friendship? You know what attempts I have made to redeem this inequality, but all in vain till now. Now I flatter my self, that I have found a present to make you, that cannot provoke your generofity, tho' it were nicer and more fcrupulous than it is. I have now at length found a way to end most happily the only difference that has ever been between us in an uninterrupted friendship of near seventeen years. You fhall always be fortunate, always able to do kindneffes, and be in need of none; and I will always ftrive to vanquifh and furmount all the difadvantages of my fortune, and, in despite of them, find fome way to express my affection, and return your obligations. And thus, if I fall not fhort of my defign, I shall be equal with you: for 'tis no fmall fervice I propose to do you. I will now be your guide; I will conduct you, not as you have done me (tho' for that too I must ever thank you) through barren and impoverish'd Picardy; but through all the ways of pleafantnefs, and all the paths of peace; I

will give you a fight, not of France, but Canaan; I will make you a fharer of that immortality which I afpir'd to, and bring you to that heaven which is the facred abode of facred friendship and facred joys. What a dark cottage, what a rude heap will the now admir'd Versailles then feem to you? But see whether I have fuffer'd this paffion to transport me! How eafie is it for one, that follows the conduct of affection, to be rather obliging than difcreet? I had almost forgot how little you ftand in need of these kind helps; being not only a fufficient guide to your felfe, but a prudent and fuccessful one to others in the way to happiness. However, though you need no guide, I may serve you as the companion of your journey; may oblige you to quicken your pace; I may entertain you with reflections and remarks upon the country as we pass, and ever and anon mind you of the beauty and the pleasures of that country we travel to. These, and fuch like afsistances, the most perfect need: A 3 These

Thefe are the offices of the trueft friendship; and these, the papers I fend you, may, I hope, in fome measure perform.

Adieu,

TO THE

READE R.

I

T has pleafed God, that in a few years, I fhould finish the more pleasant ană delightful part of life, if fenfe were to be the judge and ftandard of pleasure; being confin'd (I will not say condemn'd) by well nigh utter blindness, to retirement and folitude. In this ftate converfation has loft much of its former air and brifkness: Business (wherein I could never pretend to any great address) gives me now more trouble than formerly; and that too, without the ufual dispatch or fuccefs. Study (which is the only employment left me) is clogg'd with this weight and incumbrance; that all the affiftance I can receive from without must be convey'd by another's fenfe, not my own; which, it may eafily be believ'd, are inftruments or organs as ill fitted, and as awkwardly manag'd by me, as wooden legs and hands by the maim'd.

In this cafe, fhould I affect to procure my felf a decent Funeral, and leave an honourable remembrance of me behind; fhould I ftruggle to ref cue my felf from that contempt to which this condition (wherein I may feem loft to the world and my felf) expofes me; fhould I ambitioufiy affect to have my name march in the train of thofe All (though not all equally) great ones, Homer, Appius, Cn. Aufidius, Didymus, Walkup, Pere Jean l'Aveugle, &c. all of them eminent for their fervice and usefulness, as for their affliction of the fame kind with mine; even this might feem almost a commendable infirmity: for the last thing a mind truly great and philofophical puts off, is, the defire of glory. Hence Tacitus (Hift. Lib. 4.) clofes his divine character of Helvidius Prifcus thus; Erant quibus appetentior fama videretur, quando etiam fapientibus cupido gloriæ noviffima exuitur. But this treatise oweth neither its conception nor birth to this principle; for, befides that I know my own infufficiency too well to flatter my felf with the hopes of a romantick immortality from any performance of mine, in this ingenious and learned age; I must confefs, I never had a foul great enough to be acted by the heroick heat, which the love of fame and honour bath kindled in fome.

Tut