 100 - if the courtiers give me a watch that won't go right?' Then he instructed a young nobleman that the best poet in England was Mr. Pope (a Papist), who had begun a translation of Homer into English verse, for which, he said, he must have them all subscribe. 'For,' says he, 'the author shall not begin to print till I have a thousand guineas for him.
Page 257 - I am naturally no very exact correspondent, and, when I leave a country without a probability of returning, I think as seldom as I can of what I loved or esteemed in it, to avoid the desiderium which of all things makes life most uneasy. But you must give me leave to add one thing, that you talk at your ease, being wholly unconcerned in public events : for, if your friends the Whigs continue, you may hope for some favour ; if the Tories return3, you are at least sure of quiet.
Page 99 - Esq., going in with the red bag to the Queen, and told him aloud he had something to say to him from my Lord Treasurer.
Page 191 - I may prevail to renew your licence of absence, conditionally you will be present with me ; for to-morrow morning I shall be a private person. When I have settled my domestic affairs here, I go to Wimple ; thence, alone, to Herefordshire. If I have not tired you tete a tete, fling away so much time upon one, who loves you.
Page 142 - ... between twelve and one. At eight we have some bread and butter and a glass of ale, and at ten he goes to bed. Wine is a stranger, except a little I sent him ; of which, one evening in two, we have a pint between us. His wife has been this month twenty miles off, at her father's, and will not return these ten days. I never saw her ; and perhaps the house will be worse when she comes. I read all day, or walk, and do not speak as many words as I have now writ in three days...

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