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promise it in, makes the honour, if possible, greater. As you will lay an eternal obligation on that fa mily, be pleased to allow me to answer for all those I am related to; they will look on themselves equally honoured with lord Rutland by your favour to his family, and I am sure will express their acknowledgments to your majesty in the most dutiful manner, to the best of their services; in which I earnestly desire my son Bedford may exceed, as he has been first and early honoured with the marks of your favour. And I hope I may live to see your majesty has bestowed one more upon him, who appears to me to have no other ambition, except what he prefers above all others, making himself acceptable to your majesty, and living in your good opinion.

I presume to say, I believe there is no fault in his intentions of duty towards your majesty, nor, I trust, ever will be: and that as his years increase, his performances will better declare the faithfulness of his mind, which will hugely enlarge the comforts of your majesty's most humble, most dutiful, and most obedient servant.

N. B. Lady Russell's indorsement on the foregoing letter is in these words:

To the king, 1701-2, about 1st of March, and found in his pocket when dead,

LETTER XXIV.

LADY RUSSELL TO ROUVIGNY, EARL OF GALWAY.

I HAVE before me, my good lord, two of your letters, both partially and tenderly kind, and coming from a sincere heart and honest mind (the last a plain word, but, if I mistake not, very significant), are very comfortable to me, who, I hope, have no proud thoughts of myself as to any sort. The opinion of an esteemed friend, that one is not very wrong, assists to strengthen a weak and willing mind to do her duty towards that Almighty Being, who has from infinite bounty and goodness so chequered my days on this earth, as I can thankfully reflect I have felt many, I may say many years of pure, and I trust innocent, pleasant content, and happy enjoyments as this world can afford, particularly that biggest blessing of loving and being loved by those I loved and respected: on earth no enjoyment certainly to be put in the balance with it. All other are like wine, intoxicates for a time, but the end is bitterness, at least not profitable. Mr. Waller (whose picture you look upon) has, I long remember, these words:

All we know they do above

Is, that they sing, and that they love.

The best news I have heard is, you have two good companions with you, which, I trust, will contribute to divert you this sharp season, when after so sore a fit as I apprehend you have felt, the air even of your improving pleasant garden cannot be enjoyed without hazard.

The queen has appointed twelfth-day for a drawing-room, and several tables for play, but there was none till yesterday, and how that passed I know not.

I heard a lady say yesterday, that the ambassador had turned away four servants for selling wine by bottles, and that she had tasted his Burgundy, which was very good *.

LETTER XXV.

MR. LOCKE TO MR. MOLYNEUX.

SIR, London, 28th March, 1693. YOUR silence had spared me a great deal of fear and uneasiness, by concealing from me your sickness till it was well over, is abundantly made amends for, by the joy it brings me in the news of your recovery. You have given me those marks of your kindness to me, that you will not think it strange that I count you amongst my friends; and with those desiring to live with the ease and freedom of a perfect confidence, I never accuse them to myself of neglect or coldness when I fail to hear from them so soon as I expected or desired; though had I known you so well before as I do now, since your last letter, I should not have avoided being in pain upon account of your health.

I cannot at all doubt the sincerity of any thing you say to me; but yet give me leave to think,

*The conclusion and date lost.

that it is an excess of kindness alone could excuse it from from looking like compliment. But I am convinced you love your friends extremely, where you have made choice of them, and then believe you can never think nor speak too well of them. I know not whether it belongs to a man who gets once in print, to read in his book that it is perfect, and that the author is infallible. Had I had such an opinion of my own sufficiency before I writ, my essay would have brought me to another, and given me such a sight of the weakness of my understanding, that I could not fail to suspect myself of error and mistake in many things I had writ, and to desire all the light I could get from others to set me right. I have found you one of the likeliest to afford it me; your clearness and candour gave me the confidence to ask your judgment; and I take it for no small assurance of your friendship that you have given it me, and have condescended to advise me of the printer's faults, which gives me hopes you have not concealed any you have ob served in the work itself. The marginal summaries you desire of the paragraphs, I shall take care to have added, were it only for your sake; but I think too it will make the book the more useful.

That request of yours you press so earnestly upon me, makes me bemoan the distance you are from me, which deprives me of the assistance I might have from your opinion and judgment, before I ventured any thing into the public. It is so hard to find impartial freedom in one's friends, or an unbiassed judgment any where, amongst all the helps of conversation and acquaintance. I know none more wanted, nor more useful than speaking freely and candidly one's opinion upon

the thoughts and compositions of another intended for the press. Experience has taught me that you are a friend of this rank, and therefore I cannot but heartily wish that a sea between us did not hinder me from the advantage of this good office. Had you been within reach, I should have begged your severe examination of what is now gone to the printer at your instance; I had rather I could have said upon your perusal, and with your correction. I am not in my nature a lover of novelty nor contradiction; but my notions in this treatise have run me so far out of the common road and practice, that I could have been glad to have had them allowed by so sober a judgment as yours, or stopped, if they had appeared impracticable or extravagant, from going any farther. That which your brother tells you on this occasion is not wholly besides the matter. The main of what I now publish is but what was contained in several letters to a friend of mine, the greatest part whereof were writ out of Holland. How your brother came to know of it I have clearly forgot, and do not remember that ever I communicated it to any body there. These letters, or at least some of them, have been seen by some of my acquaintance here, who would needs persuade me it would be of use to publish them; your impatience to see them has not, I assure you, slackened my hand, or kept me in suspense; and I wish now they were out, that you might the sooner see them, and the sooner have your opinion of them. I know not yet whether I shall set my name to this discourse, and therefore shall desire you to conceal it. You see I make you my confessor, for you have made yourself my friend.

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