Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/102

 "As for you, my good friend, I think, since our first acquaintance, there have not been any of those little suspicions or jealousies that often affect the sincerest friendships; I am sure not on my side. I must be so sincere as to own, that, though I could not help valuing you for those talents which the world prizes, yet they were not the foundation of my friendship; they were quite of another sort; nor shall I at present offend you by enumerating them; and I make it my last request, that you will continue that noble disdain and abhorrence of vice, which you seem naturally endowed with, but still with a due regard to your own safety; and study more to reform than to chastise, though the one cannot be effected without the other.

"Lord Bathurst I have always honoured, for every good quality that a person of his rank ought to have: pray, give my respects and kindest wishes to the family. My venison stomach is gone, but I have those about me, and often with me, who will be very glad of his present. If it is left at any house, it will be transmitted safe to me.

"A recovery in my case, and at my age, is impossible; the kindest wish of my friends is euthanasia. Living or dying, I shall always be, Yours, &c."

In a letter about the same time to Swift, he says he came to Hampstead, not for life, but for ease. That he had gained in a slight degree from riding; but he was "not in circumstances to live an idle country life;" and he expected a return of the disorder in full force on his return in winter to London. He adds, "I am at present in the case of a man that was almost in harbour, but was again blown back to sea; who has a reasonable hope of going to a good place, and an absolute certainty of leaving a very bad one. Not that I have any particular disgust at the world, for I have as great comfort in my own family, and from the kindness of my friends, as any man; but the world in the main displeaseth me; and I have too true a presentiment of calamities that are like to befall my country. However, if I should have the happiness to see you before I die, you will find that I enjoy the comforts of life with my usual cheerfulness.&emsp;*&emsp;*&emsp;*&emsp; My family give you their love and service. The great loss I sustained in one of them gave me my first shock; and the trouble I have with the rest, to bring them to a good temper, to bear the loss of a father who loves them, and whom they love, is really a most sensible affliction to me. I am afraid, my dear friend, we shall never see one another more in this world. I shall, to the last moment, preserve my love and esteem for you, being well assured that you will never leave the paths of virtue and honour for all that is in the world. This world is not worth the least deviation from that way," &c. In such a strain did this truly good man discourse of his own certain and immediate death, which accordingly took place, February, 1735, in his house, Cork-street, Burlington Gardens, to which he had returned from Hampstead at the approach of winter.

Arbuthnot's character was given by his friend Swift in one dash: "He has more wit than we all have, and more humanity than wit." "Arbuthnot," says Dr Johnson in his life of Pope, "was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient literature, and able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright and active imagination; a scholar with great brilliancy of wit; a wit, who, in the crowd of life, retained and discovered a noble ardour of religious zeal." Lord Orrery has thus entered more minutely into his character. "Although he was justly celebrated for wit and learning, there was an excellence in his character more amiable than all his other qualifications, I mean the excellence of his heart. He has shown himself equal to any of his contemporaries in wit and vivacity, and he was superior to most men in acts of humanity and benevolence. His very sarcasms are the satirical strokes of good nature: they are like slaps in the face, given in jest, the