to utter an honeft truth in behalf of the dead, whom no man fure will flatter, and to whom few will do juftice. Others, you know, were as angry that I mention ed Mr. Walth with honour; who as he never refused to any one of merit of any party the praife due to him, fo honeftly deferved it from all others, though of ever fo different interefts or fentiments. May I be ever guilty of this fort of liberty, and latitude of principle! which gives us the hardiness of speaking well of thofe whom envy oppreffes even after death. As I would always fpeak well of my living friends when they are abfent, nay because they are abfent, fo would I much more of the dead, in that eternal abfence; and the rather because I expect no thanks for it. Thus, Sir, you fee I do in my confcience perfit in what I have written; yet in my friendship I will recant and alter whatever you please, in cafe of a fecond edition (which I think the book will not fo foon arrive at, for Tonfon's printer told me he drew off a thoufand copies in this first impreffion, and, I fancy, a treatife of this nature, which not one gentleman in threefcore even of a liberal education can understand, can hardly exceed the vent of that number). You fhall find me a true Trojan in my faith and friendship, in both which I will perfevere to the end. Your, &c. LETTER XLIV. Mr. Pope to Lord Lanfdown. Binfield, Jan. 10, 1712. THANK you for having given my poem of Windfor Foreft its greatest ornament, that of bearing your name in the front of it. It is one thing when a perfon of true merit permits us to have the honour of drawing him as like as we can; and another, when we make a fine thing at random, and perfuade the next vain creature we can find that it is his own likeness; which is the cafe every day of my fellow-fcribblers. Yet, my Lord, this honour has given me no more pride than your honours have given you; but it affurds me a great deal of pleafure, which is much better than a great deal of pride; and it indeed would give me fome pain, if I was not fure of one advantage; that whereas others are offended if they have not more than jullice done them, you would be displeased if you had fo much: therefore I may safely do you as much injury in my word, as you do yourfelf in your own thoughts. I am fo vain as to think I have fhewn you a favour, in sparing your modefty, and you cannot but make me fome return for prejudicing the truth to gratify you: this I beg may be the free correction of these verses, which will have few beauties, but what may be made by your blots. I am in the circumftance of an ordinary painter drawing Sir Godfrey Kneller, who by a few touches of his own could make the piece very valuable. I might then hope, that many years hence the world might read, in conjunction with your name, that of Your Lordship's, &c. Mr. Pope to the Hon. J. C. Efq: IT is not only the difpofition I always have of converfing with you, that makes me fo fpeedily answer your obliging letter, but the apprehenfion left your charitable intent of writing to my Lady A. on Mrs. W.'s affair fhould be frustrated by the fhort stay she makes there. She went thither on the 25th with that mixture of expectation and anxiety, with which people ufually go into unknown or half-difcovered countries, utterly ignorant of the difpofitions of the inhabitants, and the treatment they are to meet with. The unfortunate of all people are the most unfit to be left alone; yet, we fee, the world generally takes care they shall be fo: whereas, if we took a confiderate profpect of the world, the bufinefs and ftudy of the happy and eafy fhould be, to divert and humour, as well as comfort and pity, the diftreffed. I cannot therefore excufe fome near allies of mine for their conduct of late towards this lady, which has given me a great deal of anger as well as forrow: all I fhall fay to you of them at prefent is, that they have not been my relations thefe two months. The confent of opinions in our minds, is certainly a nearer tie than can be contracted by all the blood in our bodies; and I am proud of finding I have fomething congenial with you. Will you permit me to confefs to you, that all the favours and kind offices you have Hh 4 shewa fbewn towards me, have not fo ftrongly mind. But I find that thefe, which were cemented me yours, as the difcovery intended as sketches of my friendship, of that generous and manly compaffion you manifested in the cafe of this unhappy lady? I am afraid to infinuate to you how much I efteem you: flatterers have taken up the style which was once peculiar to friends, and an honeft man has now no way left to express himself befides the common one of knaves: fo that true friends now-a-days differ in their address from flatterers, much as right mastiffs do from fpaniels, and show themselves by a dumb furly fort of fidelity, rather than by a complaifant and open kindness.—Will you never leave commending my poetry? In fair truth, Sir, I like it but too well myself already: expose me no more, I beg you, to the great danger of vanity (the rock of all men, but most of young men), and be kindly content for the future, when you would pleafe me thoroughly, to fay only you like what I Your, &c. write. γου LETTER XLVI. Dec. 5, 1712. give as imperfect images of it, as the little landscapes we commonly see in black and white do of a beautiful country; they can reprefent but a very fmall part of it, and that deprived of the life and luftre of nature. I perceive that the more I endeavoured to render manifeft the real affuction and value I ever had for you, I did but injure it by reprefenting lefs and lefs of it: as glaffes which are defigned to make an object very clear, generally contract it. Yet as when people have a full idea of a thing first upon their own knowledge, the leaft traces of it ferve to refreth the remembrance, and are not difpleafing on that fcore; fo I hope, the foreknowledge you had of my efteem for you, is the reafon that you do not diflike my letters. They will not be of any great service (I find) in the defign I mentioned to you: I believe I had better fteal from a richer man, and plunder your letters (which I have kept as carefully as I would letters patents, fince they entitle me to what I more value than titles of honour). You have fome caufe to apprehend this ufage from me, if what fome fay be true, that I am a great borrower; however, I have hitherto had the luck that none of my creditors have challenged me for it: and thofe who fay it are fuch, whofe writings no man ever borrowed from, fo have the leat reafon to complain; and whofe works are granted on all hands to be but too much their own. Another has Leea pleafed to declare, that my verfes are corrected by other men: I verily believe theirs were never corrected by any man: but indeed if mine have not, it was not my fault; I have endeavoured my utmoż that they should. But these things are only whispered, and I will not encroach upon Bays's province and pen why jers fo haften to conclude. Your, &c. ou have at length complied with the request I have often made you, for you have shown me, I must confefs, feveral of my faults in the fight of thofe letters. Upon a review of them, I find many things that would give me fhame, if I were not more defirous to be thought honeft than prudent; fo many things freely thrown out, fuch lengths of unreferved friend ip, thoughts just warm from the brain without any polishing or drefs, the very difhabille of the under ftanding. You have proved yourfelf more tender of another's embryos than the fordeft mothers are of their own, for you have preferved every thing that I mifcarried of. Since I know this, I fhall in one refpect be more afraid of writing to you than ever, at this carelefs rate, because I fee my evil works may again rife in judgment against me; yet in another refpect I fhall be lefs afraid, fince this has given me fuch a proof of the extreme indulgence you afford to my fighteft thoughts. The revifal of thefe letters has been a kind of examination of confcience to me; fo fairly and faithfully have I fet down in them from time to time the true and undisguised state of my ment, Centes, and other pieces of note in French, LETTER XLVII. Mr. Pepe to General Anthony Hamilton. Upon his having tranflated into French verfe the Epay on Criticism. IF I could as well express, or (if you will allow me to fay it) tranflate the Author of the Memoirs of the Count de Gran Senti fentiments of my heart, as you have done thofe of my head, in your excellent verfion of my Effay; I fhould not only appear the best writer in the world, but, what I much more defire to be thought, the most your fervant of any man living. It is an advantage very rarely known, to receive at once a great honour and a great improvement. This, Sir, you have afforded me, having at the fame time made others take my fenfe, and taught me to understand my own; if I may call that my own which is indeed more properly Your verfes are no more a yours. tranflation of mine, than Virgil's are of Homer's; but are, like his, the jufteft imitation, and the noblest commentary. In putting me into a French dress, you have not only adorned my outfide, but mended my shape; and, if I'am now a good figure, I muft confider you have naturalized me into a country which is famous for making every man a fine gentleman. It is by your means, that (contrary to most young travellers) I am come back much better than I went out. I cannot but wifh we had a bill of commerce for translation established the next parliament; we could not fail of being gainers by that, nor of making ourfelves amends for any thing we have lost by the war. Nay, though we fhould infift upon the demolishing of Boileau's works, the French, as long as they have writers of your form, might have as good an equivalent. Upon the whole, I am really as proud, as our minifters ought to be, of the terms I have gained from abroad; and I defign, like them, to publish speedily to the world the benefits accruing from them; for I cannot refift the temptation of printing your admirable tranflation here; to which if you will be fo obliging to give me leave to prefix your name, it will be the only addition you can make to the honour already done me. I am your, &c. This was never done, for the two printed was done by Monfieur Roboton, private fecretary to King George the firft, printed in quarto at Amiterdam, and at London 1717. The other by the Abbe Reinel, in octavo, with a large preface and notes, at Paris, 1730. French versions are neither of this hand. The one I LETTER XLVIII. Mr. Steele to Mr. Pope. June 1, 1712. AM at a folitude, an house between Hampstead and London, wherein Sir Charles Sedley died. This circumstance fet me a thinking and ruminating upon the employments in which men of wit exercife themselves. It was faid of Sir Charles, who breathed his last in this room, } Sedley has that prevailing gentle art, Oh thou my voice infpire, I have turned to every verfe and chapter, and think you have preserved the fublime heavenly fpirit throughout the whole, efpecially at-Hark a glad voiceand-The lamb with wolves shall graze. There is but one line which I think is below the original, He wipes the tears for ever from our eyes. You have expreffed it with a good and pious, but not fo exalted and poetical a fpirit as the prophet, "The Lord God "will wipe away tears from off all faces." If you agree with me in this, alter it by way of paraphrafe or otherwise, that when it comes into a volume it may be amended. Your poem is already better than the Pollio. I am your, &c. much into extremes in commending entirely either folitude, or public life. In the former, men for the moft part grow ufelefs by too much reft, and in the latter are destroyed by too much precipitation; as waters, lying ftill, putrify, and are good for nothing; and running violently on, do but the more mifchief in their paffage to others, and are fwallowed up and loft the fooner themfelves. Thofe indeed who can be useful to all ftates, fhould be like gentle ftreams, that not only glide through lonely valleys and. forefts, amidst the flocks and the thepherds, but vifit populous towns in their courfe, and are at once of ornament and fervice to them. But there are another fort of people who feem defigned for folitude, fuch, I mean, as have more to hide than to fhow. As for my own part, I am one of thofe whom Seneca fays, Tam umbratiles funt, ut putent in turbido effe, quicquid in luce eft. Some men, like fome pictures, are fitter for a corner than a full light; and, I believe, fuch as have a natural bent to folitude (to carry on the former fimilitude) are like waters, which may be forced into fountains, and exalted into a great height, may make a noble figure and a louder noife; but after all they would run more fmoothly, quietly, and plentifully, in their own natural courfe upon the ground. The confideration of this would make me very well contented with the poffeffion only of that quiet which Cowley calls the companion of obfcurity. But whoever has the Mufes too for his companions, can never be idle enough to be uneafy. Thus, Sir, you fee, I would flatter inyfelf into a good opinion of my own way of living. Plutarch juft now told me, that it is in human life, as in a game at tables, where a man may with for the highest caft; but, if his chance be otherwife, he is c'en to play it as well as he can, and to make the best of it. I am your, &c. in a man's life, than the difparity we Then furely ficknefs, contributing no lefs in the verfification very diftinct from the reft of that poem. See his pofthumous works, oftare, page 3 and 4. for, for, are likely to enjoy this world after me. When I reflect what an inconfiderable little atom every fingle man is, with refpect to the whole creation, methinks it is a fhame to be concerned at the removal of fuch a trivial animal as I am. The morning after my exit, the fun will rife as bright as ever, the flowers fmell as fweet, the plants fpring as green, the world will proceed in its own courfe, people will laugh as heartily, and marry as faft, as they were used to do. The memory of man (as it is elegantly expressed in the Book of Wisdom) paffeth away as the remembrance of a gueft that tarrieth but one day. There are reafons enough, in the fourth chapter of the fame book, to make any young man contented with the profpect of death. "For honour"able age is not that which standeth in "length of time, or is measured by "number of years. But wifdom is the grey hair to men, and an unfpotted life is old age. He was taken away speedily, left wickedness fhould alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his foul," &c. I am your, &c. "what now is become of thy former wit " and humour? thou shalt jeft and be gay no more.” I confess I cannot apprehend where lies the trifling in all this; it is the moft natural and obvious reflection imaginable to a dying man and if we confider the emperor was a heathen, that doubt concerning the future ftate of his foul will feem fo far from being the effect of want of thought, that it was fcarce reasonable he fhould think otherwife; not to mention that here is a plain confeflion included of his belief in its immortality, The diminutive epithets of vagula, blandula, and the relt, appear not to me as expreffions of levity, but rather of endearment and concern; fuch as we find in Catullus, and the authors of HendecaSyllabi after him, where they are used to exprefs the utmoft love and tenderness for their miftreffes.-If you think me right in my notion of the last words of Adrian, be pleafed to infert it in the Spectator: if not, to fupprefs it. I am, &c. WAS the other day in company with I live or fix men of fome learning; where chancing to mention the famous verfes which the emperor Adrian spoke on his death-bed, they were all agreed that it was a piece of gaiety unworthy of that prince in thofe circumftances. I could not but differ from this opinion: methinks it was by no means a gay, but a very ferious foliloquy to his foul at the I point of his departure; in which sense I naturally took the verfes at my firft reading them, when I was very young, and before I knew what interpretation, the world generally put upon them. Animula vagula, blardula, Alas, my foul! thou pleafing compa"nion of this body, thou fleeting thing "that art now deferting it! whither art "thou flying to what unknown scene? all trembling, fearful, and penfive! ADRIANI morientis ad ANIMAM TRANSLATED. Ah fleeting fpirit! wand'ring fire, That long haft warm'd my tender breast, Must thou no more this frame inipire? No more a pleafing cheerful guest ? Whither, ah whither art thou flying? To what dark, undiscover'd shore ? Thou feem'ft all trembling, shiv'ring, dying And wit and humour are no more! LETTER LII. Fame twice, and cannot find any thing amifs, of weight enough to call a fault, but fee in it a thousand thousand beauties. Mr. Addifon fhall fee it tomorrow after his perufal of it, I will let you know his thoughts. I defire you would let me know whether you are at leifure or not? I have a defign which I fhall open a month or two hence, with the affiftance of the few like yourself. If your thoughts are unengaged, I fhall explain myfelf further. I am your, &c. |