The like the good sense which limps, better than the lively folly which dances. But to my misfortune he likes the queen of spades so much more than me, that he never looks off his cards, though were I queen of diamonds, he would stand a fair chance for me. I hope the Bath waters are as good for the gout in the heart as the gout in the stomach, or I shall be the worse for the journey. Lord Ailseford, lady Ann Shirley, lady S. Paulet, &c. &c. are here; miss Greville, miss Berkeley, and lady Hereford. Mr. Mansell came last night to the ball. We have the most diverting set of dancers, especially among the men; some hop and some halt in a very agreeable variety. dowager duchess of Norfolk bathes; and being very tall, had nearly drowned a few women in the Cross Bath, for she ordered it to be filled till it reached her chin, and so all those who were below her stature, as well as her rank, were forced to come out or drown; and finding it, according to the proverb, in vain to strive against the stream, they left the bath rather than swallow so large a draught of water. I am sorry for the cruel separation of your grace and miss Dashwood; I believe no one parts with their friends with greater reluctance than you do; and how they part with you I have a melancholy remembrance. I am of your opinion, that one may easily guess at the depth of an understanding, whose shallows are never covered by silence. It is now pretty late, and I will end my scandalous chronicle of Bath. I beg my best compliments to my lord duke and to lady Wallingford. I am, &c. E. ROBINSON. LETTER VI. FROM MRS. ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO THE DUCHESS OF PORTLAND. MADAM, Bath, Jun. 30, 1740. It is said, expectation enhances the value of a pleasure. I think your letters want nothing to add to the satisfaction they give, and I would not have your grace take the method of delay to give a zest to your favours: however, your letter did give me the greatest pleasure; I must have been sunk in insensibility if it had not made me happy. I have long been convinced it was in your power to give me happiness, and I shall begin to think health too, for I have been much better ever since I received it. I hope the duke is entirely well of his new disorder; I am sure his grace will never have it much, for it is a distemper always accom panied by peevishness; and as he has not the smallest grain of that in his composition, he can never have a constitution troubled with the gout. What will this world come to now duchesses drink gin and frequent fairs! I am afraid your gentlemen did not pledge you, or they might have resisted the frost and fatigue by the strength of that comfortable liquor. I want much to know whether your grace got a ride in the flying coach, which is part of the diversion of a fair. I am much obliged to you for wishing me of the party: I should have liked it extremely. When you go again, pray beware of a thaw, lest you should meet with your final dissolution. Lady Berkshire, Mrs. Greville and her daughter, called upon me yesterday. Every body takes pity on me now I am confined so much. I am much obliged to your grace for forming schemes for me. If any castles come to my share, they must be airy ones, for I have no materials to build them on terra firma. I am not a good chimerical architect; and besides, I would rather dwell this summer in a small room in a certain noble mansion near Gerrard's Cross, than in the most spacious building I could have. I shall not be troublesome to you in town; for our stay here will be so long, that our family will hardly go down till the end of May. I have many things to say which can be conveyed to your knowledge by no way but through your ear. The time will come that we shall meet at Philippi, Time, though swift, seems slow while its progress is towards our wishes: if I was at the old gentleman's elbow I should shake his hour-glass to hasten the arrival of April. While I am impatient to see you, I cannot help wondering dean Swift should think it an unreasonable thing for lovers to desire the gods to annihilate both space and time to make two lovers happy. For my part, I have wished in the more reasonable passion of friendship the loss of three months, and at least as many counties, that we might be together. If love, like faith, could remove mountains, you would see me with you by to-morrow morning; except the humorous lieutenant, no one was ever so much in love with one of their own sex, as I am with your grace. If I should ever be half as much enamoured of one of the other, what will become of me in this world, "Where sighs and tears are bought and sold, While Hymen holds by Mammon's charter, my affections would assuredly be slighted, having nothing but myself in the scale, and some few vanities that make me light. What is a woman withont gold, or fee-simple? A toy while she is young, and a trifle when she is old. Jewels of the first water are good for nothing till they are set: but as for us, who are no brilliants, we are nobody's money till we have a foil, and are encompassed with the precious metal. As for the intrinsic value of a woman, few know it, and nobody cares. Lord Foppington appraised all the female virtues, and bought them in under a 1000l. sterling; and the whole sex have agreed no one better understood the value of womankind. I admire the heroic exploits of the beaux at the playhouse; but Could these Narcissuses break the looking-glass and destroy the images of themselves! Beating the actors off the stage exceeded the valorous enterprise of Don Quixotte when he demolished the puppets. I hear one of the gentlemen (fortune de la guerre) was caught in a trap, and descended ghost-like, under the stage: I fancy he called out, Fight, fight! with as much solemnity as Hamlet's ghost cries Swear! I think this practical wit is a little dangerous. I hope a law will be made that no man shall be witty upon another antil he fetches blood, or unfurnishes or fires a house, for the jest's sake; for really it becomes necessary to restrain the active genius of our youths; and especially it shall be ordered that no person be witty if they cannot pay damages, and that unlawful jests, &c. &c. be forborne.-With compliments to my lord duke I take my leave. I am, madam, your grace's, &c. E. ROBINSON. LETTER VII. FROM MRS. ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO MISS S. MY DEAR SISTER, ROBINSON. Whitehall, 1740. I HAD your kind and affectionate letter; and I can assure you have had no pleasure equal to what it gave me since we parted. I believe we should be too much grieved at the swift passing of hours, if we did not look upon the near stages of time, as the road to some happiness. How should we regret every span of life that did not seem to stretch towards the attainment of some desire; as, in a story that delights, we hasten eagerly to the circumstances, without considering that the tale is the nearer told; and very brief is that of life; yet not to be repeated because that it is good, or that it is short, or that it is pleasant. May your little story be filled with every particular joy, every instance of happiness, every gift of good fortune; and let it be the chief circumstance of mine that I grieved or rejoiced, and loved, and lived, and died, as you did. We had company at dinner on Monday, and in the after |