Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To The Editor Of The Freemasons' Magazine.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE .
SIR , IN Gulliver ' s Travels we find an account of a people , or a sect of wise and ceconomical men , who knowing what a precious thing breath is , and how frequently it is wasted on trifles , carry about with them a number of things , by means of which they make their sentiments known without the trouble and fatigue which
attends speech . I am about to trouble you with some memorials of a friend of mine , whose ceconomy extends principally to writing ; and although I believe he can converse as volubly , and as much to the purpose as most men , yet preserves , in all his letters , the most inflexible adherence to that kind of writing which is denominated the laconic . ' ' '
_ As we live separated b y some hundred miles , we have no opportunity of conference , . unless by letter , and my esteem for him is such , that I am always glad to receive the smallest scrap of his pen ;—happy is it for me that I am so , for I assure you , sir , I never receive any thing but the smallest scraps from him ; all my endeavours to draw from him a long letter have hitherto been in vain : twenty of his epistles * would not make up the sum of a common letter of business : and so very saving is he of his ink ( for he sends paper enough ) , that I very rarely can get a Dear Sir from him , and yet he thinks lam so
well acquainted with his hand , that he hardly ever signs his name . As to the place of abode , or day of the month , or even the monthand 3 ear , these are things left entirely to my conjecture . I once had an idea that my friend had taken the alarm at the too common practice of printing confidential letters after the death of a great man , and that he was determined no person should ' ever have it in their power to serve him so ; but when 1 consider his modesty
, and that he thinks much less of himself than other people do who know him , I am satisfied that my conjecture is not just ; and that ; with every talent for easy and elegant epistolary correspondence , he would be the only man hurt at the publication of his letters in any shape . As I told you before , however , he puts this quite out of my powerfor were I disposed to publish such as I am possessed offive
, , hundred of them would not fill up the space of a shilling pamphlet ; and , what is more , the want of date and subscription would lay- me open to a flat denial of authenticity from any of his friends . —Since your Magazine appeared , I have told him again and again , that I would send you some of his letters , but he gave neither consent nor dissentand 1 am determined to try the experimentand perhaps
, , draw from him ei ght or ten lines in answer , which will be an acquisition of no small moment . " While I am writing to you , sir , I have received-a letter from him . A sister of mine , who lives in his neighbourhood , being near her time
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
To The Editor Of The Freemasons' Magazine.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREEMASONS' MAGAZINE .
SIR , IN Gulliver ' s Travels we find an account of a people , or a sect of wise and ceconomical men , who knowing what a precious thing breath is , and how frequently it is wasted on trifles , carry about with them a number of things , by means of which they make their sentiments known without the trouble and fatigue which
attends speech . I am about to trouble you with some memorials of a friend of mine , whose ceconomy extends principally to writing ; and although I believe he can converse as volubly , and as much to the purpose as most men , yet preserves , in all his letters , the most inflexible adherence to that kind of writing which is denominated the laconic . ' ' '
_ As we live separated b y some hundred miles , we have no opportunity of conference , . unless by letter , and my esteem for him is such , that I am always glad to receive the smallest scrap of his pen ;—happy is it for me that I am so , for I assure you , sir , I never receive any thing but the smallest scraps from him ; all my endeavours to draw from him a long letter have hitherto been in vain : twenty of his epistles * would not make up the sum of a common letter of business : and so very saving is he of his ink ( for he sends paper enough ) , that I very rarely can get a Dear Sir from him , and yet he thinks lam so
well acquainted with his hand , that he hardly ever signs his name . As to the place of abode , or day of the month , or even the monthand 3 ear , these are things left entirely to my conjecture . I once had an idea that my friend had taken the alarm at the too common practice of printing confidential letters after the death of a great man , and that he was determined no person should ' ever have it in their power to serve him so ; but when 1 consider his modesty
, and that he thinks much less of himself than other people do who know him , I am satisfied that my conjecture is not just ; and that ; with every talent for easy and elegant epistolary correspondence , he would be the only man hurt at the publication of his letters in any shape . As I told you before , however , he puts this quite out of my powerfor were I disposed to publish such as I am possessed offive
, , hundred of them would not fill up the space of a shilling pamphlet ; and , what is more , the want of date and subscription would lay- me open to a flat denial of authenticity from any of his friends . —Since your Magazine appeared , I have told him again and again , that I would send you some of his letters , but he gave neither consent nor dissentand 1 am determined to try the experimentand perhaps
, , draw from him ei ght or ten lines in answer , which will be an acquisition of no small moment . " While I am writing to you , sir , I have received-a letter from him . A sister of mine , who lives in his neighbourhood , being near her time