Stowhill. So never grieve about me. Only flatulencies are come again.

Your differtation upon Queeney is very deep. I know not what to fay to the chief queftion. Nature probably has fome part in

human characters, and accident has fome part; which has moft we will try to fettle when we

meet.

Small letters will undoubtedly gain room for more words, but words are useless if they cannot be read. The lines need not all be kept diftinct, and fome words I fhall wish to leave out, though very few. It must be revised before it is engraved. I always told you that Mr. Thrale was a man, take him for all in all, ne'er will look upon his like; but you never mind him nor me, till time forces conviction into your fteely bofom. You will, perhaps, find all right about the house and the windows.

you

Pray always fuppofe that I send my respects to Master, and Queeney, and Harry, and Sufey, and Sophy.

Poor Lucy mends very flowly, but she is very good-humoured, while I do just as she would have me.

Lady Smith has got a new post-chaise, which is not nothing to talk on at Lichfield. Little things here ferve for conversation. Mrs. Afton's parrot pecked my leg, and I heard of it fome time after at Mrs. Cobb's.

We deal in nicer things

Than routing armies and dethroning kings.

A week ago Mrs. Cobb gave me sweetmeats to breakfast, and I heard of it last night at Stowhill.

If you are for fmall talk:

Come on, and do the best you can,

I fear not you, nor yet a better man.

I could tell you about Lucy's two cats, and Brill her brother's old dog, who is gone deaf; but the day would fail me. Suadentque cadentia fidera fomnum. So faid Eneas. But I have not yet had my dinner. I have begun early,

for what would become of the nation if a letter of this importance should miss the post? Pray write to, dearest Madam,

Your, &c.

LETTER CXV.

To Mrs. THRAL E.

DEAR MADAM,

Lichfield, June 21, 1775-1

ow I hope you are thinking, fhall I have

Now

you

a letter to-day from Lichfield? Something of a letter you will have; how elfe can I expect that fhould write? and the morning on which I should miss a letter would be a morning of uneasiness, notwithstanding all that would be faid or done by the fifters of Stowhill, who do and fay whatever good they can. They give me good words, and cherries, and strawberries. Lady * * * * and her mother and fifter were vifiting there yefterday, and Lady * **** took her tea before her mother.

Mrs. Cobb is to come to Mifs Porter's this afternoon. Mifs A comes little near me. Mr. Langley of Afhbourne was here to-day, in his way to Birmingham, and every body talks of you.

VOL. I.

R

The

The ladies of the Amicable Society are to walk, in a few days, from the town-hall to the cathedral in proceffion to hear a fermon. They walk in linen gowns, and each has a stick with an acorn, but for the acorn they could give no reason, till I told them of the civick

crown.

I have just had your fweet letter, and am glad that you are to be at the regatta. You know how little I love to have you left out of any fhining part of life. You have every right to diftinction, and fhould therefore be diftinguished. You will fee a fhow with philofophick fuperiority, and therefore may fee it fafely. It is eafy to talk of fitting at home contented, when others are feeing or making fhows. But not to have been where it is suppofed, and feldom fuppofed falfely, that all would go if they could; to be able to say nothing when every one is talking; to have no opinion when every one is judging; to hear exclamations of rapture without power to deprefs; to liften to falfehoods without right to contradict, is, after all, a ftate of temporary inferiority, in which the mind is rather hardened by stubbornness, than fupported by fortitude. If the world be worth winning, let us enjoy it; if it is to be despised, let us de

fpife it by conviction. But the world is not to be despised but as it is compared with fomething better. Company is in itself better than folitude, and pleasure better than indolence. Ex nihilo nihil fit, fays the moral as well as natural philofopher. By doing nothing and by knowing nothing no power of doing good can be obtained. He muft mingle with the world that defires to be useful. Every new fcene impreffes new ideas, enriches the imagination, and enlarges the power of reason, by new topicks of comparison. You that have seen the regatta will have images which we who mifs it muft want, and no intellectual images are without ufe. But when you are in this fcene of fplendour and gayety, do not let one of your fits of negligence steal upon you. Hoc age, is the great rule whether you are ferious or merry; whether you are stating the expences of your family, learning science or duty from a folio, or floating on the Thames in a fancied drefs. Of the whole entertainment let me not hear fo copious nor so true an account from any body as from

I am, dearest Madam,

you.

Your, &c.