ventures of Scriblerus *. This indeed must be granted of greater importance than all the rest; and I wish I could promife fo well of you. The top of my own ambition is to contribute to that great work, and I thall tranflate Homer by the by. Mr Gay has acquainted you what progrefs I have made in it. I can't name Mr Gay, without all the acknowledgments which I fhall ever owe you on his account. if I writ this in verfe, I would tell you, you are like the fun; and while men imagine you to be retired or abfent, are hourly exerting your indulgence, and bringing things to maturity for their advantage. Of all the world, you are the man (without flattery) who ferve your friends with the leaft oftentation; it is almoft ingratitude to thank you, confidering your temper; and this is the period of all my letter which I fear you will think the most impertinent. Iam, with the trueft affection, LETTER Your's, &c. III. From Dr SWIFT to Mr POPE. Dublin, June 28. 1715. Y Lord Bishop of Clogher † gave me your kind letter, full of reproaches for my not writing. I am naturally no very exact correfpondent; and when I leave a country without probability of returning, I think as feldom as I can of what I loved or esteemed in it, to avoid the defiderium which of all things makes life most uneasy. But you must give me leave to add *This project (in which the principal perfons engaged were Dr Arbuthnot, Dr Swift, and Mr Pope) was, to write a complete fatire in profe upon the abufes in every branch of science, comprised in the hiftory of the life and writings of Scriblerus. Of which only fome detached parts and fragments were done; fuch as, the Memoirs of Scriblerus, the Travels of Gulliver, the Treatife of the profound, the literal Criticisms on Virgil, &c. Warb. + Dr St George Afh, formerly a fellow of Trinity college, Dublin, (to whom the Dean was a pupil), afterwar Js Bishop of Clogher, and tranflated to the fee of Derry in 1716-17. Dub, edit. one one thing; that you talk at your eafe, being wholly unconcerned in public events: for if your friends the Whigs continue, you may hope for fome favour; if the Tories return, you are at leaft fure of quiet. You know how well I loved both Lord Oxford and Bolingbroke, and how dear the Duke of Ormond is to me. Do you imagine I can be eafy while their enemies are endeavouring to take off their heads? I nunc, et verfus tecum meditare canoros. Do you imagine I can be eafy, when I think of the probable confequences of the fe proceedings, perhaps upon the very peace of the nation, but certainly of the minds of fo many hundred thousand good fubjects! Upon the whole, you may truly attri bute my filence to the eclipfe, but it was that ecliple which happened on the 1st of August. I borrowed your Homer from the Bishop, (mine is not yet landed), and read it out in two evenings. If it pleaseth others as well as me, you have got your end in profit and reputation. Yet I am angry at fome bad rhymes and triplets; and pray in your next do not let me have fo many unjuftifiable rhymes to war and gods. I tell you all the faults I know; only in one or two places you are a little obfcure; but I expected you to be fo in one or two and twenty. I have heard no foul talk of it here, for indeed it is not come over; nor do we very much abound in judges, at least I have not the honour to be acquainted with them. Your notes are perfectly good, and fo are your preface and effay. You were pretty bold in mentioning Lord Bolingbroke in that preface. I faw the key to the Lock but yesterday: I think you have changed it a good deal, to adapt it to the prefent times *. God be thanked, I have yet no parliamentary bufinefs; and if they have none with me, I fhall never seek their acquaintance. I have not been very fond of them for fome years paft, not when I thought them tolerably good; and therefore, if I can get leave to be abfent, Put these two laft obfervations together, and it will appear, that Mr Pope was neither wanting to his friends for fear of party, nor would infult a miniftry to humour his friends. He faid of himself, and I believe he said truly, that he never wrote a line to gratify the animofity of any one party at the expence of another. Warb. I fhall be much inclined to be on that fide, when there is a parliament on this. But truly I must be a little eafy in my mind before I can think of Scriblerus. You are to understand, that I live in the corner of a vaft unfurnished house. My family confifts of a steward, a groom, a helper in the ftable, a footman, and an old maid, who are all at board-wages; and when I do not dine abroad, or make an entertainment, (which laft is very rare), I eat a mutton-pye, and drink half a pint of wine. My amufements are, defending my fmall domi nions against the Archbishop, and endeavouring to reduce my rebellious choir. Perditur hæc inter mifero lux. I defire you will prefent my humble fervice to Mr Addifon, Mr Congreve, and Mr Rowe, and Gay. I am, and will be always, extremely I Your's, &c. LETTER IV. Mr PORE to Dr SWIFT. June 20. 1716. Cannot fuffer a friend to cross the Irish feas, without bearing a teftimony from me of the constant esteem and affection I am both obliged and inclined to have for you. It is better he should tell you than I, how often you are in our thoughts, and in our cups, and how I learn to fleep lefs *, and drink more, whenever you are named among us. I look upon a friend in Ireland, as upon a friend in the other world, whom (Popishly speaking) I believe conftantly well difpofed towards me, and ready to do me all the good he can, in that ftate of fe paration, though I hear nothing from him, and make addresses to him but very rarely. A Proteftant divine cannot take it amifs, that I treat him in the fame manner with my patron faint. I can tell you no news, but what you will not fufficiently wonder at, that I fuffer many things as an au thor militant; whereof, in your days of probation, you have been a fharer, or you had not arrived to that tri Alluding to his constant custom of sleeping after dinner. Ward. umphant umphant ftate you now deservedly enjoy in the church. As for me, I have not the least hopes of the cardinalet, though I fuffer for my religion in almost every weekly paper. I have begun to take a pique at the pfalms of David, if the wicked may be credited, who have printed a fcandalous one in my name *. This report I dare not difcourage too much, in a prospect I have at present of a poft under the Marquis de Langallerie +; wherein if I can but do fome fignal fervice against the Pope, I may be confiderably advanced by the Turks, the only religious people I dare confide in. If it should happen hereafter, that I should write for the holy law of Mahomet, I hope it may make no breach between you and me. Every one muft live, and I beg you will not be the man to manage the controverfy against me. The church of Rome I judge (from many modern symptoms, as well as ancient prophecies) to be in a declining condition; that of England will in a fhort time be fearce able to maintain her own family: fo churches fink as generally as banks in Europe, and for the fame reafon; that religion and trade, which at firft were open and free, have been reduced into the management of companies, and the roguery of directors. I don't know why I tell you all this, but that I always loved to talk to you; but this is not a time for any man to talk to the purpofe. Truth is a kind of contraband commodity, which I would not venture to export; and therefore the only thing tending that dangerous way which I fhall fay, is, that I am, and always will be, with the utmost fincerity, I Your's, &c. LETTER V. From Dr SWIFT to Mr POPE. Aug. 30. 1716. Had the favour of your's by Mr F.; of whom, before any other queftion relating to your health or fortune, • In Curl's collection. One who made a noife then, as Count Bonneval has done fince. or fuccefs as a poet, I inquired your principles, in the common form, "Is he a Whig, or a Tory?" I am forry to find they are not fo well tallied to the prefent junc ture as I could with. I always thought the terms of facto and jure had been introduced by the poets, and that poffeffion of any fort in kings was held an unex⚫ceptionable title in the courts of Parnaffus. If you do not grow a perfect good subject in all its prefent latitudes, I fhall conclude you are become rich, and able to live without dedications to men in power; whereby one great inconvenience will follow, that you, and the world, and pofterity, will be utterly ignorant of their virtues. For either your brethren have miferably deceived us thefe hundied years paft, or power confers virtue, as naturally as five of your Popish facraments do grace.You fleep lefs, and drink more; but your mafter Horace was vini fomnique benignus: and, as I take it, both are proper for your trade. As to mine, there are a thousand poetical texts to confirm the one; and as to the other, I know it was anciently the custom to fleep in temples, for thofe who would confult the oracles, "Who dictates to me flumbering *. &'c. - You are an ill Catholic, or a worfe geographer; for I can affure you, Ireland is not Paradife; and I appeal even to any Spanish divine, whether addreffes were ever made to a friend in hell, or purgatory? And who are all thefe enemies you hint at? I can only think of Curl, Gildon, 'Squire Burnet, Blackmore, and a few others whofe fame I have forgot. Tools, in my opinion, are as neceffary for a good writer, as pen, ink, and paper. And befides, I would fain know, whether every draper doth not fhew you three or four damn'd pieces of stuff to fet off his good one? However, I will grant, that one thorough bookfelling-rogue is better qualified to vex an author, than all his cotemporary fcribblers in critic or fatire, not only by ftolen copies of what was incorrect, or unfit for the public, but by downright laying other mens dulnefs at your door. I had a long defign upon the cars of that Curl, when I was in credit; but the rogue would never allow me a fair ftroke at them, although Milton. my |