The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 19/From Henry Hyde to David Mallet - 1
I LEARN from England, sir, that lord Bolingbroke has left his manuscripts to you[1]. His friends must see with satisfaction those title deeds of his reputation in the hands of the author of the life of the great lord Bacon; and you will have had the distinguished honour of having been guardian to the fame of two of the greatest geniuses which our country, and perhaps humanity, has produced; but with greater honour to you in this last instance, because you are such by the designation and choice of the author himself.
What works of his you may have for the publick, I know not. That, for which I was solicitous, because I believe it would be most instructive to the world, and might be most for his honour, he told me himself he had laid aside; I mean the history of the great transactions of Europe, from the time when he began to consider and know them. There remains of that, I believe, no more than a summary review, which I had the good fortune some time ago to draw from him, upon an application which I made to him to direct me in the study of history. You will probably have seen that summary review, which is in a collection of letters upon history, which he did me the honour to write me. It is but a sketch of the work he had proposed to himself; but it is the sketch of lord Bolingbroke. He will probably have told you, that those letters were by his direction delivered up by me to Mr. Pope, who burnt, as he told me, the manuscripts, and printed off, by a private press, some very few copies, which were to be considered still as manuscripts, one of which Mr. Pope kept, and sent another to lord Bolingbroke. Sir William Wyndham, lord Bathurst, lord Marchmont, Mr. Murray, and Mr. Lyttelton, I think, had each one. I do not remember to have been told of any copies given, except to myself, who have always preserved mine, as I would a MS. which was not my own, observing not only the restrictions which lord Bolingbroke himself had recommended to me, but securing likewise, as far as I could, even in case of my death, that this work should never become publick from that copy, which is in my possession. I enlarge upon this, because I think myself particularly obliged, out of regard to lord Bolingbroke, to give this account of that work to the person whom he has intrusted with all his writings, in case you might not have known this particularity. And at the same time I think it my duty, to the memory of lord Bolingbroke, to myself, and to the world too, to say something more to you in relation of this work.
It is a work, sir, which will instruct mankind, and do honour to its author; and yet I will take upon me to say, that for the sake of both, you must publish it with caution.
The greatest men have their faults, and sometimes the greatest faults; but the faults of superiour minds are the least indifferent both to themselves and to society. Humanity is interested in the fame of those who excelled in it; but it is interested before all in the good of society, and in the peace of the minds of the individuals that compose it. Lord Bolingbroke's mind embraced all objects, and looked far into all; but not without a strong mixture of passions, which will always necessarily beget some prejudices, and follow more. And on the subject of religion particularly (whatever was the motive that inflamed his passions upon that subject chiefly) his passions were the most strong; and I will venture to say (when called upon, as I think, to say what I have said more than once to himself, with the deference due to his age and extraordinary talents) his passions upon that subject did prevent his otherwise superiour reason from seeing, that even in a political light only he hurt himself, and wounded society, by striking at establishments, upon which the conduct at least of society depends, and by striving to overturn in men's minds the systems which experience at least has justified, and which authority at least has rendered respectable, as necessary to publick order and to private peace, without suggesting to their minds a better, or indeed any system.
You will find, sir, what I say to be true in a part of the work I mentioned, where he digresses upon the criticism of church history.
While this work remained in the hands only of those I have mentioned (except as I have been telling you, to himself and to them in private conversation) I have otherwise been silent upon that subject; but I must now say to you, sir, that for the world's sake, and for his, that part of the work ought by no means to be communicated farther. And you see that it is a digression not necessary to that work. If this digression should be made publick, it will be censured, it must be censured, it ought to be censured. It will be criticised too by able pens, whose erudition, as well as their reasonings, will not be easily answered. In such a case, I shall owe to myself and to the world to disclaim publickly that part of a work, which he did me the honour to address to me; but I owe to the regard which he has sometimes expressed for me, to disclaim it rather privately to you, sir, who are intrusted with bis writings, and to recommend to you to suppress that part of the work, as a good citizen of the world, for the world's peace, as one intrusted and obliged by lord Bolingbroke, not to raise new storms to his memory. I am, sir,
Your very humble servant,
- ↑ His lordship died Dec. 15, 1751. Lord Hyde having heard at Paris of lord Bolingbroke's legacy of all his writings, printed and manuscript, to Mr. Mallet, wrote from that city the above letter, the original of which was sent by the widow Mallet, with the manuscript of lord Bolingbroke's philosophical works, to the British Museum, in order to justify her husband's integrity in the edition of them.