Aunt, and that her Journey thither was fomething facilitated by my writing to that Lady as preffingly as poffible, not to let any thing whatsoever obstruct it. I fent her obliging Answer to the Party it most concern'd; and when I hear Mrs W. is certainly there, I will write again to my Lady, to urge as much as poffible the effecting the only thing that in my opinion can make her Niece eafy. I have run out my Extent of Paper, and am, Your, &c. Mr POPE's Anfwer. MAY 28, 1912. IT is not only the Difpofition I always have of converfing with you, that makes me fo speedily anfwer your obliging Letter, but the Apprehenfion left your charitable Intent of writing to my Lady A. on Mrs W's Affair fhould be fruftrated, by the fhort Stay fhe makes there. She went thither on the 25th with that Mixture of Expectation and Anxiety, with which People ufually go into unknown or half-difcover'd Countries, utterly igno rant of the Difpofitions of the Inhabitants, and the Treatment they are to meet with. The Unfortunate of all people are the most unfit to be left alone ; yet we fee the World generally takes care they shall be fo. Whereas if we took a confiderate Profpect of human Nature, the Bufinefs and Study of the Happy and Easy should be to divert and humour, as well as comfort and pity, the Diftrefs'd. I cannot therefore excufe fome near Allies of mine for their Conduct of late towards this Lady, which has given me a great deal of Anger as well as Sorrow. All I fhall fay to you of 'em at present is, that they have not been my Relations these two Months: The The Confent of Opinions in our Minds is certainly a nearer Tye than can be contracted by all the Blood in our Bodies; and I am proud of finding I have fomething congenial with you. Will you permit me to confefs to you, that all the Favours and kind Offices you have shown towards me, have not so strongly cemented me your's, as the Discovery of that generous and manly Compaffion you manifefted in the Cafe of this unhappy Lady? I am afraid to infinuate to you how much I esteem you: Flatterers have taken up the Style which was once peculiar to Friends, and an honeft Man has now no way left to exprefs himself, befides the common one of Knaves: So that true Friends now-a-days differ in their Address from Flatterers, much as right Maftiffs do from Spaniels, and fhow themselves by a dumb furly fort of Fidelity, rather than by their complaifant and open Kindness. Will you never leave commending my Poetry? In fair Truth, Sir, I like it but too well myself already-Expose me no more, I beg you, to the great Danger of Vanity, (the Rock of all Men, but most of young Men) and be kindly content for the future, when you wou'd please me throughly, to fay only you like what I write. Your, &c. IA Mr STEELE to Mr POPE. JUNE 1, 17124 A M at a Solitude, an House between Hampstead and London, wherein Sir Charles Sedley dy'd. This Circumftance fet me a thinking and ruminating upon the Employments in which Men of Wit exercise themselves. It was faid of Sir Charles, who breath'd his laft in this Room, Sedley Sedley has that prevailing gentle Art, Till the poor vanquifh'd Maid diffolves away This was an happy Talent to a Man of the Town, but I dare fay, without prefuming to make uncharitable Conjectures on the Author's prefent Condition, he would rather have had it faid of him that he had pray'd, Oh thou my Voice infpire, Who touch'd Ifaiah's hallow'd Lips with Fire at I have turn'd to every Verfe and Chapter, and think you have preferv'd the fublime heavenly Spirit throughout the whole, efpecially at Hark a glad Voice and The Lamb with Wolves fball graze There is but one Line which I think below the Original, He wipes the Tears for ever from our Eyes. You have exprefs'd it with a good and pious, but not with fo exalted and poetical a Spirit as the Prophet. The Lord God will wipe away Tears from off all Faces. If you agree with me in this, alter it by way of Paraphrafe or otherwife, that when it comes into a Volume it may be amended. Your Poem is already better than the Pollio. I am, Your, &c.' Mr Mr POPE to Mr STEEL E. JUNE 18, 1712. YO OU have oblig'd me with a very kind Letter, by which I find you fhift the Scene of your Life from the Town to the Country, and enjoy that mix'd State which wife Men both delight in, and are qualify'd for. Methinks the Moralifts and Philofophers have generally run too much into Extremes in commending intirely either Solitude, or public Life. In the former, Men for the most part grow useless by too much Reft, and in the latter are deftroy'd by too much Precipitation; as Waters. lying ftill, putrify and are good for nothing, and runing violently on do but the more Mischief in their paffage to others, and are swallow'd up and loft the fooner themselves. Those indeed who can be useful to all States, fhould be like gentle Streams,. 'that not only glide thro' lonely Vallies and Forefts amidft the Flocks and the Shepherds, but vifit popu lous Towns in their Course, and are at once of Or nament and Service to them. But there are another fort of People who feem defign'd for Solitude, fuch I mean as have more to hide than to fhow: As for my own part, I am one of thofe of whom Seneca fays, Tam umbratiles funt, ut putent in turbido effe quicquid in luce eft*. Some Men like fome, Pictures, are fitter for a Corner than a full Light; and I be lieve fuch as have a natural Bent to Solitude (to carry on the former Similitude) are like Waters which. may be forc'd into Fountains and exalted into a great Height, may make a noble Figure and a louder *These foregoing Similitudes our Author had put into Verfe fome Years before, and inferted into Mr Wycherley's Poem on Mix'd Life. We find him apparently in the Verfification of them, as they are fince printed in Wycherley's Pofthumous Works, 8vo, page 3d and 4th, Noife, but after all they would run more fmoothly, quietly and plentifully, in their own natural Course upon the Ground. The Confideration of this would `make me very well contented with the Poffeffion only of that Quiet which Cowley calls the Companion of Obfcurity. But whoever has the Mufes too for his Companions, can never be idle enough to be uneafy. Thus, Sir, you fee I would flatter myfelf into a good Opinion of my own way of living. Plutarch juft now told me, that 'tis in human Life as in a Game of Tables, where a Man may wish for the higheft Caft; but if his Chance be otherwise, he is even to play it as well as he can, and to make the beft of it, I am, Your, &c. Yo Mr POPE to Mr STEELE. JUNE 15, 1712. OU formerly obferv'd to me, that nothing made a more ridiculous Figure in a Man's Life, than the Disparity we often find in him fick and well: Thus one of an unfortunate Conftitution is perpetually exhibiting a miferable Example of the Weakness of his Mind, and of his Body, in their Turns. I have had frequent Opportunities of late to confider myself in thefe different Views, and I hope have receiv'd fome Advantage by it, if what Mr Waller fays be true, that The Soul's dark Cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Then furely Sickness, contributing no less than old age to the fhaking down this fcaffolding of the Body, may difcover the inward Structure more plainly. |