THE sudden news I had of your sad distemper, and the danger you were in, has been the cause of a great deal of affliction to me, as well as of my pre∣sent and speedy repair to London, some Weeks sooner than I intended: I must confess I received some comfort to hear at my arrival of your amendment, and do take much more now to find you up, and Page  4 as I hope recover'd; which I knew would be a necessary consequence of your send∣ing for this excellent Physician, the Esculapius of our Age, it being the first request I had to make to you, if by see∣ing him here in your Chamber I had not found it needless. For the Destiny of us English-men depends upon him, and we either live or dye Infallibly, according to the Judgment or good Fortune we have, when we are sick, either to call or not call him to our assistance.

I am Infinitely ob∣liged to you, for your care of me, but am sorry it has been so inconvenient to you, as to make you leave your Affairs in the Countrey sooner than you propo∣sed to your self to do: I wish I might be so fortunate in the course of my Life, as to find an opportunity of making some part of an acknowledgment, for this and all the rest of your favours, but shall pray God it may not be in the same kind; but that your health may ever be so en∣tire, that you never need so transcendent a Charity, as I now receive from your Goodness: And as to this incomparable Doctor; although, I must confess, that Page  5 all the good which has happen'd to me in this Country, as well as the knowledge I have received of Persons and Things, does derive from you; yet I must make an exception, as to this one point; for if I can either read, or hear, this Gentle∣man's excellent Writings, and the Fame he worthily injoys in my Country, would have made it inexcusable in me, to implore the help of any other; and I do assure you, that, before I left England, it was in my Ambition to beg your Me∣diation towards the bringing me into the acquaintance and favour of this Learned Person, even before I had any thoughts of becoming the Object of his Care and Skill, as now I am the Tro∣phy of both.

Well, Gentlemen, you are both too great to be Flatterers, and I too little to be flattered, and therefore I will impute this fine discourse you both make about me, to the overflowing of your Wit, and the having no Object near you to vent it upon but me. And for you, Sir, if my Art fail me not, the voiding this Mirth, is a very good sign that you are in a fair way to a perfect recovery. Page  6 And for my Countryman here: I hope whilst he has this vent, that his Hypo∣condriack distemper will be at quiet, and that neither his own thoughts, nor the ill posture of our Publick Affairs will make him hang himself, for at least this twelve Months: Only, Gentlemen, pray take notice, that this does not pass upon me, nor do I drink it like Milk (as the French phrase it) being mindful of what a grave Gentleman at Florence replyed to a young Esquire, who answered his Com∣pliments with, Oh, Sir, you flatter me, i prencipi s'adulano i pari vostri si coglio∣nono; That last word I cannot render well into Latin.

Well, Doctor, we will not offend your Modesty: The next time we do you Justice, it shall be behind your back, since you are so se∣vere upon us. But you may assure your self that my intention of recommending you to this Gentleman, was for his own sake, and not for yours: For you have too many Patients already, and it were much better, both for you and us, that you had but half so many: For then we should have more of your Writings, and Page  7 sometimes enjoy your good Conversati∣on; which is worth our being sick on purpose for. And I am resolved to put my self sometimes into my Bed, and send for you, since you have done coming to our Coffee-House.

But to leave this Subject now, I hear you say, that this Gentleman is in a perfect way of recovery; pray is he well enough to hear, without any prejudice to his convalescence, a reprehension I have to make him?

Yes, yes; you mav say what you will to him, for your Repremands will rather divert than trouble him, and prove more a Cordial than a Corrosive.

Then, Sir, pray consider what satisfaction you can ever make me, for the hard measure you have used to∣wards me, in letting me learn from com∣mon Fame and Fortune, the news of your Sickness, and that not till your recove∣ry; and for depriving me of the oppor∣tunity of paying the debt I owe to your own merit, and to the recommendati∣on of those worthy Persons in Italy, who did me the honour to address you to me. And this injury is much aggravated by Page  8 the splendour of your Condition, and greatness of your Fortune, which makes it impossible for me ever to hope for a∣ny other occasion to express my faith∣ful service to you, or satisfie any part of the duty I have to be at your devoti∣on. To be sick in a strange Country, and to distrust the sincerity and obedi∣ence of—

Pray, Sir, give me leave to interrupt you, and to assure you, that it was not any distrust of your goodness to me, of which I have had sufficient ex∣perience; nor any insensibleness how much your care might advantage me; much less any scruple I had of being more in your debt; which if it had been possible for me to entertain, it must have been thought of long since, before I had received those great Obligations, which I never made any difficulty to accept of. It was not, I say, any of these Conside∣rations, which hindred me from adver∣tising you of my Distemper; but the Condition and Nature of it, which in a moment depriv'd me of the exercise of those Faculties which might give me a Capacity of helping my self in any thing. Page  9 But otherwise I assure you that no day of my life shall pass, wherein I will not express a sence of your Favours, and—

Pray now, Sir, permit me to inter∣rupt you; for this Gentleman, I dare say, looks for no Compliments; but that which I have to say, is; That the desire you signified to me, to give you some ac∣count of our Affairs here, and the turbu∣lency of our present State, will be much better placed, if you please to ad∣dress it to this Gentleman whose Parts and Studies have fitted him for such an Employment; besides his having had a great share in the managing Affairs of State here, in other times: And really no man understands the Government of England better than he.

Now, Doctor, I should tell you, i pari miei si coglionono, for so you your self have baptized this kind of Civility; But however, this is a Pro∣vince that I cannot be reasonably prest to take upon me, whilst you are pre∣sent, who are very well known to be as skillful in the Nature and Distem∣per of the Body Politick, as the whole Page  10 Nation confesses you to be in the con∣cerns of the Natural. And you would have good store of Practice in your for∣mer Capacity, if the wise Custom a∣mongst the Ancient Greeks were not to∣tally out of use. For they, when they found any Craziness or indisposition in their several Governments, before it broke out into a Disease, did repair to the Physicians of State (who, from their Profession, were called the Seven Wise Men of Greece) and obtain'd from them some good Recipes to prevent those seeds of distemper from taking root, and de∣stroying the publique Peace. But in our days, these Signes or Forerunners of Diseases in State are not foreseen, till the whole Mass is corrupted, and that the Patient is incurable, but by violent Remedies. And if we could have per∣ceived the first Symptoms of our Distem∣per, and used good Alteratives, the curiosity of this worthy Gentleman had been spared, as also his command to you, to give him some light into our matters; and we unfortunate English-men had re∣posed in that quiet, ease, and security, which we enjoy'd three hundred years Page  11 since. But let us leave the contest who shall inform this Gentleman, lest we spend the time we should do it in unprofitably, and let each of us take his part; for if we speakall, it will look like a studied dis∣course fitted for the Press, and not a fa∣miliar Dialogue. For it ought to be in private Conversation, as it was origi∣nally in the planting the Gospel, when there were two sorts of preaching; the one Concionary, which was used by the Apostles and other Missionaries, when they spoke to those who had never heard of the Mysteries of Christian Reli∣gion, possibly not so much as of the Jew∣ish Law, or the History of Christ: The duty of those was to hear, and not re∣ply, or any way interrupt the harrangue: But when the Believers (called the Church) assembled together, it was the Custom of such of the Auditors, to whom any thing occurred, or (as S. Paul calls it) was revealed, to interpose and desire to be heard, which was called an Interlocutory Preaching, or Religious Conversation; and served very much to the instructing and edifying those who had long believed in Christ, and possibly Page  12 knew as much of him as their Pastor himself; and this is used still amongst many of our Independent Congregations.

I have (besides the reason I al∣ledged before, and which I still insist up∣on) some other cause to beg that you will please to give your self the trouble of answering this Gentleman's Queries; which is, that I am very defective in my Expressions in the Italian Language; which though I understand perfectly, and so comprehend all that either of you deliver, yet I find not words at hand to signifie my own meaning, and am there∣fore necessitated to deliver my self in Latin, as you see. And I fear that our pronunciation being so different from that which is used in Italy, this worthy person may not so easily comprehend what I intend, and so be disappointed in the desire he hath to be perfectly in∣structed in our Affairs.

Really, Sir, that is not all; for besides that, I confess your pronunci∣ation of the Latin Tongue to be very new to me, and for that reason I have been forced to be troublesom to you, in making you repeat things twice, or Page  13 thrice. I say besides that your Latinity, as your Writings shew, and all the world knows, is very pure and elegant, which it is notorious to all, that we in Italy scarce understand: Gentlemen there never Learning more Latin, than what is necessary to call for Meat and Drink, in Germany or Holland, where most of the Hosts speak a certain Franck, compounded of Dutch, Latin, and Italian. And though some of us have Latin enough to understand a good Author, (as you have of our Language) yet we seldom arrive to speak any bet∣ter than this Franck, or can without stu∣dy comprehend good Latin, when we meet with it in discourse. And there∣fore it is your perfection in that Tongue, and my ignorance in it, that makes me concur with you, in desiring this Gen∣tleman, to take the pains of instructing my Curiosity in Italian.

I shall obey you in this, and all things else, upon this condition, that both you and the Doctor will vouch∣safe to interrogate me, and by that means give me the Method of serving you in this: And then that you will both Page  14 please to interrupt and contradict me, when you think I say any think amiss, or that either of you are of a different Opini∣on, and to give me a good occasion of ex∣plaining my self, and possibly of being convinced by you, which I shall easily confess; for I hate nothing more than to hear disputes amongst Gentlemen, and men of sence, wherein the Speakers seem (like Sophisters in a Colledge) to dispute rather for Victory, than to discover and find out the Truth.

Well, all this I believe will be granted you; so that we have nothing to do now, but to adjourn, and name a time when to meet again. Which I, being this Gentlemans Physician, will take upon me to appoint, and it shall be to morrow morning about nine of the Clock, after he has slept well, as I hope he will, by means of a Cordial I intend to send him immediately. In the mean time, not to weary him too much, we will take our leaves of him for this Night.

I shall expect your return with great impatience, and if your Cor∣dial be not very potent, I believe the de∣sire Page  15 of seeing you will make me wake much sooner than the hour you appoint. And I am very confident, that my mind aswell as my body, will be sufficiently improved by such Visits. It begins to be darkish, Boy light your Torch, and wait on these Gentlemen down.

Sir, we wish you all good rest and health.

And I, with a thousand thanks, the like to you.