thou preparing to inflict on a dissolute world! that thou callest out of it the servant who is best prepared to promote thy blessed desire of making it wise and virtuous, and by them happy! but he is going to enjoy the reward of his goodness. If there is a God (and that there is, all Nature cries aloud in all her works), he must delight in such worth, such love for truth, such resignation, such active virtue; and that which he delights in, must be happy; happier than this world can make it, though he was happy here. Our present blessings are all that justice can require; but are not equal to the bounty of infinite goodness! What good man, that had it in his power to reward such worth, but would rejoice in doing it? and doth any mortal presume to think he loves virtue more than God doth? what he would, he can reward; and what he can, he wills. He who gave us being, when nothing but his own kindness prompted him, will be solicited more strongly to continue it on so much worth, and to one who so amiably resembled him. But why do my thoughts run on into such meditations? I know not how; recollecting such assurances, is the natural resource of a mind oppressed by the loss of a friend he loved; it is our only * * * * * I had almost forgot to say, that I left London on Monday; but my thoughts are too much engaged, to think of any thing but the poor doctor. I know you will be equally concerned with us. You knew him as well; and your goodness loved equally his virtue. Madam, yours, sincerely. LETTER VIII. DR. THOMAS RUNDLE TO MRS. SANDYS. MADAM, . 1729. SINCE you are so good as not to insist on my paying you the debt of honour (for such surely are promises) till I come to Durham, I will endeavour then to be honest, and return you thankfully both the principal and interest; though it is an odd sort of payment, which will doubly increase my debt to you by your receiving it. I ought to have thanked you sooner for your last; but hoping to get every post more time, I have squandered what I had, and am obliged now to write, not only in a hurry, but in company. You do not well to compare your manner of writing to the workings of the spider, though nothing can so fully express the native treasures and untaught art that adorn your mind. I remember the Egyptian writers in hieroglyphics thought it fit to represent the Creator, who produced all from himself, and was conscious of every thing which touched any part of this offspring of his power; and as much as I admire you, I will not allow you to apply to yourself what hath been consecrated before, to so peculiar a subject; though if any had a right, it would be one that makes it the amiable duty of life to resemble the Great Mind in a much more lively manner than can be expressed by that figured language. Mrs. Sayer begs your pardon for omitting to thank Mrs. Sandys for her lam. preys, and assure her that nothing was ever better; but do not wonder that she forgot it; when she was writing, she was too full of you, to think even of your presents: and this, lord archbishop of Cambray says, is the true spirit of devotion when applied to an higher object; to be in that transport of admiration at his perfections, which will even obscure his very bounties, and make his infinite kindness unregarded and unthought on; and it is no wonder if sincere friendship humbly imitates that noble natural working of the heart, which is only friendship sublimed and enlarged, and only differs from it as a rivulet doth from the ocean. My lord and Mrs. Talbot are extremely well, and preparing to remove into their sweet retirement; but sweet as it is, it will be no-ways agreeable, till you animate the groves and meadows with a music which is more delightful than that of nightingales, your conversation.- -Spadille calls, and I must obey; that pretended enemy, yet truest friend to idleness! that tyrant to destroy the only joy of company, even whilst he boasts of his being sociable! I may rail, but he will triumph over me, and because I hate him, he punishes me, but the loss of time is worse than that of money; but here is none but a Parthian victory to be obtained over him, and I hope next Monday to conquer by flying from him. I carry down with me the son of the solicitor*; if my conversation can be of any service to him I shall rejoice; for I would not live any longer than I could William, late earl Talbot. get opportunities to show my gratitude to that family, to which I owe all the happiness and dignity of my life. He is perfectly sober and innocent, and I would animate those blank virtues with sentiments of honour, and a noble zeal and ardour for the brave virtues, from whence arises the splendour and usefulness of large fortunes, without which the enjoyment of them is only a gaudy idleness. Spadille, I come! I am unwillingly torn from you; but I will still interrupt his diversion, and suspend his eagerness, till I have assured you, that I shall receive no pleasure at Durham so great as hearing from you, and thanking you for your letters. I am your most sincere, &c. LETTER IX. DR. THOMAS RUNDLE TO MRS. SANDYS. MADAM, 1729. I COULD not suffer my servant to go to Miserden, without thanking you for the entertainment you gave us there, which had every thing in it that could make life delightful; and though your table was with the most elegant ease covered with the greatest variety, yet the low pleasures which the art of cookery can pretend to bestow, are not thought of when we reflect on the happiness we enjoyed in your retirement. Conversation, which Milton rightly calls the food of the soul, was the noble feast, and angels themselves would not think it below them to partake of, and enjoy an enter tainment, which was composed of wisdom and virtue. My friend hath left me, and though I am still with other friends, whom gratitude and inclination make me love, yet I know not how he hath so taken possession of my heart, that his presence is not only the highest pleasure to me itself, like the beholding of sunshine, but like that, necessary also to make me view and receive pleasure from all other the most beloved objects. My lord continues well, but methinks his air hath not that serene complacence in it that we admired at Miserden; there was something then that shed a gladness over his countenance, and enlightened his features; his look differs from what it then appeared, as a landscape viewed in the shade doth from the same landscape beheld in the brightest day. He desires that you would be so good as to send him some of your rob of elder; a medicine of which he is extremely fond, and of which I have the meanest opinion; but if the juice itself hath no virtue, expectation may add some to it; and as many have found relief from an hearty good opinion, as from a natural efficacy; and if good is received, it is no matter whether it be from the drugs or our own fancy. When I return to London, I hope to be able to furnish out a letter of diversion for you; this place affords no accounts but of the murders and assassinations of innocent hares and pheasants, which sport of death I have a perverse good-natare in me, which, though reason justifies, is unable to be subdued to approve of. If I could explain to my understanding that great mystery of natural re |