ΤΟ WARBURTON INTRODUCED TO POPE POPE'S EXPRESSIONS OF GRATI- - SOLICITS LORD CHESTERSECOND VOLUME OF THE CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. DOD DRIDGE WARBURTON'S CHANGE OF OPINION WITH REGARD TO THE WORKS OF THE LEARNED' - HIS DESULTORY 6 MODE OF WRITING PLAGIARISM OF COVENTRY, THE AUTHOR OF PHILEMON TO HYDASPES CONTENTS OF THE great great event of Warburton's life, in the year 1740, was his meeting with Pope, which took place on May 6. Pope had expressed his wish for a visit from Warburton, to whom,' he said, he really had more obligation than to any man;' and Warburton had signified the gratification which he should feel at calling on him as soon as he should be in the metropolis. Pope, writing again to him, from Twickenham, says, I received with great pleasure the prospect you give me of a nearer acquaintance with you when you come to town. I shall hope what part of your time you can afford me will be passed rather in this place than in London, since it is here only I live as I ought, mihi et amicis. I therefore depend on your promise; and so much as my constitution suffers by the winter, I yet assure you such an acquisition will make the spring much the more welcome to me, when it is to bring you hither cum zephyris et hirundine primâ. In earnest,' he adds, in reference to the Vindication against Crousaz, 'I am extremely obliged to you for thus espousing the cause of a stranger whom you judged to be injured; but my part in this sentiment is the least the generosity of your conduct deserves esteem; your zeal for truth deserves affection from every candid man; and as such, were I wholly out of the case, I should esteem and love you for it. I will not, therefore, use you so ill as to write in the general style of compliment: it is below the dignity of the occasion; and I can only say (which I say with sincerity and warmth) that you have made me,' &c. : It is pleasant to read these civilities between authors; and Pope was certainly very much in earnest. Pray let my house,' he says, in a subsequent letter, have its share of you; or, if I can any way be instrumental in accommodating you in town during your stay, I have lodgings and a library or two at my disposal, which, I believe, I need not offer to a man to whom all libraries ought to be open, or to one who wants them so little, but that 't is possible you may be as much a stranger to this town as I wish with all my heart I was. I see by certain squibs in the "Miscellanies" that you have as much of the uncharitable spirit poured out upon you as the author you defended from Crousaz. I only wish you gave them no other answer than that of the sun to the frogs, shining out in your second book, and the completion of your argument.' 'Let us meet,' says another communication, 'like men who have been many years acquainted with each other, and whose friendship is not to begin, but continue. All forms should be past when people know each other's mind so well. I flatter myself you are a man after my own 1740.] POPE'S RESPECT FOR WARBURTON. 185 heart, who seeks content only from within, and says to greatness, "Tuas habeto tibi res; egomet habebo meas.' But as it is but just your other friends should have some part of you, I insist on my making you the first visit in London, and thence, after a few days, to carry you to Twickenham for as many as you can afford me. If the press be to take up any part of your time, the sheets may be brought you hourly thither by my waterman; and you will have more leisure to attend to anything of that sort than in town. I believe, also, I have most of the books you can want, or can easily borrow them. I earnestly desire a line may be left at Mr. Robinson's, where and when I shall call upon you, which I will daily inquire for, whether I chance to be here or in the country.' Their first meeting, however, whatever was the reason, did not take place in London. The spot in which it occurred was Lord Radnor's garden, adjacent to Pope's residence at Twickenham; and Dodsley, who was present on the occasion, told Dr. Warton that he was astonished at the high compliments paid by Pope to Warburton as they approached, the poet declaring that he looked upon Warburton as his greatest benefactor. Warburton stayed several days at Pope's house. I passed about a week at Twickenham,' he wrote to Middleton, ' in a most agreeable manner. Mr. Pope is as good a companion as a poet, and, what is more, appears to be as good a man.'* The intercourse seems to have been extremely agreeable to both parties. Pope continued to address Warburton with respect, and Warburton was careful not to contradict Pope. One evening, when they were walking in the garden, Pope began to converse with Warburton, very familiarly and confidentially, on his performances and feelings as an author. He observed that he considered himself to have been surpassed in every kind of writing, and particularly Quoted by Hurd, Life of Warburton, p. 28. —‘wit in the faculty of invention. Warburton rejoined that he would not offend his delicacy by enlarging on his merits before his face, but that he would take the liberty of mentioning one quality in which he felt certain that he was unrivalled—the power of uniting wit with sublimity. Your wit,' said he, 'gives a splendour and delicacy to your sublimity, and your sublimity gives a grace and dignity to your wit.'* To this compliment, which, if correctly reported, the poet must have thought rather extravagant and obscure -' wit giving splendour to sublimity, and sublimity giving grace to wit'-no reply of Pope's is recorded. But he still continued to speak of Warburton with reverence, both in his conversation and in his letters. In his talk with Spence he was never tired of expatiating on Warburton's extent of mental view, and critical perspicacity, which had excited his admiration. Writing to Warburton about a month after their separation, having received two letters from Warburton in the interval, he says: 'Civility and compliment generally are the goods that letter-writers exchange, which, with honest men, seems a kind of illicit trade, by having been, for the most part, carried on, and carried farthest, by designing men. I am therefore reduced to plain inquiries, how my friend does, and what he does, and to repetitions, which I am afraid to tire him with, how much I love him. Your two kind letters gave me real satisfaction, in hearing you were safe and well, and in showing me you took kindly my unaffected endeavours to prove my esteem for you, and delight in your conversation. Indeed, my languid state of health, and frequent deficiency of spirits, together with a number of dissipations, et aliena negotia centum, all conspire to throw a faintness and cool appearance over my conduct to those I best love, which I perpetually feel, and grieve * Letter from Hon. C. Yorke to Lord Hardwicke, in Warton's 'Pope,' and in Harris's 'Life of Lord Hardwicke.' at; but, in earnest, no man is more deeply touched with merit in general, or with particular merit towards me, in any one. You ought, therefore, in both views, to hold yourself what you are to me in my opinion and affection —so high in each, that I may, perhaps, seldom attempt to tell it you. The greatest justice, and favour too, that you can do me is to take it for granted. 'Do not, therefore, commend my talents, but instruct me by your own. I am not really learned enough to be a judge in works of the nature and depth of yours; but I travel through your book as through an amazing scene of ancient Egypt or Greece, struck with veneration and wonder, but at every step wanting an instructor to tell me all I wish to know. Such you prove to me in the walks of antiquity, and such you will prove to all mankind; but with this additional character, more than any other searcher into antiquities, that of a genius equal to your pains, and of a taste equal to your learning.' Pope had longed to have his 'Essay on Man' translated into Latin verse, and had engaged Dobson, the translator of Prior's Solomon,' to make a version of it; but Dobson grew tired of the work, and left it incomplete. Pope then thought of a translation into Latin prose, and requested Warburton to find him a scholar equal to that undertaking. Warburton accordingly made inquiries at Cambridge, and Pope expresses great obligation to him for the pains which he took. He hunted out somebody ready to make a commencement, said to have been Christopher Smart, then a very young man, and sent Pope a specimen, done in close imitation of the style of Cicero. The translation,' wrote Pope in answer, 'you are a much better judge of than I, not only because you understand my work better than I do myself, but as your continued familiarity with the learned languages makes you infinitely more a master of them. I would only recommend that the translator's attention to Tully's |