that L30,000 have not
half so much power with me as the woman I love."

THE HON. MRS. HOWARD TO JOHN GAY.

Richmond Lodge, July 22nd, 1723.

"I have taken some days to consider of your _wheat-ear_, but I find I
can no more approve of your having a passion for that, than I did of
your turning parson. But if ever you will take the one, I insist upon
your taking the other; they ought not to be parted; they were made
from the beginning for each other. But I do not forbid you to get the
best intelligence of the ways, manners and customs of this wonderful
_phenomene_, how it supports the disappointment of bad ale, and what
are the consequences to the full enjoyment of her luxury? I have some
thoughts of taking a hint from the ladies of your acquaintance who
pray for matadores, and turn devotees for luck at ombre, for I have
already lost above L100 since I came to Richmond.

"I do not like to have you too passionately fond of everything that
has no disguise. I (that am grown old in Courts) can assure you
sincerity is so very unthriving that I can never give consent that you
should practise it, excepting to three or four people that I think may
deserve it, of which number I am. I am resolved that you shall open a
new scene of behaviour next winter and begin to pay in coin your debts
of fair promises. I have some thoughts of giving you a few loose hints
for a satire, and if you manage it right, and not indulge that foolish
good-nature of yours, I do not question but I shall see you in good
employment before Christmas."

JOHN GAY TO THE HON. MRS. HOWARD.

Tunbridge Wells, August, 1723.

"I have long wished to be able to put in practice that valuable worldly
qualification of being insincere. One of my chief reasons is that I hate
to be particular, and I think if a man cannot conform to the customs of
the world, he is not fit to be encouraged or to live in it. I know that,
if one would be agreeable to men of dignity one must study to imitate
them, and I know which way they get money and places. I cannot indeed
wonder that the talents requisite for a great statesman are so scarce in
the world, since so many of those who possess them are every month cut
off in the prime of their life at the Old Bailey.

"Another observation I have made upon courtiers is that if you have any
friendship with any particular one, you must be entirely governed by his
friendship and resentments, not your own; you are not only to flatter