peace and immunity from sin in resigning our wills up to the command of others:  for, provided our duty to God be secured, their commands are warrants to us in all things else; and the case of conscience is determined, if the command be evident and pressing:  and it is certain, the action that is but indifferent and without reward, if done only upon our own choice, is an action of duty and of religion, and rewardable by the grace and favour of God, if done in obedience to the command of our superiors.”

Little and Great Brickhill, where Temple is to receive a letter from Dorothy, kindly favoured by Mr. Gibson, stand due west of Chicksands some seventeen miles, and about forty-six miles along the high-road from London to Chester.  Temple would probably arrange to stay there, receive Dorothy’s letter, and send one in return.

Dorothy has apparently tired of Calprenede and Scuderi, of Cleopatre and Cyrus, and has turned to travels to amuse her.  Fernando Mendez Pinto did, I believe, actually visit China, and is said to have landed in the Gulf of Pekin.  What he writes of China seems to bear some resemblance to what later writers have said.  It is hard to say how and where his conversations with the Chinese were carried on, as he himself admits that he did not understand one word of the language.

Lady Grey’s sister, Mrs. Pooley, is unknown to history.  Of Mr. Fish we know, as has already been said, nothing more than that he was Dorothy’s lover, and a native of Bedfordshire, probably her near neighbour.  James B——­ must be another lover, and he is altogether untraceable.  Mrs. Goldsmith is, as you will remember, wife of the Vicar of Campton.  The Valentine stories will date this letter for us as written in the latter half of February.

SIR,—­They say you gave order for this waste-paper; how do you think I could ever fill it, or with what?  I am not always in the humour to wrangle and dispute.  For example now, I had rather agree to what you say, than tell you that Dr. Taylor (whose devote you must know I am) says there is a great advantage to be gained in resigning up one’s will to the command of another, because the same action which in itself is wholly indifferent, if done upon our own choice, becomes an act of duty and religion if done in obedience to the command of any person whom nature, the laws, or ourselves have given a power over us; so that though in an action already done we can only be our own judges, because we only know with what intentions it was done, yet in any we intend, ’tis safest, sure, to take the advice of another.  Let me practise this towards you as well as preach it to you, and I’ll lay a wager you will approve on’t.  But I am chiefly of your opinion that contentment (which the Spanish proverb says is the best paint) gives the lustre to all one’s enjoyment, puts a beauty upon things which without it would have none, increases it extremely where ’tis already in some degree,