I can reckon up; but I am fure I do not want inclination, nor I hope capacity, to be the other. Nor fhall I take it at all amifs, that another diffents from my opinion: 'Tis no more than I have often done from my own; and indeed, the more a man advances in understanding, he becomes the more every day a critic upon himfelf, and finds fomething or other ftill to blame in his former notions and opinions. I cou'd be glad to know if you have tranflated the 11th Elegy of Lib. 2. Ad amicam navigantem, the 8th of Book 3, or the 11th of Book 3, which are above all others my particular favourites, especially the laft of thefe.

As to the paffage of which you ask my opinion in the fecond Eneid, it is either fo plain as to require no folution; or elfe (which is very probable) you fee farther into it than I can. Priam wou'd fay, " that Achilles "(whom furely you only feign to be your "Father, fince your actions are fo different " from his) did not use me thus inhumanly. He blush'd at his murder of Hector "when he faw my forrows for him; and "reftor'd his dead body to me to be buried." To this the answer of Pyrrhus feems to be agreeable enough. "Go then to the fhades,

and tell Achilles how I degenerate from "him" granting the truth of what Priam had faid of the difference between them.

Indeed

Indeed Mr. Dryden's mentioning here what Virgil more judicioufly paffes in filence, the circumftance of Achilles's felling for mony the body of Hector, feems not fo proper; it: in fome measure lefs'ning the character of Achilles's generofity and piety, which is the very point of which Priam endeavours in this place to convince his Son, and to reproach him with the want of. But the truth of this Circumftance is no way to be ftion'd being exprefly taken from Homer, who reprefents Achilles weeping for Priam, yet receiving the gold, Iliad 24: For when he gives the body, he ufes thefe words,

que

my friend Patroclus! forgive me that I quit the corps of him who kill'd thee ; "I have great gifts in ranfom for it, which "I will beftow upon thy funeral.”

I am, &c.

Mr. C..... to Mr. POP E.

Aug. 3, 1710.

Looking among fome French Rhymes,

I was agreeably furpriz'd to find in

the Rondeau of Pour le moins

your

In Voiture's Poems.

Apoticaire

Apoticaire and Lavement, which I took for your own; fo much is your Muse of Intelligence with the Wits of all languages. You have refin'd upon Voiture, whose Ou Vous Sçavez is much inferior to your You know where -You do not only pay your club with your author (as our friend fays) but the whole reckoning; who can form fuch pretty lines from fo trivial a hint.

*

For my Elegy; 'tis confefs'd, that the Topography of Sulmo in the Latin makes but an awkward figure in the Verfion. Your couplet of the Dog-ftar is very fine, but may be too fublime in this place. I laugh'd heartily at your note upon Paradife; for to make Ovid talk of the Garden of Eden, is certainly most abfurd: But Xenophon in his Oeconomicks, fpeaking of a garden finely planted and watered (as is here described) calls it Paradifos: "Tis an interpolation indeed, and ferves for a gradation to the Cabeftial Orb; which expreffes in some fort the Sidus Caftoris in parte Cali-how Trees can enjoy, let the naturalifts determine; but the Poets make 'em fenfitive, lovers, bachelors, and married. Virgil in his Georgicks Lib. 2. Horace Ode 15. Lib. 2. Platanus calebs evincet ulmos. Epod. 2. Ergo aut adulta vitium propagine Altas maritat populos.

* Ovid's Amorum, /. 2. El. 16. Pars me Sulmo, &c.

Your Critique is a very Dolce-piccante; for after the many faults you juftly find, you finooth your rigour but an obliging thing is owing (you think) to one who fo much efteems and admires you, and who fhall ever be

Your, &c.

August 21, 1710.

OUR Letters are a perfect charity to a man in retirement, utterly forgotten of all his Friends but you; for fince Mr. Wycherley left London, I have not heard a word from him; tho' juft before, and once fince, I writ to him, and tho' I know myfelf guilty of no offence but of doing fincerely just what he bid me.-Hoc mihi libertas, boc pia lingua dedit! But the greatest injury he does me is the keeping me in ignorance of his welfare, which I am always very follicitous for, and very uneafy in the fear of any Indifpofition that may befal him. In what I fent you fome time ago, you have not verfe enough to be fevere upon, in revenge for my laft criticifm: In one point I muft perfift, that is to fay, my diflike of your Pa

*Correcting his Verfes. See the Letters in 1756 and the following Years, of Mr. Wycherley and Mr. Pope. radife,

radife, in which I take no pleafure; I know very well that in Greek 'tis not only us'd by Xenophon, but is a common word for any Garden; but in English it bears the fignification and conveys the idea of Eden, which alone is (I think) a reafon against making Ovid ufe it; who will be thought to talk too like a Chriftian in your verfion at least, whatever it might have been in Latin or Greek. As for all the refl of my Remarks, fince you do not laugh at them as at this, I can be fo civil as not to lay any stress upon 'em (as I think I told you before) and in particular in the point of Trees enjoying, you have, I must own, fully fatisfy'd me that the Expreffion is not only defenfible, but beautiful. I fhall be very glad to fee your Tranflation of the Elegy, Ad Amicam navigantem, as foon as you can; for (without a compliment to you) every thing you write either in verfe or profe, is welcome to me; and you may be confident, (if my opinion can be of any fort of confequence in any thing) that I will never be unfincere, tho' I may be often mistaken. To ufe Sincerity with you is but paying you in your own coin, from whom I have experienc'd fo much of it; and I need not tell you how much I really esteem you, when I efteem nothing in the world fo much as that Quality. I know you fometimes fay civil things to me in your Epiftolary Style, but thofe I am to make alU 2 lowance