temperance and exercise ...

"I am extremely glad he [Pope] is not in your case of needing great
men's favour, and could heartily wish that you were in his.

"I have been considering why poets have such ill success in making their
court, since they are allowed to be the greatest and best of all
flatterers. The defect is, that they flatter only in print or in
writing, but not by word of mouth; they will give things under their
hand which they make a conscience of speaking. Besides, they are too
libertine to haunt antechambers, too poor to bribe porters and footmen,
and too proud to cringe to second-hand favourites in a great family.

"Tell me, are you not under original sin by the dedication of your
Eclogues to Lord Bolingbroke?

"I am an ill judge at this distance, and besides am, for my case,
utterly ignorant of the commonest things that pass in the world; but if
all Courts have a sameness in them (as the parsons phrase it), things
may be as they were in my time, when all employments went to
Parliament-men's friends, who had been useful in elections, and there
was always a huge list of names in arrears at the Treasury, which would
at least take up your seven years' expedient to discharge even one-half.

"I am of opinion, if you will not be offended, that the surest course
would be to get your friend [Lord Burlington] who lodgeth in your house
to recommend you to the next Chief Governor who comes over here, for a
good civil employment, or to be one of his secretaries, which your
Parliament-men are fond enough of, when there is no room at home. The
wine is good and reasonable; you may dine twice a week at the