Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 13.djvu/345

Rh in an affair, and about persons to whom I am a stranger, if I had not been long assured of the poor condition those people in and about Coleraine have lain under, since that enormous raising of their rents. The bearer, whom I never saw until yesterday, seems to be a gentleman of truth and good sense: yet, if he has misrepresented this matter to me, I shall never be his advocate again.

My health is very indifferent: spirits I have none left. I decline every day. I hope and hear it is better with you. May you live as long as you desire! for I have lost so many friends without getting any new, that I must keep you as a sample of the former. I am, my dear friend,

DEAR SIR,

AM very glad there are twelve thousand pounds worth of halfpence arrived; they are twelve thousand arguments for your quitting Ireland. I look upon you in the same state of the unfortunate Achæmenides amidst tyrants and monsters Do you not remember the description of Polypheme and his den?

Domus sanie dapibusque cruentis Intus opaca, ingens, ipse arduus, altaque pulsat. Sidera, (Dii talem terris avertite pestem!) Nec visu facilis, nec dictu affabilis ulli: Visceribus miserorum et sanguine vescitur atro. Rh