Death fits fo heavy upon your Thoughts, is still alive; and that the Father to whom you have confeffed your felf, was once that Theodofius whom you fo much lament. "The Love which we have had for one another will make ' us more happy in its Difappointment than it could have done in its Succefs. Providence has difposed of us for our Advantage, tho' not according to our Wifhes. Con 'fider your Theodofius ftill as dead, but affure your felf of one who will not cease to pray for you in Father FRANCIS. CONSTANTIA faw that the Hand-writing agreed with the Contents of the Letter: and upon reflecting on the Voice of the Perfon, the Behaviour, and above all the extreme Sorrow of the Father during her Confeffion, fhe difcovered Theodofius in every Particular. After having wept with Tears of Joy, It is enough, fays fhe, Theodofius is fill in Being; I fhall live with Comfort and die in Peace. 6 THE Letters which the Father fent her afterwards are yet extant in the Nunnery where fhe refided; and are of ten read to the young Religious, in order to infpire them with good Refolutions and Sentiments of Virtue. It fo happened, that after Conftantia had lived about ten Years in the Cloyfter a violent Fever broke out in the Place, which fwept away great Multitudes, and among others Theodofius. Upon his Death-bed he fent his Benediction in a very moving Manner to Conftantia, who at that time was her felf fo far gone in the fame fatal Diftemper, that The lay delirious. Upon the Interval which generally precedes Death in Sickneffes of this Nature, the Abbess finding that the Physicians had given her over, told her that Theodofius was just gone before her, and that he had fent her his Benediction in his laft Moments. Conftantia received it with Pleasure: And now, fays fhe, If I do not ask any thing improper, let me be buried by Theodofius. My Vow reaches no farther than the Grave. What I ask is, I hope, no Violation of it She died foon after, and was interred according to her Request.. THEIR Tombs are ftill to be feen, with a short Latin Infcription over them to the following Purpofe. Here lie the Bodies of Father Francis and Sifter Con fance. They were lovely in their Lives, and in their Deaths they were not divided. C Saturday, N° 165. Saturday, September 8. -Si forte neceffe eft, Fingere cinetutis non exaudita Cethegis, Continget: labiturque licentia fumpta pudenter. Hor. Have often wished, that as in our Constitution there are feveral Perfons whofe Bufinefs it is to watch over our Laws, our Liberties and Commerce, certain Men might be fet apart, as Super-intendants of our Language, to hinder any Words of a Foreign Coin from paffing among us, and in particular to prohibit any French Phrafes from becoming Current in this Kingdom, when thofe of our own Stamp are altogether as valuable. The prefent War has fo adulterated our Tongue with ftrange Words that it would be impoffible for one of our Great Grandfathers to know what his Pofterity have been doing, were he to read their Exploits in a Modern News-Paper. Our Warriours are very induftrious in propagating the French Language, at the fame time that they are fo glorioufly fuccefsful in beating down their Power. Our Soldiers are Men of ftrong Heads for Action, and perform fuch Feats as they are not able to exprefs. They want Words in their own Tongue to tell us what it is they atchieve, and therefore fend us over Accounts of their Performances in a Jargon of Phrases, which they learn among their conquered Enemies. They ought however to be provided with Secretaries, and affifted by our Foreign Minifters, to tell their Story for them in plain. English, and to let us know in our Mother-Tongue what it is our brave Country-Men are about. The French would indeed be in the right to publifh the News of the prefent. War in English Phrafes, and make their Campaigns unintelligible. Their People might flatter themselves that Things are not fo bad as they really are, were they thus palliated with Foreign Terms, and thrown into Shades and Obfcurity: But the English cannot be too clear in their Narrative of thofe Actions, which have raised their Country to a higher Pitch of Glory than it ever yet arrived at, and which will be ftill the more admired the better they are explained. FOR FOR my part, by that time a Siege is carried on two or three Days, I am altogether loft and bewildered in it, and meet with fo many inexplicable Difficulties, that I fcarce know which Side has the better of it, till I am informed by the Tower Guns that the Place is furrendred. I do indeed make fome Allowances for this Part of the War, Fortifications having been Foreign Inventions, and upon that Account abounding in foreign Terms. But when we have won Battels which may be described in our own Language, why are our Papers filled with fo many unintelligible Exploits, and the French obliged to lend us a part of their Tongue before we can know how they are Conquered? They must be made acceffary to their own Difgrace, as the Britains were formerly fo artificially wrought in the Curtain of the Roman Theatre, that they feemed to draw it up, in order to give the Spectators an Opportunity of feeing their own Defeat celebrated upon the Stage: For fo Mr. Dryden has tranflated that Verse in Virgil. Atque intertexti tollant aulaa Britanni. Which interwoven Britains feem to raise, And fhew the Triumph that their Shame difplays. THE Hiftories of all our former Wars are tranfmitted to us in our Vernacular Idiom, to use the Phrase of a great Modern Critick. I do not find in any of our Chronicles, that Edward the Third ever reconnoitred the Enemy, tho' he often difcovered the Pofture of the French, and as often vanquished them in Battel. The Black Prince paffed many a River without the help of Pontoons, and filled a Ditch with Faggots as fuccefsfully as the Generals of our Times do it with Fafcines, Our Commanders lofe half their Praise, and our People half their Joy, by means of those hard Words and dark Expreffions in which our News-Papers do fo much abound. I have feen many a prudent Citizen, after having read every Article, enquire of his next Neighbour what News the Mail had brought. I remember in that remarkable Year when our Country was delivered from the greatest Fears and Apprehenfions, and raised to the greateft height of Gladnefs it had ever felt fince it was a Nation; I mean the Year of Blenheim, I had the Copy of a Letter fefft me out of the Country, which was written from a young Gentleman in the Army to his Father, a Man of a good Eftate and plain Sense: As the Letter was very modifhly chequered with this Modern Military Eloquence, I fhall prefent my Reader with a Copy of it. SIR, UPON PON the Junction of the French and Bavarian Armies they took Poft behind a great Morafs which they thought impracticable. Our General the next Day ⚫ fent a Party of Horse to reconnoitre them from a little 'Hauteur, at about a quarter of an Hour's distance from the Army, who returned again to the Camp unobferved through feveral Defiles, in one of which they met with a Party of French that had been Marauding, and made ⚫ them all Prifoners at Difcretion. The Day after a Drum ⚫ arrived at our Camp, with a Meffage which he would 'communicate to none but the General; he was followed by a Trumpet, who they fay behaved himself very faucily, with a Meffage from the Duke of Bavaria. The next Morning our Army being divided into two Corps, ⚫ made a Movement towards the Enemy: You will hear in the publick Prints how we treated them, with the o⚫ther Circumstances of that glorious Day. I had the good Fortune to be in the Regiment that pushed the Gens d'Arms. Several French Battalions, whom fome fay were a Corps de Referve, made a Show of Refiftance; but it only proved a Gafconade, for upon our preparing to fill up a little Foffé, in order to attack them, they beat the Chamade, and fent us Charte Blanche. Their Commandant, with a great many other General Officers, and Troops without Number, are made Prifoners of War, and will I believe give you a Vifit in England, theCartel not being yet fettled. Not questioning but thefe •Particulars will be very welcome to you, I congratulate you upon them, and am your most dutiful Son, &c. THE Father of the young Gentleman upon the Perufal of the Letter found it contained great News, but could not guess what it was. He immediately communicated it to the Curate of the Parish, who upon the reading of it, being vexed to fee any thing he could nor understand, fell into a kind of Paffion, and told him, that his Son had fent him a Letter Letter that was neither Fish, Flesh, nor good Red-Herring. I with, fays he, the Captain may be Compos Mentis, he talks of a faucy Trumpet, and a Drum that carries Meffages; Then who is this Charte Blanche? He muft either banter us, or he is out of his Senfes. The Father, who al ways looked upon the Curate as a learned Man, began to fret inwardly at his Son's Ufage, and producing a Letter which he had written to him about three Pofts afore, You fee here, fays he, when he writes for Money he knows how to speak intelligibly enough; there is no Man in England can exprefs himself clearer, when he wants a new Furniture for his Horfe. In fhort, the old Man was fo puzzled upon the Point, that it might have fared ill with his Son, had he not feen all the Prints about three Days after filled with the fame Terms of Art, and that Charles only writ like other Men. L N° 166. Monday, September 10. Quod nec Jovis ira, nec ignis, Ovid. Nec poterit ferrum, nec edax abolere vetuftas. RISTOTLE tells us that the World is a Copy or Tranfcript of thofe Ideas which are in the Mind of the first Being, and that thofe Ideas which are in the Mind of Man, are a Tranfcript of the World: To this we may add, that Words are the Tranfcript of those Ideas which are in the Mind of Man, and that Writing or Printing are the Tranfcript of Words. AS the Supreme Being has expreffed, and as it were printed his Ideas in the Creation, Men exprefs their Ideas in Books, which by this great Invention of these latter Ages, may last as long as the Sun and Moon, and perish only in the general Wreck of Nature. Thus Cowley in his Poem on the Refurrection, mentioning the Deftruction of the Universe, has thofe admirable Lines. Now all the wide extended Sky, THERE |