great good fortune affected us:--for my part, I declare (self excepted)
I do not know, in the whole circle of human beings, two people whom
I would sooner wish to have got it;--neither, in my poor judgement,
could it have fallen with a probability of being better used in any
other hands. The blessings of decent competency you have been used to
from early childhood:--your minds have been well cultivated--virtuous
and prudent in your conduct, you have enjoyed the only true riches (a
good name) long;--your power of doing good will certainly be amply
increased; but, as to real wealth, I will maintain it, you were as rich
before.--You must now expect a decent share of envy;--for, as every one
thinks pretty handsomely of self, most of the unfortunate adventurers
of your acquaintance will be apt to think how much pleasanter it would
have been to have had twenty thousand pounds to themselves.--Avarice
will groan over his full bags, and cry, “Well, I never had any luck!”
Vanity will exclaim, “It is better to be born lucky than rich!” Whilst
Content, sheltered in her homely hovel, will cry, “Blessing on their
good hearts! aye, I knew their good parents;--they were eyes to the
blind, and feet to the lame, and made the orphan’s and the widow’s
hearts sing for joy; God will prosper the family.”--But, while I am
prating away, I neglect to thank you, which was the chief business
of this letter--to thank you, and to admire that rectitude of temper
which could, in the full tide of worldly good fortune, remember the
obscure, the humble old friend.--Accept my thanks, and the plaudit also
of a heart too proud to court opulence--but alive to the feelings of
truth, sacred friendship, and humanity.--Mine and Mrs. Sancho’s thanks
for your genteel present attend you, Mrs. W----, and the worthy circle
round!--May every year be productive of new happiness in the fullest
sense of true wisdom, the riches of the heart and mind!--So wishes thy
obliged sincere friend,
I. SANCHO.
LETTER CXXII.
TO D. B----E, ESQ.
Dec. 30, 1779.
HONOURED SIR,
PERMIT me to thank you--which I do most sincerely--for the kindness
and good-will you are pleased to honour me with.--Believe me, dear
Sir, I was better pleased with the gracious and soothing manner of
your refusal--than I have been in former times with obligations less
graciously conferred.--I should regret the trouble I have given
you--but that my heart feels a comfort, and my pride a gratification,
from the reflection, that I am cared for--and not unnoticed--by a
gentleman of the first worth and highest character. I am dear Sir, with
profound respect and gratitude,
Your most obliged
and humble servant,
I. SANCHO.
LETTER CXXIII.
TO MR. I----.
Dec. 1779.
DEAR SIR,
THE bearer of this letter gives himself a very good report--he
is certainly the best judge--he can cook upon occasion--dress
and shave--handle a salver with address--and clean it too:--he
is but little in make--and I hope not great in opinion:--examine
his morals--if you can see through so opaque a composition as a
Bengalian.--Was he an African--but it’s no matter, he can’t help the
place of his nativity!--I would have waited upon the worthy circle
yesterday; but the day was so unfriendly, I had not the heart to quit
the fire-side.--I hope you and Mrs. I---- have as much health and
spirits as you can manage.--I have had a pretty smart engagement with
the gout, of which I can give a better account than Sir Charles Hardy
can of the combined fleet.--I wish to place you, Sir, in the Censor’s
chair--for the which purpose, I most pressingly beg the favor of your
company to-morrow, Friday the 19th, in the afternoon--to meet a young
unfledged genius of the first water--who, as well as myself, is fool
enough to believe you possess as much true taste as true worth:--be
that as God pleases--if you delight to do me honor, comply with this
request, and imagine Sterne would have done as much for
I. SANCHO.
LETTER CXXIV.
TO MR. R----.
Last Day, 1779.
DEAR FRIEND,
I WISH I could tell you how much pleasure I felt in the reading your
chearful letter--I felt that you was in good health, and in a flow
of chearfulness, which pray God continue to you!----I shall fancy
myself amongst you about the time you will get this--I paint in my
imagination the winning smiles, and courteously kind welcome, in the
face of a certain lady, whom I cannot help caring for with the decent
pleasing demure countenance of the little C---- Squire B----, with
the jovial expression of countenance our old British freeholders were
wont to wear--the head and heart of Addison’s Sir Roger de Coverley;
S---- tipsy with good will, his eyes dancing in his head, considering
within his breast every species of welcome to do honor to his noble
master, and credit to the night; and, lastly, my friend looking more
kindness than his tongue can utter and present to every individual,
in offices of love and respect. My R----, what would I give to
steal in unseen--and be a happy spectator of the good old English
hospitality--kept up by so few--and which in former times gave such
strength and consequence to the ancestry of the present frivolous race
of Apostates!--Honoured and blest be Sir C---- and his memory, for
being one of those golden characters that can find true happiness in
giving pleasure to his tenants, neighbours, and domestics!--where-ever
such a being moves--the eyes of love and gratitude follow after
him--and infant tongues, joining the voice of youth and maturer years,
fill up the grand chorus of his praise.--I inclose without apology
a billet for ----: he well knows how prone I naturally am to love
him;--but love is untractable, there is no forcing affections--but
I, perhaps, too quickly feel coldness. ---- has a noble soul--and he
has his foibles;--for me, I fling no stone--I dare not; for, of all
created beings, I know none so truly culpable, so full of faults, as is
your very sincere friend and obliged servant,
I. SANCHO.
As we commonly wish well to ourselves, you may believe that we
cordially join in wishing every good, either in health, wealth,
or honour, to the noble owner of B---- Hall; to the thrice dearly
respected--guess who!--to you and all--and all and you. Billy loves
flesh--Kitty is a termagant--Betsy talks as usual--the Fanny’s work
pretty hard. Adieu! I conclude 1779 with the harmony of love and
friendship.
LETTER CXXV.
TO ---- MR. S----.
1780, January the 4th day.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
YOU have here a kind of medley, a heterogeneous, ill-spelt, heteroclite
(worse) excentric sort of a--a--; in short, it is a true Negroe
calibash--of ill-sorted, undigested chaotic matter. What an excellent
proem! what a delightful sample of the grand absurd!--Sir--dear
Sir--as I have a soul to be saved (and why I should not, would puzzle
a Dr. Price), as I have a soul to be saved, I only meant to say about
fifteen words to you--and the substance just this--to wish you a happy
New-year--with the usual appendages--and a long et cætera of cardinal
and heavenly blessings:--à propos, blessings--never more scanty--all
beggars by Jove--not a shilling to be got in London;--if you are better
off in the country, and can afford to remit me your little bill, I
inclose it for that good end. H---- is--but he can better tell you
himself what he is; for in truth I do think he is in love: which puts
the pretty G---- into my head--and she brings her father in view.--My
love and respects to each.--Mrs. Sancho joins me; and the girls,
her--and God keep you!
Yours sincerely,
I. SANCHO.
LETTER CXXVI.
TO MR. J---- W----E.
Charles Street, Jan. 5, 1780.
DEAR W----E,
WERE I as rich in worldly commodity as in hearty will--I would thank
you most princely for your very welcome and agreeable letter;--but,
were it so, I should not proportion my gratitude to your wants;--for,
blessed be the God of thy hope!--thou wantest nothing--more
than--what’s in thy possession--or in thy power to possess:--I would
neither give thee _Money_--nor _Territory_--_Women_--nor _Horses_--nor
_Camels_--nor the height of Asiatic pride--_Elephants_;--I would give
thee _Books_--
“_Books_, fair Virtue’s advocates and friends;”
but you have books plenty--more than you have time to digest:--after
much writing--which is fatiguing enough--and under the lassitude
occasioned by fatigue, and not sin--the cool recess--the loved
_book_--the sweet pleasures of imagination poetically worked up
into delightful enthusiasm--richer than all your fruits--your
spices--your dancing-girls--and the whole detail of Eastern, effeminate
foppery--flimsy splendour--and glittering magnificence;--so thou
thinkest--and I rejoice with thee and for thee. Shall I say what my
heart suggests? No, you will feel it praise--and call it flattery.
Shall I say, Your worthy parent read your filial letter to me--and
embalmed the grateful tribute of a virtuous son with his precious
tears?--Will you believe?--he was for some minutes speechless through
joy!--Imagine you see us--our heads close together--comparing
notes;--imagine you hear the honest plaudits of love and friendship
sounding in thy ears;--’tis glory to be proud on such occasions--’tis
the pride of merit:--and as you allow me to counsel you with freedom--I
do strongly advise you to love praise--to court praise--to win it
by every honest, laudable exertion--and be oft, very often jealous
of it:--examine the source it proceeds from--and encourage and
cherish it accordingly.--Fear not--mankind are not too lavish of
it--censure is dealt out by wholesale--while praise is very sparingly
distributed:--nine times in ten mankind may err in their blame--but in
its praises the world is seldom, if ever, mistaken.--Mark--I praise
thee _sincerely_, for the _whole_ and every _part_ of thy _conduct_
in regard to my two sable brethren[14]. I was an ass--or else I might
have judged from the national antipathy and prejudice through custom
even of the Gentoos towards their woolly-headed brethren, and the
well-known dignity of my Lords the Whites, of the impropriety of my
request.--I therefore not only acquit thee honourably--but condemn
myself for giving thee the trouble to explain a right conduct.--I fear
you will hardly make out this scrawl, although it is written with a
pen of thy father’s--a present mended from a parcel of old quills by
his foreman, or brother C----d.--Your honest brother Joseph came post
with your letters--good-will shining in his face--joy in his innocent
eyes:--he promises to be as much a W---- as his Indian brother:--you
flatter my vanity in supposing my friendship of any utility to Joe;--he
has in his good father Moses and the Prophets--which you have had,
and availed yourself well of the blessing--and I trust Joe will do
the same--besides having precept and example from a worthy and loving
brother.--Poor M----, your favourite--I scarce knew her;--she was
as pure within, as amiable without:--she enriches the circle of the
blest--and you have a friend in heaven.
I hope you sometimes--aye often--consult with Dr. Young’s Night
Thoughts--carry him in your pockets--court him--quote him--delight
in him--make him your own--and laugh at the wit, and wisdom, and
fashion of the world:--that book, well studied, will make you know
the value of death--and open your eyes to the snares of life; its
precepts will exalt the festive hour, brighten and bless the gloom of
solitude, comfort thy heart, and smooth thy pillow in sickness, and
gild with lustre thy prosperity--disarm death itself of its terrors,
and sweetly soften the hour of dissolution.--I recommend to all young
people, who do me the honour to ask my opinion--I recommend, if their
stomachs are strong enough for such intellectual food, Dr. Young’s
Night Thoughts--the Paradise Lost--and the Seasons;--which, with
Nelson’s Feasts and Fasts, a Bible and Prayer-book, used for twenty
years to make my travelling library--and I do think it a very rich one.
I never trouble my very distant friends with articles of news--the
public prints do it so much better--and then they may answer for their
untruths;--for among the multitude of our public prints, it is hard to
say which lyes most.
Your enclosed trust was directly delivered to the fair hands it was
addressed to:--I have the authority to say, it gave great pleasure to
both the ladies and your friend Mr. R----, who wears the same cordial
friendly heart in his breast as when you first knew him.--Your friend
Mr. John R---- is still at New York with the guards--where he is very
deservedly honoured, loved, and esteemed:--he corresponds with his
old acquaintance--and does me the honour to remember me amongst his
friends:--our toast in P. Gardens is often the three Johns--R----,
W----e, and O----, an honest--therefore a noble triumvirate.
I feel old age insensibly stealing on me--and, alas! am obliged to
borrow the aid of spectacles, for any kind of small print:--Time keeps
pacing on, and we delude ourselves with the hope of reaching first this
stage, and then the next; till that ravenous rogue Death puts a final
end to our folly.
All this is true--and yet I please and flatter myself with the hope
of living to see you in your native country--with every comfort
possessed--crowned with the honest man’s best ambition, a fair
character.--May your worthy, your respectable parents, relations, and
friends, enjoy that pleasure! and that you may realize every fond hope
of all who love you, is the wish of
Your sincere friend,
IGNATIUS SANCHO.
Postscript.
This letter is of a decent length--I expect a return with
interest.--Mrs. Sancho joins me in good wishes, love, and compliments.
[14] Mr. W----e having wrote word, that if any European in India
associated with those of that complexion, it would be considered as
a degradation, and would be an obstacle to his future preferment;
he laments, in very strong terms the cruelty of such an opinion;
hopes not to forfeit Mr. Sancho’s good opinion from being compelled
to comply with the custom of the country, with repeated assurances
of serving them, if in his power, though he must remain unknown to
them.
LETTER CXXVII.
TO MR. S----.
Charles Street, Jan. 11, 1780.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
MR. R---- faithfully discharged his commission--paid me the
desirable--and intrusted me with ten guineas, to pay on demand; and
here he comes, faith--as fresh as May, and warm as friendly zeal can
make mortality--to demand the two letters, which he will deliver
himself, for his own satisfaction.--I wish from my soul, that
Chancellors--Secretaries of State--Kings--aye--and Bishops--were as
fond of doing kind things--but they are of a higher order.--Friend
R---- is only a Christian.--I give you credit for your promises of
reformation in the epistolary way--and very glad am I to hear of your
success.--Know your own worth--honour yourself, not with supercilious
pride, but with the decent confidence of your own true native
merit--and you must succeed in almost any thing you chuse to undertake:
so thinks Sancho.--As to what you request me to do by way of inspecting
your goods and chattels in your late lodging--I must beg to decline
it--as I feel it aukward, to insinuate the least deficiency in point of
attention to your interests in such a heart as H--s; a heart which, to
my knowledge, feels every sentiment of divine friendship for you; an
heart, animated with the strongest zeal and flowing ardor to serve you,
to love you.
The kindness of you and your two friends exceedingly embarrasses
me.--I would not wish to appear to any one either arrogant, vain,
or conceited;--no--nor servile, mean, or selfish:--I grant your
motive is friendly in the extreme--and those of your companions as
nobly generous;--but--but what?--Why this--and the truth--were I
rich, I would accept it, and say “Thank ye,” when I chose it;--as
I am poor, I do not chuse to say “Thank ye”--but to those I know
and respect. You must forgive me--and call it the error of African
false principle--call it any thing but coldness and unfeeling
pride, which is in fact ingratitude in a birth-day suit.--As to
the grand Turk of Norfolk, if it comes--we will devour it--and
toast Don S---- and the unknown giver.--Thou, my S----, hast
(oh! prostrate, and thank the Giver) a noble and friendly heart,
susceptible of the best, the greatest feelings. H---- is thy
twin-brother--perhaps he has more fire in his composition:--Woman
apart, he is a glorious fellow; * * * * apart--alas! alas! alas!
* * * * * * * * apart, what might not be hoped, expected, from
* * * * * * *! So the poor boy flew his kite--but the tail was
lost.--Poor H---- has a book and a fair one to manage;--ticklish--very
ticklish subjects--either:--and your worship has a book to
castrate--and a Fandango to dance--with a _Tol de le rol, de le
rol_.--Your reason for postponing your journey to town is wisely great,
or greatly wise;--it does you honour, because it is founded in equity.
I am glad to hear the Rev. Mr. S---- is better.--I love and venerate
that good man:--not because he begat you, but for his own great parts
and many virtues--by the bye, I know more of him than you think
for.--Tell brother O---- I am glad to hear he is well, and Mrs. O----
better;--and tell him the name of the Bishop’s lady’s dog (that was
lost, and has been missing these two months) is Sherry[15]. When you
see Mr. S----, the good, the friendly, generous Mr. S----, my and mine
make the respects of--we wish him many happy years and his family.--To
Mr. G---- and his amiable daughter, say all that’s right for me. And
now to conclude with thanks, &c. &c. I and we--that’s spouse and
self--remain, &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. &c.
I. SANCHO.
[15] Mr. O---- had promised Mr. Sancho two months before to send him
immediately a present of Sherry.
LETTER CXXVIII.
TO MR. M----.
Charles Street, Jan. 17, 1780.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
I RECEIVED, as you taught me to expect last week, a very fine * * *,
and after it as kind a letter--in name of a Mr. E---- W---- of Norfolk,
near Houghton-Hall, &c.--I have bespoke a frank, and mean to thank
him--as I also thank you, whom I look upon as the grand friendly
mover of the generously handsome act.--You have your reward, for you
had a pleasure in doing it;--and Mr. W---- has his, if he believes
me honest.--Could I any way retaliate, I should feel lighter--that’s
pride, I own it. Humility should be the poor man’s shirt--and
thankfulness his girdle;--be it so--I do request you to thank Mr. W----
for me, and tell him he has the prayers--not of a raving mad whig--nor
fawning deceitful tory--but of a coalblack, jolly African, who wishes
health and peace to every religion and country throughout the ample
range of God’s creation!--and believes a painter may be saved at the
last day, maugre all the Miss G----’s and widows in this kingdom. I
have done nothing in the shoe affair yet--for which I ought to ask poor
C----’s pardon as well as yours:--the rogue has left the court, and
gone to live in Fish-market, Westminster bridge;--I shall ferret him
out, and make him bless his old master.
I inclose your receipts in proof of my honesty--a rare virtue as times
go!--M---- has wrote to you--left his letter with me--and I, like a
what you please, let it slip into the fire--with a handful of company
he had no business to be amongst:--he shall write you another--you will
both be angry--but you will both forgive, as good Christians ought,
accidents.--I am sorry. I will say no more, but God keep you, and
direct your goings;
Yours, &c. &c.
I. SANCHO.
When you see the honourable Mr. B----, give our loves and best
wishes to him and Mrs. B----, and Squire S---- and his good dame
also.--Salute the home of G---- for me.
LETTER CXXIX.
TO MR. W----E.
Charles Street, March 1, 1780.
MY GOOD FRIEND,
I WISH to interest you in behalf of the inclosed book--wrote by a
greatly-esteemed friend--a young man of much merit--and a heart
enriched with every virtue--the book I beg you will snatch time to
read with attention.--It is an answer (as you will see) to a flaming
bigoted Mongrel against Toleration.--Swift says, “Zeal is never so
pleased as when you set it a tearing.” He says truly. Could you get
the pamphlet (whose title I forget), you would be better enabled to
judge of the force, truth, and strength of my friend’s answer:--for my
part, I love liberty in every sense, whilst connected with honesty and
truth:--it has been shewn a bookseller, but he happened to be the very
man who had just published a flimsy answer to the same; consequently
would not encourage my friend’s, lest it should injure the sale of
his other.--Understand, my good friend, that the author is very
ill-calculated for booksellers’ and printers’ jockeyship; which, to a
liberal mind fraught with high and generous ideas, is death and the
devil.
I own, I was guilty of teazing him into the finishing this little work,
with a view of having it printed.--Now, my friend is not richer than
poets commonly are--and, in short, will not run any risks.--I would
gladly stand the expence of printing; but I am not richer than he;--I
want it printed, and request of you, if, upon perusing it, you do not
find it inimical, either to Religion, Country, or Crown, that you
contrive to push it into the world without delay; but if, upon mature
deliberation, you find it dangerous, with washed hands send it me
back, and set me down for an ass, in the trouble I have given thee and
myself.--Perhaps, jaundiced by prejudice, I behold it with too partial
eyes; for I verily believe it will not discredit the printer:--suppose
you shew it in confidence to the greatly amiable, the good Mr. B----e.
I mention him in particular; for sure I am his nobly benevolent soul
would start at the bare idea of religious persecution:--he would, I
trust, feel the full force of my friend’s reasoning--and his good
opinion would be the best sanction for endeavouring to push the work
forward.
I had the pleasure of meeting a gentleman in our street one day last
week, who seemed to be so goodly a personage, that I said to myself,
There’s Sir Charles Grandison! His figure was noble--his eye brightened
with kindness--the man of fashion and of sense was conspicuous in
him:--think how I stared, when the gentleman accosted me--said, he knew
me through my friend W----e;--his name was * * * *. I bowed, and
stammered some nonsense--I was taken by surprize.--I am in such a
hurry, and the pen is naught, that I fear you will scarcely understand
this scrawl.--Remember I give you full powers over this work;--do what
you can, but do it soon, and make your report to your friend,
I. SANCHO[16].
[16] The book alluded to in this letter was printed under the title of,
“An Answer to the Appeal from the Protestant Association.”
LETTER CXXX.
TO MRS. H----.
Charles Street, March 25, 1780.
DEAR MADAM,
I AND mine have a thousand things to thank you for--shall I say the
plain truth, and own I am proud to know that you care for me and my
little ones? your friendly attention to our interests proves it--but
mortals of your cast are oftener envied than loved:--the majority,
who are composed chiefly of the narrow-minded or contracted hearts,
and of selfish avidity, cannot comprehend the delight in doing as
they would be done by--and consequently cannot love what they do not
understand.--Excuse my nonsense, I ever write just what I think:--my
business was to give you some account why I delayed the teas, and
to thank you for your very noble order.--Sir Jacob was here this
afternoon, and, if his looks tell truth, he is exceeding well. H----
desires his love to you and the worthy partner of your heart, to whom
I join with my spouse in wishing every earthly felicity--heavenly
you have both insured, by being faithful stewards.--Sir Jacob sent a
parcel--which accompanies the teas--which I hope will reach you safe
and right, as they set out to-morrow noon--Tell Mr. H----, I pray you,
that the winter has used me as roughly as it has him--I never have been
so unwell for these four months past;--but, alas! one reason is, I do
believe, that I am past fifty;--but I hope with you, that spring will
set us all right.--As to complaints in trade, there is nothing else--we
are all poor, all grumblers, all preaching œconomy--and wishing our
neighbours to practise it;--but no one but the quite undone begins
at home. We are all patriots, all politicians, all state-quacks, and
all fools:--the ladies are turned orators, and declaim in public,
expose their persons, and their erudition, to every Jackanapes who
can throw down half a crown:--as to the men, they are past saving;--as
I can say no good, I will stop where I am. And is my good friend Mr.
S---- unmarried still? Fie, fie upon him! how can he enjoy any good
alone? He should take a partner, to lead him gently down the hill of
life--to superintend his linen and his meat;--to give sweet poignancy
to his beverage--and talk him to sleep on nights.--Pray tell him all I
say--and also that the majority are killing up the minority as fast as
they can:--nothing but duels, and rumours of duels.--But is it now time
to finish? Dear Madam, forgive all my impertinences; and, believe me,
dame Sancho and self have a true sense of your goodness, and repeatedly
thank you both for your kindness to,
Yours in sincerity,
and greatly obliged friends,
+ANNE+ and +IGN. SANCHO+.
LETTER CXXXI.
For the +General Advertiser+.
August 29, 1780.
FRIEND EDITOR,