LETTER CXVI 195 



dearest Wife was safely deliver' d of a Son the Night before last 

 after a short but sharp Time. She has still Pains & Penalties, 

 but they are in Ordine, so that She may be said to have had a 

 good Time. I am now again Father of Two Sons and two 

 Daughters ; & if it please God to bless & preserve them, I shall 

 be glad to close the Poll here. It is ye most agreable of all Sets. 

 If you do not make Hast to be married, I shall begin to tell You 

 how many Cares of Fears, as well as how many Species of 

 Satisfaction attend Paternity : but if you are upon that Plan now, 

 you are singing, 



I prythee give me, gentle Boy, 



None of thy Pains but all thy Joy ! 



and I will not introduce any of the consequent Troubles to your 

 View. I hope to see you according to ye Plan you have laid 

 down ; I have had a Lr fm Mrs Chapone in which She seems to 

 think, that, if Business will permit. She can not have an Oppor- 

 tunity of a fellow Traveller more agreable than Yourself, & that 

 at her Time of Life She may set off with you without the Imputa- 

 tion of being driving away to Scotland. I desire you to stuff 

 your Portmanteau wth Sermons ; my Curate & Self are worn 

 down. I have been very ill of late, & do really beleive that the 

 Air of this Country has a peculiar ill Effect upon me from Janry 

 to ye full warmth of Spring. But perhaps I talk like an Invalid, 

 and carry that about me that would make all counties alike. 

 Mrs Mulso will, I hope in God, be in full Strength to challenge 

 you to walk or ride ; She will have recover'd all her Pertness, Si 

 will swing along wth ye Dignity of a Mother of — five, I would 

 have said — four Children. I have not yet met wth a Horse ; it 

 does not as yet signify much, for neither has ye Weather tempted 

 Excursions, or have I been able to perform them if it had. 

 Besides my little old Horse can still carry me a little way. Sr 

 George Savile is very kind to me ; when I have finished this Lr I 

 am going to write to Him. He has been ill of late, but I have 

 had a chearfull Lr from him since his being better. Tho' he is 

 not entirely on the Side of the Question that I have been used 

 to, yet I am so sure of ye Goodness of the Man in point of 

 Intention, that I am in no Danger of being ill thought of by any 

 Body for giving loose to ye Partiality that his obliging Behaviour 

 naturally gives me. Sr George is a Christian, & when I say that 

 of a Man, tho' opinions may vary in minor Points, the Basis of 

 all is Sound Integrity, which never can consent to Evil. 



I did once in a Visit look into UUoa's account, & thought it 

 promised well, but was disappointed in not finding any Solution 

 of the System that he went to establish. For tho' I could not 

 have regularly attended ye analysis of his Position thro' it's 

 arithmetical Probation, yet I would have taken up wth the 

 Result of the whole & supposed him right 'till somebody else 

 had proved him wrong. 



