nothing with it but after asking and following your advice. I value Sincerity the more, as I find by fad experience, the practice of it is more dangerous; Writers rarely pardoning the executioners of their Verfes, ev n tho' themselves pronounce fentence upon them.-As to Mr. Philips's Paftorals, I take the first to be infinitely the beft, and the fecond the worft; the third is for the greatest part a Tranflation from Virgil's Daphnis. I will not foreftal your judgment of the reft, only obferve in that of the Nightingale thefe lines, (fpeaking of the Mufician's playing on the harp.):

Now lightly skimming o'er the Strings they pass,
Like Winds that gently brush the plying grafs,
And melting Airs arife at their command;
And now, laborious, with a weighty hand,
He finks into the Cords, with folemn pace,
And gives the fwelling Tones a manly grace,

To which nothing can be objected, but that they are too lofty for Paftoral, efpecially being put into the mouth of a Shepherd, as they are here; in the Poet's own perfon they had been (I believe) more proper. These are more after Virgil's manner than that of Theocritus, whom yet in the character of Paftoral he rather feems to

imitate.

imitate. In the whole, I agree with the Tatler, that we have no better Eclogues in our language. There is a small copy of the fame Author publish'd in the Tatler No 12. on the Danish Winter: 'Tis Poetical Painting, and I recommend it to your per

ufal.

Dr. Garth's Poem I have not feen, but believe I fhall be of that Critic's opinion you mention at Will's, who fwore it was good: For tho' I am very cautious of fwearing after Critics, yet I think one may do it more fafely when they commend, than when they blame.

agree

I with you in your cenfure of the ufe of Sea-terms in Mr. Dryden's Virgil; not only becaufe Helenus was no great Prophet in thofe matters, but becaufe no Terms of Art or Cant-Words fuit with the Majefty and dignity of Style which Epic Poetry requires. Cui mens divinior atque os magna foniturum. The Tarpawlin Phrafe can please none but fuch Qui aurem habent Batavam; they must not expect Auribus Atticis probari, I find by you. (I think I have brought in two phrafes of Martial here very dexterously.)

Tho' you fay you did not rightly take my Meaning in the verfe I quoted from Juvenal, yet I will not explain it; because tho' it feems you are refolv'd to take me for a

Critic,

Critic, I wou'd by no means be thought a Commentator.And for another reafon too, because I have quite forgot both the Verfe and the Application.

I hope it will be no offence to give my moft hearty service to Mr. Wycherley, tho' I perceive by his laft to me, I am not to trouble him with my letters, fince he' there told me he was going inftantly out of Town, and till his return was my Servant, &c. I guefs by yours he is yet with you, and beg you to do what you may with all truth and honour, that is, affure him I have ever borne all the Refpect and Kindness imaginable, to him. I do not know to this hour what it is that has eftrang'd him from me; but this I know, that he may for the future be more fafely my friend, fince no invitation of his fhall ever more make me fo free with him. I cou'd not have thought any man had been fo very cautious and fufpicious, as not to credit his own Experience of a friend. Indeed to believe no body, may be a Maxim of Safety, but not fo much of Honefty. There is but one way I know of converfing fafely with all men, that is, not by concealing what we fay or do, but by faying or doing nothing that deferves to be conceal'd, and I can truly boast this comfort in my affairs with Mr. Wycherley. But I par

don

don his Jealoufy, which is become his Nature, and thall never be his

enemy whatfo

ever he fays of me.

Your, &c.

Mr. C...... to Mr. POPE.

Νου. 5, 1710.

Find I am oblig'd to the fight of your

I Love-verfes, for your opinion of my

fincerity; which had never been call'd in question, if you had not forc'd me, upon fo many other occafions to exprefs my esteem.

I have just read and compar'd * Mr. Row's Verfion of the 9th of Lucan, with very great pleafure, where I find none of thofe abfurdities fo frequent in that of Virgil, except in two places, for the fake of lafhing the Priefts; one where Cato fays— legis egeant dubii-and one in the fimile of Hæmorhoisfatidici Sabai -fatidici Sabai--- He is fo errant a Whig, that he strains even beyond his Author, in paffion for Liberty, and

the

Sorti

Pieces printed in the 6th Vol. of Tonfon's Mifcellanies.

averfion

averfion to Tyranny; and errs only in amplification. Lucan in initio gni, defcribing the feat of the Semidei manes, fays,

Quodq; patet terras inter Lunæq; meatus,
Semidei manes habitant-

Mr. Row has this Line,

Then looking down on the Sun's feeble Ray.

Pray your opinion, if there be an ErrorSphæricus in this or no?

Yours, &c.

Nov. 11, 1710.

mistake me much in think

Ying the freedom you kindly us'd with

my Love-verfes, gave me the firft opinion of your fincerity: I affure you it only did what every good-natur'd action of yours has done fince, confirm'd me more in that opinion. The Fable of the Nightingale in Philips's Paftoral, is taken from Famianus Strada's Latin Poem on the fame fubject, in his Prolufiones Academica; only the Tomb he erects at the end, is added from Virgil's conclufion of the Culex. I can't forbear giving you a paffage out of the Latin Poem

I men