I lately received your kind Letter inclosing one from Miss Kitty Shipley, informing me of the good Bishop’s Decease, which afflicted me greatly. My Friends drop off one after another, when my Age and Infirmities prevent my making new ones; and if I still retained the necessary Activity and Ability I hardly see among the rising Generation where I could make them of equal Goodness; so that the longer I live I must expect to be more wretched. As we draw nearer the Conclusion of Life, Nature furnishes [us] with more Helps to wean us from it, among which one of the most powerful is the Loss of such dear Friends.

I send you with this the two Volumes of our Transactions, as I forget whether you had the first before. If you had, you will please to give this to the French Ambassador requesting his Conveyance of it to the good Duke de Rochefoucauld.

My best Wishes attend you, being ever with sincere and great Esteem My dear Friend Yours most affectionately