land, but that you will be best able to judge of from the then
circumstances of your part in the world.

Your old friend Stevens is dead of the consumption that has long been
undermining him. God bless you, and send you health.

[Another two year lapse in the letters. D.W.]
LETTER CCXLVII

BATH, February 26, 1761.

MY DEAR FRIEND: I am very glad to hear that your election is finally
settled, and to say the truth, not sorry that Mr.----has been compelled
to do, 'de mauvaise grace', that which he might have done at first in a
friendly and handsome manner. However, take no notice of what is passed,
and live with him as you used to do before; for, in the intercourse of
the world, it is often necessary to seem ignorant of what one knows, and
to have forgotten what one remembers.

I have just now finished Coleman's play, and like it very well; it is
well conducted, and the characters are well preserved. I own, I expected
from the author more dialogue wit; but, as I know that he is a most
scrupulous classic, I believe he did not dare to put in half so much wit
as he could have done, because Terence had not a single grain; and it
would have been 'crimen laesae antiquitatis'. God bless you!




LETTER CCXLVIII