came from the Lady or the Lord, I did not imagine that they were at least so bad verfifiers. Therefore, facit indignatio verfus, is only to be applied when the indignation is against general Villany, and never operates when fome fort of people write to defend themselves. I love to hear them reproach you for dulnefs; only I would be fatisfied, fince you are fo dull, why are they fo angry? Give me a fhilling, and I will enfure you, that pofterity fhall never know you had one fingle enemy, excepting those whofe memory you have preferved.

I am forry for the fituation of Mr. Gay's papers. You do not exert yourself as much as I could wish in this affair. I had rather the two fifters were hanged than see his works fwelled by any lofs of credit to his memory. I would be glad to fee the most valuable printed by themselves, thofe which ought not to be feen burned immediately, and the others that have gone abroad printed feparately like opufcula, or rather be ftifled and forgotten. I thought your Epitaph was immediately to be engraved, and therefore I made lefs fcruple to give a copy to Lord Orrery, who earnestly defired it, but to nobody elfe; and, he tells me, he gave only two, which he will recall. I have a fhort Epigram of his upon it, wherein I would correct a line or two at most, and then I will fend it you (with his permiffion). I have nothing against yours, but the last line, Striking their aching; the two participles, as they are so near, seem to found

VOL. IX.

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too like. I fhall write to the Duchefs, who hath lately honoured me with a very friendly letter, and I will tell her my opinion freely about our friend's papers. I want health, and my affairs are enlarged: but I will break through the latter, if the other mends. I can use a course of medicines, lame and giddy. My chief defign, next to feeing you, is to be a fevere Critic on you and your neighbour; but firft kill his father, that he may be able to maintain me in my own way of living, and particularly my horfes. It coft me near 600 l. for a wall to keep mine, and I never ride without two fervants for fear of accidents; hic vivimus ambitiofa paupertate. You are both too poor for my acquaintance, but he much the poorer. With you I will find grafs, and wine, and fervants, but with him not.-The Collection you speak of is this. A Printer came to me to defire he might print my works (as he called them) in four volumes, by fubfcription. I faid I would give no leave, and fhould be forry to see them printed here. He faid they could not be printed in London. I answered they could, if the Partners agreed. He faid, he "would be glad of my permiffion, but as he could "print them without it, and was advised that it "could do me no harm, and having been affured of "numerous fubfcriptions, he hoped I would not be 66 angry

* George Faulkner, of Dublin, who printed these four volumes of his works.

angry at his pursuing his own intereft," etc. Much of this difcourfe paft, and he goes on with the matter, wherein I determine not to intermeddle, though it be much to my discontent; and I wish it could be done in England, rather than here, although I am grown pretty indifferent in every thing of that kind This is the truth of the story.

My Vanity turns at present on being perfonated in your Que Virtus, etc. You will obferve in this letter many marks of an ill head and a low fpirit; but a heart wholly turned to love you with the greatest Earneftness and Truth.

LETTER LXVIII.

May 28, 1733.

I

HAVE begun two or three letters to you by snatches, and been prevented from finishing them by a thousand avocations and diffipations. I muft first acknowledge the honour done me by Lord Orrery, whose praises are that precious ointment Solomon fpeaks of, which can be given only by men of Virtue: all other praise, whether from Poets or Peers, is contemptible alike: and I am old enough and experienced enough to know, that the only praises worth having, are those bestowed by Virtue for Virtue. My Poetry I abandon to the critics, my Morals

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Morals I commit to the teftimony of those who know me; and therefore I was more pleased with your Libel, than with any Verses I ever received. I wish fuch a collection of your writings could be printed here, as you mention going on in Ireland. I was furprised to receive from the Printer that spurious piece, called, The Life and Character of Dr. Swift, with a letter telling me the perfon "who published it, "had affured him the Dedication to me was what I "would not take ill, or else he would not have "printed it." I can't tell who the man is, who took fo far upon him as to answer for my way of thinking: though, had the thing been genuine, I fhould have been greatly displeased at the publisher's part in doing it without your knowledge.

I am as earnest as you can be, in doing my best to prevent the publishing of any thing unworthy of Mr. Gay; but I fear his friends partiality. I wish you would come over. All the mysteries of my philofophical work fhall then be cleared to you, and you will not think that I am not merry enough, nor angry enough it will not want for Satire, but as for Anger I know it not; or at least only that fort of which the Apostle fpeaks," Be ye angry and fin not."

My neighbour's writings have been metaphyfical, and will next be hiftorical. It is certainly from him only that a valuable Hiftory of Europe in thefe latter times can be expected. Come, and quicken him; for age, indolence, and contempt of the world, grow upon

upon men apace, and may often make the wifeft indifferent whether pofterity be any wifer than we. To a man in years, Health and Quiet become fuch rarities, and confequently fo valuable, that he is apt to think of nothing more than of enjoying them whenever he can, for the remainder of life; and this, I doubt not, has caufed fo many great men to die without leaving a scrap to posterity.

I am fincerely troubled for the bad account you give me of your own health. I wish every day to hear a better, as much as I do to enjoy my own, I faithfully affure you.

LETTER LXIX.

FROM DR. SWIFT.

Dublin, July 8, 1733*

I

MUST Condole with you for the lofs of Mrs. Pope, of whose death the papers have been full. But I would rather rejoice with you, because, if any circumftances can make the death of a dear Parent and Friend a subject for joy, you have them all. She died in an extreme old age, without pain, under the care of the most dutiful Son that I have ever known or heard of, which is a felicity not happening. to one in a million. The worst effect of her death falls upon me, and fo much

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