which its participation and neighbour hood with eth long involve 1 it; to fine abroad and to heaven, cugit to be the bufincfs and the glory of your prefent fituation. Remember it was at fuch a time, that the greateft lights of antiquity dazzled and llawed the moft in their retreat, in their cail, or in tacir death; but why do I talk of cazzling or blazing it was then that they did good, that taly gave light, and that they became guld. es to mind. Thofe aitas alone are worthy of fpirits truly great, and fuch I there we hope will be yours. Refentment is dead may remain, perhaps cannot be quite cuinguished in the noblet minds; but revenge never will harbour there: higher principles than thofe of the firit, and better principles than thofe of the latter, will infallibly influence men whofe thoughts and whofe hearts are enlarged, and cause them to prefer the whole to any part of mankind, efpecially to fo fmall a part as one's fingle felf. Believe me, my Lord, I look upon you as a fpirit entered into another life, as one just upon the edge of immortality; where the pations and affections must be much more exalted, and where you ought to defpife all little views and all man retrofpefts. Nothing is worth your locking back; and therefore look forward, and make (as you can) the world look after you. But take care that it be not with pity, but with efteem and admira tion. I am, with the greatest fincerity, and pasion for your fame as well as happind, your, &c. LETTER CL. The Bijbp of Rockefer to Mr. Pope. γου Paris, Nov. 23, 3731. will wonder to fee me in print ; but how could I avoid it? The dead and the living, my friends and my fees, at home and abroad, called upon me to fay fomething; and the repatation of an Titory which I and all the world vaLc, mut have fuffered, had I continued The Bishop of Rochefter went into exile the men h following, and continuca in it till his death, which happened in Paris on the fifteenth day of Feary, in the your 32. Lart of Clarendon's, filent. I have printed it here, in hopes that fomebody inay venture to reprint it in England, notwithstanding those two frigatening words at the clofe of it. Whether that happens or not, it is ft you thould have a fight of it, who, I know, will read it with fome degree of atisation, as it is mine, though it thould have (as it really has) nothing the to recommend it. Such as it is, extre mam hoc munus mori, nis bilete; for that may well be the cafe, confidering that within a few months I am entering into my ferendeth year: after which, even the healthy and the happy cannot meth depend upon life, and will not, if they are wife, much defire it. Whenever I go, you will lofe a friend who loves and values you extremely, if in my circumftances I can be faid to be loft to any cze, when dead, more than I am already whitt living. I expected to have heard from you by Mr. Morrice, and wondered a little that I did not; but he cwas himfelf in a fault for not giving you due notice of his motions. It was not amits that you forbore writing, on a head wherein I promifed more than I was able to perform. Difgraced men fancy fome times that they preferve an influence, where, when they endeavour to exert it they foon fee their mistake. I did fo, mi good friend, and acknowledge it unde my hand. You founded the coal, and found out my error, it feems, before I was aware of it; but enough on this fubject. What are they doing in England to the honour of letters; and particularly wat are you doing? Ipfe quid andes & De dram velites egilis thyma? Do you pur fue the moral plan you marked out, and feemed fixteen months ago to intent up on? Ara I to fee it perfected ere I dk, and are you to enjoy the reputati a of a while you live? or do you rather cha to leave the marks of your friendthy, like the legacies of a will, to be read and enjoyed only by thofe who furvive you! Were I as near you as I have been, I fhould hope to peep into the manufcrit before it was finished. But alas! there is, and will ever probably be, a great deal The Bishop's name, fet to his vindication ti Bishop Smalridge, Dr. Aldrich, and lime 5,67 the feandalous reflections of Old xen, relating Ə the publication of Lord Clarendon's Hiftury, 125g 1751, 4to, fince reprinted in Eng.and. of land and fea between us. How many books have come out of late in your parts, which you think I fhould be glad to perufe? Name them: the catalogue, I believe, will not coft you much trouble. They must be good ones indeed to challenge any part of my time, now I have fo little of it left. I, who fquandered whole days heretofore, now hufband hours when the glass begins to run low, and care not to mifpend them on trifles. At the end of the lottery of life, our last minutes, like tickets left in the wheel, rife in their valuation: they are not of fo much worth perhaps in themfelves as thofe which preceded, but we are apt to prize them more, and with reafon. I do fo, my dear friend, and yet think the moft precious minutes of my life are well employed in reading what you write. But this is a fatisfaction I cannot much hope for, and therefore muft betake myself to others lefs entertaining. Adieu! dear Sir, and forgive me engaging with one, whom you, I think, have reckoned among the heroes of the Dunciad. It was neceffary for me either to accept of his dirty challenge, or to have fuffered in the esteem of the world by declining it. My refpects to your mother; I fend one of these papers for Dean Swift, if you have an opportunity, and think it worth while to convey it. My country at this distance feems to me a strange fight; I know not how it appears to you, who are in the midst of the fcene, and yourfelf a part of it; I with you would tell me. You may write fafely to Mr. Morrice, by the honeft hand that conveys this, and will return into thefe parts before Christmas; sketch out a rough draught of it, that I may be able to judge whether a return to it be really eligible, or whether I thould not, like the chemift in the bottle, upon hearing Don Queve do's account of Spain, defire to be corked up again. After all, I do and must love my country, with all its faults and blemishes; even that part of the conftitution which wounded me unjustly, and itfelf through my fide, fhall ever be dear to me. My lait with fhall be like that of father Paul, Esto perpetua! and when I die at a diftance from it, it will be in the fame manner as Virgil defcribes the expiring Peloponnefian, I LETTER CLI. The Bishop of Rochefter to Mr. Pope. [On the death of his daughter.] Montpelier, Nov. 20, 1729. after the late wound I have received, AM not yet mafter enough of myself, to open my very heart to you, and am not content with lefs than that, whenever converfe with you. My thoughts are at prefent vainly, but pleafingly, employed, on what I have loft, and can never recover. I know well I ought, for that reafon, to call them off to other fubjects, but hitherto I have not been able to do it. By giving them the rein a little, and fuffering them to fpend their force, I hope in fome time to check and fubdue them. Miltis fortune vulneribus perculfus, buic uni me imparem fenfi, et pene fuccubui. This is weakness, not wildom, I own; and on that account fitter to be trufted to the bofom of a friend, where I may fafely lodge all my infirmities. As foon as my mind is in fome measure corrected and calmed, I will endeavour to follow your advice, and turn it to fomething of ufe and moment; if I have ftill life enough left to do any thing that is worth reading and preferving. In the mean time I fhall be pleafed to hear that you proceed in what you intend, without any fuch melancholy interruption as I have met with. Your mind is as yet unbroken by age and ill accidents, your knowledge and judgment are at the height: ufe them in writing fomewhat that may teach the prefent and future times, and if not gain equally the applaufe of both, may yet raise the envy of the one, and fecure the admiration of the other. Employ not your precious moments, and great talents, on little men and little things; but chufe a subject every way worthy of you, and handle it as you can, in a manner which nebody elfe can equal or imitate, As for me, my my abilities, if I ever had any, are not what they were: and yet I will endeavour to recollect and employ them. Gelidus tardante fene&ta Sanguis bebet, frigentque effeto in corpore vires. However, I fhould be ingrateful to this place, if I did not own that I have gained upon the gout in the south of France, much more than I did at Paris, though even there I fenfibly improved. I believe my cure had been perfected, but the earnest defire of meeting one I dearly loved, called me abruptly to Montpelier; where after continuing two months, under the cruel torture of a fad and fruitless expectation, I was forced at laft to take a long journey to Touloufe; and even there I had miffed the perfon I fought, had the not, with great fpirit and courage, ventured all night up the Garonne to fee me, which the above all things defired to do before fhe died. By that means fhe was brought where I was, between feven and eight in the morning, and lived twenty hours afterwards, which time was not loft on either fide, but paffed in fuch a manner as gave great fatisfaction to both, and fuch as, on her part, every way became her circumstances and character. For she had her fenfes to the very laft gafp, and exerted them to give me, in thofe few hours, greater marks of duty and love than the had done in all placidaque ibi demum morte quievit. Judge you, Sir, what I felt, and fill feel on this occafion, and fpare me the trouble of defcribing it. At my age, under my infirmities, among utter ftran gers, how fhall I find out proper reliefs and fupports? I can have none, but thofe with which reafon and religion furni me, and thofe I lay hold on, and grap as fast as I can. I hope that He who laid the burthen upon me (for wife and good purpofes no doubt) will enable me to bear it in like manner as I have borne others, with fome degree of fortitude and firmness. You fee how ready I am to relapfe into an argument which I had quitted once before in this letter. I fhall probably again commit the fame fault, if I con tinue to write; and therefore I ftop fhort here, and with all fincerity, affection and efteem, bid you adieu! till we meet either in this world, if God pleases, elfe in another. I am, &c. 2008 THE T HIRN LETTERS TERS OF THE PRESENT CENT: Madam. AM extremel count you Wurde que me arance bertem me years, and continued ic. fer be the coal = bables to you. is he letter you de ave frequently res plied to every wever, fince you ofe particular. tion, I hall entrar well as I am acie hat gave my tencer to alter the tyle of at came over. keration you chi he caufe abundance fed a thousand endea ments, to get you place you are in; bota n your health and humour, were like to fuffer ver This letter, Mr. Fakr to a lady of family in te and be acts, that it was to Dr. Swift's acquaintance want long before Axing um refdence in Ire ande power of any young fellow of common fenfe to get a larger fortune than ever you pretended to: I asked, in order to confider whether it were fuficient, with the help of my poor income, to make one of your humour easy in a married flate. I think it comes to almoft a hundred pounds a year; and I think at the fame time that no young woman in the world of the fame income would dwindle away their health and life in fuch a fink, and among fucn family converfation: neither have all your letters been once able to perfuade that you have the lealt value for me, becaufe you fo little regarded what I fo often faid upon that matter. The difmal account you fay I have given you of my livings* I can affure you to be a true one; and, fince it is a difmal one even in your own opinion, you can beft draw confequences from it. The place where Dr. Bolton † lived is upon a living which he keeps with the deanery; but the place of refidence for that they have given me is within a mile of a town called Trim, twenty miles from hence; and there is no other way, but to hire a house at Trim, or build one on the ipot: the firit is hardly to be done, and the other I am too poor to perform a: prefent. For coming down to Delfail, it is what I cannot yet think of, my attendance is fo clofe, and fo much required of me; but our government its very loofe, and I believe will change in a few months; whether our part 1 partake in the change, I know not, though I am very ap. to believe it; and then I thall be at leiture for a fhort journey. But I hope your other friends, more powerful than I, will before that time perfuade you from the place where you are. I defire my fervice to your mother, in return for her remembrance: but for any other dealings that way I entreat your pardon; and 1 think I have more caufe to refent your defires of me in that cafe, than you have to be angry at my refufals. If you like fuch company and conduct, mici good do you with them! my educa tion has been otherwife. My uncle Adam § atked me one day in private, as by direction, what my defigns were in relation to you, becaule it might be a hindrance to you if I did not process. The antwer I gave him (which I fuppeto he has fent you) was to this effect: "That I hoped I was no hindrance to you; because the reafon you urged against an union with me was drawn "from your indifpofition, which fl <continued; that you also thought my "fortune not fufficient, which is neither "at préfent in a condition to offer you: "That, if your health and my fortune "were as they ought, I would prefer you above all your fex; but that, ia "the prefent condition of both, I thought it was against your opinion, "and would certainly make you unhap py: That, had you any other cha which your friends or yourself thoug "more to your advantage, I fhead think I were very unjust to be an ob face in your way." Now for wh concerns my fortune, you have answered it. I defire, therefore, you will let me know if your health be otherwife than it wa when you told me the doctors advifed you Thofe of Laracor and Rb-ggin. chelain to Lord Berkthyen one of the Lords who was alfo minifter of Sr. Weburgh's, Dub. 1724; lin, was advanced to the biopic of Cret, Sept. 12, 1722; tranflared to Elphin, April 16, to Cathel, Jan. 6, 1720; and died in He was one of the 16 eloquent speakers of his time, and was particularly killed in ecclefi aftical history. Meaning Lord Berkeley, who was then one of the three Lords Justice The Larl of R chefter was appointed Lord Lieutenant in September following. hazard your life. Are they or you grown of another opinion in this partics. domeftic afairs, with an income of les lar? are you in a condition to manage (perhaps) than three hundred pounds a year? Have you fuch an inclination to my perfon and humour, as to comply with my delires and way of living, and en deavour to make us both as happy a you can? Will you be ready to engage in thofe methods I fhall direct for the urprovement of your mind, fo as to make Who Janghter, Anne, married a clergyman of the name of Perry. |