Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 13.djvu/409

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DR. SWIFT.
397

to your country, and will be the glory of the present and succeeding ages.

I am, dear sir, your most affectionate humble servant,





SIR,
THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1738.


I desire you will print the following paper, in what manner you think most proper. You see my design in it: I believe no man had ever more difficulty, or less encouragement, to bestow his whole fortune for a charitable use.

I am your humble servant,


IT is known enough, that the abovenamed doctor has, by his last will and testament, bequeathed his whole fortune (except some legacies) to build and endow an hospital, in or near this city, for the support of lunaticks, ideots, and those they call incurables: But the difficulty he lies under is, that his whole fortune consists in mortgages on lands, and other the like securities; for, as to purchasing a real estate in lands, for want of active friends, he finds it impossible; so that, much against his will, if he should call in all his money lent, he knows not where to find a convenient estate in a tolerable part of the kingdom, which can be bought; and in the mean

time,