No More Learning

He
says — " The bonds of civility betwixt Colonel
Gilby and myself being unliappily snapped in
pieces, and in such a manner that I cannot see
how it is possible ever to knit them again : the
only trouble that I have is, lest by our mis-intel-
ligence your business should receive any disad-
vantage Truly, I believe, that as

to your public trust and the discharge thereof,.
h



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XVlll NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.

we do each of us still retain the same princi-
ples upon which we first undertook it ; and that,
though perhaps we may sometimes differ in our
advice concerning the way of proceeding, yet we
have the same good ends in the general ; and by
this unlucky falling out, we shall be provoked to
a greater emulation of serving you. " * Yet the
offence, whatever it was, must have been. a grave
one, for he says at the conclusion of the same
letter — " I would not tell you any tales, because
there are nakednesses which it becomes us to
cover, if it be possible ; as I shall, -unless I be
obliged to make some vfndications by any false
report or misinterpretations. In the mean time,
pity, I beseech you, my weakness ; for there are
same tJangs which men ought not, others that they
cannot patie^itly suffer *^'\

Of his integrity even in little things — of his
desire to keep his conscience pure and his repu-
tation untarnished — we have some staking proofs.
On one occasion he had been employed by his
constituents to wait on the Duke of Monmouth,
then governor of Hull, with a complimentary
letter, and to present him with a purse contain-
ing " six broad pieces " as an honorary fee. He
says — " He had before I came in, as I was told,
considered what to do with the gold ; and but
that I by all means prevented the offer, I had

* MarvelPs Letters, pp. 83, 34.
t Ibid. p. 36.



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NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. XIX

been in danger of being reimbursed with it. "*
In the same letter he says — " I received the bill
which was sent me on Mr.
Nelehorpe ; but the
surplus of it exceeding much the expense I have
been at on this occasion, I desire you to make
use of it, and of me, upon any other opportu-

nity. -t

In one of his letters he makes the following
declaration, which we have no doubt was per-
fectly sincere, and, what is still more strange,
imph'citly believed: — "I shall, God willing,
maintain the same incorrupt mind and clear con-
science, free from faction or any self-ends, which
I have, by his grace, hitherio preserved*' %

Not seldom, to the very moderate ** wages *' of
a legislator, was added some homely expression
of good-will on the part of the constituents. That
of the Hull people generally appeared in the
shape of a stout cask of ale, for which Mar-
veil repeatedly returns thanks. In one letter he
says — "We must first give you thanks for the
kind present you have pleased to send us, which
will give occasion to us to remember you often ;
but the quantity is so great that it might make
sober men forgetful. '* §

Marvell's correspondence extends through
nearly twenty years. From June, 1661, there
is, however, a considerable break, owing to his

* MarvelPs Letters, p. 210. t Ibid. p. 210.

X Ibid. p. 276. § Ibid. pp. 14, 16.