Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/201

 in another; and you would not think the reply sufficient, that there was plain right in the cause and justice of their side; for iniquities will abound and the world will never be reformed. After all this, I mean not that you should relinquish the pursuite of your £2,500, which is money out of your Pockett, and for which you are a debtor unto your family. But for other pretensions, lett them goe, for Heaven's sake; as you would a hot coale out of your hand; and strive to retire to your home in this place, where you had the respect of all, and as much quiet as could be in this life, before your medling with that pernicious businesse of the Farme; but you may reckon it as a Storme wherein you were seized, and if it has obliged you to throw overboard some rich Bales, 'tis but the common case, and what others doe for the safety of the rest.' He concludes by telling his friend to believe in his unaltered affection, even if he writes unpalatable truths; and that he 'will store him in an ebony cabinet, wherein,' he says, 'I keep, as in an archive, all the effects of your pen, for I look on them as materials fit for those that I would take most care of; and hope they will hand them over with like estimation.'

Sir William seems for the moment to have accepted Sir Robert's kindly advice. He replies to his friend with a growl, that he is reserving a place for the farmers in the 'Scale of Creatures,' which part, whenever it appears, will be entitled 'the Scale of Devils;' and he acknowledges that patience is at the moment comparatively easy, as, a final decision releasing the old quit-rents having at length been given in his favour, 'praise be to God, he had more ready money than his friend had ever known him to have, and yet not more than half of what he had nominally received, so much water had the Devil and his instruments put beside the mill.'

He was now contemplating a visit to England, having been three years continuously in Ireland; but he was not able to start till quite the end of 1679. Shortly after arriving in London he became the object of the attacks of Colonel Vernon, a