Autograph letter : [La Source, near Orlean], to Charles Ford, 1722 January 1.

Discussing his "...quarrel with the D: [Jonathan Swift] about Cato. I mean the Second. he was a Cynick in polliticks, & did oftner harm than good, which I could produce some flaming instances. enough to prove that he liv'd a fanatick & dy'd an Enthusiast. a pretty character of the Saviour of a Common Wealth, whose circumstances were so nice, and whose case was so desperate, that the greatest dexterity imaginable could hardly have gone about to cure without irritating the disease & precipitating the patients death. I am sorry to see the distemper of Stock jobbing spread, it has been very mortal here, & in England; I know not whether your climate will be able to blunt the edge of its malignity, tho' spiders and toads cannot live I think in Ireland;" inviting him to visit saying "the journey is so short, the roads so good, the country so fine, & the seat so private, that i can find no good reason either in our friends lazyness or his Speen why he should not accompany you. I see some other objections which may be put into the scale, but an ounce of friendship will outweigh them."