In an epic poem, yet at the fame time he highly extols the bold
and fublime imagery it contains. Lord Kaimes joins with VoU
taire and the French Critics, as might be expected, in condemn-
ing it. They faftidioufly call it naufeous and difgufting.
j- What would Atterbury have thought of the grofs mifrepre-
fentations and taftelefs cenfures of his acquaintance Voltaire on
Milton, had he lived to have read the article, Epopee, in the
Queftions fur 1'Encyclopedie, in which he fays, " Les Grecs re-
commandaient aux poetes de facrifier aux Graces ; Milton a facri-
fie au Diable?" I have never met with a French writer, or a French-
man, that had any true tafte for Milton.
VOJ-. VIII. O
82 LETTERS TO AND
town the D. of Buckingham continued fo ill that he
received no meffages ; oblige me fo far as to let me
know how he does ; at the fame time I mail know
how you do, and that will be a double fatisfaftion to
Your, etc.
LETTER IV.
THE ANSWER.
MY LORD, Nov. 20, 1717.
T AM truly obliged by your kind condolence on my
Father's death, and the defire you exprefs that I
mould improve this incident to my advantage. I know
your Lordfhip's friendlhip to me is fo extenfive, that
you include in that wifli both my fpiritual and my
temporal advantage ; and it is what I owe to that
friendfhip, 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 tie : I thank God another ftill
remains (and long may it remain) of the fame tender
nature : Genitrix eft mihi and excufe me if I fay with
Euryalus,
nequeam lacrymas perferre parent'is.
A rigid divine may call it a carnal tie, but fure it is
a virtuous one : At leaft I am more certain that it is
a duty of nature to preferve a good parent's life and
happinefs,
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 83
happinefs, than I am of any fpeculative point what-
ever. .
Ignaram hujus quodcunque pericli
Hanc ego, nunc, linquam , ?
For fhe, my Lord, would think this reparation 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 re-
ligion I now profefs, as I can poffibly ever do in an-
other. 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 Chrift-
ians might perhaps be eafy, but I think it would not
be fo, to Renounce the other.
Your Lordmip has formerly advifed 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 Second : I
warmed my head with them, and the confequence
was, that I found myfelf a Papift and a Proteflant by
turns, according to the laft book I read d . I am afraid
moft
d This is an admirable pidlufe of every Reader bilfied in religious
controverfy, without poflefiing the principles on which a right
judgment of the points in queftion is to be regulated. W.
G 2
84 LETTERS TO AND
moft feekers are in the fame cafe, and when they flop,
they are not fo properly converted, as outwitted. You
fee how little glory you would gain by my converfion.
And after all, I verily believe your lordfhip and I are
both of the fame religion, if we were thoroughly un-
derftood by one another ; and that all honeft and
reafonable Chriftians would be fo, if they did but
talk enough together every day ; and had nothing to
do together, but to ferve God, and live in peace
with their neighbour.
As to the temporal fide of the queftion, I can have
no difpute with you ; it is certain, all the beneficial
circumftances of life, and all the mining ones, lie on
the part you would invite me to. But if I could
bring myfelf to fancy, what I think you do but fancy,
that I have any talents for aclive life, I want health
for it ; and befides it is a real truth, I have lefs Incli-
nation (if poflible) than Ability. Contemplative life
is not only my fcene, but it is my habit too. I begun
my life where moft people end theirs, with a dif-relifh
of all that the world calls Ambition : I don't know
why 'tis called fo, for to me it always feemed to be
rather Jlooping than climbing. I'll tell you my politic
and religious fentiments in a few words. In my poli-
tics, I think no further than how to preferve the peace
of my life, in any government under which I live ;
nor in my religion, than to preferve the peace of my
confcience in any church with which I communicate.
I hope all churches and all governments are fo far of
i God,
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 85
God, as they are rightly underftood, and rightly ad*
miniftered : And where they are, or may be wrong,
I leave it to God alone to mend or reform them ;
which whenever he does, it muft be by greater inftru-
ments than I am. I am not a Papift, for I renounce
the temporal invafions of the Papal power, and detefl
their arrogated authority over Princes and States. I
am a Catholic in the flrifteft fenfe of the word. If I
was born under an abfolute Prince, I would be a quiet
fubjeft ; but I thank God I was not. I have a due
fenfe of the excellence of the Britifh conflitution. In
a word, the things I have always wifhed to fee, are not a
Roman Catholic, or a French Catholic, or a Spanifh
Catholic, but a True Catholic : And not a King of
Whigs *, or a King of Tories, but a King of England.
Which God of his mercy grant his prefent Majefty
may be, and all future Majefties. You fee, my Lord,
I end like a preacher : This is Sermo ad C/erum, not
ad Populum. Believe me, with infinite obligation and
fincere thanks, ever
Your, etc,
* Happy If this fentiment was univerfally adopted !
G 3
86 LETTERS TO AND
LETTER V.
Sept. 23, 1720.
T HOPE you have fome time ago received the Sul-
phur, and the two volumes of Mr. Gay, as in-
ftances (how finall ones foever) that I wifli you both
health and diverfion. What I now fend for your
perufal, I mail fay nothing of; not to foreflall by a
fingle word what you promifed to fay upon that fub-
jecl. Your Lordfhip may criticife from Virgil to
thefe Tales ; as Solomon wrote of every thing from
the cedar to the hyflbp. I have fome caufe, fmce I
laft waited on you at Bromley, to look upon you as a
prophet in that retreat, from whom oracles are to be
had, were mankind wife enough to go thither to con-
fult you : The fate of the South-Sea fcheme has,
much fooner than I expecled, verified what you told
me. Mofl people thought the time would come, but
no man prepared for it ; no man confidered it would
come like a Thief in the Night ; exadtly as it happens
in the cafe of our death. Methinks God has punifhed
the avaritious, as he often punifhes finners, in their
own way, in the very fin itfelf : The third of gain
was their crime; that third continued became their
punimment and ruin. As for the few who have the
good fortune to remain, with half of what they ima-
gined they had, (among whom is your humble fer-
vant,)
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 87
vant,) I would have them fenfible of their felicity, and
convinced of the truth of old Hefiod's maxim, who,
after half of his eflate was fwallowed by the Directors
of thofe days, refolved, that half to be more than the
'whole.
Does not the fate of thefe people put you in mind
of two paffages, one in Job, the other from the
Pfalmift ?
Men Jhall groan, out of the CITY, and htfs them out
of their PLACE.
"They have dreamed out their dream, and awaking
haie found nothing In their hands,
Indeed the univerfal poverty, which is the con-
fequence of univerfal avarice, and which will fall
hardeft upon the guiltlefs and induftrious part of
mankind, is truly lamentable. The univerfal deluge
of the S. Sea, contrary to the old deluge, has drowned
all except a few Unrighteous men : But it is fome com-
fort to me that I am not one of them, even though I
were to furvive and rule the world by it. I am much
pleafed with a thought of Dr. Arbuthnot's ; he fays
the government and South-Sea company have only
locked up the money of the people, upon conviction
of their Lunacy, (as is ufual in the cafe of Lunatics,)
and intend to reftore them as much as may be fit for
fuch people, as fad as they (hall fee them return to
their fenfes.
G 4 The
38 LETTERS TO AND
The latter part of your letter does me fo much
honour, and mews me fo much kindnefs, that I muft
both be proud and pleafed, in a great degree ; but I
affure you, my Lord, much more the laft than the
firfl. For I certainly know, and feel, from my own
heart, which truly refpefts you, that there may be a
ground for your partiality, one way ; but I find not
the leaft fymptoms in my head, of any foundation
for the other.
In a word, the beft reafon I know for my being
pleafed is, that you continue your favour toward
me ; the beft I know for being proud would be, that
you might cure me of it ; for I have found you to be
fuch a phyfician, as does not only repair, but improve.
I am, with the fmcereft efteem, and moft grateful
acknowledgment,
Your, etc.
LETTER VI.
FROM THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.
rip HE Arabian Tales, and Mr. Gay's books, I re-
ceived not till Monday night, together with your
letter ; for which I thank you. I have had a fit of
the gout upon me ever fince I returned hither from
Weftminfter on Saturday night lafl : it has found its
way
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 89
way into my hands as well as legs, fo that I have
been utterly incapable of writing. This is the firft
letter that I have ventured upon ; which will be writ-
ten, I fear, vacillantibus literis, as, Tully fays, Tyro's
letters were, after his recovery from an illnefs. What
I faid to you in mine about the Monument, was in-
tended only to quicken, not to alarm you. It is not
worth your while to know what I meant by it : but
when I fee you, you mail. I hope you may be at the
Deanery towards the end of October, by which time,
I think of fettling there for the winter. What do
you think of fome fuch fhort infcription as this in
Latin, which may, in a few words, fay all that is to
be faid of Dryden, and yet nothing more than he
deferves ?
IOHANNI DRYDENO,
CVI POESIS ANGLICANA
VIM SVAM AC VENERES DEBET;
ET SI QVA IN POSTERVM AVGEBITVR LAVDE,
"" EST ADHVC DEBITVRA:
HONORIS ERGO P. etc.
To mew you that I am as much in earneft in the af-
fair, as you yourfelf, fomething I will fend you too of
this kind in Englim. If your defign holds of fixing
Dryden' s name only below, and his bufto above
may not lines like thefe be graved juft under the
name?
This Sheffield rais'd, to Dryden's aflies juft,
Here fix'd his Name, and there his laurel'd Buft.
What elfe the Mufe in Marble might exprefs,
Is known already j Praife would make him lefs.
Or
90 LETTERS TO AND
Or thus
More needs not ; where acknowledg'd Merits reign,
Praife is impertinent ; and Cenfure vain.
This you'll take as a proof of my zeal at leaft, though
it be none of my talent in Poetry. When you have
read it over, I'll forgive you, if you mould not once
in your lifetime again think of it.
And now, Sir, for your Arabian Tales. Ill as I
have been, almoft ever fince they came to hand, I
have read as much of them, as ever I mail read while
I live *. Indeed they do not pleafe my tafte ; they
are writ with fo romantic an air, and, allowing for the
difference of eaftern manners, are yet, upon any fup-
pofition that can be made, of fo wild and abfurd a
contrivance, (at leaft to my northern underflanding,)
that I have not only no pleafure, but no patience, in
perufmg them. They are to me like the odd paint-
ings on Indian fcreens, which at firft glance may fur-
prize and pleafe a little : but, when you fix your eye
intently upon them, they appear fo extravagant, dif-
proportioned, and monftrous, that they give a judi-
cious eye pain, and make him feek for relief from
fome other object.
They may furnifh the mind with fome new images :
but I think the purchafe is made at too great an ex-
pence : for to read thofe two volumes through, lik-
ing them as little as I do, would be a terrible penance,
and
* How contempUioufly foever the Bifliop thought of thofe
Tales, yet was Addifon very fond of them, and we know how
beautifully he imitated them.
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 91
and to read them with pleafure would be dangerous
on the other fide, becaufe of the infection. I will
never believe, that you have any keen relifh of them,
till I find you write worfe than you do, which I dare
fay, I never {hall. Who that Petit de la Croix is, the
pretended author of them % I cannot tell : but ob-
ferving
e Not the pretended Author, but the real Tranflator, of an Ara-
bic MS. in the French King's library. What he has given in ten
fmall Volumes, is not more than the tenth part of the Original.
The Eaftern people have been always famous for this fort of
Tales : in which much fine morality is often conveyed ; not in-
deed in a Itory always reprefenting real life and manners, but what
the eaftern fuperflitions have made pafs for fuch amongfl the peo-
ple. Their great genius for this kind of writing appears from
what the Translator has here given us But the policy of fome of
the latter princes of the Eaft greatly hurt the elegance and ufe of
the compofhion, by fetting all men upon compofing in this way,
to furniih matter for their cofFee-houfes and public places of re-
fort ; which were enjoined to entertain their cuflomers with a re-
hearfal of thefe works, in order to divert them from politics, and
matters of ftate. The collection in nueftion is fo ftrange a med-
ley of fenfe and nonfenfe, that one would be tempted to think it
the compilation of fome cofFee-man, who gathered indifferently
from good and bad. The contrivance he has invented of tying
them together is fo blunderingly conducted, that after fuch an in-
ftance of the want of common fenfe one can wonder at no ab-
furdity we find in them. The tales are fuppofed to be told to
one of the Kings of Perfia of the Dynafty of the SafTanides, an
ancient race before Mahomet, and yet the fcene of fome of them
is laid in the Court of Haroivn Alrafcid the 26th Chalif, and the
5th of the Race of the Aba/ides. Thefe, where the fcene is fo
laid, are amongfl the beft ; and it may be eafily accounted for.
Alrafcid was one of the moll magnificent of the Chalifs, and the
greatefl encourager of Letters ; fo that it was natural for men of
Genius in after-times, to do this honour to his memory. But the
Bifhop talks of Petit de la Croix. M. Galland was the tranf-
lator of the Arabian Tales. The name of the other is to the collec-
fion called the Per/ian Tales, of which I have nothing to fay. W.
92 LETTERS TO AND
ferving how full they are in the defcriptions of drefs,
furniture, etc. I cannot help thinking them the pro-
duel of fome Woman's imagination : and, believe me,
I would do any thing but break with you, rather than
be bound to read them over with attention.
I am forry that I was fo true a prophet in refpeft of
the S. Sea ; forry, I mean, as far as your lofs is con-
cerned : for in the general 1 ever was and ftill am of
opinion, that had that project taken root and flou*
rimed, it would by degrees have overturned our con-
ftitution. Three or four hundred millions was fuch a
weight, that which foever way it had leaned, muft
have borne down all before it But of the dead we
muft fpeak gently ; and therefore, as Mr. Dryden
fays fome where, Peace be to its Manes !
Let me add one reflection, to make you eafy in your
ill luck. Had you got all that you have loft beyond
what you ventured, confider that your fuperfluous
gains would have fprung from the ruin of feveral fa-
milies that now want neceflaries ! A thought, under
which a good and good-natured man that grew rich
by fuch means, could not, I perfuade myfelf, be per-
fectly eafy. Adieu, and believe me, ever
Your, etc.
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 93
L E T TE R VII.
FROM THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.
March 26, 1721.
X70U are not yourfelf gladder you are well than I
am ; efpecially fmce I can pleafe myfelf with the
thought that when you had loft your health elfe-
where, you recovered it here. May thefe lodgings
never treat you worfe, nor you at any time have lefs
reafon to be fond of them !
I thank you for the fight of your f Verfes, and
with the freedom of an honeft, though perhaps inju-
dicious friend, muft tell you, that though I could like
fome of them, if they were any body's elfe but yours,
yet as they are yours and to be owned as fuch, I can
fcarce like any of them. Not but that the four firft
lines are good, efpecially the fecond couplet; and
might, if followed by four others as good, give repu-
tation to a writer of a lefs eflablimed fame : but from
you I expert fomething of a more perfect kind, and
which the oftener it is read, the more it will be ad-
mired. When you barely exceed other writers, you
fall much beneath yourfelf : 'tis your misfortune now
to write without a rival, and to be tempted by that
means to be more carelefs, than you would otherwife
be in your compofures.
Thus
{ Epitaph on Mr. Harcourt. P.
94 LETTERS TO AND
Thus much I could not forbear faying, though I
have a motion of confequence in the Houfe of Lords
to-day, and muft prepare for it. I am even with you
for your ill paper ; for I write upon worfe, having no
other at hand. I wifh you the continuance of your
health moft heartily : and am ever
Your, etc.
I have fent Dr. Arbuthnot the Latin e MS. which
I could not find when you left me ; and I am fo an-
gry at the writer for his defign, and his manner of
executing it, that I could hardly forbear fending him
a line of Virgil along with it. The chief Reafoner
of that philofophic farce is a Gallo-Ligur, as he is
called what that means in Englifh or French, I can't
fay but all he fays, is in fo loofe and flippery and
trickiih a way of reafoning, that I could not forbear
applying the paflage of Virgil to him,
Vane Ligur, fruftaque animis elate fuperbis !
Nequicquam patrias tentafti lubricus artes
To
8 Written by Huetius, Bimop of Avranches. He was a mean
reafoner ; as may be feen by a vaft collection of fanciful and ex-
travagant conjectures, which he called a Demonjlration ; mixed up
with much reading, which his friends called Learning ; and deli-
vered (by the allowance of all) in good Latin. This not being
received for what he would give it, he compofed a treatife Of the
Weainefs of the Human Under/landing : a poor fyftem of fceptf-
cifm ; indeed little other than an abftraft of Sextus Empiricut. W.
A much more ufeful undertaking was his directing and fuperin-
tending the Dauphin edition of the Clafiks. The commentary
on his own life is entertaining.
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 95
To be ferious, I hate to fee a book gravely written,
and in all the forms of argumentation, which proves
nothing, and which fays nothing; and endeavours
only to put us into a way of diftrufting our own fa-
culties, and doubting whether the marks of truth and
falfhood can in any cafe be diftinguimed from each
other. Could that blefled point be made out, (as it is
a contradiction in terms to fay it can,) we mould then
be in the moft uncomfortable and wretched date in
the world ; and I would in that cafe be glad to ex-
change my Reafon, with a dog for his InftincT:, to-
morrow.
LETTER VIII.
L. CHANCELLOR HARCOURT TO MR. POPE.
December 6, 1722.
j CANNOT but fufpect myfelf of being very unrea-
fonable in begging you once more to review the
inclofed. Your friendmip draws this trouble on you.
I may freely own to you, that my tendernefs makes
me exceeding hard to be fatisfied with any thing
which can be faid on fuch an unhappy fubjeft. I
caufed the Latin Epitaph to be as often altered before
I could approve it.
When once your Epitaph is fet up, there can be no
alteration of it j it will remain a perpetual monument
of
96 LETTERS TO AND
of your friendfhip, and, I affure myfelf, you will fo
fettle it, that it fhall be worthy of you. I doubt whe-
ther the word, den/d 9 in the third line, will juftly ad-
mit of that conftruclion which it ought to bear, (viz.)
renounced, deferted, etc. denfd is capable, in my
opinion, of having an ill fenfe put upon it, as too
great uneafmefs, or more good-nature, than a wife
man ought to have. I very well remember you told
me, you could fcarce mend thofe two lines, and
therefore I can fcarce expert your forgivenefs for my
defiring you to reconfider them.
Harcourt {lands dumb, and Pope is forc'd to fpeak.
I can't perfectly, at leafl without farther difcourfing
you, reconcile myfelf to the firfl part of that line ;
and, the word forc'd (which was my own, and, I per-
fuade myfelf, for that reafon only fubmitted to by
you) feems to carry too doubtful a conftru&ion for
an Epitaph, which, as I apprehend, ought as eafily to
be underftood as read. I mall acknowledge it as a
very particular favour, if at your beft leifure you will
perufe the inclofed and vary it, if you think it capa-
ble of being amended, and let me fee you any morn-
ing next week.
I am, etc.
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 9 f
LETTER IX.
THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER TO MR. POPE.
September 21, 1721.
T AM now confined to my bed-chamber, and to the
matted room wherein I am writing, feldom ventur-
ing to be carried down even into the parlour to din-
ner, unlefs when company to whom I cannot excufe
myfelf, comes, which I am not ill pleafed to find is
now very feldom. This is my cafe in the funny part
of the year : what mud I expect, when
inverfum contriftat Aquarius annum?
" if thefe things be done in the green tree, what mail
" be done in the dry ?" Excufe me for employing a
fentence of Scripture on this occafion j I apply it very
ferioufly. One thing relieves me a little under the ill
profpect I have of fpending my time at the Deanery
this winter ; that I mail have the opportunity of fee-
ing you oftener ; though, I am afraid, you will have
little pleafure in feeing me there. So much for my
ill ftate of health, which I had not touched on, had
not your friendly Letter been fo full of it. One civil
thing, which you fay in it, made me think you had
been reading Mr. Waller*; and pofiefied of that
image at the end of his copy, a la ma/ade, had you
not
* Whom the Bifhop fo happily imitated in his Lines on Fla-
ina's Fan.
VOL. VIII. H
98 LETTERS TO AND
not beftowed it on one who has no right to the lead
part of the character. If you have not read the
verfes lately, I am fure you remember them becaufe
you forget nothing.
With fuch a grace you entertain,
And look with fuch contempt on pain, etc.
I mention them not upon account of that couplet,
but one that follows ; which ends with the very fame
rhymes and words (appear and clear) that the cou-
plet but one after that does and therefore in my
Waller there is a various reading of the firft of thefe
couplets j for there it runs thus,
So lightnings in a ftormy air,
Scorch more than when the fky is fair.
You will fay that I am not very much in pain, nor
very bufy, when I can relifh thefe amufements, and
you will fay true ; for at prefent I am in both thefe
refpe&s very eafy.
I had not ftrength enough to attend Mr. Prior to
his grave *, elfe I would have done it, to have fhewn
his
* There are four or five Letters of the Bifliop to Prior, in NJ-
cols's Colle&ion, full of affe&ion and regard. One, in a vein of
irony, containing a pleafmg compliment on his Solomon and Alma.
Another (vol. ii. p. 58.) abounding in hacknied quotations from
Virgil : which I mention on account of a wonderful, unfcholar-
like comparifon 'of a line of Virgil and Homer ; the former of
which he prefers, dum fpiritus has regit artus, to the <pfoa. ya>sir
of Homer ; friendly knees, he fays, whereas p^x fignifies no more
\\izn fua genua, or than hos joined to artus. Two fevere Epi-
grams againft Atterbury have been afcribed to Prior, and are both
inferted in the late colle&iou of his works.
"Meek
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 99
his friends that I had forgot and forgiven what he
wrote on me. He is buried, as he defired, at the feet
of Spencer, and I will take care to make good in
every refpect what I faid to him when living ; parti-
cularly as to the Triplet he wrote for his own Epi-
taph ; which while we were in good terms, I pro-