Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 12.djvu/464

452 some time or other see an attorney's bill as long as the book. Poor Duke Disney is dead, and has left what he had among his friends, among whom are lord Bolingbroke 500l. Mr. Pelham 500l. sir William Wyndham's youngest son 500l. Gen. Hill 500l. lord Masham's son 500l.

You have the good wishes of those I converse with; they know they gratify me, when they remember you; but I really think they do it purely for your own sake. I am satisfied with the love and friendship of good men, and envy not the demerits of those who are most conspicuously distinguished. Therefore as I set a just value upon your friendship, you cannot please me more than letting me now and then know that you remember me; the only satisfaction of distant friends!

P. S. Mr. Gay's is a good letter, mine will be a very dull one; and yet what you will think the worst of it, is what should be its excuse, that I write in a headach that has lasted three days. I am never ill but I think of your ailments, and repine that they mutually hinder our being together; though in one point I am apt to differ from you, for you shun your friends when you are in those circumstances, and I desire them; your way is the more generous, mine the more tender. Lady — took your letter very kindly, for I had prepared her to expect no answer under a twelvemonth; but kindness perhaps is a word not applicable to courtiers. However she is an extraordinary woman here, who will do you common justice. For God's sake why all this scruple about lord B——'s keeping your horses, who has a park; or about my keeping you on a pint of wine a day? We are nitely