Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/170

158 events to bear, or prevent greater inconveniencies; for such are inevitable, without the nicest management: and I believe no person was ever better prepared to make this out than myself.

I wish, before I left England, that I had met, either in your letters or discourse, any thing like what you hint in your last; I should have found great ease, and you, some satisfaction; for, had you passed these six months with me abroad, I could have made you sensible, that it were easy to have brought the character and influence of an English peer, equal to that of a senator in old Rome. Methinks I could have brought it to that pass, to have seen a levee of suppliant kings and princes, expecting their destinies from us, and submitting to our decrees: but, if we come in politicks to your necessity of leaving the town for want of money to live in it, Lord, how the case will alter!

You threaten me with law, and tell me I might be compelled to make my words good. Remember your own insinuations: what if I should leave England in a week's time, and summon you in quality of chaplain and secretary, to be a witness to transactions perhaps of the greatest importance; so great, that I should think you might deserve the bishoprick of Winchester at your return. Let me know, in a letter directed to Parson's green, the moment you receive this, whether you are ready and willing; but you must learn to live a month, now and then, without sleep. As to all other things, we should meet with no mortifications abroad, if we could escape them from home.

But, without raillery, if ever I can propose to myself to be of any great use, I foresee this will be the