"'I _couldn't_ get the things you sent for all _about Town._--I _thôt_ to _ha'_ come down myself, and then _I'd ha' brôut 'umn;_ but I _han't don't,_ and I believe I _can't do't,_ that's _pozz.--Tom[3]_ begins to _gi'mself_ airs_ because _he's_ going with the _plenipo's._--'Tis said, the _French_ King will _bamboozl us agen,_ which _causes many speculations_. The _Jacks,_ and others of that _kidney_, are very _uppish_, and _alert upon't_, as you may see by their _phizz's_.--_Will Hazzard_ has got the _hipps_, having lost _to the tune of_ five hundr'd pound, _thô_ he understands play very well, _nobody better_. He has promis't me upon _rep_, to leave off play; but you know 'tis a weakness _he's_ too apt to _give into, thô_ he has as much wit as any man, _nobody more._ He has lain _incog_ ever since.--The _mobb's_ very quiet with us now.--I believe you _thôt I bantered_ you in my last like a _country put._--I _sha'n't_ leave Town this month, _&c_.' "This letter is in every point an admirable pattern of the present polite way of writing; nor is it of less authority for being an epistle. You may gather every flower in it, with a thousand more of equal sweetness, from the books, pamphlets, and single papers, offered us every day in the coffeehouses: And these are the beauties introduced to supply the want of wit, sense, humour, and learning, which formerly were looked upon as qualifications for a writer. If a man of wit, who died forty years ago, were to rise from the grave on purpose, how would he be able to read this letter? And after he had gone through that difficulty, how would he be able to understand it? The first thing that strikes your eye is the _breaks_ at the end of almost every sentence; of which I know not the use, only that it is a refinement, and very frequently practised. Then you will observe the abbreviations and elisions, by which consonants of most obdurate sound are joined together, without one softening vowel to intervene; and all this only to make one syllable of two, directly contrary to the example of the Greeks and Romans; altogether of the Gothic strain, and a natural tendency towards relapsing into barbarity, which delights in monosyllables, and uniting of mute consonants; as it is observable in all the Northern languages. And this is still more visible in the next refinement, which consists in pronouncing the first syllable in a word that has many, and dismissing the rest; such as _phizz, hipps, mobb,[4] poz., rep._ and many more; when we are already overloaded with monosyllables, which are the disgrace of our language. Thus we cram one syllable, and cut off the rest; as the owl fattened her mice, after she had bit off their legs to prevent their running away; and if ours be the same reason for maiming words, it will certainly answer the end; for I am sure no other Nation will desire to borrow them. Some words are hitherto but fairly split, and therefore only in their way to perfection, as