fhould write to all, as if I wrote to one exclufively I feared that I fhould give offence to the reft; fince I hope that many are ftill left who might justly claim the performance of this duty. But you, by first addreffing me in a manner fo truly friendly, and by a triple repetition of epiftolary kindness, have laid me under an obligation to write to you, and have exonerated me from the cenfure of those to whom I do not write. Though I must confefs that I found other reafons for filence in these convulfions which my country has experienced fince my return home, which neceffarily diverted my attention from the profecution of my ftudies to the prefervation of my property and my life. For can you imagine that I could have leifure to tafte the sweets of literary cafe while fo many battles were fought, fo much blood fhed, and while fo much ravage prevailed among my fellow-citizens? But even in the midft of this tempeftuous period, I have published feveral works in my native language, which if they had not been written in English, I fhould have pleasure in fending to you, whose judgment I fo much revere. My Latin poems I will foon fend as you defire; and this I fhould have done long ago without being defired, if I had not fufpected that fome rather harth expreffions which they contained against the Roman pontiff would have rendered them lefs pleafing to your ears. Now I request whenever I mention the rites of your religion in my own way, that you will prevail on your friends (for I am under no apprehenfions from you) to show me the fame indulgence not only which they did to Aligerius and to Petrarch on a fimilar occafion, but which you did formerly with such fingular benevolence to the freedom of my converfation on topics of religion. With pleasure I perufed your defcription of the funeral of king Louis. I do not acknowledge the infpiration of that vulgar and mercenary Mercury whom you jocofely profefs to worship, but of that Mercury who excels in eloquence, who is dear to the Mufes and the patron of men of genius. It remains for us to hit upon fome method by which our correfpondence may in future be carried on with greater regularity and fewer interruptions. This does not seem ར་ very difficult, when we have fo many merchants who trade fo extenfively with us; whofe agents pals to and fro every week, and whofe fhips are failing backward; and forward almoft as often. In the meau time, my dear Charles, farewell, and prefent my kind wishes to Cultellino, Francifco, Trefcobaldo, Maltatesto, the younger Clemantillo, and every other inquiring, friend, and to all the members of the Gaddian academy. Adieu. London, April 21, 1647. XI. To HERMANN MILLES, Secretary to the Count of Oldenburgh. BEFORE I return any answer, most noble Hermann, to your letter which I received on the 17th of December, I will first explain the reafons why I did not write before, that you may not impute to me the blame of a filence which has fo long continued. First, the delay was occafioned by ill-health, whofe hoftilities I have now almoft perpetually to combat; next, by a cause of ill-health, a neceffary and sudden removal to another house, which had accidentally begun to take place on the day that your letter arrived; and lastly, by fhame that I had no intelligence concerning your bufiness, which I thought that it would be agreeable to communicate. For the day before yesterday when I accidentally met the Lord Froft, and anxiously enquired. of him whether any answer to you had been refolved on? (for the state of my health often kept me from the council) he replied not without emotion, that nothing had been refolved on, and that he could make no progrefs in expediting the business. I thought it therefore better to be filent for a time, than immediately to write what I knew that it would be irkfome for you to hear, but rather to wait till I fhould have the pleasure to communicate C 2 communicate what I was fure it would give you fo much pleasure to know. This I hope that I have to-day accomplished; for when I had more than once reminded the prefident of your business, he replied that to-morrow they would difcufs what answer they should give. If I am the first, as I endeavoured, to give you intelligence of this event, I think that it will contribute greatly to your fatisfaction, and will serve as a specimen of my zeal for the promotion of your interests. Westminster. XII. To the renowned LEONARD PHILARA, the Athenian. I WAS in fome measure made acquainted, moft accomplished Philara, with your good-will towards me, and with your favourable opinion of my defence of the people of England, by your letters to the Lord Auger, a perfon fo renowned for his fingular integrity in executing the embaffies of the republic. I then received your compliments with your picture and an eulogy worthy of your virtues; and, láftly, a letter full of civility and kindness. I who am not wont to defpife the genius of the German, the Dane, and Swede, could not but set the highest value on your applaufe, who were born at Athens itself, and who after having happily finished your studies in Italy, obtained the moft fplendid diftinctions and the highest honours. For if Alexander the Great, when waging war in the distant East, declared that he encountered fo many dangers and fo many trials for the fake of having his praifes celebrated by the Athenians, ought not I to congratulate myself on receiving the praises of a man in whom alone the talents and the virtues of the antient Athenians feem to recover their freshness and their strength after fo long an interval of corruption and decay. To the writings of those illuftrious inen which your city has produced, in the perufal perufal of which I have been occupied from my youth, it is with pleasure I confefs that I am indebted for all my proficiency in literature. Did I poffefs their command of language and their force of perfuafion I should feel the highest fatisfaction in employing them to excite our armies and our fleets to deliver Greece, the parent of eloquence, from the defpotifm of the Ottomans. Such is the enterprize in which you seem to wish to implore my aid. And what did formerly men of the greatest courage and eloquence deem more noble or more glorious, than by their orations or their valour to affert the liberty and independence of the Greeks? But we ought befides to attempt, what is, I think, of the greatest moment, to inflame the prefent Greeks with an ardent defire to emulate the virtue, the induftry, the patience of their antient progenitors; and this we cannot hope to fee effected by any one but yourself, and for which you feein adapted by the fplendour of your patriotism, combined with fo much difcretion, fo much skill in war, and fuch an unquenchable thirst for the recovery of your antient liberty. Nor do I think that the Greeks would be wanting to themselves, nor that any other people would be wanting to the Greeks. Adieu. London, Jan. 1652, XIII. To RICHARD HETH. IF I were able, my excellent friend, to render you any fervice in the promotion of your ftudies, which at beft could have been but very finall, I rejoice on more accounts than one, that that fervice, though fo long unknown, was bestowed on fo fruitful and fo genial a foil, which has produced an honest pastor to the church, a good citizen to our country, and to me a most acceptable friend. Of this I am well aware, not only с 3 from from the general habits of your life, but from the justnefs of your religious and political opinions, and particularly from the extraordinary ardour of your gratitude which no abfence, no change of circumftances, or lapfe of time can either extinguish or impair. Nor is it poffible till you have made a more than ordinary progrefs in virtue, in piety, and in the improvement of the mind and heart, to feel fo much gratitude towards those who have in the leaft affifted you in the acquifition. Wherefore, my pupil, a name which with your leave I will employ, be affured that you are among the first objects of my regard; nor would any thing be more agreeable to me, if your circumftances permit as much as your inclination, than to have you take up your abode fomewhere in my neighbourhood, where we may often fee each other, and mutually profit by the reciprocations of kindness and of literature. But this must be as God pleases, and as you think beft. Your future communications may, if you pleafe, be in our own language, left (though you are no mean proficient in Latin compofition) the labour of writing fhould make each of us more averse to write; and that we may freely disclose every sensation of our hearts without being impeded by the fhackles of a foreign language. foreign language. You may fafely entrust the care of your letters to any fervant of that family which you mention. Adieu. Weftminster, Decemb. 13, 1652. XIV. TO HENRY OLDENBURGH, Aulic Counsellor to the I RECEIVED your former letters, moft accomplished fir, at the moment when your clerk was at the point of fetting out on his return, fo that I had no power of returning you an answer at that time. This fome |