spent at an academy is a pretty part of a lady's education; and if they please to accept of the proposal, my books and closet are at their service.

I acknowledge, madam, that your dutiful attendance upon my grandpapa is a very bright example, which you need not doubt that your children will imitate but then it cannot be half so meritorious in us as in you; for our mamma is, in every way, so valuable and agreeable in herself, and so kind and indulgent to us, that we must be monsters indeed, if we were not to endeavour to exceed each other in all expressions of grateful affection; particularly, madam, you may assure yourself of this return from me, who am the most obliged of your sons and the humblest of your admirers.

DEAR SIR,

TO MR. SOME, JUN.

P. DODDRIDGE.

Dec. 24, 1722.

THOUGH I have no very important business to write about, yet I will give you the trouble of a letter purely in the expectation of the pleasure of an anYou may assure yourself that all friends at Hinckley were heartily glad to hear that you had recovered your health. The young ladies you mention were particularly careful to inquire after you;

swer.

your

and I can assure you, that you have been the subject of their discourse oftener than perhaps you imagine: they are charmed with your humour and your gallantry; and if you should outstay your time ever so little, will certainly be jealous of some unknown face that detains you at Bowden.

I suppose you know that Mr. Richards succeeds Mr. Cope in his closet and chamber; and I heartily congratulate you on that good fortune which has provided you with an agreeable companion, who is entirely master of every genteel and manly accomplishment; and particularly so bright an example of an indefatigable application to study. You are so much my friend that I will not envy you this happiness but remember that you will do a public and an irreparable injury if you engross the dear creature entirely to yourself. We entreat you then to allow us a few moments of his company, otherwise noise and grimace may grow unfashionable,—and a man may be forced to purchase the reputation of wit and humour, not by what he does, but by what he says; and what an intolerable reproach that would be to the academy.

Mr. Cope left us this morning, and I think there were no tears shed on our side. If however his masterly sense and ready wit had been softened by a little more humanity and good nature, he would have been beloved as much as he is admired, and I should have missed his company almost as much as I do yours.

I assure you, sir, that I, like all the rest of our

family, long for your return to Hinckley; in the meantime I hope you will favour me with an answer very speedily. I am, with all respect and sincerity,

Dear Sir,

Your affectionate Friend and obedient Servant,

P. DODDRIDGE.

TO MRS. FARRINGTON.

February 27, 1723.

WHAT have I done to displease the dearest, best mamma in the world, that I have not heard from her in so many ages? It is impossible to express my uneasiness at her silence. I answered her last almost a quarter of a year ago, and yet I have not so much as heard whether she be alive or dead. If the infirmities of old age, which you talked of, have taken away the use of your limbs, surely, madam, you might have prevailed upon my aunt to have informed me of your misfortune, and I would not have failed to have sent you a most dutiful letter of condolence; but alas! my aunt is as unkind as my mother, and will not favour me with her advice, though I desired it with so much importunity; and although the circumstances of my case were so worthy of compassion. Will you drive me into the arms of Clarinda, to bury my sorrows in her beautiful bosom,

and to search in that charming friend for all that I enjoyed and have lost in you?

If you have any remaining affection for a dutiful

son-nay, but common humanity and good nature, let me intreat you to write to me before you go to sleep till then I remain, in the midst of ten thousand anxieties,

Honoured Madam,

Your most disconsolate Son

and unfortunate Servant,

PHILIP DODdridge.

P. S. Humble duty to my aunt, and service to my sister and cousin Robson. If my aunt do not write to me by the next post-I wish her all the afflictions of another year of virginity.

TO MRS. CLARK,

DEAR CLIO,

Feb. 26, 1723.

I CANNOT persuade myself to omit this opportunity of paying my respects to you, though I have a great deal of necessary business upon my hands, and am not yet recovered from an indisposition that has lain upon me several days. I will not, as valetudinarians generally do, tire you with the particular symp

toms of my distemper; which at first I took for a pleurisy, but I have since found reason to believe, was only a violent cold; and from which, I bless God, I am now on the mending hand.

I am at present in continual expectation of the arrival of a very agreeable young lady, who is to spend several days at our house, and I hope she will do something towards relieving that anxiety which your absence always occasions: but who can perfectly supply your place? I shall be pretty much in her company, because I am to have the honour of being her tutor in the absence of Mr. Jennings; and as I am not entirely insensible of her charms, I do not know but that she may prove as kind to your nephew.

If you do but always put on this grave air, and send me such sage counsels and exhortations as you give me in your last, I shall make a very extraordinary improvement; and the historian who writes my life, in the fourth chapter of it, which may contain my behaviour at the academy, will have such a passage as this, "It is not to be wondered at, that at the twentieth year of his age, Mr. Doddridge grew much more polite and agreeable than persons of his profession and circumstances generally are; for it was then that he received the instructions of Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Farrington, which he found of great advantage to him in that part of his life." The whole paragraph is too long to be transcribed; but I suppose posterity will find it about the 75th page of the octavo edition.

Your advice is indeed excellent in a general way.