1S04,] Extraéts from the Port-felio of a Aan of Letters, 
Chriftopher’s ; and I beg of you, as oc- 
cafion fhall ferve, and as you find he me- 
rits it, to advance him in the bufinefs of 
the Cuftoms He is warmly recommend- 
ed to me by Sargent, who in verity turns 
out one of the beft men of our youthful 
acquaintance, honeit, honourable, friend- 
ly and generous. 
If we are not ‘to oblige one another, 
life becomes a paltry, felfifh affair—a piti- 
ful morfel in a corner! Sargent is fo hap- 
pily married, that I could almoft fay—the 
fame cafe happen to us-all ! 
That I have not anfwered feveral letters 
of yours, is not awing to the want of 
friendfhip and the fincereft regard for 
you; but you know me well enough to 
account for my filence, without my faying 
any more on that head. Befides, I have 
very little to fay that is worthy to be tranf- 
mitted over the great Ocean. The world 
either fertilizes fo much, or we grow fo 
dead to it, that its tranfaétions make but 
feeble impreffions on us. Retirement and 
Nature are more and more my paffion every 
day. And now, even now, the charming 
time comes on: Heaven is juft on- the 
point, or rather in the very act, of giving 
Earth a green gown. The voice of the 
nightingale is heard in our lanes. 
You muft know that I have enlarged my 
rural domain, much to the fame dimen- 
fions you have done your’s. The two 
fields next to me, from the firft of which 
I have walled—no, no—paled in about as 
much as my garden.confilted of before ; fo 
that the walk runs round the hedge, where 
you may figure me walking any time of 
the day, and fometimes under night. For 
you, I imagine you reclining under cedars 
and palmettoes, and there enjoying more 
maenificent flumbers than are known to 
the ‘pale climates of the North: flumbers 
rendered awful and divine, by the folemn 
ftillnefs and deep fervours of the torrid 
noon! At other times I imagine you 
drinking punch in groves of Jime or orange- 
trees ; gathering pia¢-apples from hedges, 
as commonly as we may blackberries; 
poetifing under lofty laurels, or making 
Jove under full-fpread myrtles. 
But, tolower my (tyle a little; as Iam fuch 
a genuine lover of gardening, why don’t 
you remember me ia that inftance, and 
fend me fome feeds of things that might 
fucceed here during the fummer, though 
they cannot perfect their feed fufficiently 
in this, to them ungenia!, climate, to pro- 
pagate; in which cafe is the calliloo, that, 
trom the feed it bore here, came up puny, 
ricketty, and good for nothing. There 
are other things certainly with you, not 
325 
yet brought over hither, that might flou- 
rifh here in the fummer-time, and live 
tolerably well, provided they be fheltered 
in an hofpitable ftove or green-houfe du- 
ring the winter. You will give me no 
{mall pleafure by fending me, from time 
to time, fome of thefe feeds, if it wereno 
more but to amufe me in making the 
trial. 
With regard to the brother gardeners, 
you ought to know, that as they are half 
vegetables, the animal part of them will 
never have {pirit enough to confent to the 
tranfplanting of the vegetable into diitant 
dangerous climates, They, happily for 
themfelves, have no other idea but to dig 
on here, eat, drink, fleep, and kifs their 
Wives. . 
As to more important bufinefs, I have 
nothing to write to you. You know beft 
the courfe of it. Be (as you always mutt 
be) juft, and honeft; but if you are un. 
happily romantic, you fhall come home 
without money, and write a tragedy on 
yourfelf*. Mr. Lyttleton told me that 
the Grenvilles and he had ftrongly recom. 
mended the perfon the governor and you 
propofed for that confderable office, Jately 
fallen vacant in your department, and that 
there were good hopes of fucceeding. He 
told me alfo that Mr. Pitt bad faid that it 
was not to be expected that offices, fuch 
as that is, for which the greateft intereft is 
made here at home, could be accorded 
to your recommendation; but that as 
to the middling cr inferior offices, if there 
was not fome particular reafon to the con- 
trary, regard would be had thereto. This 
is all that can be reafonably defired ; and 
if you are not infe&ted with a certain Cre. 
olian diflemper (wherecf I am perfuaded 
your foul will utterly refift the contagion, 
as 1 hope your body will that of their na- 
tural ones) there are few men fo capable 
of that imperifhable happinefs, that peace 
and fatisfaéiien of mind at leaft, that pro- 
ceed from being reafonable and mederate 
in our defires, as you are. Thefe are the 
“treafures dug from an inexhanftible mine 
in our breatts, which, like thofe in the 
kingdom of Heaven, the ruft of time-can- 
not corrupt; nor thieves break through 
and fteal. I muft learn to work at this 
mine a little more, being ftruck off from 
a certain hundved pounds a year, which 
you know J had. 
Welt, Mallet, and I, were all routed 
inone day. If you mutt know why—out 
of refentment to our friend in Argyle- 
Uy "ele le 
* Paterfon had tried his hand on a tragedy 
at London, without much fuccefs. 
fireet 
