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THE

WORKS

OF

Alexander Pope Efq.

VOLUME VII.

BEING THE

FIRST of his LETTERS.

LONDON:

Printed for A. MILLAR, J. and R. TONSON, C. BATHURST, R. BALDWIN, J. RICHARDSON, P. DAVEY and B. LAW, S. CROWDER, T. LONGMAN, T. FIELD, and T. Caslon.

M.DCC.LX.
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WE

E prefume we want no apology to the reader for this publication, but fome may be thought needful to Mr. Pope: however he cannot think our offence fo great as theirs, who firft feparately published what we have here but collected in a better form and order. As for the letters we have procured to be added, they ferve but to complete, explain, and fometimes fet in a true light, thofe others, which it was not in the writer's or our portér to recall,

This collection bath heen owing to feveral cabinets: fome drawn from thence by accidents, and others (even of those two ladies voluntarily given. It is to one of that fex we are beholden for the whole correspondence between H. C. efq; which letters being lent her by that gentleman, fe took the liberty to print; as appears by the following,

VOL. VII.

a

which

which we shall give at length, both as it is fomething curious, and as it may ferve for an apology for ourselves.

To HENRY CROMWELL, Efq.

A'

June 27, 1727.

FTER fo long a filence as the many

and great oppreffions I have fighed under have occafioned, one is at a loss how to begin a letter to so kind a friend as yourself. But as it was always my refolution, if I must fink, to do it as decently (that is, as filently) as I could; 'fo when I found myself plunged into unforeseen and unavoidable ruin, I retreated from the world, and in a manner buried myself in a difmal place, where I knew none, and none knew me. In this dull unthinking way, I have protracted a lingering death (for life it cannot be called), ever fince you faw me, fequeftered from company deprived of my books, and nothing left to converfe with, but the letters of my fead or abfent friends; among which latter always placed yours and Mr. Pope's in the first rank. I lent fome of them indeed to an ingenious perfon, who was fo delighted with the specimen, that he importuned me for a fight of the reft, which having ob

tained,

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