To Sir Henry Goodyer. I cannot identify the "paper" the composition of
which helped Donne to pass the anxious hours that brought him a son; but
as the letter was written during his residence at Mitcham, where the
Donnes went to live shortly after the birth of their son George, the
birth here recorded must have been that of Francis, Donne's fourth child
and third son, who was baptized at Mitcham January 8th, 1607, and who died
in infancy. John, who survived to be the first editor of these letters,
was now three years old.