his biographers, that he visited Holland at an earlier period than 1744, has been already noticed.

"Leyden, April 7th, N. S. 1744.

"DEAR DYSON, At last I am in a condition to recollect myself sufficiently to write to you. Ever since I left you, I have been from hour to hour ingag'd by a succession of most trivial circumstances, and yet importunate enough to force my attention from those objects to which it most naturally and habitually inclines. I now begin to respire, and can fancy myself at Lincoln's Inn, meeting you after a very tedious absence of eight days, and telling the little occurrences I have met with; a story in other respects too inconsiderable to be repeated; but which, in repeating it to my friend, acquires an importance superior to the annals of a king's posterity.

"I went on board from Harwich on Thursday morning, and got ashore at Helvoetsluys just about the same time on Saturday. I was not in the least sick. I am now settled in Roebuck's chamber, the same house with Mr. Drew and Brocklesby. This last was the only one of my acquaintance I found here; and I dare say, if you were now to return to Leyden, you would think the acquaintance of those who have come hither since you went away, very, very far from compensating the loss of those whose conversation you had the happiness to injoy. There are not above

ten or twelve English, Scotch, and Irish now at Leyden.

"As I was in the street yesterday, Mr. Schwartz, who had been told by somebody or other that I was a friend of Mr. Dyson's, came up to me, and inquir'd very affectionately after you. I am just come from sitting the afternoon with him; he could hardly talk of any thing but you, yet complains that you neglect to write to him. He is uncertain whether he shall be in London this summer or not; but says he is very well acquainted with all the streets there, he has so carefully studied them in the map. I love the good nature and simplicity of his manners, and love his company more than anybody's in Leyden; for I see that whenever we are together, we shall fall a talking about you immediately.

1

"I have been with Mr. Gronovius and the Doctor, who make an excellent contrast, both as to their manners and studies; about the latter of these, they are constantly rallying and joking on each other. Mr. Gronovius shew'd me his Nicander, about which he has taken vast pains. He has above six hundred emendations of the text, and scholia, but wants an unpublish'd paraphrase of the author, which, it seems, is in a library at Vienna. He talks of making this little book as large as his last Ælian. I wish you could get the

1 i.e. Abraham Gronovius.

The "

Nicander" here men

tioned was never published.

Pindar, which I hear is probably by this time finish'd at Glasgow, in one volume, the same size and type with the Theophrastus. Mr. Brocklesby tells me of an edition of Shaftesbury in the press at Dublin, with new copperplates; to which a fourth_ volume will be added, consisting of the two epistolary pamphlets and unpublish'd letters of Ld. Molesworth to my master.

"I will not spend time in giving you my sentiments of Holland or Leyden, they are so intirely the same with what you express'd to me. One thing struck me very strongly, the absurd inconsistence between their ceremonious foppishness (miscalled politeness) and their gross insensibility to the true decorum in numberless instances, especially among the women. Such is their architecture, their painting, their music; such their dress, the furniture of their houses, the air of their chariots, and the countenance of their polity, - that, when I think of England, I cannot now help paying it the same veneration and applause which at London I thought due only to Athens, to Corinth, or to Syracuse. You, who know Holland, will excuse me for talking in this way, after so short a view of it as I have had; 2 because you

1 An allusion to the Preface to "Remarks on Occasional Reflections," &c., in which Warburton more than once calls Shaftesbury Akenside's "Master."

2 This passage decidedly proves that Akenside had not previously visited Holland.

!

know how obvious these appearances are, and how great an uniformity runs through the whole constitution of the country, natural and moral.

"Mr. Ready is well, and sends his service; as do all your other acquaintances. You will soon. see Mr. Drew, for he is a printing his Thesis, and takes London in his way home.

"Be so good as to present my compliments to Mrs. Dyson, Miss Dyson, and all the rest of your friends and mine. You will know whom I mean without a list of them; only, lest you should not think on them, allow me to mention Mr. Ward and Mr. Ramsay. And pray forget not to make my apology to Mr. Pickering; for I utterly forgot to call upon him at my leaving London, which has since vex'd me not a little.

"Be sure you write to me immediately. Let me know how you manage about the Basilica, and what information Mr. Ramsay has given you. If you call at Dodsley's, he will give you a copy of that answer to Warburton: I should be glad if you could send it inclos'd in your first letter, and if you could give me your opinion about Dr. Armstrong's Poem.1 Write me a very long letter, and direct it to Mc-Carthy's. I think I am rather freer than I should have been if boarding; tho', heaven knows, my pleasure at noon is meerly in dining, properly so call'd. Farewell, my friend, my good genius;

1 The Art of Preserving Health.

and, above all things, believe me for ever most affectionately, most intirely, only yours,

"M. AKINSIDE."

"Leyden, April 17th, N. S. 1744.

“DEAR MR. DYSON, — I had not been above four days at Leyden before two of my Edinburgh acquaintances, Mr. Austin and Mr. Hume, came hither from their winter quarters at Ghent, to make the tour of Holland. I was glad of the opportunity to go along with them, as I had no prospect of any company so desirable. At my return, I found your letter, by which I see we had been writing to each other precisely at the same time. I always was afraid you would be uneasy in waiting so long for a letter; and indeed I should have wrote directly from Helvoetsluys, but for a mistaken supposition that the post went from Leyden on Saturday night, and that consequently I should save no time by writing before I got to my journey's end. Would to God this may find you perfectly recover'd and in free spirits: I dare not, I cannot suffer my imagination to conceive otherwise. The whole day after we parted, I was dreading the consequence of your being abroad in so damp a morning, and lodging in that vile inn, at a time when your health was far from being confirm'd. In every other circumstance, I need not tell you what happiness your letter gave me. Believe me, my dear, my honour'd friend, I look