Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12.djvu/496

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484
LETTERS TO AND FROM

too much of it. He will not quarrel with you for a glass or so; for by that means he hopes to gulp down some of that forty millions of schemes that hindered him from being good company. I would fain see you here, there is so fair a chance that one of us must be pleased; perhaps both, you with an old acquaintance, and I with a new one: it is so well worth taking a journey for, that if the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain. But before either of our journeys are settled, I desire you would resolve me one question — whether a man, who thinks himself well where he is, should look out for his house and servants before it is convenient, before he grows old, or before a person, with whom he lives, pulls him by the sleeve in private (according to oath) and tells him, they have enough of his company? He will not let me write one word more, but that I have a very great regard for you, &c.

The duke is very much yours, and will never leave you to your wine[1]. Many thanks for your drum —— I wish to receive your congratulations for the other boy, you may believe.

  1. When the dean was with Mr. Pope at Twickenham, he used to desert them soon after supper, with, "Well, gentlemen, I leave you to your wine."
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