No man is every thing—­you, Mr. Belford, are a learned man.  I am a peer.  And do you (as you best know how) inculcate upon him the force of these wise sayings which follow, as well as those which went before; but yet so indiscreetly, as that he may not know that you borrow your darts from my quiver.  These be they—­Happy is the man who knows his follies in his youth.  He that lives well, lives long.  Again, He that lives ill one year, will sorrow for it seven.  And again, as the Spaniards have it—­Who lives well, sees afar off!  Far off indeed; for he sees into eternity, as a man may say.  Then that other fine saying, He who perishes in needless dangers, is the Devil’s martyr.  Another proverb I picked up at Madrid, when I accompanied Lord Lexington in his embassy to Spain, which might teach my nephew more mercy and compassion than is in his nature I doubt to shew; which is this, That he who pities another, remembers himself.  And this that is going to follow, I am sure he has proved the truth of a hundred times, That he who does what he will seldom does what he ought.  Nor is that unworthy of his notice, Young men’s frolics old men feel.  My devilish gout, God help me—­but I will not say what I was going to say.

I remember, that you yourself, complimenting me for my taste in pithy and wise sentences, said a thing that gave me a high opinion of you; and it was this:  ‘Men of talents,’ said you, ’are sooner to be convinced by short sentences than by long preachments, because the short sentences drive themselves into the heart and stay there, while long discourses, though ever so good, tire the attention; and one good thing drives out another, and so on till all is forgotten.’

May your good counsel, Mr. Belford, founded upon these hints which I have given, pierce his heart, and incite him to do what will be so happy for himself, and so necessary for the honour of that admirable lady whom I long to see his wife; and, if I may, I will not think of one for myself.

Should he abuse the confidence she has placed in him, I myself shall pray, that vengeance may fall upon his head—­Raro—­I quite forget all my Latin; but I think it is, Raro antecedentem scelestum deseruit pede paean claudo:  where vice goes before, vengeance (sooner or later) will follow.  But why do I translate these things for you?

I shall make no apologies for this trouble.  I know how well you love him and me; and there is nothing in which you could serve us both more importantly, than in forwarding this match to the utmost of your power.  When it is done, how shall I rejoice to see you at M. Hall!  Mean time, I shall long to hear that you are likely to be successful with him; and am,

Dear Sir,
Your most faithful friend and servant,
M.

[Mr. Lovelace having not returned an answer to Mr. Belford’s expostulary
   letter so soon as Mr. Belford expected, he wrote to him, expressing
   his apprehension that he had disobliged him by his honest freedom. 
   Among other things, he says—­]