Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11.djvu/152

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LETTERS TO AND FROM

We have news from Brussels, that the dauphin is dead of an apoplexy. I am, with the greatest respect, my lord,

Your grace's most dutiful

and most humble servant,

I wish your grace would enclose your commands to me, directed to Erasmus Lewis, esq., at my lord Dartmouth's office at Whitehall; for I have left off going to coffeehouses.

LORD PETERBOROW TO DR. SWIFT.

FOR THE REV. DR. SWIFT, BISHOP OF, OR DEAN OF, ETC.

SIR,

VIENNA, APRIL 8, 1711.

I HAVE often with pleasure reflected upon the glorious possibilities of the English constitution; but I must apply to politicks a French expression appropriated by them to beauty: there is a je ne sçai quoi among us, which makes us troublesome with our learning, disagreeable with our wit, poor with our wealth, and insignificant with our power.

I could never despise any body for what they have not, and am only provoked, when they make not the right use of what they have. This is the greatest mortification, to know the advantages we have by art and nature, and see them disappointed by self-conceit and faction. What patience could

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bear