their felicity before our own, who probably are not yet arrived to that degree of perfection which merits an immediate reward. That your dear brother, and my dear friend was fo, I take his very removal to be a proof; Providence would certainly lend virtuous men to a world that fo much wants them, as long as in its juftice to them it could fpare them to us. May my foul be with those who have meant well, and have acted well to that meaning! and, I doubt not, if this prayer be granted, 1 fhall be with him. Let us preferve his memory in the way he would best like, by recollecting what his behaviour would have been, in every incident of our lives to come, and doing in each juft as we think he would have done; fo we shall have him always before our eyes, and in our minds, and (what is more) in our lives and manners, I hope when we shall meet him next, we shall be more of a piece with him, and confequently not to be evermore feparated from him. I will add but one word that relates to what remains of yourself and me, fince fo valued a part of us is gone; it is to beg you to accept, as yours by inheritance, of the vacancy he has left in a heart, which (while he could fill it with fuch hopes, wishes and affe&tions for him as fuited a mortal creature) was truly and warmly his; and fhall (I affure you in the fincerity of forrow for my own lofs) be faithfully at your fervice while I continue to love his memory, that is, while I continue to be myself. Mr. Digby died in the year 1726, and is buried in the church of Sherburne in Dorfet hire, with an Epitaph written by the Author. LETTERS LETTER S I TO AND FROM Dr. ATTERBURY, Bishop of ROCHESTER, From the Year 1716 to 1723. LETTER I. The Bishop of ROCHESTER to Mr. POPE. Decemb. 1716. Return your*Preface, which I have read twice with pleafure. The modefty and good fenfe there is in it, muft please every one that reads it: and fince there is nothing that can offend, I fee not why you fhould balance a moment about printing it always provided, that there is nothing faid there which you may have occafion to unfay hereafter; of which you yourself are the best and the only judge. This is my fincere opinion, which I give, because you ask it: and which I would not give, tho afked, but to a man I value as much as I do you; being fenfible how improper it is, on many accounts, for me to interpofe in things of this nature; which I never underftood well, and now understand somewhat less than ever I did. But I can deny you nothing; efpecially fince you have had the goodness often, and patiently, to hear what I have faid against rhyme, and in behalf of blank verfe; with little difcretion, perhaps, but, I am fure, without the leaft prejudice; being myfelf equally incapable of writing well in either of those ways, and leaning therefore to neither fide of the queftion, but as the appearance of reafon inclines me. Forgive me this error, if it be one; an error of above thirty years ftanding, and which therefore I fhall be very loth to part with. In other matters which relate to polite writing, I shall seldom differ from The general preface to Mr. Pope's Poems, first printed 1717, the year after the date of this letter. you you; or, if I do, fhall, I hope, have the prudence to conceal my opinion. I am as much as I ought to be, that is, as much as any man can be, Your, &c. LETTER II. The Bishop of ROCHESTER to Mr. POPE. I Hoped to find you laft night at Lord Bathurst's, and came but a few minutes after you had left him. I brought Gorboduc with me; and Dr. Arbuthnot telling me he fhould fee you, I depofited the book in his hands: out of which, I think, my Lord Bathurft got it before we parted, and from him therefore you are to claim it. If Gorboduc fhould ftill mifs his way to you, others are to anfwer for it; I have delivered up my truft. I am not forry your + Alcander is burnt; had I known your intentions, I would have interceded for the first page, and put it, with your leave, among my curiofities. In truth, it is the only inftance of that kind I ever met with, from a perfon good for any thing elfe, nay, for every thing else to which he is pleas'd to turn himself. Depend upon it, I fhall fee you with great pleasure at Bromley; and there is no requeft you can make to me, that I fhall not moft readily comply with. I wish you health and happiness of all forts, and would be glad to be inftrumental in any degree towards helping you to the leaft fhare of either. I am always, every where, most affectionately and faithfully Your, &c. I LETTER III. The Bishop of ROCHESTER to Mr. POPE. Bromley, Nov 8, 1717. Have nothing to fay to you on that melancholy subject, with an account of which the printed papers have furnifhed me, but what you have already faid to yourself. When you have paid the debt of tenderness you owe memory of a father, I doubt not but you will turn your thoughts towards improving that accident to your own cafe and happinefs. You have it now in your power to purfue that method of thinking and living which you to the A Tragedy, written in the Reign of Edward the fixth (and much the heft performance of that Age) by Sackville, afterwards Earl of Dorfet, and Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth, It was then very ic.rce, but lately reprinted by R. Dodley in Pall mai. An Heroic Poeni writ at 15 years old. like beft. Give me leave, if I am not a little too early in my applications of this kind, to congratulate you upon it; and to affure you that there is no man living who wishes you better, or would be more pleas'd to contribute any ways to your fatisfaction or fervice. I return you your Milton, which, upon collation, I find to be revised, and augmented, in feveral places, as the title page of my third edition pretends it to be. When I fee you next, I will fhew you the feveral paffages alter'd, and added by the author, befide what you mentioned to me. I proteft to you, this laft perufal of him has given me fuch new degrees, I will not fay of pleasure, but of admiration and astonishment, that I look upon the fublimity of Homer, and the majefty of Virgil, with fomewhat lefs reverence than I ufed to do. I challenge you, with all your partiality, to fhew me, in the first of these, any thing equal to the Allegory of Sin and Death, either as to the greatnefs and juftnefs of the invention, or the height and beauty of the colouring. What I look'd upon as a rant of Barrow's, I now begin to think a ferious truth, and could almoft venture to fet my hand to it, Hæc quicunque legit, tantum ceciniffe putabit But more of this when we meet. When I left the town, the D. of Buckingham continued fo ill, that he receiv'd no meffages; oblige me fo far as to let me know how he does; at the fame time I fhall know how you do, and that will be a double fatisfaction to Your, &c. I LETTER IV. The Answer. Nov. 20, 1717. MY LORD, Am truly obliged by your kind condolence on my Father's death, and the defire you exprefs that I fhould improve this incident to my advantage. I know your Lordship's friendship to me is fo extenfive, that you in clude in that wifh both my fpiritual and my temporal advantage; and it is what I owe to that friendship, to open my mind unrefervedly to you on this head. It is true, I have loft a parent for whom no gains I could make would be any equivalent. But that was not my only tye: I thank God another ftill remains (and long may it remain) of the fame tender nature: Genitrix eft mihi—and excute me if I fay with Euryalus, nequeam lacrymas perferre parentis. A rigid A rigid divine may call it a carnal tye; but fure it is a virtuous one: at least I am more certain that it is a duty of nature to preferve a good parent's life and happiness, than I am of any fpeculative point whatever. Ignaram hujus quodcunque pericli For fhe, my Lord, would think this feparation more grievous than any other; and I, for my part, know as little as poor Euryalus did, of the fuccefs of fuch an adventure (for an Adventure it is, and no fmall one, in fpite of the moft pofitive divinity.) Whether the change would be to my fpiritual advantage, God only knows: this I know, that I mean as well in the religion I now profefs, as I can poffibly ever do in another. Can a man who thinks fo, juftify a change, even if he thought both equally good? To fuch an one, the part of Joining with any one body of Chriftians might perhaps be easy, but I think it would not be fo, to Renounce the other. Your Lordship has formerly advis'd me to read the beft controverfies between the Churches. Shall I tell you a fecret? I did fo at fourteen years old: (for I loved reading, and my. father had no other books) there was a collection of all that had been written on both fides in the reign of King James the fecond: I warm'd my head with them, and the confequence was, that I found my felf a Papist and a Proteftant by turns, according to the laft book I read *. I am afraid moft Seekers are in the fame cafe; and when they ftop, they are not fo properly converted, as outwitted. You fee how little glory you would gain by my converfion. And after all, And after all, I verily believe your Lordship and I are both of the fame religion, if we were thoroughly understood by one another, and that all honeft and reasonable chriftians would be fo, if they did but talk enough together every day, and had nothing to do toge ther but to ferve God, and live in peace with their neighbour. As to the temporal fide of the question, I can have no difpute with you; it is certain, all the beneficial circumftances of life, and all the fhining ones, lie on the part you would invite me to. But if I could bring myself to fancy, what I think you do but fancy, that I have any talents for active life, I want health for it; and befides, it is a real truth, I have lefs Inclination (if poffible) than * This is an excellent defcription of every Reader labouring in religious controverfy, without poffeffing the principles on which right judgment of the points in question is to be regulated." Ability. |