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DR. WARBURTON'S

ADVERTISEMENT

To the OCTAVO EDITION of Mr. POPE's Works, 1751.

MR. POPE, in his laft illness, amused himself,

amidst the care of his higher concerns, in preparing a corrected and complete Edition of his writings; and, with his ufual delicacy, was even folicitous to prevent any fhare of the offence they might occafion, from falling on the Friend whom he had engaged to give them to the Public.

In discharge of this trust, the Public has here a complete Edition of his Works; executed in fuch a manner, as, I am perfuaded, would have been to his fatisfac

tion.

The Editor hath not, for the fake of profit, suffered the Author's Name to be made cheap by a Subfcription; nor his Works to be defrauded of their due honours by a vulgar or inelegant Impreffion; nor his memory to be difgraced by any pieces unworthy of his talents or virtue. On the contrary, he hath, at a very great expence, ornamented this Edition with all the advantages which the best Artifts in Paper, Printing, and Sculpture could bestow upon it.

If the Public hath waited longer than the deference due to it fhould have fuffered, it was owing to a rea fon which the Editor need not make a fecret. It was his regard to the family-interefts of his deceased Friend.

VOL. I.

a

Mr.

in a higher Clafs. He was one of the nobleft works of God. He was an honeft Man *. A man who alone poffeffed more real virtue than, in very corrupt times, needing a Satirist like him, will fometimes fall to the fhare of multitudes. In this hiftory of his life, will be contained a large account of his writings; a critique on the nature, force, and extent of his genius, exemplified from these writings; and a vindication of his moral character, exemplified by his more diftinguished virtues: his filial piety, his difinterested friendship, his reverence for the conftitution of his country, his love and admiration of virtue, and (what was the necessary effect) his hatred and contempt of vice, his extensive charity to the indigent, his warm benevolence to mankind, his fupreme veneration of the Deity, and, above all, his fincere belief of Revelation. Nor fhall his faults be concealed. It is not for the interefts of his virtues that they should. Nor indeed could they be concealed, if we were so minded, for they shine through his Virtues; no man being more a dupe to the fpecious appearances of Virtue in others. In a word, I mean not to be his Panegyrift, but his Historian. And may I, when Envy and Calumny take the fame advantage of my abfence (for, while I live, I will freely truft it to my Life to confute them) may I find a friend as careful of my honest fame as I have been of His! Together with his Works, he hath bequeathed me his Dunces.

"A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod,
"An honest Man's the noblest work of God."

So

So that as the property is transferred, I could wish they would now let his memory alone. The veil which Death draws over the Good is fo facred, that to throw dirt upon the fhrine fcandalizes even Barbarians. And though Rome permitted her Slaves to calumniate her beft Citizens on the day of Triumph, yet the fame petulancy at their funeral would have been rewarded with execration and a gibbet. The Public may be malicious; but is rarely vindictive er ungenerous. It would abhor these infults on a writer dead, though it had borne with the ribaldry, or even set the ribalds on work, when he was alive. And in this there was no great harm: for he must have a ftrange impotency of mind whom fuch miferable fcribblers can ruffle. Of all that grofs Boeotian phalanx who have written fcurrilously against me, I know not so much as one whom a writer of reputation would not wish to have his enemy, or whom a man of honour would not be ashamed to own for his friend. I am indeed but flightly converfant in their works, and know little of the particulars of their defamation. To my Authorship they are heartily welcome., But if any of them have been so abandoned by Truth as to attack my moral character in any instance whatsoever, to all and every one of these, and their abettors, I give the lye in form, and in the words of honest Father Valerian, "Mentiris impudentiffime."