trees enjoying, you have, I must own, fully fatisfied me that the expreffion is not only defenfible, but beautiful. 'I fhall be very glad to fee your translation of the elegy, Ad amicam navigantem, as foon as you can; for (with-' out a compliment to you) every thing you write, either in verse or prose, 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, though I may be often mistaken. To ufe fincerity with you is but paying you in your own coin, from whom I have experienced 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 ftyle, but thofe I am to make allowance for, as particularly when you talk of admiring; 'tis a word you are fo used to in conversation of Ladies, that it will creep into your discourse, in fpite of you, even to your friends. But as women, when they think themselves fecure of admiration, commit a thousand negligences, which show them so much at disadvantage and off their guard, as to lofe the little real love they had before: fo when men imagine others entertain fome esteem for their abilities, they often expofe all their imperfections and foolish works, to the difparagement of the little wit they were thought mafters of. I am going to exemplify this to you, in putting into your hands (being encouraged by fo much indulgence) some verses of my youth, or rather childhood; which (as I was a great admirer of Waller) were intended in imitation of his manner*; and are, perhaps, fuch imitations, as thofe you fee in awkward country dames, of the fine and well-bred ladies of the court. If you will take them with you into Lincoln

* One or two of thefe were fince printed among other Imitations done in his youth.

fhire, they may fave you one hour from the converfation of the country gentlemen and their tenants (who differ but in dress and name), which, if it be there as bad as here, is even worse than my poetry. I hope your stay there will be no longer than (as Mr. Wycherley calls it) to rob the country, and run away to London with your money. In the mean time, I beg the favour of a line from you, and am (as I will never cease to be)

Your, etc.

LETTER XIX.

Oct. 12, 1710.

DEFERRED answering your last, upon the advice I receiv'd, that you were leaving the town for fome time, and expected your return with impatience, having then a design of feeing my friends there, among the first of which I have reason to account yourfelf. But my almost continual illneffes prevent that, as well as moft other fatisfactions of my life: However, I may fay one good thing of fickness, that it is the best cure in nature for ambition, and defigns upon the world or fortune: It makes a man pretty indifferent for the future, provided he can but be eafy, by intervals, for the prefent. He will be content to compound for his quiet only, and leave all the circumstantial part and pomp of life to thofe, who have a health vigorous enough to enjoy all the mistreffes of their defires. I thank God, there is nothing out of myfelf which I would be at the trouble of feeking, except a friend; a happiness I once hop'd to have poffefs'd in Mr. Wycherley; butQuantum mutatus ab illo! I have for fome years been employed much like children that build houfes with cards, endeavouring very bufily and eagerly to raise a

8

friendship, which the first breath of any ill-natur'd byftander could puff away.-But I will trouble you no farther with writing, nor myself with thinking, of this fubject.

I was mightily pleased to perceive by your quotation from Voiture, that you had tracked me so far as France. You fee 'tis with weak heads as with weak ftomachs, they immediately throw out what they received last; and what they read, floats upon the surface of the mind, like oil upon water, without incorporating. This, I think, however, can't be faid of the love-verses I laft troubled you with, where all (I am afraid) is fo puerile and fo like the author, that nobody will fufpect any thing to be borrow'd. Yet you (as a friend, entertaining a better opinion of them), it feems, fearch'd in Waller, but fearch'd in vain. Your judgment of them is (I think) very right,- for it was my own opinion before. If you think 'em not worth the trouble of correcting, pray tell me fo freely, and it will fave me a labour; if you think the contrary, you would particularly oblige me by your remarks on the feveral thoughts as they occur. I long to be nibbling at your verfes, and have not forgot who promised me Ovid's elegy Ad amicam navigantem. Had Ovid been as long in compofing it, as you in fending it, the lady might have failed to Gades, and receiv'd it at her return. I have really a great itch of criticism upon me, but want matter here in the country; which I defire you to furnish me with, as I do you in the town,

Sic fervat ftudii foedera quifque fui.

I am obliged to Mr. Caryl (whom, you tell me, you met at Epsom) for telling you truth, as a man is in these days to any one that will tell truth to his advantage; and I think none is more to mine, than what he told

you, and I fhould be glad to tell all the world, that I have an extreme affection and efteem for you. Tecum etenim longos memini confumere foles, Et tecum primas epulis decerpere noctes ; Unum opus et requiem pariter difponimus ambo, Atque verecunda laxamus feria mensa.

By thefe Epulae, as I take it, Perfius meant the Portugal Snuff and burnt Claret, which he took with his mafter Cornutus; and the verecunda menfa was, without difpute, fome coffee-houfe table of the ancients.-I will only obferve, that thefe four lines are as elegant and mufical as any in Perfius, not excepting those fix or feven which Mr. Dryden quotes as the only fuch in all that author.-I could be heartily glad to repeat the fatisfaction defcrib'd in them, being truly

Your, etc.

LETTER XX.

October 28, 1710.

I

AM glad to find by your last letter that you write to me with the freedom of a friend, fetting down your thoughts, as they occur, and dealing plainly with me in the matter of my own trifles, which, I affure you, I never valued half fo much as I do that fincerity in you which they were the occafion of discovering to me; and which, while I am happy in, I may be trufted with that dangerous weapon, Poetry, fince I shall do nothing with. it but after asking and following your advice. I value fincerity the more, as I find by fad experience, the practice of it is more dangerous; writers rarely pardoning the executioners of their verfes, even tho' themfelves pronounce fentence upon them. As to Mr. Philips's Paftorals, I take the firft 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 forestal 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 ftrings 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 fuelling tones a manly grace.

To which nothing can be objected, but that they, are too lofty for paftoral, especially being put into the mouth of a fhepherd, as they are here; in the poet's own person they had been (I believe) more proper. They are more after Virgil's manner than that of Theocritus, whom yet in the character of paftoral he rather feems to 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 publifh'd in the Tatler N° 12. on the Danish winter: "Tis poetical painting, and I recommend it to your perufal.

Dr.

Garth's poem I have not feen, but believe I fhall be of that critick's opinion you mention at Will's, who fwore it was good: for, though I am very cautious of fwearing after Criticks, yet I think one may do it more fafely, when they commend, than when they blame.

I agree with you in your cenfure of the ufe of featerms 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 majesty and dignity of ftyle, which epick poetry requires.-Cui mens divinior atque os magna fonaturum.-The Tarpaulin phrafe can please none but fuch qui aurem habent.