Having found the following Letters in the first Volume of Mr. POPE's Literary Corref pondence lately published by himself; and, as they relate to our fuppofed AUTHOR, we have thought proper to infert them here, together with his Anfwers, to make this Volume as compleat as poffible.

Mr. POPE to Doctor SWIFT.

I

August, 1723.

FIND a Rebuke in a late Letter of yours, that both ftings and pleases me extreamly. Your faying that I ought to have writ a Postfcript to my Friend Gay's, makes me not content to write lefs than a whole Letter; and your feeming to take his kindly, gives me Hopes you will look upon this as a fincere Effect of Friendship. Indeed, as I cannot but own the Lazinefs with which you tax me, and with which I may equally charge you, for both of us have had (and one of us has both had and given) a Surfeit of writing, fo I really thought you would know your felf to be fo certainly intitled to O 2

my

my Friendship, that it was a Poffeffion you could not imagine flood in need of any farther Deeds or Writings to affure you of it.

WHATEVER You feem to think of your withdrawn and feparate State, at this Distance, and in this Absence, Dean Swift lives ftill in England, in every Place and Company where he would chufe to live, and I find him in all the Conversations I keep, and in all the Hearts in which I defire any Share.

We have never met these many Years without mention of you: Befides my old Acquaintance, I have found that all my Friends of a later Date are fuch as were yours before. Lord Oxford, Lord Harcourt, and Lord Harley, may look upon me as one intailed upon them by you. Lord Bolingbroke is now returned (as I hope) to take Me with all his other Hereditary-Rights; and, indeed, he seems grown fo much a Philofopher, as to fet his Heart upon fome of them as little, as upon the Poet you gave him. It is fure my ill Fate, that all thofe I moft loved, and with whom I have moft lived, must be banished: After both of you left England, my conftant Hoft was the Bishop of Rochester; fure this is a Nation that is curfedly afraid of being over-run with too much Politenefs, and cannot regain one great Genius, but at the Expence of another. I tremble for my Lord Peterborow (whom I now lodge with) he has too much Wit, as well as Courage, to make a folid General; and if he escapes being banished by others, I fear he will banish himfelf. This leads me to give you fome Account of my Manner of Life and Converfation, which has been infinitely more various and diffipated, than when you knew me and cared for me; and among all Sexes, Parties, and Profeffions. A Glut of Study and Retirement, in the first Part of my Life,

caft

caft me into this; and this I begin to fee will throw me again into Study and Retirement.

THE Civilities I have met with from oppofite Sets of People, have hindred me from being violent or four to any Party; but at the fame Time the Obfervations and Experiences I cannot but have collected, have made me lefs fond of, and lefs furprized at, any: I am therefore the more afflicted and the more angry at the Violences and Hardships I fee practifed by either. The merry Vein you knew me in, is funk into a Turn of Reflection, that has made the World pretty indifferent to me; and yet I have acquired a quietnefs of Mind which by Fits improves into a certain Degree of Chearfulness, enough to make me just so good humoured as to wish that World well. My Friendships are increased by new ones, yet no Part of the Warmth I felt for the old is diminished. Averfions I have none, but to Knaves (for Fools I have learned to bear with) and fuch I cannot be commonly civil to; for I think those next to Knaves who converse with them. The greatest Man in Power of this Sort, fhall hardly make me bow to him, unless I had a perfonal Obligation to him, and that I will take Care not to have. The top Pleasure of my Life is one I learned from you, both how to gain and how to use, the Freedom of Friendship with Men much my Superiors. To have pleased great Men, according to Horace, is a Praise; but not to have flattered them, and yet not have displeased them, is a greater. I have carefully avoided all Intercourfe with Poets and Scriblers, unless where by great Chance I have found a modeft one. By these Means I have had no Quarrels with any perfonally : None have been Enemies but who were alfo Strangers to me; and as there is no great Need of an Eclaircifment

0 3

Eclaircifment with fuch, whatever they writ or faid I never retaliated; not only never feeming to know, but often really never knowing any Thing of the Matter. There are very few Things that give me the Anxiety of a Wish; the ftrongest I have would be to pass my Days with you, and a few fuch as you: But Fate has difperfed them all about the World; and I find to wish it is as vain, as to wish to live to see the Millennium and the Kingdom of the Just upon Earth.

IF I have finned in my long Silence, confider there is one to whom you your felf have been as great a Sinner. As foon as you fee his Hand, you will learn to do me Justice, and feel in your Heart how long a Man may be filent to those he truly loves and refpects.

Lord BOLINGBROKE

то

I

Dr. S WIF T.

AM not fo lazy as Pope, and therefore you must not expect from me the fame Indulgence to Lazinefs; in defending his own Caufe he pleads yours, and becomes your Advocate while he appeals to you as his Judge; you will do the fame on your Part; and I, and the rest of your common Friends, fhall have great Justice to expect from two fuch righteous Tribunals: You resemble perfectly the two Alchoufe-Keepers in Holland,

who

who were at the fame Time Burgomafters of the Town, and taxed one anothers Bills alternately. I declare before-hand I will not ftand to the Award; my Title to your Friendship is good, and wants neither Deeds nor Writings to confirm it: But annual Acknowledgements at leaft are neceffary to preserve it; and I begin to fufpect by your defrauding me of them, that you hope in Time to difpute it, and to urge Prefcription against me. I would not fay one Word to you about my felf (fince it is a Subject on which you appear to have no Curiofity) was it not to try, how far the Contraft between Pope's Fortune and Manner of Life, and mine, may be carried.

I HAVE been then infinitely more uniform and lefs diffipated, than when you knew me and cared for me. That Love which I used to scatter with fome Profufion, among the whole Female Kind, has been these many Years devoted to one Object. A great many Misfortunes (for fo they are called, though sometimes very improperly) and a Retirement from the World, have made that just and nice Discrimination between my Acquaintance and my Friends, which we have seldom Sagacity enough to make for our selves; those Infects of various Hues, which used to hum and buz about me while I ftood in the Sunshine, have disappeared fince I lived in the Shade. No man comes to a Hermitage but for the Sake of the Hermit; a few philofophical Friends come often to mine, and they are fuch as you would be glad to live with, if a dull Climate and duller Company have not altered you extreamly from what you was nine Years ago.

THE hoarfe Voice of Party was never heard in this quiet Place; Gazettes and Pamphlets are banished from it, and if the Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerfaff