myself. Miss Pitt is in town, and so I have lost all hopes of seeing her here, which is a great mortification to me. I desire you will present my congratulations to Mrs. West, on the alliance Mr. Pitt makes with your family, the friend and the relation will be happily united in him. Adieu, my post-chaise waits.

I am, &c. &c.

ELIZ. MONTAGU.

To the Same.

My dear Cousin,

The 14th of November.

YOUR lively and agreeable letter bears no mark of the dull and gloomy month of November; I accept your greetings in my Joan-like character, but I make some doubt, whether I shall acquiesce in that of a pedlar; my disdain of it does not arise from pride, but you accuse me of the barbarous ignorance of giving gold

for bits of tin, glass beads, &c. I do not disown my esteem of trifles when they are brilliant cut, but to pay such prices for them as you mention, would only become those who have mines of gold. I am secured from this unequal traffic by my poverty of understanding, and were it much better stored, I should endeavour to carry on the commerce of conversation at an equal rate; for envy, as well as avarice, will murder where it suspects too great a treasure. As the Virtues and Graces, as well as Cupid and Hymen, will assist at Mr. Pitt's nuptials, I think he could not choose a better place for their celebration, than Wickham, their capital seat. I wish them many happy years together, and God bless them with health and every good; so much from an honest heart in plain prose, and homely phrase; what the Muses have to say on the occasion, we must wait to hear from you. I hope while you are at Croydon, the good Archbishop will animate you to defy that foul fiend, my Lord Bolingbroke: I believe I shall take some of Ward's sneezing

powder to clear my head of the impieties and impurities of his book. I am not satisfied with Mr. Warburton's answer, the levity shocks me, the indecency displeases me, the grossièreté disgusts me. I love to see the doctrine of Christianity defended by the spirit of Christianity. When absurdity is mixed with impiety, it ceases to be a jest. I can laugh at his Lordship's cavils at Mr. Locke, his envy to Plato, and all the old philosophers, but I could with great seriousness apply to him the words of his friend and poet, to the dunces :

'Tis yours a Bacon or a Locke to blame,
A Newton's genius, or a Milton's flame:
But oh! with one, immortal one dispense,
The source of Newton's light, or Bacon's sense.

But I must do his Lordship the justice to say, that what he wants in faith, he makes up in confidence, for after having assured you it is absurd to affirm God is just or good, he declares he is willing to trust the being whose attributes he cannot know, to dispose of him in another

world, not at all doubting that the supreme being will be good to him, without goodness, and just to him, without justice. He laughs at the faith of Abraham, and I should do so too if Abraham had disputed God's veracity, and then trusted to his promises. I never read such a heap of inconsistencies and contradictions, such a vain ostentation of learning, and if I dared, I would say it, all that can shew, "the trifling head or the corrupted heart." I think I may venture to say trifling, for whatever does not relate to the argument, is so, and to teize the gentle reader with all the miserable sophisms that perplexed the world two thousand years ago, is barbarous. I wanted to apply to him the epigram on Hearne, the antiquarian,

Fye on thee, quoth Time to Thomas Hearne,
Whatever I forget, you learn,

As well as I love travelling, I never desire to go into Greece with Lord Bolingbroke, to the rag fair of the ancient philosophers. I thank his Lordship though, for making me once more look into Mr. Locke and

Doctor Clarke, in the veneration of whom I believe I shall live and die. I am very glad that my amiable Miss Pitt was so good, as to regret that she could not come to Sandleford. I know her tender affection for her brother will make her rejoice to see him so happily settled, and that he has fixed his choice on a lady who will make her so agreeable a sister. Pray when you see Miss Pitt, say every thing that is kind and affectionate for me, you know you need not fear going beyond the truth. I find that you are likely to be at Chelsea before we get to town. Mr. Montagu talks to me of a wood, and a fall of water, and a serpentine river, and I know not what, that are quite out of season at present, but he does not yet tell me when we are to go to town, and I am tired of the vegetable world.

I am, &c. &c.

E. MONTAGU.