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14
LIFE OF PARNELL.

in your turn to me in mine. I am in such an unsettled state, that I can't tell if I shall ever see you, unless it be this year. Whether I do or not, be ever assured, you have as large a share of my thoughts and good wishes as any man, and as great a portion of gratitude in my heart, as would enrich a monarch could he know where to find it. I shall not die without testifying something of this nature, and leaving to the world a memorial of the friendship that has been so great a pleasure and pride to me. It would be like writing my own epitaph, to acquaint you with what I have lost since I saw you, what I have done, what I have thought, where I have lived, and where I now repose in obscurity. My friend Jervas, the bearer of this, will inform you of all particulars concerning me; and Mr. Ford is charged with a thousand loves, and a thousand complaints, and a thousand commissions, to you on my .part. They will both tax you with the neglect of some promises which were too agreeable to us all to be forgot. If you care for any of us, tell them so, and write so to me. I can say no more, but that I love you, and am, in spite of the longest neglect or absence,

Dear sir, yours, &c.

Gay is in Devonshire, and from thence he goes to Bath: my father and mother never fail to commemorate you.