defer it till the next, who knows but your care of it may then come too late? There is nothing that we are such spendthrifts of as health; we spare every thing sooner than that, though whatever we sacrifice it to is worth nothing without it. Pardon me the liberty I take with you: you have given me an interest in you; and it is a thing of too much value to me to look coldly on, whilst you are running into any inconvenience or danger, and say nothing. If that could be any spur to you to hasten your journey hither, I would tell you I have an Answer ready for the press, which I should be glad you should see first. It is too long: the plenty of matter of all sorts which the gentleman affords me, is the cause of its too great length, though I have passed by many things worthy of remarks; but what may be spared of what there is, I would be glad should be blotted out by your hand. But this between us.

Amongst other things I would be glad to talk with you about before I die, is that which you suggest at the bottom of the first page of your letter. I am mightily concerned for the place meant in the question you say you will ask the author of the treatise you mention, and wish extremely well to it; and would be very glad to be informed by you what would be best for it, and debate with you the ways to compose it. But this cannot be done by letters; the subject is of too great extent, the views too large, and the particulars too many to be so managed. Come therefore yourself, and come as well prepared in that matter as you can. But if you talk with others on that point there, mention not me to any body on that subject; only

let you and I try what good we can do for those whom we wish well to. Great things have sometimes been been brought about from small beginnings well laid together.

Pray present my most humble service to your brother; I should be glad of an opportunity to do him some service. That which he thanks me for in my care about his discourse concerning the Chafers, was a service to the public, and he owes me no thanks for it. I am, dear sir, your faithful and most humble servant.

LETTER XXXVIII.

MR. MOLYNEUX TO MR. LOCKE,

Dublin, Sept. 20th, 1698.

Honoured dear Sir, I ARRIVED here safely the 15th instant; and now that the ruffling and fatigue of my journey is a little over, I sit down to a task, which I must confess is the hardest I was ever under in my life; I mean, expressing my thanks to you suitable to the favours I received from you, and suitable to the inward sense I have of them in my mind. Were it possible for me to do either, I should in some measure be satisfied; but my inability of paying my debts makes me ashamed to appear before my creditor. However, thus much, with the strictest sincerity, I will venture to assert to you, that I cannot recollect, through the whole course of my life, such signal instances of real friendship, as when I had the happiness of your company for five weeks

together in London. It is with the greatest satisfaction imaginable that I recollect what then passed between us, and I reckon it the happiest scene of my whole life. That part thereof especially which I passed at Oates has made such an agreeable impression on my mind, that nothing can be more pleasing. To all in that excellent family I beseech you give my most humble respects. It is my duty to make my acknowledgments there in a particular letter; but I beg of you to make my excuse for omitting it at this time, because I am a little pressed by some business that is thrown upon me since my arrival; to which also you are obliged for not being troubled at present with a more tedious letter from, sir, your most obliged and entirely affectionate friend and servant.

LETTER XXXIX.

MR. LOCKE TO MR. MOLYNEUX.

DEAR SIR, London, Sept. 29th, 1698. YOURS of the 20th has now discharged me from my daily employment of looking upon the weathercock and hearkening how loud the wind blowed. Though I do not like this distance, and such a ditch betwixt us, yet I am glad to hear that you are safe and sound on the other side the water.

But pray you speak not in so magnificent and courtly a style of what you received from me here. I lived with you and treated you as my friend, and therefore used no ceremony, nor can receive any

thanks but what I owe you doubly, both for your company, and the pains you were at to bestow that happiness on me. If you keep your word, and do me the same kindness again next year, I shall have reason to think you value me more than you say, though you say more than I can with modesty read.

I find you were beset with business when you wrote your letter to me, and do not wonder at it; but yet, for all that, I cannot forgive your silence concerning your health and your son. My service to him, your brother, and Mr. Burridge; and do me the justice to believe, that I am, with a perfect affection, dear sir, your most humble and most faithful servant.

LETTER XL.

MR. LOCKE TO MR. BURRIDGE.

Qates, Oct. 27th, 1698.

SIR, You guessed not amiss, when you said, in the beginning of yours of the 13th instant, that you gave me the trouble of a letter; for I have received few letters in my life the contents whereof have so much troubled and afflicted me as that of yours. I parted with my excellent friend, when he went from England, with all the hopes and promises to myself of seeing him again, and enjoying him longer in the next spring. This was a satisfaction that helped me to bear our separation; and the short taste I had of him here, in this our first interview, I hoped would be made up in a longer

conversation, which he promised me the next time; but it has served only to give me a greater sense of my loss in an eternal farewel in this world. Your earlier acquaintance may have given you a longer knowledge of his virtue and excellent endowments; a fuller sight, or greater esteem of them, you could not have than I. His worth and his friendship to me made him an inestimable treasure; which I must regret the loss of the little remainder of my life, without any hopes of repairing it in any way. I should be glad if what I owed the father could enable me to do any service to his son. He deserves it for his own sake (his father has more than once talked to me of him) as well as for his father's. I desire you, therefore, to assure those who have the care of him, that if there be any thing wherein I, at this distance, may be any way serviceable to young Mr. Molyneux, they cannot do me a greater pleasure than to give me the opportunity to shew that my friendship died not with him.

Pray give my most humble service to Dr. Molyneux and to his nephew. I am, sir, your faithful and humble servant.

SIR,

LETTER XLI.

FROM THE SAME TO DR. MOLYNEUX.

Oates, 27th October, 1698.

DEATH has, with a violent hand, hastily snatched from you a dear brother. I doubt not but on this occasion you need all the consolation can be given