[Paris 26 May 1732 n. s.]

J am very sorry that m^r Bernard has stealed my compliment to the gentlemen of the pit, and has sent it to you what j would show to no body and what you have communicated to many persons.
J will not excuse my self with telling you Bernard's copy was faulty in many places. J knew very well that discourse written in one day and made like a hasty pudding was to be swallow'd once by the pit, but not to be chaw'd by readers. Since j did not send it to you, why then have you shew'd it to others? After all j forgive to you and to Bernard because you are both very amiable creatures.

Mylady Sandwich takes upon her self to get the craftsmen for the abbot Rotelin. You may spare your self this trouble.

J have seen some french verses of the young Bernard intended for the young idol, whom you adore. The verse are not good. Nor are convenient those of Pope and Gay. The reason of it seems to me very plain. The picture it self is an allusion, y^r nimph's prudery is expressed by the temple of Diana. If you load this allegory with another allusion to the first book of Virgil, it will not be understood by the women, and by the young trippers. Even many men of letters in reading it will be at a stand for a little while till they remember the passage of Virgil. J grant a famous passage of any great author is very convenient for a print and to a medal. The motto ite missa est was admirable, for the medal of King James the second, œneus est intus suited very well Lewis the 14^th, and so forth. Here the thing is quite different. T'is not a single emistiche known by every body that strikes a full light on the mind of the reader. This is a long allusion to that latin verse et vera incessu patuit dea. The quik flash of the latin loses its brightness in the long english commentary. Two verse are enough;. one for rhime and one for sense. J hope s^r Homer Pope and s^r Ovid Gay will be so kind as to forgive my boldness. You know j entertain for 'em the sense of the highest estéem. J admire their works, j love their persons, j would with all my heart live with them, but you know j am tyed, J am fettered here, by my studys, my works, my fortune, and my health. The baronne has been very sick but js recovered. J thank your for the lamentable story of the bookbinder. Pray my dear send me the remarks which the traveller Motraye has scribled on my history. J was a fool to print so few copies of that book. They have made here four editions of it. The fourth edition was sent to me this very morning. J have differed to print Eriphile, because I intend to try it again on the theater next year. Enough of my affairs; those of the french parliaments, the tracasseries of the priests, the foolish rage of jesuits and jansenists J despise; and j do not care a pin for all these facetious troubles unless we have barricades. J live very easy at y^r baronnes house. While you go roaming abroad, j stay at home like a cartusian. Farewell my dear friend, love the english nation, ingratiate me with y^r friends, tell chiefly mylord and mylady Bolingbrooke j am attachd to them for life. My respects to the great foes m^r Pultney, and mylord and lady Harvey. Drink my health with the glutton Pope. Write often. Get my plates out of Woodman's hands, when the time shall be proper. Farewell.