Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/122

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PART I. BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR

[11 JAN.

and therefore to Him lift we up our hearts that He would perfect it. And surely, Mr. Storie, it were a piteous thing to see a Lecture fall, in the hands of so many able and godly men, as I am persuaded the founders of this are; in these times, wherein we see they are suppressed, with too much haste and violence, by the enemies of God his Truth. Far be it that so much guilt should stick to your hands, who live in a City so renowned for the clear shining light of the Gospel. You know, Mr. Storie, to withdraw the pay is to let fall the Lecture: for who goeth to warfare at his own cost? I beseech you therefore im the bowels of Jesus Christ, put it forward, and let the good man have his pay. The souls of God’s children will bless you for it; and so shall I; and ever rest, your loving Friend in the Lord,

OLIVER CROMWELL.

Commend my hearty love to Mr. Busse, Mr. Beadly, and my other good friends. I would have written to Mr. Busse; but I was loath to trouble him with a long letter, and I feared I should not receive an answer from him: from you I expect one so soon as conveniently you may. Vale.^[1]

Such is Oliver’s first extant Letter. The Royal Exchange has been twice burned since this piece of writing was left at the Sign of the Dog there. The Dog Tavern, Dog Landlord, frequenters of the Dog, and all their business and concernment there, and the hardest stone masonry they had, have vanished irrecoverable. Like a dream of the Night; like that transient Sign or Effigies of the Talbot Dog, plastered on wood with oi] pigments, which invited men to liquor and house-room in

↑ Harris (London, 1814), p. 12, This Letter, for which Harris, in 1761, thanks ‘the Trustees of the British Museum,’ is not now discoverable in that Establishment; ‘a search of three hours through all the Catalogues, assisted by one of the Clerks,’ reports itself to me as fruitless.— — Does exist safe, nevertheless (Sloane Mss. no. 2035, f. 125, a venerable brown Autograph); and in the ‘new Catalogue’ will be better indicated. ‘Busse’ is by no means ‘Bunse,’ as some have conjectured. (Note to third Edition.)

[1] Harris (London, 1814), p. 12, This Letter, for which Harris, in 1761, thanks ‘the Trustees of the British Museum,’ is not now discoverable in that Establishment; ‘a search of three hours through all the Catalogues, assisted by one of the Clerks,’ reports itself to me as fruitless.— — Does exist safe, nevertheless (Sloane Mss. no. 2035, f. 125, a venerable brown Autograph); and in the ‘new Catalogue’ will be better indicated. ‘Busse’ is by no means ‘Bunse,’ as some have conjectured. (Note to third Edition.)

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