still of opinion, the French king will sign the
preliminaries. With that view, I have sent him by my familiar the
following epistle, and admonished him, on pain of what I shall say of
him to future generations, to act with sincerity on this occasion.

#"London, May 31.#

#"Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., of Great Britain, to Lewis XIV. of France.#

"The surprising news which arrived this day, of your Majesty's having
refused to sign the treaty your Ministers have in a manner sued for, is
what gives ground to this application to your Majesty, from one whose
name, perhaps, is too obscure to have ever reached your territories; but
one who, with all the European world, is affected with your
determinations. Therefore, as it is mine and the common cause of
mankind, I presume to expostulate with you on this occasion. It will, I
doubt not, appear to the vulgar extravagant, that the actions of a
mighty prince should be balanced by the censure of a private man, whose
approbation or dislike are equally contemptible in their eyes, when they
regard the thrones of sovereigns. But your Majesty has shown, through
the whole course of your reign, too great a value for liberal arts to be
insensible, that true fame lies only in the hands of learned men, by
whom it is to be transmitted to futurity, with marks of honour or
reproach to the end of time. The date of human life is too short to
recompense the cares which attend the most private condition: therefore
it is, that our souls are made as it were too big for it, and extend
themselves in the prospect of a longer existence, in a good fame and
memory of worthy actions after our decease. The whole race of men have
this passion in some degree implanted in their bosoms, which is the
strongest and noblest incitation to honest attempts: but the base use of
the arts of peace, eloquence, poetry, and all the parts of learning,
have been possessed by souls so unworthy those faculties, that the names
and appellations of things have been confounded by the labours and
writings of prostituted men, who have stamped a reputation upon such
actions as are in themselves the objects of contempt and disgrace. This
is that which has misled your Majesty in the conduct of your reign, and
made that life, which might have been the most imitable, the most to be
avoided. To this it is, that the great and excellent qualities of which
your Majesty is master, are lost in their application; and your Majesty
has been carryin