fkill in maritime affairs: whereas, according to the ufual method of Court-proceedings, I fhould have been at the head of the Army, and you of the Church, or rather a Curate under the Dean of St. Patrick's. The Archbishop of Dublin laments that he did not fee your Lordship till he was juft upon the point of leaving the Bath: I pray God you may have found fuccefs in that journey, elfe I fhall continue to think there is a fatality in all your Lordship's undertakings, which only terminate in your own honour, and the good of the public, without the leaft advantage to your health or fortune. I remember Lord Oxford's Miniftry us'd to tell me, that not knowing where to write to you, they were forced to write at you. It is fo with me, for you are in one thing an Evangelic man, that you know not where to lay your head, and, I think, you have no houfe. Pray, my Lord, write to me, that I may have the pleasure, in this fcoundrel country, of going about, and fhewing my depending Parfons a letter from the Earl of Peterborow. I am, etc. I LETTER XL. To * * * * t. Sept. 13. Believe you are by this time immers'd in your vaft Wood; and one may addrefs to you as to a very abftracted perfon, like Alexander Selkirk, or the * Self-taught Philofopher. I fhould be very curious to know what fort of contemplations employ you. I remember the latter of those I mentioned, gave himfelf up to a devout exercife of making his head giddy with various circumrotations, to imitate the motions of the celeftial bodies. I don't think it at all impoffible that Mr. Limay be far advanced in that exercife, by frequent turns towards the feveral afpects of the heavens, to which you may have been pleafed to direct him in fearch of profpects and new avenues. He will be tractable in time as birds are tamed by being whirl'd about and doubtless come not to defpife the meaneft fhrubs or coppice-wood, though natually he feems more inclined to admire God, in his greater works, the tall timber: for as Virgil has it, "Non omnes arbusta juvant, humilesque myricae. Lord Bathurst. * The title of an Arabic Treatise of the Life of Hai Ebn Yocktan. I wish I wish myself with you both, whether you are in peace or at war, in violent argumentation or fmooth confent, over Gazettes in the morning, or over Plans in the evening. In that laft article, I am of opinion your Lordship has a lofs of me; for generally after the debate of a whole day, we acquiefced at night in the beft conclufion of which human Realon feems capable in all great matters, to fall faft afleep! And fo we ended, unless immediate Revelation (which ever muft overcome human reafon) fuggefted fome new lights to us, by a vifion in bed. But laying afide Theory, I am told, you are going directly to Practice. Alas, what a Fall will that be? A new Building is like a new Church; when once it is fet up, you must mantain it in all the forms, and with all the inconveniences; then ceafe the pleafant luminous days of infpiration, and there is an end of miracles at once! That this Letter may be all of a piece, I'll fill the rest with an account of a confultation lately held in my neighbourhood about defigning a princely garden. Several Critics were of feveral opinions: One declared he would not have too much Art in it; for my notion (faid he) of gardening is, that it is only fweeping nature: Another told them that Gravel walks were not of a good tafte, for all the fineft abroad were of loose sand: A third advis'd peremptorily there fhould not be one Lyme-tree in the whole plantation: A fourth made the fame exclufive clause extend to Horse-chefnuts, which he affirmed not to be Trees, but Weeds: Dutch Elms were condemned by a fifth; and thus about half the trees were profcribed, contrary to the Paradife of God's own planting, which is expressly faid to be planted with all trees. There were fome who could not bear Ever-greens, and call'd them Nevergreens; fome, who were angry at them only when cut into fhapes, and gave the modern Gardeners the name of Ever-green Taylors; fome, who had no diflike to Cones and Cubes, but would have them cut in Foreft-trees; and fome who were in a paffion against any thing in shape, even against clipt hedges, which they call green walls. Thefe (my Lord) are our Men of Tafte, who pretend to prove it by tafting little or nothing. Sure fuch a Taste is like fuch a ftomach, not a good one but a weak one. have the fame fort of Critics in poetry: one is fond of nothing but Heroics, another cannot relifh Tragedies, another hates Paftorals, all little wits delight in Epigrams. An Expreffion of Sir T. H. We Will you give me leave to add, there are the fame in Divinity; where many leading Critics are for rooting up more than they plant, and would leave the Lord's Vineyard either very thinly furnished, or very oddly trimm'd. I have lately been with my Lord **, who is a zealous, yet a charitable Planter, and has fo bad a Tafte, as to like all that is good. He hath a difpofition to wait on you in his way to the Bath, and if he can go and return to London in eight or ten days, I am not without a hope of feeing your Lordship with the delight I always fee you. Every where I think of you, and every where I wish for you. I am, etc. I Affure LETTER XLI. To Mr. C- Sept. 2, 1732. you I am glad of your letter, and have long wanted nothing but the permiffion you now give me, to be plain and unreferved upon this head. I wrote to you concerning it long fince; but a friend of yours and mine was of opinion, it was taking too much upon me, and more than I could be entitled to by the mere merit of long acquaintance, and good will. I have not a thing in my heart relating to any friend, which I would not, in my own nature, declare to all mankind. The truth is what you guefs; I could not efteem your conduct, to an object of mifery fo near you as Mrs. and I have often hinted it to yourfelf: The Truth is, I cannot yet esteem. it for any reafon I am able to fee. But this I promife, I acquit you as far as your own mind acquits you. I have now no further caufe of complaint, for the unhappy Lady gives me now no further pain: fhe is no longer an object either of yours or my compaffion; the hardships done her, are lodg'd in the hands of God, nor has any man more to do in them, except the perfons concern'd in occafioning them. As for the interruption of our Correfpondence, I am forry you feem to put the Teft of my friendship upon that, because it is what I am difqualified from toward my other acquaintance, with whom I cannot hold any frequent commerce. I'll name you the obftacles which I can't furmount: want of health, want of time, want of good eyes and one yet ftronger than them all, I write not upon the terms of other VOL. IV, Ff men. men. For however glad I might be, of expreffing my refpe&t, opening my mind, or venting my concerns, to my private friends; I hardly dare while there are Curls in the World. If you pleafe to reflect either on the impertinence of weak admirers, the malice of low enemies, the avarice of mercenary bookfellers, or the filly curiofity of people in general; you'll confefs I have fmall reafon to indulge correfpondences: in which too I want materials, as I live altogether out of town, and have abftracted my mind (I hope) to better things than common news. I with my friends would fend me back thofe forfeitures of my dif cretion, commit to my juftice what I trufted only to their indulgence, and return me at the year's end, thofe trifling letters, which can be to them but a day's amusement, but to me may prove a difcredit as lafting and extenfive, as the aforefaid weak admirers, mean enemies, mercenary fcriblers, or curious fimpletons, can make it. I come now to a particular you complain of, my not anfwering your question about fome Party-papers, and their authors. This indeed I could not tell you, because I never was, or will be privy to fuch papers: And if by accident, thro' my acquaintance with any of the writers, I had known a thing they conceal'd; I fhould certainly never be the reporter of it. For my waiting on you at your country-house, I have often wifh'd it; it was my compliance to a fuperior duty that hinder'd me, and one which you are too good a Chriftian to wifh I fhould have broken, having never ventur'd to leave my mother (at her great age) for more than a week, which is too little for fuch a journey. am Upon the whole, 1 muft acquit myself of any act or thought, in prejudice to the regard I owe you, as fo long and obliging an acquaintance and correfpondent. I a fure I have all the good wifhes for yourfelf and your family, that become a friend: There is no accident that can happen to your advantage, and no action that can redound to your credit, which I fhould not be ready to extol, or to rejoice in. And therefore I beg you to be affured, I am in difpofition and will, tho' not fo much as I would be in teftimonies or writing, Yours, etc. LETTER I LETTER XLII. To Mr. RICHARDSON. Jan. 13, 1732. Have at laft got my mother fo well, as to allow myself to be abfent from her for three days. As Sunday is one of them, I do not know whether I may propofe to you to employ it in the manner you mentioned to me once. Sir Godfrey call'd employing the pencil the prayer of a painter, and affirmed it to be his proper way of ferving God, by the talent he gave him. I am fure, in this inftance, it is ferving your friend; and, you know, we are allowed to do that (nay even to help a neighbour's ox or afs) on the Sabbath which tho' it may feem a general precept, yet in one fenfe particulary applies to you, who have help'd many a human ox, and many a human afs to the likeness of man, not to fay God.. Believe me, dear Sir, with all good wishes for yourself and your family (the happinefs of which tyes 1 know by experience, and have learn'd to value from the late danger of lofing the beft of mine) Your, etc. To the fame, Twickenham, June 10, 1733. AS I know, you and I mutually defire to fee one another, I hoped that this day our wifhes would have met, and brought you hither. And this for the very reafon which poffibly might hinder your coming, that my poor Mother is dead. I thank God her death was eafy, as her life was innocent; and as it coft her not a groan, or even a figh, there is yet upon her countenence fuch an expreffion of Tranquillity, nay, almoft of Pleasure, that it is even amiable to behold it. It would afford the finest Image of a Saintexpir'd, that ever Painting drew; and it would be the greatest obligation which even that obliging Art could ever bestow on a friend, if you could come and sketch it for me. I am fure, if there be no very prevalent obstacle, Mrs. Pope died the 7th of June, 1733, aged 93. you |