* Defoe, ffist of the Ploffue in London in 1665.
» Boyle's Works, voL v. p. 658.
* Ibid, yoL v. p. 248, 249. He had been residing there before, and he
continued to reside there for the most part till April, 1668, when he estab-
lished himself with Lady Banelagh in her house in Pall Mall, London,
where he continued to live with her during the remainder of his life.
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LADY RANELAGH. 129

had surely, she thought, prepared their hearts to hear of a
Gk)d, and of the things of another life, with less indifference
or opposition than previously they would have done. She
therefore earnestly requested him to perform so seasonable
and so needful a work of mercy, "to help the people to
spend a fast-day devoutly and unweariedly." She wrote to
him to this effect at the end of July, 1665.*

He however declined publishing his thoughts on the plague,
thinking he might better advance the interests of religion
by publishing something upon another topic. She therefore,
in her reply, September 9, would not press her request.
In that month the plague had reached its height ; and iu
that letter she dwells chiefly on this visitation, which then
occupied every one's thoughts, and filled every one with con-
sternation. She cannot avoid regarding it as a judgment of
heaven, and connecting it with the wickedness and irreligion
which had prevailed in London previously to its breaking
out. "The London weekly bills do," says she, "I assure
myself, give you the sad news that place affords;* which is
extraordinary enough to be amazing to those, who would
but seriously reflect upon what was doing in that place
before we left it, and what has been suffered there since.
