our of the cow, unless you may be afraid that
the young squire may become a calf; but how many calves are there
both in state and church, who have been brought up with their
mother's milk.

I PROMISE faithfully, to communicate to no mortal the letter you
wrote me last.--What you say of two of the rebel lords, I believe to
be true; but I can do nothing in the matter.--If my projects don't
fail in the execution, I shall see you before a month passes. Give
my service to Dr Blackbeard.--He is a good man, but I never saw in
my life, such a persecuting face cover a humane and tender heart. I
imagine (within myself) that the Smithfield priests, who burned the
protestants in the time of Queen Mary, had just such faces as the
doctor's. If we were papists, I should like him very much for my
confessor; his seeming austerity would give you and I a great
reputation for sanctity; and his good, indulgent heart, would be the
very thing that would suit us, in the affair of penance and ghostly
direction. Farewell, my dear lady, &c. &c.

LET. LIV.

TO THE ABBOT ----.

_Vienna, Jan_. 2. O. S. 1717.

I AM really almost tired with the life of Vienna. I am not, indeed,
an enemy to dissipation and hurry, much less to amusement and
pleasure; but I cannot endure, long, even pleasure, when it is
fettered with formality, and assumes the air of system. 'Tis true I
have had here some very agreeable connections; and what will perhaps
surprise you, I have particular pleasure in my Spanish acquaintances,
count Oropesa and general Puebla. These two noblemen are much in the
good graces of the emperor, and yet they seem to be brewing mischief.
The court of Madrid cannot reflect, without pain, upon the
territories that were cut off from the Spanish monarchy by the peace
of Utrecht, and it seems to be looking wishfully out, for an
opportunity of getting them back again. That is a matter about which
I trouble myself very little; let the Court be in the right or in the
wrong, I like mightily the two counts its ministers. I dined with
them both some days ago at count Wurmbrand's, an aulic counsellor,
and a man of letters, who is universally esteemed here. But the
first man at this court, in point of knowledge and abilities, is
certainly count Schlick, high chancellor of Bohemia, whose immense
reading is accompanied with a fine taste and a solid judgment; he is
a declared enemy to prince Eugene, and a warm friend to th