have had nothing to apprehend from a very strict and severe inquisition. We hear Mr. Jolly is likely to be chosen, at which we heartily rejoice.

Miss Kitty is removed to Nottingham, and has been there several weeks. I was in a great deal of uneasiness a few months ago upon her account; but I bless God my mind is now pretty comfortably settled; and I am thoroughly satisfied of the wisdom and goodness of that Providence which made the painful separation.

I am sorry to say it, and so would only write it to a very particular friend, but so it is, that she is fallen lately into some extravagances of temper, which, if philosophy and grace do not correct, must of necessity make her very ridiculous, and her future husband very unhappy; at least if he be a man of my temper, who would never place the whole of his happiness in any one woman, even though she were the counterpart of Mrs. Clark!

I thank you for your caution against making public complaints, to which my temper does not incline me, and my respect and friendship for her would make particularly uneasy. At first, when she began to charge me in so severe a manner, I told the story plainly to a few of my most valuable friends, and then gave her to understand, that, if she went on to attack my reputation, they would think themselves obliged in honour and friendship to appear for its vindication.

I have not yet seen Rapin's History; but, upon so sure a recommendation, proposed it to our society,

who accordingly have given orders for it. I have of late been studying the most celebrated answers to the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion, and find none which I admire more than Mr. Chandler's, nor is there any which has given our society more entire satisfaction. Mr. Jackson, the heretic, was not contented with giving it a single perusal, but procured one for himself, and the whole society agreed, nemine contradicente, that he should furnish us with books. But I am afraid he will not please us so well in the character of a bookseller as he did in another capacity.

I have not time, sir, to give you a particular account of my studies. I meet with many more interruptions here than I did at Burton; but, upon the whole, have much leisure. I generally spend two hours a day in the classics, one in Greek, and the other in Latin. I have lately been reading some of the orations of Demosthenes, which gave me very agreeable entertainment. Virgil's Æneid charms me more than it ever did before. I am wonderfully taken with the ease and elegance of Pliny's Epistles, and with the description he gives of his own temper and behaviour, which seems to me very amiable and instructive. I have the new translation, which is, generally speaking, very exact in giving the sense, but frequently fails in the air of the original. There are indeed some admirable epistles in the Latin, which one can hardly bear to read in English; for though the thoughts are retained, and the translation is sometimes almost literal, an affectation of humour

and drollery makes many passages mean and nauseous, which in Pliny are exceedingly pleasant, and yet perfectly elegant and genteel. I think this observation may be applied to most of the English translations of the ancient comedies, especially to those from Terence.

Brand's History, which I am now drawing to the close of, opens such a scene of ecclesiastical villany as I have seldom met with, among Protestants at least, or at all events I have never seen it so particularly described. I never met with a celebrated history which had less decoration; yet such is the importance of its subjects, and such the appearance of impartiality and catholicism pervading it, that I have perused few works with equal pleasure.

I am now reading Cradock's Apostolic History. If I am not much mistaken, I have mentioned his Harmony in a former letter. Upon the whole there are so many remarkable passages in both, that I have met with few books that have been of greater assistance to me in understanding the New Testament. He produces many probable conjectures as to the time when most of the epistles were written, and gives a scheme of the contents of each, which contains a kind of paraphrase upon them. I drew up something of this nature about a year and a half ago, which I compare with his, and find he gives a different account of the connexion of several passages from that which had occurred to my own thoughts. Sometimes I think his more natural, but, at others, it

seems to be strained too far to suit with my direct method of analyzing the general sense.

I suppose, sir, you have met with Mr. Boyse's Sermons. There is an air of good sense and argument running through the whole; and he has a very lively and pathetical manner of expressing himself, which is at the same time so clear and natural, that they will not be the less acceptable to vulgar readers for being elegant and polite. I think I have never met with any sermons that exceed them. But perhaps I am ready to judge too favourably, from an idea that I have formed of a great resemblance existing between them and those that I was used to hear at St. Albans.

My very humble service waits upon your good lady. Pray assure her that there is no one woman in the world that can destroy my esteem for her sex, while she, and so many others whom I have the happiness of being acquainted with, are doing so much to establish and increase it. I am exceedingly obliged, sir, for the favour of your invitation to St. Albans. I am sure I do not want inclination to comply with it; but I am chained down to the care of two congregations, which are, for a while, fallen into my hands, so that I hardly know whether I shall be able to break loose for one Lord's day this summer. However, you may depend upon it, sir, that I will attempt it, if it be possible. When I began to write I intended only to trouble you with a few lines and it is because I have written to the

end of my paper, and not because my relish for conversing with you is impaired, that I here subscribe myself,

Reverend Sir,

Your most affectionate, most obliged,

and most humble Servant,

P. DODDRIDGE.

TO MR. MASSEY.

Harborough, Sat. June 11, 1726. PERMIT me, my dear friend, with all the gravity that becomes my cloth and my office, to admonish you of the contagious nature of an ill example, which may, by a secret malignity, seduce others into those practices which they did not only condemn in their own judgment, but had openly exclaimed against and reproved in their friends. You may now see an instance of this folly. You delayed writing to me, for which I sent you a very sober admonition, and am now fallen into the same fault myself; having allowed your letter to lie by me almost a quarter of a year without so much as telling you that it came safe to hand. Stop, I must see how you excuse yourself. I remember you said what was very gant and complaisant; and I hope it may suit my purpose. You tell me "a disposition to forgive the errors of a friend is an argument of generosity and

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