I received your Favour of June last, and thank you for the kind Congratulations contain’d in it. What you have heard of my Malady is true, that it does not grow worse. Thanks to God, I still enjoy Pleasure in the Society of my Friends and Books, and much more in the Prosperity of my Country, concerning which your People are continaully deceiving themselves.

I am glad the Improvement of the Book of Common Prayer has met with your Approbation, and that of good Mrs. Baldwin. It is not yet that I know of receiv’d in public Practice any where; but, as it is said, that Good Motions never die, perhaps in time it may be found useful.

I read with Pleasure the Account you give of the flourishing State of your Commerce and Manufactures, and of the Plenty you have of Resources to carry the Nation thro’ all its Difficulties. You have one of the finest Countries in the World, and if you can be cur’d of the Folly of making War for Trade, in which Wars more has always been expended than the Profits of any Trade can compensate, you may make it one of the happiest. Make the best of your own natural Advantages instead of endeavouring to diminish those of other Nations, and there is no doubt but you may yet prosper and flourish. Your beginning to consider France no longer as a nutural Enemy, is a Mark of Progress in the Good Sense of the Nation, of which Posterity will find the Benefit; in the Rarity of Wars, the Diminution of Taxes, and Increase of Riches.

As to the Refugees whom you think we were so impolitic in rejecting, I do not find that they are miss’d here, or that any body regrets their Absence. And certainly they must be happier where they are; under the Government they admire; and be better receiv’d among a People whose Cause they espous’d and fought for; than among those who cannot so soon have forgotten the Destruction of their Habitations and the spilt Blood of their dearest Friends and near Relations.

I often think with great Pleasure on the happy Days I pass’d in England with my and your learned and ingenious Friends, who have left us to join the Majority, in the World of Spirits. Every one of them now knows more than all of us they have left behind. It is to me a comfortable Reflection, that since we must live forever in a future State, there is a sufficient Stock of Amusement in reserve for us, to be found in constantly learning something new to Eternity, the present Quantity of human Ignorance infinitely exceeding that of human Knowledge.

Adieu, my dear Friend, and believe me, in whatever World, Yours most affectionately