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The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 11/From John Arbuthnot to Charles Ford - 2

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From miss Vanhomrigh
The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 11
 (1714)
by John Arbuthnot, edited by Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, John Boyle, Patrick Delany, John Hawkesworth, Deane Swift, William Bowyer, John Birch, and George Faulkner
Dr. Arbuthnot to Mr. Ford
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FROM DR. ARBUTHNOT TO MR. FORD[1].


DEAR FRIEND,


I HOPE this will find you in good health; and I hope in greater tranquillity of mind, than when we used to lament together at your office for the eternal faults of our friends. I have seen the dragon thrice since I wrote to you. He is without shadow of change; the greatest example of an unshaken tranquillity of mind, that ever I yet saw, seeming perfectly well satisfied with his own conduct in every particular. You know we have often said, that there is but one dragon in rerum natura. I do not know ​what he thinks, but I am perfectly well satisfied, that there will not be that one dragon left, if some people have their will. Haly Bassa, they say, struggles for his son-in-law. It is generous and grateful. There is a prodigious quarrel between him and the president about it[2]. I have given you the trouble of the adjoined for the dean, as also a scrap of a letter for him which we had begun at our club, but did not finish; Dr. Parnell not going, as he said.

I am not yet out, but expect to be soon. Adieu.


I had almost forgot to tell you of the pretender's declaration, in which there are words to this purpose: "That he had no reason to doubt of the good intention of his sister, which was the reason that he sat quiet in her time; but now was disappointed by the deplorable accident of her sudden death."

  1. ↑ Endorsed, "Received Dec. 2, 1714."
  2. ↑ The president of the council, who at that time was Daniel, earl of Nottingham.
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