them to spend their force, I hope in fome time to check and fubdue them. Multis fortune vulneribus perculfus, buic uni me imparem fenfi, et pene fuccubui. This is weakness not wifdom, I own; and on that account fitter to be trusted to the bofom of a friend, where I may fafely lodge all my infirmities. As foon as my mind is in fome meafure corrected and calm'd, I will endeavour to follow your advice, and turn it to fomething of use 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 pleas'd 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 applause 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 choose a subject every way worthy of you, and handle it as you can, in a manner which nobody elfe can equal or imitate. As for me, my abilities, if I ever had any, are not what they were: and yet I will endeavour to recollect and employ them. gelidus tardante fenecta expec Sanguis hebet, frigentque effoto 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, tho' even there I fenfibly improved. I believe my cure had been perfected but the earneft 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 tation, I was forced at laft to take a long journey to Touloufe; and even there I had mits'd the perfon I fought, had The not, with great spirit 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 liv'd twenty hour's afterwards, which time was not lost on either fide, but pass'd in such a manner as gave great fatisfaction to both, and fuch as, on her part, every way became her circumftances and.character. For fhe 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 he had done in all her life-time, tho' fhe had never heen want wanting in either. The laft words fhe faid to me were the kindeft of all; a reflection on the goodness of God, which had allowed us in this manner to meet once more, before we parted for ever. Not many minutes after that, The laid herself on her pillow, in a fleeping pofture, placidaque ibi demum morte quievit. udge you, Sir, what I felt, and ftill feel on this occafion, and fpare me the trouble of defcribing it. At my age, under my infirmities, among utter ftrangers, how fhall I find out proper reliefs and fupports? I can have none, but those with which reafon and religion furnish me, and those I lay hold on, and grasp as faft as I can. I hope that He, who laid the burthen upon me (for wife and good purpotes 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 continue 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, or else in another. I am, &c. Z 2 LETTER S TO AND FROM MR. G A Y, From 1712 to 1732. γου LETTER I. Binfield, Nov. 13, 1712. YOU writ me a very kind Letter fome months ago, and told me you were then upon the point of taking a journey into Devonshire. That hindered my answering you, and I have fince feveral times inquired of you, without any fatisfaction; for fo I call the knowledge of your welfare, or of any thing that concerns you. I paft two months in Suffex, and fince my return, have been again very ill. I writ to Lintot in hopes of hearing of you, but had no anfwer to that point. Our friend Mr. Cromwell too has been filent all this year; I believe he has been difpleased at fome or other of my freedoms *, which I very innocently take, and moft with those I think moft my friends. But this I know nothing of; perhaps he may have opened to you: and if I know you right, you are of a temper to cement friendships, and not to divide them. I really much love Mr. Cromwell, and have a true affection for yourself, which if I had any intereft in the world, or power with thofe who have, I fhould not be long without manifefting to you. I defire you will not, either out of modefty, or a vicious diftruft of another's value for you (those two *We fee by the Letters to Mr. Cromwell, that Mr. Pope was wont to rally him on his turn for trifling and pedantic criticifm. So he loft his two early friends, Cromwell and Wycherly, by his zeal to correct the bad poetry of the one, and the bad tafle of the other. eternal eternal foes to merit) imagine that your letters and converfation are not always welcome to me. There is no man more entirely fond of good-nature or ingenuity than myself, and I have feen too much of those qualities in you to be any thing lefs than LETTER II. Your, &c. Dec. 24, 1712. 1T Thas been my good fortune within this month paft, to hear more things that have pleafed me than (I think) almoft in all my time befide. But nothing upon my word has been fo home-felt a fatisfaction as the news you tell me of yourfelf: and you are not in the leaft miftaken, when you congratulate me upon your own good fuccefs: for I have more people out of whom to be happy, than any ill-natured man can boaft of. I may with honefty affirm to you, that, notwithstanding the many inconveniences and difadvantages they commonly talk of in the Res angufti domi, I have never found any other, than the inability of giving people of merit the only certain proof of our value for them, in doing them fome real fervice. For after all, if we could but think a little, felf love might make us philofophers, and convince us quantuli indiget Natura! Ourselves are eafily provided for; 'tis nothing but the circumftantials, and the apparatus or equipage of human life, that coft fo much the furnishing. Only what a luxurious man wants for horfes, and footmen, a good-natured man wants for his friends, or the indigent. * I fhall fee you this winter with much greater pleasure than I could the laft; and, I hope, as much of your time, as your attendance on the Duchefs will allow you to fpare to any friend, will not be thought loft upon one who is as much fo as any man. I muft alfo put you in mind, tho' you are now fecretary to this Lady, that you are likewife fecretary to nine other ladies, and are to write sometimes for them too. He who is forced to live wholly upon those Ladies favours, is indeed in as precarious a condition as any He who does what Chaucer fays for fuftenance; but they are very agreeable companions, like other Ladies, when a man only paffes a night or fo with them at his leifure, and away. I am Your, &c. Duchefs of Monmouth, to whom he was juft then made Secretary. LETTER III. Aug. 23, 1713. UST as I received yours, I was fet down to write to you with some shame that I had fo long deferred it. But I can hardly repent my neglect, when it gives me the knowledge how little you infift upon ceremony, and how much a greater fhare in your memory I have, than I deferve. I have been near a week in London, where I am like to remain, till I become, by Mr. Jervas's help, Elegans formarum fpectator. I begin to difcover beauties that were till now imperceptible to me. Every corner of an eye, or turn of a nofe or ear, the smallest degree of light or fhade on a cheek, or in a dimple, have charms to diftract me. I no longer look upon Lord Plaufible as ridiculous, for admiring a Lady's fine tip of an ear and pretty elbow (as the Plain Dealer has it) but am in fome danger even from the ugly and disagreeable, fince they may have their retired beauties, in one trait or other about them. You may guess in how uneafy a ftate I am, when every day the performances of others appear more beautiful and excellent, and my own more defpicable. I have thrown away three Dr. Swifts, each of which was once my vanity. two Lady Bridgwaters, a Duchefs of Montague, befides half a dozen Earls, and one Knight of the garter. I have crucified Chrift over again in effigy, and made a Madona as old as her mother St. Anne. Nay, what is yet more miraculous, I have rivall'd St. Luke himself in painting, and as, 'tis faid, an angel came and finished his piece, fo you would fwear, a devil put the laft hand to mine, 'tis fo begrimed and fmutted. However, I comfort myfelf with a Chriftian reflection, that I have not broken the commandment, for my pictures are not the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in earth below, or in the water under the earth. Neither will any body adore or worthip them, except the Indians fhould have a fight of them, who, they tell us, worship certain idols purely for their ugliness. I am very much recreated and refreshed with the news of the advancement of the Fan*, which, I doubt not, will delight the eye and fenfe of the Fair, as long as that agreeable machine fhall play in the hands of pofterity. I am glad your fan is mounted fo foon, but I would have you * A Poem of Mr. Gay's, so intitled. varnish |