LETTER XII To AMASI A. July 8, 1744. F good manners will not justify my long filence, policy at leaft will: for you muft confefs there is fome prudence in not owning a debt one is incapable of paying. I have the mortification indeed to find myfelf engaged in a commerce, which I have not a fufficient fund to fupport; tho' I must add at the fame time, if you expect an equal return of entertainment for that which your letters afford, I know not where you will find a correfpondent. You will fcarcely, at leaft, look for him in the defart, or hope for any thing very lively from a man who is obliged to feek his companions among the dead. You who dwell in a land flowing with mirth and good humor, meet with many a gallant occurrence worthy of record: but what can a village produce, which is more famous for repofe than for action, and is fo much behind the manners of the present age, as scarce to have got out of the fimplicity of the firft? The utmost of our humor 1 humor rifes no higher than punch; and all that we know of Affemblies, is once a year round our May-pole. Thus unqualified, as I am, to contribute to your amusement, I am as much at a lofs to fupply my own; and am obliged to have recoufe to a thoufand ftratagems to help me off with those. lingering hours, which run fo fwiftly, it feems, by you. As one cannot always, you know, be playing at pufh-pin, I fometimes employ myself with a lefs philofophical diverfion; and either purfue butterflies, or hunt rhymes, as the weather, and the feafon permit. This morning not proving very favorable to my fports of the field, I contented myself with thofe under covert; and as I am not at prefent fupplied with any :thing better for your entertainment, will you fuffer me to fet before you fome of game? E } A TALE, my RE Saturn's fons were yet difgrac'd, And heathen gods were all the taste, Full oft (we read) 'twas Jove's high will To take the air on Ida's hill. It chanc'd, as once with ferious ken, of men, He He faw (and pity touch'd his breast) cr ; Say, which of all this fhining train "Will Virtue's conflict hard sustain "For fee! fhe drooping takes her flight, "While not a god fupports her right." He paus'd-when from amidst the sky, Wit, Innocence, and Harmony, With one united zeal arofe, The triple tyrants to oppose. That inftant from the realms of day, And enter'd with the ev'ning ftar. BESIDE the road a manfion ftood, Hither, difguis'd, their fteps they bend, The The artful tale that Wit had feign'd, THE dame who own'd, adorn'd the place: IMAGINE now the table clear, Quick let us measure back the sky; "These nymphs alone may well fupply "Wit, Innocence, and Harmony. } You fee to what expedient folitude has reduced me, when I am thus forced to ftring rhymes, as boys do birds eggs, in orE 4 der 1 der to while away my idle hours. But a gayer scene is, I truft, approaching, and the day will fhortly, I hope, arrive, when I fhall only complain that it fteals away too faft. It is not from any improvement in the objects which furround me that I expect this wondrous change; nor yet that a longer familiarity will render them more agreable. It is from a promife I received, that Amafia will vifit the Hermit in his cell, and difperfe the gloom of a folitaire by the chearfulness of her converfation. What inducements fhall I mention to prevail with you to haften that day? fhall I tell you, that I have a bower over-arched with woodbine? that I have an oak which is the favorite haunt of a dryad? that I have a plantation, which flourishes with all the verdure of May, in the midft of all the cold of December? Or, may I not hope that I have. fomething ftill more prevailing with you than all thefe, as I can with truth affure you, that I have a heart which is faithfully yours, &c. LETTER |