friend to the civil and religious rights of all mankind. With these qualities it would be ftrange indeed if he was not esteemed and beloved by all parties. The lovers of liberty abroad may envy the happiness of the church of England under his mild and prudent direction. How much then do we owe to that great man *, (the "keeper "of the king's confcience," as our laws, I think, ftyle him,) who first introduced and recommended Dr. Herring to his majefty!

I hope you will gratify the impatience of the public with your new work†; and

am,

Dear Sir,

Your affectionate friend and fervant,

W. DUNCOMBE.

Lord chancellor Hardwicke.

The hiftory of Sir Charles Grandifon.

*LETTER

* LETTER CL.

Mr. RICHARDSON to Mifs HIGHMORE .

London, Jan. 31, 1754

-"More geefe than fwans, more fools than wife”→

WAS not this a line in your copy-book

fifteen years ago, as it was in mine, fifty? Wonder you then, that there are more Sir Hargrave Pollexfens, than Sir Charles Grandifons?

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Affurance to contemn?" Why fo complaifant to the Sir Hargraves?

"Much admired by ladies more amia"ble than Cantillon, or lady Betty Wil"liams herself!" I don't know that. Those two ladies might have appeared in a better light, had not a Harriot, brought up by

*Now Mrs. J. Duncombe.

a Mrs.

a Mrs. Shirley and a Mrs. Selby, herself an excellent yet thén a fprightly girl,

been to give an account of them to thofe venerable ladies. But it is a charming partiality that my girl is culpable (I will not fay, guilty) of, when the judges more favourably of thofe fhe fees, than of those fhe reads. Yet, let me tell you, Madam, that thofe ladies, be they who they will, that admire men of the Pollexfen caft, must have a tincture of the Cantillon levity. There is a difference, my dear Mifs H. between bearing with men of light characters, and being diverted with them, and approving of them. Oil will mingle with oil, fweet or foetid; but either will refift the pureft water. And why? You know why. They are both of a nature, however fweet the one, fœtid the other.

When I recollect fome of the free things I have formerly written to my girl, I am extremely angry with myfelf. I believe I loved to blame rather than commend, fome years ago. Fie upon me, for my ill-nature, if

fo

fo-and vanity too-fetting up for a Mentor, when I was but a Momus. But do I grow better-natured, and fee clearer, as I grow older? I congratulate myself upon that, if I do. What admirable obfervations you make on the confequence it is for young perfons to be thrown early into good and improving company! I had a good mind to tranfcribe every word you write on this fubject, and to beg of you to let it pafs for my own. What a poor creature was I at your age! And you were always fo good; were you not? Yet I to endeavour formerly to turn beauties into blemifhes; and all the time, egregious felf-deceiver ! imagining that I loved to commend rather than blame. Lovelace, I remember, told me once, even Lovelace, that " young 66 women were more in danger from their companions and dependents of their own "fex, than from the wiles of men." You, from a purer mind, have improved the obfervation, as might be expected from a mind fo incomparably more pure.

But,

But, though I love you for your charity when you infer from premises very laudable, that we should make great allowanges in errors not grofsly immoral, for those who have not had the benefit of being accustomed in their youth to good and improving company, I cannot allow of the abatement you mention to be made, of the merit of those who have had "better" opportunities, and improved by them. I will not, my dear Mifs H. allow of your "level," in order to bring down to a "state of na "ture" those who owe their "merit to "actions that are the confequences of habi "tual virtue." Let us judge of merit and demerit, as they appear to us, from whatever fource they fpring; and not, my dear child, think it" affurance" to "contemn" the contemptible. We fhall then encourage merit, (too apt to be despised by such, in order to bring it down to their own level) and fhame (and, through fhame, have a chance to amend) the faulty, and make them aspire to be measured by the standard of the others. It is not to be imagined VOL. III. what

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