That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me:
an instance how blind the wisest men may be to the errors of their own hearts, for he certainly did not mean to imprecate such a proportion of vengeance on himself as he is too apt to load those with whom he dislikes; nor would he wish to have his own failings exposed to the eye of the world with all the invective and ridicule with which he publishes those of his fellow creatures.” The following is one of the most interesting and favourable letters from the many which Dr. Gibbons has preserved of the correspondence extending over so many years:
“Jan. 17, 1739.
“Sir,
“I am truly sorry to find you complain of any decay, but I am sure if you have any it must he bodily, and has no other effect than that which both Mr. Waller[30] and yourself have so happily described as letting in light upon the soul. I never read anything in life that pleased me better than your meditations on Revelation x., and I hope I shall not only delight in reading the words, but lay the substance of it to my heart, to which end allow me to beg your prayers as an assistance.
“My lord’s state of suffering—for he is again confined to his bed by the gout—gives me little opportunity and less inclination to lose much time in the gay amusements which are apt to divert other people from the thoughts of their dissolution; but I am not sure that a life of care and anxiety has not as bad an effect by fixing the mind too attentively on the present gloom, which obscures every cheerful ray which would otherwise enliven one’s spirits. I wish I had anything to send more worth your reading than the following verses, but I have so little leisure that I can scarce get time to write letters to the few friends I correspond with. These lines were written one morning in October as I was sitting in a bow-window in my chamber at St. Leonard’s Hill, which looks on a little grove in the garden, and beyond was an extensive view of the forest:
How lately was yon russet grove
The seat of harmony and love!
How beauteous all the sylvan scene!