I received yesterday by Mrs. White your kind letter of May 11. with the most agreable present of your new book. I read it all before I slept, which is a proof of the good effect your happy manner has of drawing your Reader on by mixing little Anecdotes and historical facts with your instructions. Be pleased to accept my thankful acknowledgement for the pleasure it has afforded me.

It is astonishing that the murderous practice of Duelling which you so justly condemn should continue so long in Vogue. Formerly when duels were used to determine Lawsuits from an opinion that Providence would in every instance favour truth and right with Victory they were more excusable. At present they decide nothing. A man says something which another tells him is a Lye they fight, but whichever is killed, the point in question remains unsettled. To this purpose they have a pleasant little Story here. A Gentleman in a Coffee house desired another to sit further from him. Why so? Because Sir you stink. That is an affront and you must fight me. I will fight you if you insist upon it; but I do not see how that will mend the matter, for if you kill me I shall stink too, and if I kill you, you will stink if possible worse than you do at present. How can such miserable sinners as we are entertain so much pride as to concert that every offence against our imagined honour merits Death. These petty princes in their own opinion would call that Sovereign a Tyrant who should put one of them to death for a little uncivil Language, tho’ pointed at his sacred Person. Yet every one of them makes himself Judge in his own cause, condemns the Offender without a Jury and undertakes himself to be the Executioner! With sincere and great Esteem I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient and most humble Servant