yet done any thing in the affair of the books you mention, but shall do what you desire the next time I go there. I can add no more but that

I am your affectionate Friend,

DEAR SIR,

TO THOMAS FREEMAN.

S. CLARK.

Burton, March 25, 1724.

I AM heartily sorry to be the messenger of such unhappy news to a person whom I sincerely love and respect. But your father desires me to inform you of what I believe he can hardly bear to tell you himself, viz. that your master is so utterly dissatisfied with your conduct, that he is now determined to dismiss you; and that Mr. Freeman and your mother are as fully resolved not to see you, or even so much as to lodge you, if you come to Burton upon these terms. As to your going to sea, they think it will be

your destruction both in soul and body, and therefore they are irreconcileably averse to it, and will do nothing to countenance you in that project. Nay, they apprehend you will be so entirely out of the way of your duty, that they cannot so much as venture to recommend you to the divine blessing. They further add, that you have received the last benefit that you are to expect from them; for they will certainly cut off the entail; and, that as to

your friends at London, if you should undertake a journey to them, they will write to them not to receive you.

You know, sir, what tender parents they are, and therefore will easily imagine they could not come to such resolutions as these without the most sensible regret. No-they gave me these instructions with tears in their eyes! But, still I am fully persuaded, that notwithstanding all their tenderness, they are absolutely determined to pursue this course. Your poor sister, and all your other friends, are extremely troubled about you, and, indeed, there is all the reason in the world for their sorrow; for, if things come to this extremity, you are unavoidably undone.

I could not bear to write this letter, if I did not think it was still in your power to prevent your ruin, nay, to be as easy and happy as this world can make you. If you will but give up those companions that you are so fond of, and submit yourself to your master's government, which it is certainly your duty to do, and will apply heartily to business with the utmost care, so that his affairs may sustain no damage by your negligence; if you will promise these things, and will take care to act accordingly, I believe your master may be persuaded to keep you till the end of your apprenticeship. Nay, I am fully convinced, he will forget every thing that is past, and treat you with as much respect and tenderness as before. If you can be persuaded to adopt this easy course, then, sir, have a prospect not only of living in the world, but of appearing with comfort and honour in society,

you

which methinks would be infinitely more eligible, than the miserable condition to which you will be reduced if you persist in your present resolution.

You profess, sir, to have a reverence for the dictates of reason and good sense; you have now, then, an opportunity of showing it. One thing I do most earnestly desire, and that is, that before you come to a final determination, you would retire and seriously consider the consequence of these things, and heartily beg that God would assist you in a choice upon which the future happiness of your life does probably depend; and then I question not but you will see, that it is much better to conquer our passions and resentments, and submit to the will of another, even when we think it hard and unreasonable, than to be turned out into the world friendless and hopeless, without either money or reputation, which will most unavoidably be the consequence if you leave your master upon the present terms.

I have not time to enlarge any further upon these hints, and leave the matter to your own good sense and cool reflection. I can only add, that it is my sincere desire, that God would direct you to such a resolution in this important affair as may be safe and comfortable to all your friends, who are so heartily concerned upon your account, and particularly to me, who am,

Dear Sir,

Your affectionate Friend and humble Servant,

P. DODDRIDGE.

P.S. Mr. Gee will send us an account of your resolution; for your father is resolved not to write to you any more, or receive any of your letters, till your master and you are agreed. I perceive it is but little, if any of the money that will be returned in case you leave him.

FROM THE REV. THOMAS SAUNDERS.

DEAR SIR,

Kettering, March 3, 1723.

THERE is nothing makes the mind of man so uneasy as a consciousness of having done amiss; and what should be the natural result of this, but a ready confession, an humble and hearty acknowledgment, and a making satisfaction to the party offended so far

as we can.

Many thoughts have passed through my mind since you left Kettering, about our conversation, fearing lest my discourse should have been as disagreeable as it was unseasonable, viz. at such a time, when of all others I ought not to have given you one uneasy thought, and more especially lest you should think I assumed the office of a Dictator, a title perhaps very agreeable to our family, as it might be the relicks of an old worn out relationship to the Plantagenets, of which some of our stock are ready to boast; but, for my own part, I never had the curiosity to make the inquiry, because this is all we inherit. Good sir, give me leave to assure you, that were my conduct

and management of myself formed (as indeed it ought to be) from the dictates of my reason, I should appear as far from assuming an air of affected preeminence, or making myself a Father to mankind, as any one person in the whole world. If there be indeed any thing a man may be allowed to be proud of, it surely is this, to disdain that supercilious, magisterial, dogmatical air that some men put on when, out of their generous humility, they are proposing themselves as an example to mankind; and thus, while they are engrossing all wisdom, good sense, and orthodoxy to themselves, deny others that right which God hath invested every man with, of judging and determining for himself. I have had an opportunity of observing the conduct of such persons, and seen with what gravity and zeal they industriously attempted to set up their own image in every man they conversed with, and, if possible, to give men such a taste of their spirit as they might ever keep a relish of. These are the men! a man that well knew mankind takes notice of, viz. Sir Richard Steel, in his letter to the Pope, when he congratulates his Holiness upon the union between him and them; in the point of infallibility. The difference being only this, his Holiness was ever right --and they were never wrong! the one always infallibly true, and the other under an impossibility of being mistaken.

When I reflected on our conversation I hoped I had not affected any thing magisterial; but this I must readily own, I was too great a dealer in egotisms,