Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 13.djvu/34

22  on the monument, nor whether you would have it in Latin or English. I am ever, with true respect and high esteem,

Madam, your ladyship's, &c.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

HAD the pleasure of receiving one from you by Mr. Pilkington. I thank you for the opportunity it gave me of being acquainted with a very agreeable ingenious man. I value him very much for his musick, which you give yourself an air of contemning; and I think I treated him in that way to a degree of surprise.

I have had but a melancholy sorrowful life for some time past, having lost my dear child, whose life, if it had so pleased God, I would have willingly redeemed with my own. I thank God for a new lesson of submission to his will, and likewise for what he has left me.

We have all had another loss of our worthy and dear friend Mr. Gay. It was some alleviation of my