Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12.djvu/280

day, and had the honour to be called in, and prettily chid for leaving off, &c. The first part of the discourse was about you, Mr. Pope, Curll, and myself. My family are well: they, and my brother in France, and one that is here, all give their service to you. If you had been so lucky as to have gone to Paris last summer, you would have had health, honour, and diversion in abundance; for I will promise, you would have recovered of the spleen. I shall add no more, but my kindest wishes, and that I am, with the greatest affection and respect, yours, &c.

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FROM MONSIEUR VOLTAIRE.

In London, Maiden Lane, at the White Peruke,

Covent Garden, Dec. 14, 1727.

SIR,

YOU will be surprised in receiving an English essay^[1] from a French traveller. Pray, forgive an admirer of you, who owes to your writings the love he bears to your language, which has betrayed him into the rash attempt of writing in English.

You will see by the advertisement, that I have some designs upon you, and that I must mention you, for the honour of your country, and for the improvement of mine. Do not forbid me to grace

1. An essay on the civil wars of France, which he made the foundation of his Henriade, an heroick poem, since well known. He had been imprisoned in the Bastille, in Paris, but being released about the year 1725, he came to England, and solicited subscriptions for his poem.

my