Heineccii Antiquum. Romanæ Jurisprudentie Syntagma. 2 Vol. 8vo. 1724. Hankius de Byzantin. Scriptoribus. 1677. Lips. 4to. Heindreich de Carthagin. Republicâ. Francof. ad Oderum. Martinii Lexicon Philologicum. ed. Grævii. 2 Vol. Fol. 1701. Montfaucon Paleographia Græca. 1708. Fol. Par. Notitia Dignitatum utriusq. Imperio. a P. Labbæo. 1651. Par. de Familiis Romanis. 1577. ibid. Vaillant Ptolemæorum Hist. 1701. Fol. Amst. Seleucidarum. 4to. Par. 1681. Arsacidarum. LETTER VIII. MR. GRAY TO M. WHARTON. MY DEAR WHARTON, I WOULD make you an excuse (as indeed I ought) if they were a sort of thing I ever gave credit to myself in these cases, but I know they are never true. Nothing so silly as indolence when it hopes to disguise itself, every one knows it by it's saunter; as they do his Majesty (God bless him) at a Masquerade by the firmness of his tread, and the elevation of his chin. However, somewhat I had to say, that has a little shadow of reason in it. I have been in town (I suppose you know) flaunting about at public places of all kinds with my two Italianized friends. The world itself has some attractions in it to a solitary of six years standing; and agreeable wellmeaning people of sense, (thank Heaven there are so few of them) are my peculiar magnet, it is no wonder then, if I felt some reluctance at parting with them so soon; or if my spirits when I returned back to my cell, should sink for a time, not indeed to storm or tempest, but a good deal below changeable. Besides Seneca says (and my pitch of philosophy does not pretend to be much above Seneca) Nunquam mores quos extuli, refero, aliquid ex eo, quod composui, turbatur: aliquid ex his, quæ fugavi, redit:" and it will happen to such as we, mere imps of science; well it may, when Wisdom herself is forced often * + In sweet retired solitude To plume her feathers and let grow her wings Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impaired. It is a foolish thing that one can't only not live as one pleases, but where and with whom one pleases, without money. Swift somewhere says, that money is liberty; and I fear money is friendship too, and society, and almost every external blessing. It is a great though illnatured comfort to see, most of those, who have it in plenty, without pleasure, without liberty, and without friends. * Vide Seneca Epistol. vii. p. 17. Ed. Gronovii. 8vo.-Ed. Mr. Brown (who I assure you holds up his head and his spirits very notably) will give you an account of your college proceedings if they may be so called, when nothing proceeds at all. Only the last week, Roger was so wise to declare ex motu proprio, that he took Mr. Delaval (who is now a Fell: Commoner) into his own tuition. This raised the dirty spirit of his friend Mr. May, (now tutor in Francis's Room) against him, and even gentle Mr. Peele, (who never acts but in conjunction) together with Mr. Brown, (who pretended to be mighty angry, though in reality heartily glad,) and they all came to an eclaircissement in the parlour. They abused him pretty reasonably, and it ended in threatening them as usual, with a visitor. In short, they are all as rude as may be, leave him a table by himself, never go into the parlour, till he comes out; or if he enters, when they are there, continue sitting even in his own magisterial chair. May bickers with him publickly about twenty paltry matters, and Roger t'other day told him, he was impertinent. What would you have more? you see they do as one would wish, If you were here, all would be right. I am surprised not to hear you mention when that will be. Pray give an account of yourself. I am very sincerely your's. T. G. P.S. When I went to town, part of my errand was to sell a little stock I had, to pay off Birkett's old debt, due at Christmas. But it was so low, I should have lost near 12 per cent. and so it continues. If you think of being here near that time, and find it not inconvenient to you to lend me £40, you will save me the money I mention, (as I remember you once offered.) But if any inconvenience attend it, you must imagine I don't by any means desire it. And you need not be at the trouble of any excuse, as I well know, nothing but the not being able, would hinder your doing it immediately. Let me know, because otherwise, I have another journey to make to town. Dec. 11, [1746.] Cambridge. LETTER IX. MR. GRAY TO MR. WHARTON. MY DEAR WHARTON, I HAVE received your bill, and am in confusion to hear you have got into debt yourself in order to bring me out of it: I did not think to be obliged to you so much, nor on such terms: but imagined you would be here, and might easily spare it. The money shall be repaid as soon as ever it is wanted, and sooner if the stocks rise a little higher. My note you will find at the end of my letter, which you ought to have, ἐάν τι κατὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον συμβαίνη. The rest of my acknowledgements, are upon record where they ought to be, with the rest of your kindnesses. The bill was paid me here; I suppose there is no likelihood of its being stopped in town. It surprises me to hear you talk of so much business, and the uncertainty of your return; and what not? Sure you will find time to give me an account of your transactions, and your intentions. A For your ears, don't let 'em think of marrying you! for I know if you marry at all, you will be married, I mean passively. And then (besides repenting of what you were not guilty of) you will never go abroad, never read any thing more but farriery-books, and justice-books; and so either die of a consumption, or live on, and grow fat, which is worse. For me, and my retirement, (for you are in the right to despise my dissipation de quinze jours) we are in the midst of Diog. Laertius and his philosophers, as a prooemium to the series of their works, and those of all the poets and orators, that lived before Philip of Macedon's death and we have made a great Chronological Table,* with our own hands, the wonder and amazement of Mr. Brown; not so much for public events, though these too have a column assigned them, but rather in a literary way, to compare the times of all great men, their writings and transactions: it begins at the 30th Olympiad, and is already brought down to the 113th; that is 332 years. Our only modern assistants, are Marsham, Dodwell, and Bentley. Tuthill continues quiet in his Læta Paupertas, and by this time, (were not his friends of it) would have forgot there was any such place as Pembroke in the world. All things there are just in statu quo; only the fellows, as I told you, are grown pretty rudish to their sovereign in general, for Francis is now departed. Poor dear Mr. Delaval indeed has had a little misfortune; intelligence was brought, that he had with him a certain gentlewoman, properly called Nell Burnet (but whose Nom de Guerre was Captain Hargraves) in an officer's habit, *This laborious work was formed much in the manner of the President Heinault's "Histoire de France." Every page consisted of nine columns; one for the Olympiad, the next for the Archons, the third for the public affairs of Greece, the three next for the Philosophers, and the three last for Poets, Historians, and Orators. I L do not find it carried further than the date above-mentioned.-Mason. |