then I am credibly informed it will quickly be in jeopardy, but I am so exceeding cold at this present moment, that I am no more concerned about it than I was when the prediction was uttered.

You tell me you admire Mr. Hughes's preaching, and I am heartily glad to hear it, for I have so high an esteem for him, and for you, that I like both the better for this approbation. It is impossible to express my esteem for him, but I do not at all wonder at it, since it is chiefly owing to my conversation with him, that I am able to write what it does not disgust my Clio to read, and to tell her with any tolerable decency how much I am

Her most humble Admirer and obedient Servant,

CELADON.

I read your postscript with peculiar pleasure, because it informs me that you are grown fat. I heartily rejoice in whatever is agreeable to yourself, and is an indication of returning health and tranquillity, only I most earnestly beg, that you will take a prudent care of that most elegant shape, which, methinks, should ever remain unchanged.

TO MR. HUGHES,

MY DEAR FRIEND,

November 23, 1726.

I HEARTILY thank you for your most obliging and entertaining letter. It is a folly, and yet methinks, when I consider the good sense, the sprightliness, the fine feeling, and the friendship which breathe in every line, I may complain that the sheets are so small, and wish that you would write on royal paper, and use as many abbreviations as possible. I thank you for the verses you are to send me. I am exceedingly charmed with them, but must defer a more particular criticism till I have seen them! I do not intend that remark for flattery, nor merely for the wild stare of humour, for I know your manner of writing so well, that I can form a tolerable judgment of them before they come to my hand, and am as sure they are entertaining, as I am that they are yours.

I have not forgotten my engagement about Scott and Mr. Jennings's Divinity, but Mr. Benyon is gone into Scotland, and I believe he has taken Scott with him. Mr. Walford, who was beginning his course with Mr. Jennings a little before his death, is come to Harborough; and as I am to read over pneumatology and divinity to him, I cannot spare a copy of either till after Lady Day. I am in too much haste, to send you the rules of short hand, short as they are. I admire your essay exceedingly, and would never send you one of my own, were it not that I am sure that from your genius it may receive

considerable improvement, and that, if there be any thing valuable in it, it will be peculiarly agreeable to you, not only as I am your most affectionate friend, but as I am a writer whom you have contributed to form. Go on, my dear friend, still to improve me by your inimitable letters and sermons, and you will be secure of this, that as I shall be growing still more worthy of your friendship, so I shall still set the greater value upon it; for the wiser and better a being I am myself, the more charms shall I discern in my friend.

I am yours most affectionately,

P. DODDRIDGE.

Tuesday, one o'clock in the morning.

How well must I esteem a friend that keeps me out of a warm bed, in such cold weather, at so late an hour.

Mrs. Jennings, and twenty other friends at Harborough, who are acquainted with your name, give their service to you and long to see you.

Mrs. Hannah Clark sends me word that she heard you preach at St. Albans the last time she was there, and that it was as brilliant a sermon as she ever met with in her life. What right have you to charm my female friends! It is well that your reputation is as dear to me as my own, or else I know not how I should have borne it, and yet, how could you help it. To speak seriously, I should have little opinion of a woman whom you did not charm!

to

DEAR SIR,

you

TO MR. JOHN MASSEY.

Nov. 20, 1726.

I HEARTILY thank you and am exceedingly obliged for so speedy an answer to my last, and for the pains you have taken in transcribing the valuable memoir of your late brother. I read it with incomparable pleasure as being, not only the undoubted evidence of the grace of God in his own heart, but as the probable means of awakening religious impressions in others, who, when they review it, will necessarily form a most delightful idea of the excellent friend whom we have lost. Let it be our care to improve it as an additional engagement, most diligently to cultivate those gracious dispositions which appear so amiable in him, that so we may be prepared for the enjoyment of his society in that state of supreme felicity where he shines in new beauties of character, far superior to those which the most intimate, or the most ardent of his friends, could discover while he blessed our lower world.

You urge me to send you some directions upon the management of your studies. It argues a true generosity of soul, to desire knowledge, and a great deal of humility to suppose that I am capable of giving you any assistance in its pursuit. I might very justly excuse myself from the task by pleading my own incapacity to suggest any thing which a person of so much good sense, and so large an acquaintance with books and things, will not easily meet with, to

much greater advantage in reading or contemplation. But, lest you should think this, only a civil way of declining the trouble of writing, I will offer such plain hints as occur to my thoughts at present, for I had rather of the two, that you should censure my weakness, or if you please my vanity, in so readily yielding to your request, than that you should suspect me of an unwillingness to give it. Nay, I will honestly confess, that I have a little self-interest in the affair, as I hope to receive some considerable advantage by submitting my thoughts to your examination and correction. I beg, therefore, that you will send me your free sentiments upon every particular, so that if a friend, who really needs assistance, should ask my advice hereafter, I may suppress what Mr. Massey condemns, and propose the rest with the greater confidence when it has passed the approbation of so judicious a critic.

I am going to open a magnificent palace, of which I myself have as yet taken but a transient survey, without visiting half the apartments, or examining half the curiosities contained in either. But when I consider how rich the furniture is, and how exquisite a relish you have for the entertainment it contains, methinks I am afraid you should grow too fond of it, and therefore, sir, I must earnestly entreat you to endeavour to bring your studies under such regulations as that they may not be injurious to your health, your business, or your devotion.

I do not apprehend your constitution to be athletic, and if you should bear hard upon it by too close an