The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 12/From Henry St. John to Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and John Gay - 1
FROM LORD BOLINGBROKE TO THE THREE YAHOOS OF TWICKENHAM.
JONATHAN, Alexander, John[1], most excellent triumvirs of Parnassus, though you are probably very indifferent where I am, or what I am doing; yet I resolve to believe the contrary. I persuade myself, that you have sent at least fifteen times within this fortnight to Dawley farm[2], and that you are extremely mortified at my long silence. To relieve you therefore from this great anxiety of mind, I can do no less than write a few lines to you; and I please myself beforehand with the vast pleasure which this epistle must needs give you. That I may add to this pleasure, and give you farther proofs of my beneficent temper, I will likewise inform you, that I shall be in your neighbourhood again by the end of next week; by which time I hope that Jonathan's imagination of business, will be succeeded by some imagination more becoming a professor of that divine science, la bagatelle. Adieu, Jonathan, Alexander, John! Mirth be with you.
From the banks of the Severn, July 23, 1726.