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know, that I mean as well in the religion I now profefs, as I can poffibly ever do in another. Can a man who thinks fo, justify a change, even if he thought both equally good? To fuch an one, the part of joining with any one body of Chriftians might perhaps be easy; but I think it would not be fo, to renounce the other.

Your lordship has formerly advised me to read the best controversies between the churches. Shall I tell you a fecret? I did fo at fourteen years old, (for I loved reading, and my father had no other books); there was a collection of all that had been written on both fides in the reign of king James the Second: I warmed my head with them, and the confequence was, that I found myself a papift and a proteftant by turns, according to the last book I read. I am afraid molt feekers are in the fame cafe; and when they ftop, they are not fo properly converted, as outwitted. You fee how little glory you would gain by my converfion. And, after all, I verily believe your lordship and I are both of the fame religion, if we were thoroughly understood by one another; and that all honeft and reasonable Chriftians would be fo, if they did but talk enough together every day; and had nothing to do together, but to ferve God, and live in peace with their neighbour.

As to the temporal fide of the question, I can have no difpute with you; it is certain, all the beneficial circumstances of life, and all the fhining ones, lie on the part you would invite me to. But if I could bring myfelf to fancy, what I think you do but fancy, that I have any talents for active life, I want health for it; and be fides it is a real truth, I have lefs inclination (if poffible) than ability. Contemplative life is not only my fcene, but it is my habit too. I begun my life, where most people end theirs, with a difrelith of all that the world calls ambition: I don't know why 'tis called fo, for to me it always feemed to be rather ftooping than climbing. I'll tell you my politic and religious fentiments in a few words. In my politics, I think no further than how to preferve the peace of my life, in any government under which I live; nor in my religion, than to preferve the peace of my confcience, in any church with which I communicate. I hope all churches and all governments are fo far of God, as they are rightly understood, and rightly administered and where they

are, or may be wrong, I leave it to Gǝd alone to mend or reform them; which, whenever he does, it must be by greater inftruments than I am. I am not a papift, for I renounce the temporal invafions of the papal power, and deteft their arrogated authority over princes and flates. I am a catholic in the ftricteft fense of the word. If I was born under an abfolute prince, I would be a quiet fubject: but I thank God I was not. I have a due fenfe of the excellence of the British conftitution. In a word, the things I have always wished to fee, are not a Roman catholic, or a French catholic, or a Spanish catholic, but a true catholic: and not a king of Whigs, or a king of Tories, but a king of England. Which God of his mercy grant his prefent majesty may be, and all future majefties. You fee, my lord, I end like a preacher: this is fermo ad clerum, not nơ populum. Believe me, with infinite obligation and fincere thanks, ever your, &c.

Pope.

$43. Defence against a noble Lord's Reflections.

There was another reafon why I was filent as to that paper-I took it for a lady's (on the printer's word in the titlepage) and thought it too prefuming, as well as indecent, to contend with one of that fex in altercation: for I never was fo mean a creature as to commit my anger against a lady to paper, though but in a private letter. But foon after, her denial of it was brought to me by a noble perfon of real honour and truth. Your lordship indeed faid you had it from a lady, and the lady faid it was your lordship's; fome thought the beautiful by-blow had two fathers, or (if one of them will hardly be allowed a man) two mothers; indeed I think both fexes had a fhare in it, but which was uppermoft, I know not; I pretend not to determine the exact method of this witty fornication: and, if I call it yours, my lord, 'tis only becaufe, whoever got it, you brought it forth.

Here, my lord, allow me to obferve the different proceeding of the ignoble poet, and his noble enemies. What he has written of Fanny, Adonis, Sappho, or who you will, he owned, he published, he fet his name to: what they have published of him, they have denied to have written; and what they have written of him, they have denied to have published. One of thefe was the cafe in the past libel, and the

other

other in the prefent; for, though the parent has owned it to a few choice friends, it is fuch as he has been obliged to deny, in the most particular terms, to the great perfon whofe opinion concerned him most.

Yet, my lord, this epiftle was a piece not written in hafte, or in a paffion, but many months after all pretended provocation; when you was at full leifure at Hampton-Court, and I the object fingled, like a deer out of feafon, for fo ill-timed, and ill-placed a diverfion. It was a deliberate work, directed to a reverend perfon, of the most serious and facred character, with whom you are known to cultivate a ftrict correfpondence, and to whom, it will not be doubted, but you open your fecret fentiments, and deliver your real judgment of men and things. This, I fay, my lord, with fubmiffion, could not but awaken all my reflection and attention. Your lordfhip's opinion of me as a poet, I cannot help; it is yours, my lord, and that were enough to mortify a poor man; but it is not yours alone, you must be content to fhare it with the gentlemen of the Dunciad, and (it may be) with many more innocent and ingenious gentlemen. If your lordship deftroys my poetical character, they will claim their part in the glory; but, give me leave to fay, if my moral character be ruined, it must be wholly the work of your lordship; and will be hard even for you to do, unless I myself cooperate.

How can you talk (my moft worthy lord) of all Pope's works as fo many libels, affirm, that he has no invention but in defamation, and charge him with felling another man's labours printed with his own name? Fye, my lord, you forget yourself. He printed not his name before a line of the perfon's you mention; that perfon himself has told you and all the world, in the book itfelf, what part he had in it, as may be feen at the conclufion of his notes to the Odyffey. I can only fuppofe your lordship (not having at that time forgot your Greek) defpifed to look upon the tranflation; and ever fince entertained too mean an opinion of the tranflator to caft an eye upon it. Befides, my lord, when yon faid he fold another man's works, you ought in juftice to have added that he bought them, which very much alters the cafe. What he gave him was five hundred pounds his receipt can be produced to your lordship. I dare not affirm he was as

well paid as fome writers (much his inferiors) have been fince; but your lordship will reflect that I am no man of quality, either to buy or fell fcribbling so high: and that I have neither place, penfion, nor power to reward for fecret fervices. It cannot be, that one of your rank can have the leaft envy to fuch an author as I am; but, were that poffible, it were much better gratified by employing not your own, but fome of those low and ignoble pens to do you this mean office. I dare engage you'll have them for less than I gave Mr. Broom, if your friends have not raised the market. Let them drive the bargain for you, my lord; and you may depend on seeing, every day in the week, as many (and now and then as pretty) verses, as thefe of your lordship.

And would it not be full as well, that my poor person should be abused by them, as by one of your rank and quality? Cannot Curl do the fame? nay, has he not done it before your lordship, in the fame kind of language, and almoft the fame words? I cannot but think, the worthy and difcreet clergyman himself will agree, it is improper, nay unchriftan, to expofe the perfonal defects of our brother; that both fuch perfect forms as yours, and fuch unfortunate ones as mine, proceed from the hand of the fame Maker, who fashioneth his veffels as he pleafeth; and that it is not from their fhape we can tell whether they were made for honour or dishonour. In a word, he would teach you charity to your greatest enemies; of which number, my lord, I cannot be reckoned, £nce, though a poet, I was never your flat

terer.

Next, my lord, as to the obfcurity of my birth (a reflection copied alfo from Mr. Curl and his brethren) I am forry to be obliged to fuch a prefumption as to name my family in the fame leaf with your lordship's: but my father had the honour, in one instance, to resemble you, for he was a younger brother. He did not indeed think it a happiness to bury his elder brother, though he had one, who wanted fome of thofe good qualities which yours poffeft. How fincerely glad could I be, to pay to that young nobleman's memory the debt I owed to his friendship, whofe early death deprived your family of as much wit and honour as he left behind him in any branch of it! But as to my father, I could affure you, my lord, that he was no mechanic (neither a hatter, nor, which

might please your lordship yet better, a cobler) but in truth, of a very tolerable family: and my mother of an ancient one, as well born and educated as that lady, whom your lordship made choice of to be the mother of your own children; whofe merit, beauty, and vivacity (if tranfmitted to your pofterity) will be a better prefent than even the noble blood they derive only from you: a mother, on whom 1 was never obliged fo far to reflect, as to fay, fhe fpoiled me; and a father, who never found himself obliged to fay of me, that he difapproved my conduct. In a word, my lord, I think it enough, that my parents, fuch as they were, never coft me a blush; and that their fon, fuch as he is, never coft them a tear.

I have purpofely omitted to confider your lordship's criticisms on my poetry. As they are exactly the fame with thofe of the forementioned authors, I apprehend they would justly charge me with partiali

ty, if I gave to you what belongs to them; or paid more diftinction to the fame things when they are in your mouth, than when they were in theirs. It will be fhewing both them and you (my lord) a more particular refpect, to obferve how much they are honoured by your imitation of them, which indeed is carried through your whole epiftle. I have read fomewhere at fchool (though I make it no vanity to have forgot where) that Tully naturalized a few phrafes at the inftance of some of his friends. Your lordship has done more in honour of thefe gentlemen; you have authorized not only their affertions, but their ftyle. For example, A flow that wants fkill to reftrain its ardour,-a dictionary that give us nothing at its own expence. -As luxuriant branches bear but little fruit, fo wit unprun'd is but raw fruitWhile you rehearfe ignorance, you still know enough to do it in verfe-Wits are but glittering ignorance.-The account of how we pals our time-and, The weight on Sir R. W--'s brain. You can ever receive from no head more than fuch a head (as no head) has to give your lordship would have faid never receive instead of ever, and any head instead of no head. But all this is perfectly new, and has greatly enriched our language.

Pope.

§ 44. The Death of Mr. GAY. It is not a time to complain that you have not answered my two letters (in the laft of which I was impatient under fome

fears): it is not now indeed a time to think of myfelf, when one of the nearest and longest ties I have ever had is broken all on a fudden, by the unexpected death of poor Mr. Gay. An inflammatory fever hurried him out of this life in three days. He died last night at nine o'clock, not deprived of his fenfes entirely at laft, and poffeffing them perfectly till within five hours. He asked for you a few hours before, when in acute torment by the inflammation in his bowels and breaft. His effects are in the Duke of Queensbury's cuftody. His fifters, we fuppofe, will be his heirs, who are two widows; as yet it is not known whether or no he left a will.Good God! how often are we to die before we go quite off this ftage? In every friend we lofe a part of ourselves, and the best part. God keep thofe we have left! Few are worth praying for, and one's felf the least of all,

I fhall never fee you now, I believe; one of your principal calls to England is at an end. Indeed he was the most amiable by far, his qualities were the gentleft; but I love you as well, and as firmly. Would to God the man we have loft had not been fo amiable, nor fo good! but that's a wish for our own fakes, not for his. Sure, if innocence and integrity can deserve happinefs, it must be his. Adieu! I can add nothing to what you will feel, and diminish nothing from it. Ibid.

$45. Envy.

Envy is almost the only vice which is practicable at all times, and in every place; the only paffion which can never lie quiet for want of irritation; its effects, therefore, are every where difcoverable, and its attempts always to be dreaded.

It is impoffible to mention a name, which any advantageous diftinction has made eminent, but fome latent animofity will burst out. The wealthy trader, however he may abftract himself from public affairs, will never want thofe who hint with Shylock, that fhips are but boards, and that po man can properly be termed rich whofe fortune is at the mercy of the winds. The beauty adorned only with the unambitious graces of innocence and modefty, provokes, whenever the appears, a thousand murmurs of detraction, and whispers of fufpicion. The genius, even when he endeavours only to entertain with pleafing images of nature, or inftruct by un3 C

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formed by their pride, who have loft their virtue.

contefted principles of fcience, yet fuffers perfecution from innumerable critics, whofe acrimony is excited merely by the pain of It is no flight aggravation of the infeeing others pleased, of hearing applaufes juries which envy incites, that they are which another enjoys: committed against thofe who have given no intentional provocation; and that the fufferer is marked out for ruin, not becaufe he has failed in any duty, but becaufe he has dared to do more than was required.

The frequency of envy makes it fo familiar, that it efcapes our notice; nor do we often reflect upon its turpitude or malignity, till we happen to feel its influence. When he that has given no provocation to malice, but by attempting to excel in fome ufeful art, finds himself purfued by multitudes whom he never faw with implacability of perfonal refentment; when he perceives clamour and malice let loofe upon him as a public enemy, and incited by every ftratagem of defamation; when he hears the misfortunes of his family, or the follies of his youth, expofed to the world; and every failure of conduct, or defect of nature, aggravated and ridiculed; he then learns to abhor thofe artifices at which he only laughed before, and difcovers how much the happinefs of life would be advanced by the eradication of envy from the human heart.

Envy is, indeed, a ftubborn weed of the mind, and feldom yields to the culture of philofophy. There are, however, confiderations, which, if carefully implanted, and diligently propagated, might in time overpower and reprefs it, fince no one can nurfe it for the fake of pleasure, as its effects are only fhame, anguish, and per

turbation.

It is, above all other vices, inconfiftent with the character of a focial being, because it facrifices truth and kindness to very weak temptations. He that plunders a wealthy neighbour, gains as much as he takes away, and improves his own condition, in the fame proportion as he impairs another's; but he that blafts a flourishing reputation, must be content with a fmall dividend of additional fame, fo fmall as can afford very little confolation to balance the guilt by which it is obtained.

I have hitherto avoided mentioning that dangerous and empirical morality, which cures one vice by means of another. But envy is fo bafe and deteftable, fo vile in its original, and fo pernicious in its effects, that the predominance of almost any other quality is to be defired. It is one of thofe lawlers enemies of fociety, againft which poifoned arrows may honefly be used. Let it therefore be conflantly remembered, that whoever envies another, confeffes his fuperiority, and let thofe be re

Almost every other crime is practifed by the help of fome quality which might have produced esteem or love, if it had been well employed; but envy is a more unmixed and genuine evil; it purfues a hateful end by defpicable means, and defires not fo much its own happiness as another's mifery. To avoid depravity like this, it is not neceffary that any one thould aspire to heroifm or fanctity; but only, that he fhould refolve not to quit the rank which nature affigns, and wish to maintain the dignity of a human being. Rambler.

$46. EPICURUS, a Review of his Character.

I believe you will find, my dear Hamilton, that Ariftotle is still to be preferred to Epicurus. The former made some useful experiments and difcoveries, and was engaged in a real purfuit of knowledge, although his manner is much perplexed. The latter was full of vanity and ambition. He was an impoftor, and only aimed at deceiving. He feemed not to believe the principles which he has afferted. He committed the government of all things to chance. His natural philofophy is abfurd. His moral philofophy wants its proper bafis, the fear of God. Monfieur Bayle, one of his warmest advocates, is of this laft opinion, where he fays, On ne fauroit pas dire affez de bien de l'honnêteté de fes mœurs, ni affez de mal de fes opinions fur la religion. His general maxim, That happiness confitted in pleafure, was too much unguarded, and muft lay a foundation of a most de structive practice: although, from his temper and conftitution, he made his life fufficiently pleasurable to himself, and agreeable to the rules of true philofophy. His fortune exempted him from care and folicitude; his valetudinarian habit of body from intemperance. He paffed the greatest part of his time in his garden, where he enjoyed all the elegant amufements of life. There he ftudied. There he taught his philofophy. This particular happy fitua

tion greatly contributed to that tranquillity of mind, and indolence of body, which he made his chief ends. He had not, however, refolution fufficient to meet the gradual approaches of death, and wanted that conftancy which Sir William Temple afcribes to him: for in his last moments, when he found that his condition was defperate, he took fuch large draughts of wine, that he was abfolutely intoxicated and deprived of his fenfes; fo that he died more like a bacchanal, than a philofopher.

Orrery's Life of Swift.

$47. Example, its Prevalence. Is it not Pliny, my lord, who fays, that the gentleft, he fhould have added the moft effectual, way of commanding is by example? Mitius jubetur exemplo. The harshest orders are foftened by example, and tyranny itself becomes perfuafive. What pity it is that fo few princes have learned this way of commanding! But again; the force of example is not confined to thofe alone that pafs immediately under our fight: the examples that memory fuggefts have the fame effect in their degree, and an habit of recalling them will foon produce the habit of imitating them. In the fame epiftle from whence I cited a paffage juft now, Seneca fays, that Cleanthes had never become fo perfect a copy of Zeno, if he had not paffed his life with him; that Plato, Aristotle, and the other philofophers of that fchool, profited more by the example than by the difcourfes of Socrates. (But here by the way Seneca miftook; Socrates died two years according to fome, and four years according to others, before the birth of Ariftotle: and his mistake might come from the inaccuracy of those who collected for him; as Erafmus obferves, after Quintilian, in his judgment on Seneca.) But be this, which was fcarce worth a parenthefis, as it will, he adds, that Metrodorus, Hermachus, and Polyxenus, men of great note, were formed by living under the fame roof with Epicurus, not by frequenting his fchool. Thefe are inftances of the force of immediate example. But your lordship knows, citizens of Rome placed the images of their anceftors in the veftibules of their houses; fo that whenever they went in or out, thefe venerable buftoes met their eyes, and recalled the glorious actions of the dead, to fire the living, to excite them to imitate and even emulate their great forefathers. The fuccels anfwered the defign. The

virtue of one generation was transfufed, by the magic of example, into several: and a fpirit of heroifm was maintained through many ages of that commonwealth.

Dangerous, when copied without Judgment.

Peter of Medicis had involved himfelf in great difficulties, when those wars and calamities began which Lewis Sforza first drew on and entailed on Italy, by flattering the ambition of Charles the Eighth, in order to gratify his own, and calling the French into that country. Peter owed his diftrefs to his folly in departing from the general tenor of conduct his father Laurence had held, and hoped to relieve himfelf by imitating his father's example in one particular inftance. At a time when the wars with the Pope and king of Naples had reduced Laurence to circumstances of great danger, he took the refolution of going to Ferdinand, and of treating in perfon with that prince. The refolution appears in hiftory imprudent and almoft defperate :

were we informed of the fecret reasons on which this great man acted, it would appear very poffibly a wife and fafe measure. It fucceeded, and Laurence brought back with him public peace and private fecurity. When the French troops entered the do. minions of Florence, Peter was ftruck with a panic terror, went to Charles the Eighth, put the port of Leghorn, the fortreffes of Pifa, and all the keys of the country into this prince's hands: whereby he difarmed the Florentine commonwealth, and ruined himself. He was deprived of his authority, and driven out of the city, by the juft indignation of the magiftrates and people: and in the treaty which they made afterwards with the king of France, it was stipulated that he fhould not remain within an hundred miles of the ftate, nor his brothers within the fame distance of the city of Florence. On this occafion Guicciardin obferves, how dangerous it is to govern ourfelves by particular examples; fince to have the fame fuccefs, we must have the fame prudence, and the fame fortune; and fince the example must not only answer the cafe before us in general, but in every minute circumflance. Bolingbroke.

$48. Exile only an imaginary Evil. To live deprived of one's country is intolerable. Is it fo? How comes it then to pafs that fuch numbers of men live out of their countries by choice? Observe how 3 C 2

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