probability, by the melancholy account I received this morning.

The paper you afk me about is of little value. It might have been a seasonable fatire upon the fcandalous language and paffion with which men of condition have ftooped to treat one another. Surely they facrifice too much to the people, when they facrifice their own characters, families, &c. to the diverfion of that rabble of readers. I agree with you in my contempt of moft popularity, fame, bc.; even as a writer I am cool in it; and whenever you see what I am now writing, you'll be convinced I would please but a few, and if I could, make mankind lefs admirers, and greater reafoners †. I ftudy much more to render my own portion of being eafy, and to keep this peevifh frame of the human body in good humour. Infirmities have not quite unmanned me; and it will delight you to hear they are not increased, though not diminished. I thank God, I do not very much want people to attend me, though my mother now cannot. When I am fick, I lie down; and when I am better, I rife up: I am used to the headach, &c. If greater pains arrive, (fuch as my late rheumatifm), the fervants bathe and plaifter me, or the furgeon fcarifies me; and I bear it, because I muft. This is the evil of nature, not of fortune, I am just now as well as when you was here : I pray God you were no worse. I fincerely with my life were paffed near you; and, fuch as it is, I would not repine All you mention, remember you, and

at it.

with you here.

The poem he means is the Effay on man. But this point he could never gain. His readers would admire his poetry in fpite of him, and would not understand his reafoning after all his pains. Warb.

LETTER

I

Dublin, May 4. 1732. AM now as lame as when you writ your letter, and almost as lame as your letter itself, for want of that limb from my Lady Duchefs which you promised, and without which I wonder how it could limp hither. I am not in a condition to make a true ftep even on Aimfbury downs; and I declare, that a corporeal falfe ftep is worfe than a political one; nay worse than thousand political ones; for which I appeal to courts and minifters, who, hobble on and profper, without the fenfe of feeling. To talk of riding and walking, is infulting me; for I can as foon fly as do either. It is your pride or lazinefs, more than chair-hire, that makes the town expenfive. No honour is loft by walking. in the dark; and in the day, you may becken a blackguard boy under a gate, near your vifiting place, (experto cred), fave eleven pence, and get half a crown's worth of health. The worst of my prefent misfortune is, that I eat and drink, and can digeft neither for want of exercife; and, to inereafe my mifery, the knaves are fure to find me at home, and make huge void spaces in my cellars., I congratulate with you for lofing your great acquaintance. In fuch a cafe, philofophy teaches, that we muft fubmit, and be content with good ones. I like Lord Cornbury's refufing his penfion; but I demur at his being elected for Oxford; which I' conceive is wholly changed, and entirely devoted to new principles; fo it appeared to me the two laft times I was there.

I find, by the whole caft of your letter, that you are as giddy and as volatile as ever; just the reverse of Mr. Pope, who hath always loved a domestic life from his youth. I was going to wish you had fome little place that you could call your own; but I profess I do not know you well enough to con trive any one system of life that would please you. You pretend to preach up riding and walking to the Duchefs; yet, from my knowledge of you after twenty years, you always joined a violent defire of perpetually fhifting places and company, with a rooted lazinefs, and an utter impatience of fatigue. A coach and fix horfes is the utmost exercise you can bear, and this only when you can fill it with fuch company as is beft fuited to your tafte; and how glad would you be, if it could waft you in the air to avoid jolting? while I, who am fo much later in life, can, or at least could, ride 500 miles on a trotting horfe. You mortally hate writing, only because it is the thing you chiefly ought to do; as well to keep up the vogue you have in the world, as to make you eafy in your fortune. You are merciful to every thing but money, your best friend, whom you treat with inhumanity. Be affured, I will hire people to watch all your motions, and to return me a faithful account. Tell me, have you cured your abfence of mind? Can you attend to trifles? Can you at Aimsbury write domeftic libels to divert the family, and neighbouring 'fquires for five miles round? or venture fo far on horseback, without apprehending a stumble at every step? Can you fet the footmen a-laughing as they wait at din ner? and do the Duchefs's women admire your wit? In what efteem are you with the vicar of the parifh? Can you play with him at backgammon?" Have the farmers found out, that you cannot diftinguish rye from barley, or an oak from a crabtree? You are fenfible, that I know the full extent

of

of your country-fkill is in fifhing for roaches, or gudgeons at the highest.

I love to do you good offices with your friends; and therefore defire you will show this letter to the Duchefs, to improve her Grace's good opinion of your qualifications, and convince her how useful you are like to be in the family. Her Grace thall have the honour of my correfpondence again when she goes to Aimfbury. Hear a piece of Irifh news. I buried the famous General Meredyth's father last night in my cathedral; he was ninetyfix years old: fo that Mrs. Pope may live feven years longer. You faw Mr. Pope in health; pray is he generally more healthy than when I was amongst you? I would know how your own health is, and how much wine you drink in a day. My ftint in company is a pint at noon, and half as much at night; but I often dine at home like a hermit, and then I drink little or none at all. Yet I differ from you; for I would have fociety, if I could get what I like, people of middle understanding, and middle rank. Adieu,

I

LETTER LIX.

Dublin, July 10. 1732.

HAD your letter by Mr. Ryves a long time after the date, for I fuppofe he ftaid long in the way. I am glad you determine upon fomething, There is no writing I efteem more than fables, nor any thing fo difficult to fucceed in; which however you have done excellently well; and I have often admired your happiness in fuch a kind of performance, which I have frequently endeavoured at in vain, I remember I acted as you seem to hint. I

found a moral first, and studied for a fable; but could do nothing that pleafed me, and fo left off that scheme for ever. I remember one, which was, to reprefent what fcoundrels rife in armies by a long war; wherein I fuppofed the lion was engaged, and having loft all his animals of worth, at laft Serjeant Hog came to be a Brigadier, and Corporal Afs a Colonel, &c. I agree with you likewife about getting fomething by the ftage; which, when it fucceeds, is the beft crop for poetry in England. But pray take fome new fcheme, quite different from any thing you have already touched. The prefent humour of the players, who hardly (as I was told in London). regard any new play, and your prefent fituation at the court, are the difficulties to be overcome; but thefe circumftances may have altered (at least the former) fince I left you. My fcheme was, to pass a month at Aimsbury, and then go to Twickenham, and live a winter between that and Dawley, and fometimes at Rifkins; without going to London, where I now can have no occafional lodgings. But I am not yet in any condition for fuch removals. I would fain have you get enough against you grow old, to have two or three fervants about you, and a convenient houfe. It is. hard to want those fubfidia fenectuti, when a man grows hard to please, and few people care whether he be pleafed or no. I have a large house; yet I should hardly prevail to find one vifitor, if I were not able to hire him with a bottle of wine: fo that when I am not abroad on horseback, I generally dine alone, and am thankful if a friend will pafs the evening with me. I am now with the remainder of my pint before me, and fo here's your health, - and the fecond and chief is to my Tunbridge acquaintance, my Lady Duchefs. And I tell you, that I fear my Lord Bolingbroke, and Mr. Pope, a couple of philofopers, would ftarve me; for even of Port-wine I should require half a pint a day, and VOL. X. F

as