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The next day the King played in the presence, and, as good or ill luck seldom comes alone, the bridegroom, that ihrew for the King, had the good fortune to win 1000l. which he had for bís pains.

1787, Feb.

LV. The Earl of Buchan's Address to his learned Correspondents.

MR. NICHOLS,

March 10. I HAVE sent you inclosed an address to my learned correspondents, which will sufficiently explain the intention of it; and I wish it to be inserted in the foreign journals, and in the most respectable periodical publications at home. I consider the Gentleman's Magazine, under your direction, as one of them : and there it may appear

when you per, and thence it will readily be copied by the printers of the foreign journals at Paris, &c. &c. &c. I am, Sir, with great regard, your obedient humble servant,

BUCHAN.

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Omnibus Literatis et domi et foris, qui Epistolas ad me trans

mittere haud dedignati sunt. BUCHANIÆ COMES, S. P. D. Viginti abhinc annis me literis penitus dedi, et post moram forsan vimis diuturnam in Edinburgo Scotiæ urbe primaria, ut veri investigandi, et cum doctioribus colloquendi, mihi esset facultas, valetudinis cura mihi suadet rusticari.

Non me latent tamen commoda et voluptas, quæ ab hoc literarum jucundo commercio accepi, et in hoc secessu vivere vellein, nec oblitus meorum nec illis obliviscendus, quorum ope et auxilio, reipublicæ, quantum in me fuit, inservire a prima adolescentia conatus sum.

Ita natura comparatum est, ut qui sitiunt, ad eos potissimuin confugiant, qui sitim relevare possunt, ideoque vos obsecrare mihi liceat ut scribendi labor delectabilis permaneat, et ut lux illa quæ forem ætatis meæ illustravit usque ad ætatis flexum sit splendidior, in gratiam terræ hujus quam incolimus, et cujus suinma est et erit ambitio, me civem fuisse non prorsus inutilem;

“ Non mihi sed toti genitum me credere mundo."

Ad impensas vestras minuendas a tributo literario, et de nugis meis plus onerati quam honorati sitis, hanc supplicationem meam in actis publicis inserendam curavi lingua Latina, sermone eruditorum peculiari, præscriptionis jure, ut cum jurisconsultis loquar, quo profanum arcemus vulgus.

Historia, philosophia, et artes humaniores mihi præcipue arrident, in quibus progressus qualescunque facere cupio sub auspiciis vestris.

Prelum typographicum in animo est, rus mecum portare. Nihil inde emittetur, quod non spectat ad reipublicæ emolumentum et civium veram felicitatem, superstitioni et rebus politicis ut in hac insula vocantur, sub pretextu libertatis, catenas injicere insra prelum, fixum et ratum est.

Multi Libri MSS. pretiosi blattarum et tinearum epulæ, in doctorum et indoctorum scriniis jacent sepulti : ea nunquam compilabit bibliopolarum societas, quos non scientiæ ardor sed lucrum semper sollicitabat.

Multæ etiam epistolæ gravissimæ, a viris doctis scriptæ, post literas xv sæculo instauratas, in eodem sunt statu mox perituræ.

Tullij et Plinij Epistolæ injuriam temporis, et superstitionis, feliciter eraserunt, quarum præstantia, et utilitas causa est cur alias antiquorum desideremus, quibus certiores facti essemus non tantum de vita privata Græcorum et Romanorum, sed de irradiantibus ingenij scintillis, quæ melius splendore extemporali illustrantur, quam ponderosis voluminibus, quæ prelum unicum debent industriæ et labori; sed ad rem redeamus. Pergite, amici honoratissimi, mecum sententias vestras communicare. Me nec ingratum, nec immemorem unquam invenietis. Benevolentia vestra, quam expertus sum, mihi iterum roganti, ut spero, non deerit.

Epistolæ quæ a regionibus exteris veniunt, more solito mittendæ sunt ad Georgium Dempsterum, virum dignissimum, unum ex senatu inferiori in publicis regni Comitijs, libertatis et virtutis vindicem strennum, vel ad meipsum in Scotia. Denique promitto et spondeo me ea amicitia, quae omnes in studijs humanitatis ac literarum versantes, qui ubi. que sunt, connectere et conjungere debet, fore vobis devinctum. Apud Cænobium de Dryburgh, vi ante Kal. Februarii,

Anno S. MDCCLXXXVII. 1787, March.

LVI. Letters from Sir Richard Steele to bis second lady (Mrs.

Mary Scurlocke) before Marriage.

LETTER I

MADAM,

Aug. 14, 1707. I CAME to your house this night to wait on you ; but you have commanded me to expect the happiness of seeing you at another time of more leisure. I am now under your own roof while I write ; and that imaginary satisfaction of being so near you, though not in your presence, has in it something that touches me with so tender ideas, that it is impossible for me to describe their force. All great passion makes us dumb; and the highest happiness, as well as highest grief, seizes us too violently to be expressed by our words.

You are so good as to let me know I shall have the honour of seeing you when I next come here. I will live upon that expectation, and meditate on your perfections till that happy hour. The vainest woman upon earth never saw in her glass balf the attractions which I view in you. Your

I air, your shape, your every glance, motion, and gesture, have such peculiar graces, that you possess my whole soul, and I know no life but in the hopes of your approbation : I know not what to say, but that I love you with the sincerest pas sion that ever entered the heart of man. I will make it the business of my life to find out means of convincing you that I prefer you to all that is pleasing upon earth. I am, Ma

. dam, your most obedient, most faithful humble servant,

R. STEELE.

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LETTER II.

MADAM,

Lord Sunderland's Office, 1707. With what language shall I address my lovely fair, to acquaint her with the sentiments of an heart she delights to torture? I have not a minute's quiet out of your sight; and, when I am with you, you use me with so much distance, that I am still in a state of absence heightened with a view of the charms which I am denied to approach. In a word, you must give me either a fan, a mask, or a glove, you have wore, or I cannot live; otherwise you must expect I'll hiss your hand, or, when I next sit by you, steal your handkerchief. You yourself are too great a bounty to be received at once; therefore I must be prepared by degrees, lest the mighty gift distract nie with joy. Dear Mrs. Scurlocke, I ain tired with calling you by that name; therefore say the day in wbich you will take that of, Madam, your most obedient, most devoted humble servant,

R. STEELE.
LETTER III.
MADAM,

Aug. 22, 1707* If my vigilance, and ten thousand wishes for your welfare and repose, could have any force, you last night slept in security, and had every good angel in your attendance. To have my thouglıts ever fixed on you, to live in constant fear of every accident to which human life is liable, and to send up my hourly prayers to avert them from you ; I say, Madam, thus to think, and thus to suffer, is what I do for her who is in pain at my approach, and calls all my tender sorrow impertinence. You are now before my eyes, my eyes that are ready to flow with tenderness, but cannot give relief to my gushing heart, that dictates what I am now saying, and yearns to tell you all its achings. How art thou, oh my soul, stolen from thyself! how is all thy attention broken! My books are blank paper, and my friends intruders. I have no hope of quiet but from your pity : to grant it, would make more for your triumph. To give pain, is the tyranny, to make happy, the true enipire, of beauty. If you would consider aright, you would find an agreeable change, in dismissing the attendance of a slave, to receive the complaisance of a companion. I bear the former, in hopes of the latter condition. As I live in chains without murmuring at the power which inflicts them, so I could enjoy freedom without forgetting the mercy that gave it. Dear Mrs. Scurlocke, the life which you bestow on me shall be no more my own. I am, your most devoted, most obedient servant,

R. STEELE.
LETTER IV.
MADAM,

Aug. 30, 1707.
I beg pardon that my paper is not finer, but I am forced

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* This date is in part cut out, and supplied with “ Aug. 9, 1671." Over “ Madam,” at the beginning, Mrs. S. has written “ Andromache,' and substituted “ Madam" for dear “ Mrs. Scuflocke" at the eud,

to write from a coffee-house, where I am attending about business. There is a dirty crowd of busy faces all around me, talking of money; while all my ambition, all my wealth, is love! Love which animates my heart, sweetens my humour, enlarges my soul, and affects every action of my life. It is to my lovely charmer I owe, that many noble ideas are continually affixed to my words and actions ; it is the natural effect of that generous passion, to create in the admirer some similitude of the object admired. Thus, my dear, am I every day to improve from so sweet a companion. Look up, my fair-one, to that Heaven which made thee such, and join with me to implore its influence on our tender innocent hours, and beseech the author of love, to bless the rites he has ordained, and mingle with our happiness a just sense of our transient condition, and a resignation to his will, which only can regulate our minds to a steady endeavour to please him and each other. I am for ever your faithful servant, 1787, April.

R. Steele.

LVII. Letters from Ephraim Chambers.

MR. URBAN, THE Dictionary of Mr. Chambers has so widely diffused his fame, that I have no doubt but some original letters of his will give pleasure to many of your readers. I send you two of them by way of specimen, which were written during a journey in France; and will send you more, if these are thought worth inserting:

Yours, &c.

M. GREEN

LETTER I.

To Mrs. Chambers.

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Madam,

Paris, Oct. 21, 1738, N. S. I did not think to have given you the trouble of a letter til I had something agreeable to write. You have had a sufficient share of illness yourself to exempt you from being harrassed with the complaints of others. But as you laid me under an engagement to write to you, I know not whether I can any longer fairly delay it. You will be surprized, when I tell you, that Paris seems to me the dullest

VOL. IIL

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