The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 12/From Henry St. John to Jonathan Swift - 17

by Henry St. John

FROM LORD BOLINGBROKE.

MAY 18, 1727.

I LIVED on Tuesday with you and Pope. Yesterday another of my friends found his way to this retreat^[1], and I shall pass this day alone. Would to God my whole life could be divided in the same manner; two thirds to friendship, one third to myself, and not a moment of it to the world.

In the epistle, a part of which you showed me, mention is made of the author of Three Occasional Letters^[2], a person entirely unknown. I would have you insinuate there, that the only reason Walpole can have had to ascribe them to a particular person, is the authority of one of his spies, who wriggles himself into the company of those, who neither love, esteem, nor fear the minister, that he may report, not what he hears, (since no man speaks with any freedom before him) but what he guesses.

FRIDAY MORNING.

I was interrupted yesterday when I least expected it; and I am going to day to London, where I hear that my wife is not very well. Let me know how Mrs. Pope does.

I had a hint or two more for you; but they have slipped out of my memory. Do not forget the sixty nor the twenty guineas, nor the min—— character transferred into the administration. Adieu, I am ever faithfully yours, my dear and reverend dean. I embrace Pope.

1. Dawley.
2. Printed in his lordship's works. They were first published in Feb. 1726.