most grateful and obliging'
----

And to the same purpose Ovid:

'Gratia ab officio, quod mora tar dat, abest.'

And, Sir, whatever you do, let the 'lady's pardon' be as 'ample,' and as
'cheerfully given,' as she can 'wish for it': that I may be able to tell
her, that it hath your 'hands,' your 'countenances,' and your 'whole
hearts,' with it--for, as the Latin verse hath it, (and I presume to
think I have not weakened its sense by my humble advice),

'Dat bene, dat multum, qui dat cum munere vultum.'

And now, Sir, when I survey this long letter,* (albeit I see it
enamelled, as a 'beautiful meadow' is enamelled by the 'spring' or
'summer' flowers, very glorious to behold!) I begin to be afraid that I
may have tired you; and the more likely, as I have written without that
'method' or 'order,' which I think constituteth the 'beauty' of 'good
writing': which 'method' or 'order,' nevertheless, may be the 'better
excused' in a 'familiar epistle,' (as this may be called,) you pardoning,
Sir, the 'familiarity' of the 'word'; but yet not altogether 'here,' I
must needs own; because this is 'a letter' and 'not a letter,' as I may
say; but a kind of 'short' and 'pithy discourse,' touching upon 'various'
and 'sundry topics,' every one of which might be a 'fit theme' to enlarge
upon of volumes; if this 'epistolary discourse' (then let me call it)
should be pleasing to you, (as I am inclined to think it will, because of
the 'sentiments' and 'aphorisms' of the 'wisest of the antients,' which
'glitter through it' like so many dazzling 'sunbeams,') I will (at my
leisure) work it up into a 'methodical discourse'; and perhaps may one
day print it, with a 'dedication' to my 'honoured patron,' (if, Sir, I
have 'your' leave,) 'singly' at first, (but not till I have thrown out
'anonymously,' two or three 'smaller things,' by the success of which I
shall have made myself of 'some account' in the 'commonwealth of
letters,') and afterwards in my 'works'--not for the 'vanity' of the
thing (however) I will say, but for the 'use' it may be of to the
'public'; for, (as one well observeth,) 'though glory always followeth
virtue, yet it should be considered only as its shadow.'

* And here, by way of note, permit me to say, that no 'sermon' I ever
composed cost me half the 'pains' that this letter hath done--but I knew
your great 'appetite' after, as well as 'admiration' of, the 'antient
wisdom,' which you so justly prefer to th