d I have 'reason to think,' that this Mr. 'Belford' is as
'passionate' and 'fierce' a man as Mr. Lovelace. What pity it is the
lady could find no 'worthier a protector!' You may paste those lines
over with 'blue' or 'black paper,' before he seeth it: and if he
insisteth upon taking a copy of my letter, (for he, or any body that
'seeth it,' or 'heareth it read,' will, no doubt, be glad to have by them
the copy of a letter so full of the 'sentiments' of the 'noblest writers'
of 'antiquity,' and 'so well adapted,' as I will be bold to say they are,
to the 'point in hand'; I say, if he insisteth upon taking a copy,) let
him give you the 'strongest assurances' not to suffer it to be 'printed'
on 'any account'; and I make the same request to you, that 'you' will
not; for if any thing be to be made of a 'man's works,' who, but the
'author,' should have the 'advantage'? And if the 'Spectators,' the
'Tatlers,' the 'Examiners,' the 'Guardians,' and other of our polite
papers, make such a 'strutting' with a 'single verse,' or so by way of
'motto,' in the 'front' of 'each day's' paper; and if other 'authors'
pride themselves in 'finding out' and 'embellishing' the 'title-pages'
of their 'books' with a 'verse' or 'adage' from the 'classical writers';
what a figure would 'such a letter as the enclosed make,' so full fraught
with 'admirable precepts,' and 'a-propos quotations,' from the 'best
authority'?

I have been told that a 'certain noble Lord,' who once sat himself down
to write a 'pamphlet' in behalf of a 'great minister,' after taking
'infinite pains' to 'no purpose' to find a 'Latin motto,' gave commission
to a friend of 'his' to offer to 'any one,' who could help him to a
'suitable one,' but of one or two lines, a 'hamper of claret.'
Accordingly, his lordship had a 'motto found him' from 'Juvenal,' which
he 'unhappily mistaking,' (not knowing 'Juvenal' was a 'poet,') printed
as a prose 'sentence' in his 'title-page.'

If, then, 'one' or 'two' lines were of so much worth, (A 'hamper of
claret'! No 'less'!) of what 'inestimable value' would 'such a letter as
mine' be deemed?--And who knoweth but that this noble P--r, (who is now*
living,) if he should happen to see 'this letter' shining with such a
'glorious string of jewels,' might give the 'writer a scarf,' in order to
have him 'always at hand,' or be a 'mean' (some way or other) to bring
him into 'notice'? And I would be bold to say ('bad' as the 'world' is)
a man of