praife, I think I had better let it alone. There are
flatterers good enough to be found, and I would not
interfere in any Gentleman's profeflion. I have feen
no verfes on thefe fublime occafions : fo that I have
no emulation : let the patrons enjoy the authors,

and the authors their patrons, for I know myfelf un-

,
worthy.

I am, etc.

m Mr. Gay died the November following, at the Duke of
Queenfberry's houfe in London, aged 46 years. P.

* Gay, we fee, would not take the advice his friend gave him
to write fome Panegyric. I think the Duchefs of Queenfberry
diffuaded him from doing it, and that me "was not pleafed with one
of the laft paragraphs of the preceding Letter.

What more mortifying than to fee the abjeft flattery into
which even men of genius and talents have fometimes defcended !
While Louis XIV. was one day mewing his gardens at Marly to
Cardinal de Polignac, they were overtaken in their walk by a fud-
den mower of rain ; and the King exprefiing his concern left the
habit of the Cardinal mould be foiled by the wet ; " Ah ! Sire !
(faid the Author of Anti-Lucretius) la pluie de Marly nc
mouille pas."



FROM MR. GAY. 189

LETTER XXV.

MR. CLELAND TO MR. GAY".

;-pv- ,

December 16, 1731.

T AM aftonifhed at the complaints occafioned by a
late Epiftle to the Earl of Burlington ; and I fhould
be afflicted were there the leaft juft ground for them.
Had the writer attacked Vice at the time when it is
not only tolerated but triumphant, and fo far from
being concealed as a Defect, that it is proclaimed with
oftentation as a Merit ; I mould have been apprehen-
five of the confequence : had he fatyrized gamefters
of a hundred thoufand pounds fortune, acquired by
fuch methods as are in daily practice, and almoft uni-
verfally encouraged : had he over-warmly defended
the Religion of his country, againft fuch books as
come from every prefs, are publickly vended in every
{hop, and greedily bought by almoft every rank of
men ; or had he called our excellent weekly writers
by the fame names which they openly beftow on the
greateft men in the Miniftry, and out of the Miniftry,
for which they are all unpunifhed, and mod rewarded :

in

n This was written by the fame hand that wrote the Letter tja
the Publl/ber, prefixed to the Dunciad : and what hand that was,
no one who reads this collection of Letters can be at a lofs to
afcertain. W.

It was by Pope himfelf.



i 9 o LETTERS TO AND

in any of thefe cafes, indeed, I might have judged
him too prefumptuous, and perhaps have trembled
for his ramnefs.

I could not but hope better from this fmall and
modeft Epiftle, which attacks no vice whatfoever;
which deals only in Folly, and not Folly in general,
but a fmgle fpecies of it ; that only branch, for the
oppofite excellency to which the Noble Lord, to
whom it is written, muft neceffarily be celebrated.
I fancied it might efcape cenfure, efpecially feeing
how tenderly thefe Follies are treated, and really lefs
accufed than apologized for.

Yet hence the Poor are cloath'd, the Hungry fed,
Health to himfelf, and to his Infants Bread
The Lab'rer bear*.

Is this fuch a crime, that to impute it to a man muft
be a grievous offence ? J Tis an innocent Folly, and
much more beneficent than the want of it j for ill
tafte employs more hands, and diffufes expence more
than a good one. Is it a moral defecl: ? No, it is
but a natural one, a want of tafte. It is what the
beft good man living may be liable to. The worthieft
Peer may live exemplarily in an ill-favoured houfe,
and the beft reputed citizen be pleafed with a vile
garden. I thought (I fay) the author had the com-
mon liberty to obferve a defecl;, and to compliment
a friend for a quality that diftinguifhes him : which I
know not how any quality mould do, if we were not
to remark that it was wanting in others.

But,



FROM MR. GAY. 191

But, they fay, the fatire is perfonal. I thought it
could not be fo, becaufe all its reflections are on
things. His reflections are not on the man, but his
houfe, gardens, etc. Nay, he refpeds (as one may
fay) the perfons of the Gladiator, the Nile, and the
Triton : he is only forry to fee them (as he might be
to fee any of his friends) ridiculous by being in the
wrong place, and in bad company. Some fancy, that
to fay a thing is perfonal, is the fame as to fay it i
unjufl, not confidering, that nothing can be juft that
is not perfonal. I am afraid that " all fuch writings
" and difcourfes as touch no man, will mend no
" man." The good-natured, indeed, are apt to be
alarmed at any thing like fatire ; and the guilty readily
concur with the weak for a plain reafon, becaufe the
vicious look upon folly as their frontier :

Jam proximus nrdet
Ucalegon.

No wonder thofe who know ridicule belongs to them,
find an inward confolation in moving it from them-
felves as far as they can ; and it is never fo far, as
when they can get. it fixed on the beft characters.
No wonder thofe who are Food for Satirifts mould
rail at them as creatures of prey ; every beaft born
for our ufe would be ready to call a man fo.

I know no remedy, unlefs people in our age would

as little frequent the theatres, as they begin to do the

churches ; unlefs comedy were forfaken, fatire filent,

and every man left to do what feems good in his own

7 eyes,



192 LETTERS TO ,AND

eyes, as if there were no King, no Prieft, no Poet, in
Ifrael.

But I find myfelf obliged to touch a point, on
which I muft be more ferious ; it well deferves I
mould : I mean the malicious application of the cha-
racter of Timon, which, I will boldly fay, they would
impute to the perfon the mod different in the world
from a Man-hater, to the perfon whofe tafte and en-
couragement of wit have often been mown in the
righteft place. The author of that epiftle muft cer_
tainly think fo, if he has the fame opinion of his own
merit as authors generally have ; for he has been dif-
tinguimed by this very perfon.

Why, in God's name, muft a Portrait, apparently
collected from twenty different men, be applied to
one only ? Has it his eye ? no, it is very unlike. Has
it his nofe or mouth ? no, they are totally differing.
What then, I befeech you ? Why, it has the mole
on his chin. Very well ; but muft the picture there-
fore be his, and has no other man that blemifh ?

Could there be a more melancholy inftance how
much the tafte of the public is vitiated, and turns the
moft falutary and feafonable phyfic into poifon, than
if amidft the blaze of a thoufand bright qualities in
a great man, they mould only remark there is a
Ihadow about him ; as what eminence is without ?
I am confident the author was incapable of imputing
any fuch to one, whofe whole life (to ufe his own ex-
preflion in print of him) is a continued feries of gooa

Vid generous aflions*

I know



FROM SEVERAL PERSONS. 193

I know no man who would be more concerned, if
he gave the lead pain or offence to any innocent per*
fon ; and none who would be lefs concerned, if the
fatire were challenged by any one at whom he would
really aim it. If ever that happens, I dare engage he
will own it, with all the freedom of one whofe cen-
fures are juft, and who fets his name to them.



LETTER XXVI.

L : "

TO THE EARL OF BURLINGTON.

My Lord, March 7, 1731.

rr^HE clamour raifed about my Epiftle to you could
not give me fo much pain, as I received pleafure
in feeing the general zeal of the world in the caufe of
a Great man who is beneficent, and the particular
warmth of your Lordmip in that of a private man
who is innocent.

It was not the Poem that deferred this from you ;
for as I had the honour to be your friend, I could not
treat you quite like a Poet : but fure the writer de-
ferved more candour, even from thofe who knew him
not, than to promote a report, which in regard to that
noble perfon, was impertinent ; in regard to me,
villanous. Yet I had no great caufe to wonder,
that a character belonging to twenty mould be ap-

VOL. vin. o plied



i 9 4 LETTERS TO AND

plied to one ; fmce, by that means, nineteen would
efcape the ridicule.

I was too well content with my knowledge of that
noble perfon's opinion in this affair, to trouble the
public about it. But fmce Malice and Miftake are
fo long a-dying, I have taken the opportunity of a
third edition to declare his belief, not only of my in-
nocence, but of their malignity; of the former of which
my own heart is as confcious, as, I fear, fome of theirs
muft be of the latter. His humanity feels a concern
for the Injury done to me, while his greatnefs of
mind can bear with indifference the infult offered to
himfelf .

However, my Lord, I own, that critics of this fort
can intimidate me, nay half incline me to write no
more : that would be making the Town a compli-
ment which, I think, it deferves ; and which fome, I
am fure, would take very kindly. This way of Satire
is dangerous, as long as flander raifed by fools of the
loweft rank, can find any countenance from thofe of
a higher. Even from the conduct fhewn on this oc-
cafion, I have learnt there are fome who would rather
be wicked than ridiculous ; and therefore it may be
fafer to attack Vices than Follies. I will therefore
leave my betters in the quiet poffelfion of their Idols,
their Groves, and their High-places j and change my

fubjed

Alludes to the letter the Duke of Chandos wrote to Mr.
Pope on this occafion. P.



FROM SEVERAL PERSONS. 195

rubject from their pride to their meannefs, from their
vanities to their miferies ; and, as the only certain way
to avoid mifconftructions, to leffen offence, and not to
multiply ill-natured applications, I may probably, in
my next, make ufe of real names inftead of fictitious
ones. I am,

My Lord,

Your moft affectionate, etc.



LETTER XXVII ".

Cirencefter,

1 T is a true faying, that misfortunes alone prove
one's friendmip ; they mew us not only that of
other people for us, but our own for them. We
hardly know ourfelves any otherwife. I feel my be-
ing forced to this Bath journey as a misfortune ; and
to follow my own welfare preferably to thofe I love,
is indeed a new thing to me : my health has not
ufually got the better of my tenderneffes and affec-
tions. I fet out with a heavy heart, wifhing I had
done this thing the lafl feafon : for every day I defer
it, the more I am in danger of that accident which I
dread the moft, my Mother's death (efpecially mould
it happen while I am away). And another reflection

pains
P To Mrs. B. W.

O 2



196 LETTERS TO AND

pains me, that I have never, fmce I knew you, been
fo long feparated from you, as I now muft be. Me-
thinks we live to be more and more flrangers, and
every year teaches you to live without me. This ab-
fence may, I fear, make my return lefs welcome and
lefs wanted to you, than once it feemed, even after
but a fortnight. Time ought not in reafon to di-
minilh friendmip, when it confirms the truth of it by
experience.

The journey has a good deal difordered me, not-
withftanding my reding place at Lord Bathurft's. My
Lord is too much for me, he walks, and is in fpirits
all day long ; I rejoice to fee him fo. It is a right
diftin&ion, that I am happier in feeing my friends fo
many degrees above me, be it in fortune, health, or
pleafures, than I can be in fharing either with them :
for in thefe fort of enjoyments I cannot keep pace
with them, any more than I can walk with a ftronger
man. I wonder to find I am a companion for none
but old men, and forget that I am not a young fel-
low myfelf. The woril is, that reading and writing,
which I have ftill the greateft relifli for, are growing
painful to my eyes. But if I can preferve the good
opinion of one or two friends, to fuch a degree, as to
have their indulgence to my weaknefles, I will not
complain of life : and if I could live to fee you con-
fult your eafe and quiet, by becoming independent on
thofe who will never help you to either, I doubt not
of finding the latter part of my life pleafanter than

the



FROM SEVERAL PERSONS. 197

the former, or prefent. My uneafmefles of body I can
bear ; my chief uneafmefs of mind is in your regard.
You have a temper that would make you eafy and be-
loved, (which is all the happinefs one needs to wiih in
this world,) and content with moderate things. All
your point is not to lofe that temper by facrificing
yourfelf to others, out of a miftaken tendernefs,
which hurts you, and profits not them. And this
you muft do foon, or it will be too late : habit will
make it as hard for you to live independent, as for
L to live out of a Court.

You muft excufe me for obferving what I think
any defect in you : you grow too indolent, and give
things up too eafily : which would be otherwife,
when you found and felt yourfelf your own : fpirits
would come in, as ill-ufage went out. While you
live under a kind of perpetual dejection and oppref-
fion, nothing at all belongs to you, not your own
Humour, nor your own Senfe.

You can't conceive how much you would find re-
folution rife, and cheerfulnefs grow upon you, if
you'd once try to live independent for two or three
months. I never think tenderly of you but this
comes acrofs me, and therefore excufe my repeating
it, for whenever I do not, I diffemble half that I think
of you. Adieu, pray write, and be particular about
your health.



ig8 LETTERS TO AND



LETTER XXVIII '.

'TT'OUR letter dated at nine a clock on Tuefday
(night, I fuppofe) has funk me quite. Yefterday
I hoped ; and yefterday I fent you a line or two for
our poor friend Gay, inclofed in a few words to you ;
about twelve or one a clock you fhould have had it.
I am troubled about that, though the prefent caufe of
our trouble be fo much greater r . Indeed I want a
friend, to help me to bear it better. We want each
other. I bear a hearty mare with Mrs. Howard, who
has loft a man of a moft honeft heart ; fo honeft an
one, that I wilh her Mafter had none lefs honeft
about him. The world after all is a little pitiful
thing ; not performing any one promife it makes
us, for the future, and every day taking away and
annulling the joys of the paft. Let us comfort one
another, and, if poffible, ftudy to add as much more
friendfhip to each other, as death has deprived us of
in him: I promife you more and more of mine,
which will be the way to deferve more and more of
yours.

I purpofely avoid faying more. The fubjeft is be-
yond writing upon, beyond cure or eafe by reafon or
reflection, beyond all but one thought, that it is the
will of God.

So

To the fame. W.

r Mr. Gay's death, which happened in Nov. 1732, at the
Duke of Queen/berry's houfe in London, aged 46. P.



FROM SEVERAL PERSONS. 199

So will the death of my mother be ! which now I
tremble at, now refign to, now bring clofe to me,
now fet farther off: every day alters, turns me
about, and confufes my whole frame of mind. Her
dangerous diftemper is again returned, her fever
coming onward again, though lefs in pain ; for which
laft however I thank God.

I am unfeignedly tired of the world, and re-
ceive nothing to be called a Pleafure in it, equi-
valent to countervail either the death of one I have
fo long lived with, or of one I have fo long
lived for. I have nothing left but to turn my
thoughts to one comfort ; the laft we ufually think
of, though the only one we mould in wifdom de-
pend upon, in fuch a difappointing place as this.
I fit in her room, and me is always prefent before
me, but when I fleep. I wonder I am fo well : I
have flied many tears, but now I weep at nothing.
I would above all things fee you, and think it would
comfort you to fee me fo equal-tempered and fo quiet.
But pray dine here ; you may, and me know nothing
of it, for me dozes much, and we tell her of no earthly
thing, left it run in her mind, which often trifles have
done. If Mr. Bethel had time, I wifh he were your
companion hither. Be as much as you can with each
other : be afTured I love you both, and be farther
affured, that friendfhip will increafe as I live on.



04



300 LETTERS TO AND

LETTER XXIX.
TO MR. CHRISTOPHER PITT.

Twitenham, near Hampton Court,
" Sir, July 23, 1726.

c y RECEIVED a Letter from you with fatisfaclion,
" -* having long been defirous of any occafion of tef-
" tifying my regard for you, and particularly of ac-
' knowledging the pleafure your verfion of Vida's
" Poetick had afforded me, I had it not indeed from
" your Bookfeller, but rea'd it with eagernefs, &
<e think it both a correct, and a fpirited tranflation.
" I am pleafed to have been (as you tell me) y e oc-
" cafion of y r undertaking that work : that is fome
" fort of merit ; & if I have any in me, it really
confifts in an earneft defire to promote & produce,
" as far as I can, that of others. But as to my being
" y e publiflier, or any way concern'd in reviewing or
" recommending of Lintot's Mifcellany, it is what I
" never did in my life ; tho* He (like y c reft of his
* 6 Tribe) make a very free ufe of my name. He has
" often reprinted my things, & fo fcurvily, that find-
" ing he was doing fo again, I corrected y e meets, as
" far as they went, of my own only : And being
" told by him, y l he had 2 or 3 copies of yours
" (w ch you had formerly fent me (as he faid) thro*
" his hands), I obliged him to write for y r confent,
i " before



FROM SEVERAL PERSONS. 201

" before he made ufe of 'em. This was all : y r fe-
" cond book he has juft now delivered to me, y e
" Infcription of w ch to myfelf I will take care he mail
" leave out, & either return y e reft of your verfes to
" him, or not, as you mail like beft. I am obliged to
" you, S r , for expreffing a much higher opinion of
" me than 1 know I deferve. The freedom with w ch
" you write is yet what obliges and pleafes me more ;
* c & it is with fincerity that I fay, I w d rather be thought
" by every ingenious man in y e world, his fervant,
* 6 than his rival.

" I am very much yours,

A. POPE.'*

N. B. In a Letter from Mr. Spence to Mr. Pitt,
dated Twickenham, Auguft 2, 1728, is the following
Poftfcript :.

" Sir, I take this opportunity of afluring you, you
* have at the place from whence this Letter is dated,

*' a friend, and fervant,

" A. POPE*."

* Our Author's mode of fpelling is minutely copied in this
Letter.



io2 LETTERS TO AND

LETTER XXX.
TO HUGH BETHEL,

July 12, 1723.

T ASSURE you unfeignedly any memorial of your
good-nature and friendlinefs is mofl welcome to
me, who knew thofe tenders of affeftion from you
are not like the common traffic of compliments and
profemons, which mofl people only give that they
may receive ; and is at befl a commerce of Vanity, if
not of Falfehood. I am happy in not immediately
wanting the fort of good offices you offer : but if I
did want them, I mould not think myfelf unhappy in
receiving them at your hands : this really is fomc
compliment, for I would rather mofl men did me a
fmall injury, than a kindnefs. I know your huma-
manity, and, allow me to fay, I love and value you
for it : 'tis a much better ground of love and value,
than all the qualities I fee the world fo fond of: they ge-
nerally admire in the wrong place, and generally mofl
admire the things they don't comprehend, or the things
they can never be the better for. Very few can receive
pleafure or advantage from wit which they feldom
tafle, or learning which they feldom underfland, much
lefs from the quality, high birth, or mining circum-
ftances of thofe to whom they profefs efleem, and
who will always remember how much they are their

inferiors.



FROM SEVERAL PERSONS. 203

inferiors. But humanity and fociable virtues are
what every creature wants every day, and ftill wants
more the longer he lives, and moft the very moment
he dies. It is travelling either in a ditch or on a ter-
race ; we mould walk in the common way, where
others are continually paffing on the fame level, to
make the journey of life fupportable by bearing one
another company in the fame circumflances. Let me
know how I may convey over the Odyfifeys for your
amufement in your journey, that you may compare
your own travels with thofe of Ulyfles : I am fure
yours are undertaken upon a more difmterefted, and
therefore a more heroic motive. Far be the omen
from you, of returning as he did, alone, without fav-
ing a friend.

There is lately printed a book s wherein all human
virtue is reduced to one teft, that of Truth, and
branched out in every inftance of our duty to God
and man. If you have not feen it, you muft, and I
will fend it together with the OdylTey. The very
women read it, and pretend to be charmed with that
beauty which they generally think the leaft of. They
make as much ado about truth, fince this book ap-
peared, as they did about health when Dr. Cheyne's
came out ; and will doubtlefs be as conflant in the
purfuit of one, as of the other. Adieu.

s Mr. Wollafton's excellent book of the Religion of Nature de-
lineated. The Queen was fond of it, and that made the reading
of it, and the talking of it, fafliionable. W.

Pope alfo read it attentively ; as appears by many paffages taken-
from it, in the EfTay on Man.



204 LETTERS TO AND



LETTER XXXI.

TO THE SAME.

Auguft 9, 1726.
T NEVER am unmindful of thofe I think fo well of

as yourfelf ; their number is not fo great as to con-
found one's memory. Nor ought you to decline
writing to me, upon an imagination, that I am much
employed by other people. For though my houfe is
like the houfe of a Patriarch of old, {landing by the
highway fide, and receiving all travellers, neverthelefs
I feldom go to bed without the reflection, that one's
chief buiinefs is to be really at home: and I agree
with you in your opinion of company, amufements,
and all the filly things which mankind would fain
make pteafures of, when in truth they are labour and
forrow.

I condole with you on the death of your Relation,
the E. of C. as on the fate of a mortal man. Efteem
I never had for him, but concern and humanity I
had : the latter was due to the infirmity of his laft pe-
riod, though the former was not due to the tri-
umphant and vain part of his courfe. He certainly
knew himfelf bell at laft, and knew beft the little
value of others, whofe neglect of him, whom they fo
grofsly followed and flattered in the former fcene of
his life, mewed them as worthlefs as they could ima-
gine him to be, were he all that his worfl enemies be-
lieved



FROM SEVERAL PERSONS. 205

lieved of him. For my own part, I am forry for his
death, and wifh he had lived long enough to fee fo
much of the faithleffnefs of the world, as to have
been above the mad ambition of governing fuch
wretches as he muft have found it to be compofed of.
Though you could have no great value for this
Great man, yet acquaintance itfelf, the cuftom of fee-
ing the face, or entering under the roof, of one that
walks along with us in the common way of the world,
is enough to create a wifh at lead for his being above
ground, and a degree of uneafmefs at his removal.
'Tis the lofs of an object familiar to us : I mould
hardly care to have an old poft pulled up, that I re-
membered ever fmce I was a child. And add to this
the reflection (in the cafe of fuch as were not the belt
of their Species) what their condition in another life
may be, it is yet a more important motive for our
concern and companion. To fay the truth, either in
the cafe of death or life, almoft every body and every
thing is a caufe or object for humanity, even profpe-
rity itfelf, and health itfelf ; fo many weak, pitiful in-
cidentals attend on them.

I am forry any relation of yours is ill, whoever it
be, for you don't name the perfon. But I conclude
it is one of thofe to whofe houfes, you tell me, you
are going, for I know no invitation with you is fo
ftrong as when any one is in diftrefs, or in want of
your afliftance : the ftrongeft proof in the world of
this, was your attendance on the late Earl. I have

been



206 LETTERS TO AND

been very melancholy for the lofs of Mr. Blount.
Whoever has any portion of good-nature will fuffer
on thefe occafions : but a good mind rewards its own
fufferings. I hope to trouble you as little as poffible,
if it be my fate to go before you. I am of old En-
nius's mind, Nemo me decor et lachrymis. I am but a
Lodger here : this is not an abiding city, I am only to
(lay out my leafe ; for what has Perpetuity and mortal
man to do with each other ? But I could be glad you
could take up with an inn at Twitenham, as long as I
am hoft of it : if not, I would take up freely with any