pulling down the Temple, on the ftage, and cruming all the Af-
fembly, which Milton has flung into fo fine a narration ; and the
Opera is ended by Samfon's faying, " J'ai repare ma honte, &
j'expire en vainqueur." And yet this was the man that dared to
deride the irregularities of Shakefpeare.
J 3
ii8 LETTERS TO AND
moralize one evening with you on the vanity of hu-
man Glory.
The Duchefs's n letter concerns me nearly, and you
know it, who know all my thoughts without difguife :
I mud keep clear of Flattery ; I will, and as this is an
honeft refolution, I dare hope your Lordfliip will not
be fo unconcerned for my keeping it, as not to affifl
me in fo doing. I beg therefore you would repreient
thus much at lead to her Grace, that as to the fear
fhe feems touched with, [That the Duke's memory
mould have no advantage but what he muft give him-
felf, without being be-holden to any one friend] your
Lordfhip may certainly, and agreeable to your cha-
i after, both of rigid honour and Chriftian plainnefs,
tell her, that no man can have any other advantage :
and that all offerings of friends in fuch a cafe pafs for
nothing. Be but fo good as to confirm what Pve re-
prefented to her, that an infcription in the ancient
way, plain, pompous, yet modeft, will be the moft
uncommon, and therefore the moft diftinguiming
manner of doing it. And fo, I hope, me will be fa-
tisfied, the Duke's honour be preferved, and my inte-
grity alfo : which is too facred a thing to be forfeited,
in confideration of any little (or what people of qua-
lity may call great) Honour or diftindtion whatever,
which thofe of their rank can beftow on one of mine ;
and which indeed they are apt to over-rate, but never
fo
n The Duchefsof Buckingham. W.
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 119
fo much, as when they imagine us under any obli-
gation to fay one untrue word in their favour.
I can only thank you, my Lord, for the kind tran-
fition you make from common bufmefs, to that which
is the only real bufmefs of every reafonable creature.
Indeed I think more of it than you imagine, though
not fo much as I ought. I am pleafed with thofe
Latin verfes extremely, which are fo very good that I
thought them yours, till you called them an Hora-
tian Cento, and then I recollected the disjefla membra
poeftf. I won't pretend I am fo totally in thofe fenti-
ments which you compliment me with, as I yet hope
to be : you tell me I have them, as the civileft me-
thod to put me in mind how much it fits me to have
them. I ought, firft, to prepare my mind by a better
knowledge even of good profane writers, efpecially
the Moralifts, etc. before I can be worthy of tafling
that fupreme of books, and fublime of all writings.
In which, as in all the intermediate ones, you may (if
your friendfhip and charity toward me continue fo
far) be the bed guide to
Your, etc.
120 LETTERS TO AND
LETTER XX.
FROM THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.
July 30, 1722.
T HAVE written to the Duchefs juft as you defired,
and referred her to our meeting in town for a fur-
ther account of it. I have done it the rather becaufe
your opinion in the cafe is fmcerely mine : and if it
had not been fo, you yourfelf mould not have induced
me to give it. Whether, and how far me will acqui-
efce in it, I cannot fay, efpecially in a cafe where me
thinks the Duke's honour concerned ; but mould me
feem to perfifl a little at prefent, her good fenfe
(which I depend upon) will afterwards fatisfy her that
we are in the right.
I go to-morrow to the Deanery, and, I believe, I
mall flay there, till I have faid dufl to duft, and fhut
up that p lafl fcene of pompous vanity *.
'Tis
Duchefs of Buckingham. W.
P This was the funeral of the Duke of Marlborough, at which
the Bifiiop officiated as Dean of Weitminfter, in Aug. 1722. P.
* His portrait has been elegantly drawn by Lord Chefterfield.
" Of all the men I ever knew in my life, (and I knew him ex-
tremely well,) the late Duke of Marlborough pofiefled the graces
in the higheft degree, not to fay engroifed them ; and indeed he
got the moft by them ; for I will venture (contrary to the cuftom
of profound hiftorians, who always afllgn deep caufes for great
events) to afcribe the better half of the Duke of Marlborough' s
greatnefs and riches to thofe graces. He was eminently illiterate ;
wrote bad Englifh, and fpelled it ftill worfe. He had no fhare of
what is commonly called parts ; that is, he had no brightnefs, no-
thing fhining in his genius. He had, moft undoubtedly, an ex-
cellent
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 121
Tis a great while for me to flay there at this time
of year: and I know I fhall often fay to myfelf>
while I am expe&ing the funeral,
O Rus, quando * ego te afpiciam ! quandoquc licebit
Ducere follicitse jucunda oblivia vitse !
In
cellent good plain underftanding, with found judgment. But
thefe alone would probably have raifed him but fomething higher
than they found him, which was page to King James II.'s
Queen. There the graces protected and promoted him ; for
while he was Enfign of the Guards, the Duchefs of Cleveland,
then favourite miftrefs to King Charles II. ftruck by thofe
very graces, gave him five thoufand pounds; with which he imme-
diately bought an annuity for his life, of five hundred pounds a-year,
of my grandfather, Halifax ; which was the foundation of his fub-
fequent fortunes. His figure was beautiful ; but his manner was
irrefiftible by either man or woman. It was by this engaging,
graceful manner, that he was enabled, during all his wars, to con-
nect the various and jarring powers of the Grand Alliance, and to
carry them on to the main object of the war, notwithftanding
their private and feparate views, jealoufies, and wrong-headed-
nefies. Whatever Court he went to, (and he was often obliged
to go himfelf to fome refty and refractory ones,) he as conftantly
prevailed, and brought them into his meafures."
* This Letter, as indeed are many of them, is crowded, even
to affectation, with very trite quotations from Horace and Virgil.
The Bifhop appears to have been rather a polite than profound
Scholar. One of his beft compofitions is a Preface to Waller's
Poems, written 1690; in which is a rational and powerfid de-
fence of Blank Verfe, and one of the earlieft encomiums on the
Paradife Loft; which HE, and not Lord SOMERS, had the
great merit of procuring to be printed in folio by fubfcription.
He wrote a large part of Boyle's Diflertation on Phalaris, againft
Bentley ; but complained afterwards of the coldnefs and ingratitude
with which his labours, on this occafion, were treated by Mr. Boyle.
This complaint probably arofe from his having expected, from
his fanguine temper, more than was his due. His Sermons,
according to Dr. Blair, have been too much praifed for pu-
rity
122 LETTERS TO AND
In that cafe I mall fancy I hear the ghoft of the
dead, thus intreating me,
At tu facrat-je ne parce malignus arenrc
Offibus & capiti inhumato
Particulam dare
Quanquam feftinas, non eft mora longaj licebit,
Injeto ter pulvere, curras.
There is an anfwer for me fomewhere in Hamlet to
this requeft, which you remember though I don't.
Poor Ghoft? thou Jhalt be fathfied ! or fomething
like it. However that be, take care you do not fail
in your appointment, that the company of the living
may make me fome amends for my attendance on
the dead.
I know you will be glad to hear that I am well : I
mould always, could I always be here
Sed me
Imperiofa trahit Proferpina : vive, valeque.
You
rity of ftyle. Never was there a more complete vidtory than
\vas gained over him by Bp. Hoadly, for his pervciTe and ground-
lefs interpretation of the text, " If in this life only we have hope,
we are of all men moft miferable.*' Hoadlj alfo powerfully at-
tacked him on the doftrine of Paffive Obedience ; a doclrine fo
fingularly abfurd, as fcarce indeed to merit a ferious refutation.
In allufion to Hoadiy's lamentfiy who fo frequently attacked At-
terbury, it was faid,
Raro antecedentem Sceleftum,
Deferuit pede Pana claudo.
No two men were ever of more diametrically oppofite tempers, as
well as principles, than Hoadly and Atterbury ; the former all calm-
jicfs and tranquillity, the latter all vehemence and fire.
4
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 123
You are the firfl man I fent to this morning, and the
lafl man I defire to converfe with this evening, though
at twenty miles diftauce from you.
'? Te, veniente die, Te, decedente, requiro.
LETTER XXI.
FROM THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.
DEAR SIR, The Tower, April 10, 1725.
j THANK you for all the inftances of your friend-
fhip both before, and fince my misfortunes. A
little time will complete them, and feparate you and
me for ever. But in what part of the world foever
I am, I will live mindful of your fincere kindnefs to
me ; and will pleafe myfelf with the thought, that I
flill live in your efteem and affection, as much as ever
I didj and that no accident of life, no diflance of
time, or place, will alter you in that refped. It never
can me ; who have loved and valued you, ever fmce
I knew you, and mail not fail to do it when I am not
allowed to tell you fo j as the cafe will foon be. Give
nty faithful fervices to Dr. Arbuthnot, and thanks for
what he fent me, which was much to the purpofe, if
any thing can be faid to be to the purpofe, in a cafe
that is already determined. Let him know my De-
fence will be fuch, that neither my friends need blufh
for
I
i2 4 LETTERS TO AND
for me, nor will my enemies have great occafion of
Triumph, though fure of the Victory. I mall want
his advice before I go abroad, in many things. But
I queftion whether I mail be permitted to fee him, or
any body, but fuch as are abfolutely necefiary towards
the difpatch of my private affairs. If fo, God blefs
you both ! and may no part of the ill fortune that at-
tends me, ever purfue either of you ! I know not but
I may call upon you at my hearing, to fay fomewhat
about my way of fpending my time at the Deanery,
which did not feem calculated towards managing plots
and confpiracies. But of that I mail confider -You
and I have fpent many hours together upon much
pleafanter fubjects ; and, that I may preferve the old
cuftom, I mail not part with you now till I have
clofed this letter, with three lines of Milton, which
you will, I know, readily and not without fome de-
gree of concern, apply to your ever affectionate,] etc.
Some nat'ral tears he dropt*, but wip'd them foon :
The world was all before him, where to chufe
His place of reft, and Providence his Guide.
* He repeated thefe lines to fome of the upper Scholars of
Weftminfter School, who went to vifit him in the Tower.
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 125
r
LETTER XXII.
THE ANSWER.
I
April 20, 1723.
T is not poflible to exprefs what I think*, and what
I feel ; only this, that I have thought and felt for
nothing but you, for fome time pad : and fhall think
of nothing fo long for the time to come. The greatefl
comfort I had was an intention (which I would have
made practicable) to have attended you in your jour-
ney, to which I had brought that perfon to confent,
who only could have hindered me, by a tie which,
though it may be more tender, I do not think more
flrong,
* Whatever our Author's opinion might be, it is now but too
manifeft, from the curious collection of the Bifhop's Letters, pub-
limed by Mr. J. Nichols, 1783, in three volumes 8vo. particularly
in pages 148 and 167 of vol. i. that he was engaged in atreafon-
able correfpondence with the Pretender. In thefe volumes are
many entertaining Letters to M. Thiriot, the intimate friend of
Voltaire, in the lafl edition of whofe works, are above an hundred
Letters to this M. Thiriot, who was allowed to dine with Voltaire
every day, during his imprisonment in the Baftile, for fix months,
1725 : juft before Voltaire came to England, where he was fo well
received, and got a very large and liberal fubfcription to his
Henriade, and lived much with Lord Peterborough and Lord Bo-
lingbroke.. I will take occafion to add, that Thiriot was in cor-
refpondence for thirty years with the great King of PruJJia, but
never received from that Monarch any thing but compliments. In
one of thefe Letters, Atterbury obferves fo Thiriot, that the
Abbe du Bos, in his Reflections on Poetry and Painting, furnimed
Voltaire with the hint of his Poem on the Ligue. Vol. i. p. 179.
126 LETTERS TO AND
ftrong, than that of friendfhip. But I fear there will
be no way left me to tell you this great truth, that I
remember you, that I love you, that I am grateful to
you, that I entirely efteem and value you : no way
but that one, which needs no open warrant to au-
thorize it, or fecret conveyance to fecure it ; which
no bills can preclude, and no Kings prevent ; a way
that can reach to any part of the world where you
may be, where the very whifper or even the wifh of a
friend muft not be heard, or even fufpecled. By this
way I dare tell my efteem and affection of you, to your
enemies in the gates, and you, and they, and their
fons, may hear of it.
You prove yourfelf, my Lord, to know me for the
friend I am; in judging that the manner of your
Defence, and your Reputation by it, is a point of the
highefl concern to me : and alluring me, it mail be
fuch, that none of your friends fhall blufli for you.
Let me further prompt you to do yourfelf the befl
and moft lafting juftice ; the inftruments of your
Fame to pofterity will be in your own hands. May
it not be, that Providence has appointed you to fome
great and ufeful work, and calls you to it this fevere
way ? You may more eminently and more effectually
ferve the public even now, than in the ftations you
have fo honourably filled. Think of Tully, Bacon,
and Clarendon q : Is it not the latter, the difgraced
part
1 Clarendon indeed wrote his beft works in his banifhment ;
but the belt of Bacon's were written before his difgrace ; and the
bolt of Cicero's after his return from exile. W.
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 127
part of their lives, which you moft envy, and which
you would choofe to have lived ?
I am tenderly fenfible of the wifh you exprefs, that
no part of your misfortune may purfue me. But
God knows, I am every day lefs and lefs fond of my na-
tive country, (fo torn as it is by Party-rage,) and begin
to confider a friend in exile as a friend in death ; one
gone before, where I am not unwilling nor unpre-
pared to follow after ; and where (however various
or uncertain the roads and voyages of another world
may be) I cannot but entertain a pleafing hope that
we may meet again.
I faithfully aflure you, that in the mean time there
is no one, living or dead, of whom I mall think
oftener or better than of you. I mail look upon you
as in a ft ate between both, in which you will have
from me all the paflions and warm wifhes that can at-
tend the living, and all the refped and tender fenfe
of lofs, that we feel for the dead. And I mail ever
depend upon your conflant friendship, kind memory,
and good offices, though I were never to fee or hear
the effefts of them : like the truft we have in bene-
volent fpirits, who, though we never fee or hear
them, we think, are conftantly ferving us, and pray-
ing for us.
Whenever I am wiming to write to you, I (hall
conclude you are intentionally doing fo to me. And
every time that I think of you, I will believe you are
thinking of me. I never mall fufFer to be forgotten
(nay
128 ^LETTERS TO AND
(nay to be but faintly remembered) the honour, the
pleafure, the pride I muft ever have, in reflecting how
frequently you have delighted me, how kindly you
havediftinguifhedme,how cordially you have advifed
me ! In converfation, in ftudy, I mail always want you,
and wifh for you : in my moft lively, and in my mod
thoughtful hours, I mail equally bear about me, the
impreffions of you: and perhaps it will not be in
this life only, that I mail have caufe to remember
and acknowledge the friendfhip of the Bifhop of
Rochefter.
LETTER XXIII.
TO THE SAME.
May 17, 1723.
y^vNCE more I write * to you as I promifed, and this
once, I fear, will be the laft ! the Curtain will
foon be drawn between my friend and me, and
nothing
* There is an anecdote, fo uncommon and remarkable, lately
mentioned in Dr. Maty's Memoirs of the Earl of Chefterfield, and
which he gives in the very words of that celebrated nobleman,
that I cannot forbear repeating it in this place : " I went," faid
Lord Chefterfield, " to Mr. Pope, one morning at Twickenham,
and found a large folio Bible, with gilt clafps, lying before him
upon his table ; and, as I knew his way of thinking upon that
book, I afked him, jocofely, if he was going to write an anfwer
to it ? It is a prefent, faid he, or rather a legacy, from my old
friend
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 129
nothing left but to wifh you a long good-night. May
you enjoy a ftate of repofe in this life, not unlike that
fleep
friend the Bifhop of Rochefter. I went to take my leave of him
yefterday in the Tower, where I faw this bible upon his table.
After the firft compliments, the Bifhopfaid to me, "My friend Pope,
" confidering your infirmities, and my age and exile, it is not likely
** that we mould ever meet again ; and therefore I give you this le-
** gacy to remember me by it." " Does your Lordfhip abide by it
" yourfelf?" " I do." " If you do, my Lord, it is but lately. May
" I beg to know what new light or arguments have prevailed with you
" now, to entertain an opinion fo contrary to that which you enter-
' ' tained of that Book all the former part of your life ?' ' The Biftiop
replied, " We have not time to talk of thefe things ; but take home
'* the Book : I will abide by it, and I recommend you to do fo too,
*' and fo, God blefs you !" Charity and juftice call on us, not
haftily to credit fo marvellous a talc, without the ftrongeft tefti-
mony for its truth. And, for the fake of juftice, I here infert a Let-
ter, from a very refpedtable man, which I received on this fubjeft.
" Rev. Sir, South Moulton, Devon/hire, May a8, 1782.
** You will be furprifed at this addrefs from a perfon who hath
not the honour of being known to you, even by name ; but the
occafion of my writing will, I truft, plead for my freedom.
'* I have this week had the long-wifhed-for fatisfa&ion of read-
ing your Efiay on the Works of Pope.
Mine will add nothing to the applaufe, which your writings have
received from readers of tafte and judgment. But the defign
of this Letter is not to pay you a compliment. You need it not :
And I have fomething to communicate to you, which I am fure
you will be better pleafed with.
" In quoting a certain " uncommon anecdote," refpe&ing Bifhop
Atterbury, from Dr. Maty's Memoirs of Lord Chefterfield, you
very candidly acknowledge that it ought not to be credited too
haftily. When I firft read it in the Work from whence you have
extracted it, I was much ftartled at it : But recollecting from <wbat
fource it iffued, I was led to fufpeft its truth. The ftory is a
very infidious one : and perfectly in Lord Chefterfield's manner!
It is airy, and gay, and arch : But no difguife can cover an In-
VOL. vni. K fidel's
130 LETTERS TO AND
fleep of the foul which fome have believed is to fuc-
ceed it, where we lie utterly forgetful of that world
from
fidel's malignity. I would not judge haftily of any man's motives ;
nor call the veracity of any man in queftion without the cleareft
evidence. But it is on the cleareft evidence, and with the fulleft
conviction, that I fcruple not to pronounce this ftory, concerning
Bifhop Atterbury's infidelity, to be groundlefs.
"The anecdote relates, that this remarkable con verfation between
Atterbury and Pope took place but a few days before the Bifhop
went into exile ; whereas it appears from a Letter, dated nine months
before this event, that the Bifhop had, with equal piety and gene-
rality, interefted himfclf fo far in the fpiritual welfare of his friend
Mr. Pope, as to recommend to him the ftudy of the Holy Scrip-
tures ; and foftening his zeal by his urbanity, had fo won on the
efteem and affection of Pope, as to draw from him the moft grate-
ful and liberal acknowledgments. The Letter I refer to is the
I pth, of the colleclion of thofe between Atterbury and Pope.
At the conclufion is the following very remarkable paffage : " I
" ought Jirjl" fays Mr. Pope, " to prepare my mind for a better
" knowledge, even of good profane writers, efpecially the moralifts,
" etc. etc. before I can be worthy of tailing that fupreme of books, and
" fubllme of all writings, in which (as in all the intermediate ones)
" you may, if your friendfhip and charity towards me continue fo
'* far, be the bejl guide to Yours, etc."
" This Letter bears date July 27, 1722 : The Bifhop did not go
into exile till nearly three quarters of a year afterwards. The laft
Letter of Pope to that Bifhop previous to his exile, is dated April
20, 1723. It muft have been about this time that Pope paid him
a vifit in the Tower : But whether fuch a converfation took place
as hath been pretended, may be fafely, for the Bifhop's credit,
fubmitted to the determination of every man of common fenfe,
after reading the above extract.
" I communicated thefe hints laft winter to my very efteemed
friend Mr. Moore, one of the Canons of the church of Exeter,
and he wifhed me to communicate them to the Public, in order to
check the infolence of certain gentlemen, who, arrogating all the
good fenfe in the world to themfelves, would infinuate that a man
of genius, if he profefles to be a Chriftian, muft be a Hypocrite !
I had
FROM DR. ATTERBURY. 131
from which we are gone, and ripening for that to
which we are to go. If you retain any memory of
the paft, let it only image to you what has pleafed
you beft ; fometimes prefent a dream of an abfent
friend, or bring you back an agreeable converfation,
But upon the whole, I hope you will think lefs of the
time paft than of the future ; as the former has been
lefs kind to you than the latter infallibly will be. Do
not envy the world your fludies ; they will tend to
the benefit of men againft whom you can have no
complaint, I mean of all Poflerity : and perhaps, at
your time of life, nothing elfe is worth your care.
What is every year of a wife man's life but a cenfure
or critic on the pafl ? Thofe whofe date is the fhorteft,
live
I had an intention of complying with Mr. Moore's requeft ; but a
variety of other engagements put it quite out of my head, till
the remembrance was recalled by your publication. I would not
prefume to dictate to you : Your better judgment will decide
whether it would be proper for you to take notice of thofe hints,
and to mould them into a form that may be worthy of the public
eye, in the next edition of your ingenious Eflay. My motive in
thus limply offering them to your notice, arofe from an honeft wifh,
to remove unmerited obloquy from the dead.
" I fhould fincerely rejoice if it was in my power to remove, with
equal eafe and fuccefs, the cloud which, in fome other refpe&s, {till
obfcures the luftre of the BHhop's memory.
" I have the honour to be, with great efteem,
Reverend Sir,
" Your very humble Servant,
S. BADCOCK."
K 2
132 LETTERS TO AND
live long enough to laugh at one half of it : the boy
defpifes the infant, the man the boy, the philofopher
both, and the Chriftian all. You may now begin to
think your manhood was too much a puerility ; and
you'll never fuffer your age to be but a fecond in-
fancy. The toys and baubles of your childhood are
hardly now more below you, than thofe toys of our
riper and of our declining years, the drums and rat-
tles of Ambition, and the dirt and bubbles of Avarice.
At this time, when you are cut off from a little fociety,
and made a citizen of the world at large, you mould
bend your talents not to ferve a Party or a few, but
all mankind. Your Genius mould mount above that
mift in which its participation and neighbourhood
with earth long involved it ; to mine abroad and to
heaven, ought to be the bufmefs, and the glory of
your prefent fituation. Remember it was at fuch a
time, that the greateft lights of antiquity dazzled and
blazed the moft, in their retreat, in their exile, or in
their death: But why do I talk of dazzling or blazing?
it was then that they did good, that they gave light,
and that they became Guides to mankind.
Thofe aims alone are worthy of fpirits truly" great,
and fuch I therefore hope will be yours. Refentment
indeed may remain, perhaps cannot be quite extin-