cannot hinder a man from feeling the want of so near a companion, nor hardly supply it with another[1]. I wish you health and happiness, and that the pledge[2] left you may prove a comfort. I am, with great sincerity, your most obliged and most humble servant,
TO MR. POPE.
IF I am not a good correspondent, I have bad health; and that is as good. I passed eight months in the country, with sir Arthur and my lady Acheson, and had at least half a dozen returns of my giddiness and deafness, which lasted me about three weeks apiece; and, among other inconveniences, hindered me from visiting my chapter, and punishing enormities; but did not save me the charges of a visitation dinner. This disorder neither hinders my sleeping, nor much my walking; yet is the most mortifying malady I can suffer. I have been just a
- ↑ This sentiment, no doubt, came from the writer's heart. Stella, the incomparable Stella, was then no more!
- ↑ A son, afterward a barrister at law.
main checked and withered at the root: the benediction is but a short relief, though it comes from Heaven itself. The loss of a friend is the loss of life; after that is gone from us, it is all but a gentle decay, and wasting and lingering a little longer." Letters to a Lady, p. 23.
