rage of jealousy, which is here a monster that cannot be satiated but with blood.  The magnificence and riches that reign in the apartments of the ladies of fashion here, seem to be one of their chief pleasures, joined with their retinue of female slaves, whose music, dancing, and dress, amuse them highly; but there is such an air of form and stiffness amidst this grandeur, as hinders it from pleasing me at long-run, however, I was dazzled with it at first sight.  This stiffness and formality of manners are peculiar to the Turkish ladies; for the Grecian belles are of quite another character and complexion; with them, pleasure appears in more engaging forms; and their persons, manners, conversation and amusements, are very far from being destitute of elegance and ease.

I RECEIVED the news of Mr Addison’s being declared secretary of state with the less surprise, in that I know that post was almost offered to him before.  At that time he declined it; and I really believe that he would have done well to have declined it now.  Such a post as that, and such a wife as the Countess, do not seem to be, in prudence, eligible for a man that is asthmatic; and we may see the day, when he will be heartily glad to resign them both.  It is well that he laid aside the thoughts of the voluminous dictionary, of which I have heard you or somebody else frequently make mention.  But no more on that subject; I would not have said so much, were I not assured that this letter will come safe and unopened to hand.  I long much to tread upon English ground, that I may see you and Mr Congreve, who render that ground classic ground; nor will you refuse our present secretary a part of that merit, whatever reasons you may have to be dissatisfied with him in other respects.  You are the three happiest poets I ever heard of; one a secretary of state, the other enjoying leisure, with dignity, in two lucrative employments; and you, though your religious profession is an obstacle to Court promotion, and disqualifies you from filling civil employments, have found the philosopher’s stone; since, by making the Iliad pass through your poetical crucible into an English form, without losing aught of it’s original beauty, you have drawn the golden current of Pactolus to Twickenham.  I call this finding the philosopher’s stone, since you alone found out the secret, and nobody else has got into it.  A——­n and T——­l tried it, but their experiments failed; and they lost, if not their money, at least a certain portion of their fame in the trial—­while you touched the mantle of the divine bard, and imbibed his spirit.  I hope we shall have the Odyssey soon from your happy hand; and I think I shall follow, with singular pleasure, the traveller Ulysses, who was an observer of men and manners, when he travels in your harmonious numbers.  I love him much better than the hot-headed son of Peleus, who bullied his general, cried for his mistress, and so on.  It is true, the excellence of the