much into extremes in commending en- in a man's life, than the difparity we often find in him fick and well: thus one of an unfortunate conftitution is perpetually exhibiting a miferable example of the weakness of his mind, and of his body, in their turns. I have had frequent opportunities of late to confider myself in thefe different views, and, I hope, have received fome advantage by it, if what Waller fays be true, that The foul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay', Lets in new light thro' chinks that time has made. Then furely ficknefs, contributing no lefs than old age to the fhaking down this fcaffolding of the body, may discover the inward ftructure more plainly. Sickness is a fort of early old age: it teaches us a diffidence in our earthly flate, and infpires us with the thoughts of a future, better than a thoufand volumes of philofophers and divines. It gives fo warning a concuffion to thofe props of our vanity, our ftrength and youth, that we think of fortifying ourselves within, when there is fo little dependence upon our outworks. Youth, at the very beft, is but a betrayer of human life in a gentler and fmoother manner than age: it is like a ftream that nourishes a plant upon a bank, and caufes it to flourish and bloffom to the fight, but at the fame time is undermining it at the root in fecret. My youth has dealt more fairly and openly with me; it has afforded feveral profpects of my danger, and given me an advan tage not very common to young men, that the attractions of the world have not dazzled me very much; and I begin, where moft people end, with a full conviction of the emptiness of all forts of ambition, and the unfatisfactory nature of all human pleafures. When a smart fit of fickness tells me this fcurvy tenement of my body will fall in a little time, I am even as unconcerned as was that honeft Hibernian, who being in bed in the great ftorm fome years ago, and told the houfe would tumble over his head, made anfwer, What care I for the house? I am only a lodger. I fancy it is the best time to die when one is in the best humour; and fo exceffively weak as I now am, I may fay with confcience, that I am not at all uneafy at the thought, that many men, whom I never had any esteem in the verfification very diftinct from the rest of that poem. See his pofthumous works, octavo, page 3 and 4. for 1 for, are likely to enjoy this world after " I Nov. 7, 1712. "what now is become of thy former wit I confefs I cannot apprehend where lies ADRIANI morientis ad ANIMAM, TRANSLATED. Ah fleeting fpirit! wand'ring fire, That long haft warm'd my tender breaft LETTER LII. Mr. Steele to Mr. Pope. Nov. 12, 1712. HAVE have read over your Temple of WAS the other day in company with Animula vagula, blandula, " LETTER LIII. Mr. Pope to Mr. Steele. Nov. 16, 1712. You oblige me by the indulgence you have fhewn to the poem I fent you, but will oblige me much more by the kind feverity I hope for from you. No errors are fo trivial, but they deferve to be mended. But fince you fay you fee nothing that may be called a fault, can you but think it fo, that I have confined the attendance of guardian fpirits to heaven's favourites only? I could point you to several, but it is my business to be informed of thofe faults I do not know; and as for those I do, not to talk of them, but to correct them. You fpeak of that poem in a tyle I neither merit nor expect; but, I affare you, if you freely mark or dash out, I fhall look upon your blots to be its greate beauties; I mean, if Mr. Addifon and yourfelf fhould like it in the whole; otherwife the trouble of correction is what I would not take, for I was really fo diflident of it as to let it lie by me thefe two years †, jutt as you now fee it. I am afraid of nothing fo much as to impofe any thing on the world which is unworthy of its acceptance. As to the laft period of your letter, I fhall be very ready and glad to contribute to any defign that tends to the ad vantage of mankind, which, I am fure, all yours do. I wish I had but as much capacity as leifure, for I am perfectly idle (a figa I have not much capacity). If you will entertain the belt opinion of me, be pleafed to think me your friend. Aflure Mr. Addifon of my most faithful fervice, of every one's esteem he must be affured aheady. I am your, &c. fent it to have your opinion, and not to publish my own, which I diftruited. But I think the fuppofition you draw from the nation of Adrian's being addicted to magic, is a little uncharitable (" that he might fear no fort of deity, good or "bad"), fince in the third verfe he plainly teftifies his apprehenfion of a future ftate, by being folicitous whither his foul was going. As to what you mention of his ufing gay and ludicrous expreffions, I have owned my opinion to be, that the expreflions are not fo, but that diminutives are as often, in the Latin tongue, ufd as marks of tenderness and concern. Anima is no more than my foul, anila has the force of my dear foul. To fay virgo bella is not half fo endearing as virguncula bellula; and had Auguftus only called Horace lepidum hominem, it had amounted to no more than that he thought him a pleqtant fellow: it was the komunciclum that expreffed the love and tendernefs that great emperor had for him. And perhaps I fhould myfelf be much better pleafed, if I were told you called me your little friend, than if you complimented me with the title of a great genius, or an eminent hand, as Jacch does all his authors. I am your, &c. LETTER LV. Mr. Steele to Mr. Pope. Dec. 4, 1712. 11s is to defire of would you that you T pleafe to make an ode as of a cheerful dying fpirit, that is to fay, the emperor Adrian's animula vagula put into two or three ftanzas for mufic. If you comply with this, and fend me word fo, you will very particularly oblige your, &c. I The dying Chriftian to his SouL. O D E. I. Vital fpark of heav'nly flame! Quit, oh quit this mortal frame : Trembling, hoping, ling ring, flying, Oh the pain, the blifs of dying! Ceafe, fond Nature, ceafe thy ftrife, And let me languish into life. II. Hark! they whifper; Angels fay, The world recedes; it difappears! Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! LETTER LVII. Mr. Pope to Mr. Addifon. July 20, 1713. AM more joyed at your return than I fhould be at that of the fun, so much as I with for him this melancholy wet feafon; but it is his fate too, like yours, to be difpleafing to owls and obfcene animals, who cannot bear his luftre. What put me in mind of these night-birds was John Dennis, whom, I think, you are beft revenged upon, as the fun was in the fable upon thefe bats and beaftly birds above mentioned, only by shining on. I am fo far from efteeming it any misfortune, that I congratulate you upon having your fhare in that, which all the great men and all the good men that ever lived have had their part of, Envy and Calumny. To be uncenfured and to be obfcure, is the fame thing. You may conclude from what I here fay, that it was never in my thoughts to have offered you my pen in any direct reply to fuch a critic, but only in fome little raillery; not in defence of you, but in contempt of him. But indeed your opinion, that it is entirely to be neglected, would have been my own had it been my own cafe: but I felt more warmth here than I did when first I saw his book against myself This relates to the paper occafioned by Dennis's Remarks upon Cato, called "Dr. Norris's "Narrative of the Frenzy of John Dennis.” (though indeed in two minutes it made me heartily merry). He has written against every thing the world has approved thefe many years. I apprehend but one danger from Dennis's difliking our fenfe, that it may make us think fo very well of it, as to become proud and conceited upon his difapprobation. I must not here omit to do juftice to Mr. Gay, whofe zeal in your concern is worthy a friend and honourer of you. He writ to me in the most preffing terms about it, though with that juft contempt of the critic that he deferves. I think in thefe days one honeft man is obliged to acquaint another who are his friends; when fo many mischievous infects are daily at work to make people of merit fufpicious of each other; that they may have the fatisfaction of feeing them looked upon no better than themselves. I am your, &c. I Oa. 26, 1713 WAS extremely glad to receive a letter from you, but more fo upon reading the contents of it. The work + you mention will, I dare fay, very fufficiently recommend itself when your name appears with the propofals: and if you think I can any way contribute to the forwarding of them, you cannot lay a greater obligation upon me, than by employing me in fuch an office. As I have an ambition of having it known that you are my friend, I shall be very proud of fhewing it by this, or any other inftance. I question not but your tranflation will enrich our tongue, and do honour to our country; for I conclude of it already from thofe performances with which you have obliged the public. I would only have you confider how it may moft turn to your advantage. Excufe my impertinence in this particular, which proceeds from my zeal for your ease and happiness. The work would cost you a great deal of time, and, unless you undertake it, will, I am afraid, never be executed by any other; at least I know none of this age that is equal to it befide yourfelf. I am at prefent wholly immersed in †The tranflation of the Iliad. Country am re but come re readers. take the you not to thofe very perfons who firft de Barched him. Yet, to tell you the bot Lam of my heart, I am no way difpleated at I have offended the violent of all par es already; and at the fame time I aiure you confcientiously, I feel not the leaf malevolence or refentment against any of those who mifreprefent me, or are diñatisfied with me. This frame of mind is so easy, that I am perfectly content with my condition. very As I hope, and would flatter myfelf, that you know me and my thoughts to good entirely as never to be mistaken in either, king. fo it is a pleasure to me that you gueffed fo right in regard to the author of that Guardian you mentioned. But I am forry to find it has taken air, that I have fome hand in thofe papers, because I writ fo few as neither to deferve the credit of fuch a report with fome people, nor the difrepute of it with others. An ho neft Jacobite spoke to me the fenfe or nonfenfe of the weak part of his party very fairly, that the good people took it ill of me, that I writ with Steele, though upon never fo indifferent fubjects. This, know, you will laugh at as well as I do; yet I doubt not but many little calumniators and perfons of four difpofitions will take occafion hence to befpatter me. 1 confefs I fcorn narrow fouls of all par ties, and if I renounce my reason in re ligious matters, I will hardly do it in any other. of the nayou might ght take the on this ocvery happy that and I hope all a to the better e on your friendHeedom with you at we have lived in an unreserved It we may do fo Escere wish of your, STER LX. Mr. Addifon. at the more obliging, as it sace little niceties in my t your candour and affecto recommend to me, e trivial as things of this nayet of no flight confeple whom every body n every body as he pleafes. set of tax that attends an eflate which is often rated much har in proportion to the fmall author holds. For indeed her, who is once come upon the oyed without being thanked plesture, and fometimes ill-treat The notes to his tranflation of Homer. I cannot imagine whence it comes to pafs, that the few Guardians I have written are fo generally known for mine: that in particular which you mention I never difcovered to any man but the publifher, till very lately; yet almost every body told me of it. As to his taking a more politic tura, I cannot any way enter into that fecret, nor have I been let into it any more than into the rest of his politics. Though it is faid, he will take into thefe papers alfo feveral fubjects of the politer kind, as before: but, I aflure you, as to myfelf, I have quite done with them for the future. The little I have done, and the great refpect I bear Mr. Steele as a man of wit, has rendered me a fufpected whig to fome of the violent; but (as old Dryden faid before me) it is not the violent I defign to please. I generally employ the mornings in painting with Mr. Jervas, and the even |