Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/25

Rh some damned lie in a serious manner, and then she will answer or speak as if you were in earnest: and then cry you, madam, there's a bite. I would not have you undervalue this, for it is the constant amusement in court, and every where else among the great people; and I let you know it, in order to have it obtain among you, and teach you a new refinement.

LONDON FEB. 3, 1703-4.

AM content you should judge the order of friendship you are in with me by my writing to you, and accordingly you will find yourself the first after the ladies; for I never write to any other, either friend or relation, till long after. I cannot imagine what paragraph you mean in my former, that was calculated for lord primate; or how you could show it him without being afraid he might expect to see the rest. But I will take better methods another time, and you shall never, while you live, receive a syllable from me fit to be shown to a lord primate, unless it be yourself. Montaigne was angry to see his essays lie in the parlour window, and therefore wrote a chapter that forced the ladies to keep it in their closets. After some such manner I shall henceforth use you in my letters, by making them fit to be seen by none but yourself.

I am extremely concerned to find myself unable to persuade you into a true opinion of your own littleness,