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he goes on to reprove the excess on the other hand of being too folicitous in this matter, and fays admirably, Nefcio an negligentia in hoc, aut folicitudo fit pejor. So likewife Tully (Orat. ad Brut.) Theopompum reprehendunt, quod eas literas tanto opere fugerit, etfi idem magifter ejus Socrates: which laft author, as Turnebus on Quintilian observes, has hardly one Hiatus in all his works. Quintilian tells us, that Tully and Demofthenes did not much obferve this nicety, though Tully himself says in the Orator, Crebra ifta vocum concurfio, quam magna ex parte vitiofam, fugit Demofthenes. If I am not mistaken, Malherbe of all the moderns has been the most scrupulous in this point; and I think Menage in his observations upon him fays, he has not one in his poems. To conclude, I believe the Hiatus fhould be avoided with more care in poetry than in Oratory: and I would conftantly try to prevent it, unlefs where the cutting it off is more prejudicial to the found than the Hiatus itself,

I am, etc.

A. POPE.

Mr. Wa'sh died at forty-nine years old, in the year 1708, the year before the Effay on Criticism was printed, which concludes with his Elogy.

LETTERS

LETTERS

TO AND FROM

H. CROMWELL,

From the Year 1708 to 1711.

Efq;

I

LETTER I.

March 18, 1708.

Believe it was with me when I left the Town, as it is with a great many men when they leave the world, whofe lofs itself they do not fo much regret, as that of their friends whom they leave behind in it. For I do not know one thing for which I can envy London, but for your continuing there. Yet I guess you will expect me to recant this expreffion, when I tell you that Sappho (by which heathenish name you have chriften'd a very orthodox Lady) did not accompany me into the Country. Well, you have your Lady in the Town ftill, and I have my Heart in the Country ftill, which being wholly unemploy'd as yet, has the more room in it for my friends, and does not want a corner at your fervice. You have extremely obliged me by your frankness and kindness; and if I have abus,d it by too much freedom on my part, I hope you will attribute it to the natural openness of my temper, which hardly knows how to show Refpect, where it feels Affection. I would love my friend, as my miftrefs, without ceremony; and hope a little rough usage fometimes may not be more difpleafing to the one, than it is to the other.

If you have any curiofity to know in what manner I live, or rather lofe a life, Martial will inform you in one

line :

Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lego, cœno, quiefco.

Every day with me is literally another yefterday, for it is exactly the fame : It has the fame business, which is Poetry; and the fame pleasure, which is Idleness. A man might indeed pass his time much better, but I queftion if any man could pass it much eafier. If you will vifit our shades this fpring, which I very much defire, you may perhaps inftruct me to manage my game more wifely; but at prefent I am fatisfy'd to trifle away my time any way, rather than let it ftick by me; as shopkeepers are glad to be rid of those goods at any rate, which would otherwife always be lying upon their hands.

Sir, if you will favour me fometimes with your letters, it will be a great fatisfaction to me on feveral accounts; and on this in particular, that it will fhew me (to my comfort) that even a wife man is fometimes very idle; for fo you needs must be when you can find leifure to write to Your, etc.

I

LETTER II.

April 27, 1708.

Have nothing to say to you in this letter; but I was refolv'd to write to tell you fo. Why should not Icontent myself with so many great Examples, of deep Divines, profound Cafuifts, grave Philofophers; who have written, not letters only, but whole Tomes and voluminous Treatifes about Nothing? Why should a fellow like me, who all his life does nothing, be asham'd to write nothing and that to one who has nothing to do but to read it? But perhaps you'll fay, the whole world has fomething to do, fomething to talk of, something to wish for, fomething to be employed about : But pray, Sir, caft up the account, put all thefe fomethings together,

and

and what is the fum total but juft nothing? I have no more to say, but to defire you to give my service (that is nothing) to your friends, and to believe that Ì am nothing more than Your, etc.

Ex nihilo nil fit.

LUCR.

LETTER III.

May 10, 1708.

OU talk of fame and glory, and of the great men

γου

of Antiquity Pray tell me, what are all your great dead men, but fo many little living letters? What a vaft reward is here for all the ink wafted by Writers, and all the blood fpilt by Princes? There was in old time one Severus a Roman Emperor. I dare fay you never called him by any other name in your life: and yet in his days he was ftyled Lucius, Septimius, Severus, Pius, Pertinax, Auguftus, Parthicus, Adiabenicus, Arabicus, Maximus, and what not? What a prodigio as wafte of letters has time made! what a number have here dropt off, and left the poor furviving feven unattended! For my own part, four are all I have to care for; and I'll be judg'd by you if any man cou'd live in lefs compass? Well, for the future I'll drown all high thoughts in the Lethe of cowflip-wine; as for Fame, Renown, Reputation, take 'em, Critics!

Tradam protervis in Mare Criticum

Ventis.

If ever I feek for Immortality here, may I be damn'd, for there is not fo much danger in a Poet's being damn'd: Damnation follows death in other men,

I

But your damn'd Poet lives and writes agen.

LETTER IV.

Nov. 1, 1708.

Have been fo well fatisfy'd with the Country ever fince I faw you, that I have not once thought of the Town, nor enquir'd of any one in it befides Mr. Wy

cherley

cherly and yourself. And from him I understand of your journey this fummer into Leicestershire; from whence I guefs you are return'd by this time, to your old apartment in the widow's corner, to your old business of comparing Critics, and reconciling Commentators, and to your ol1 diverfions of lofing a game at piquet with the ladies, and half a play, or quarter of a play, at the theatre: where you are none of the malicious audience, but the chief of amorous fpectators; and for the infirmity of one * fente, which there, for the most part, could only ferve to difguft you, enjoy the vigour of another, which ravifhes

you.

[† You know, when one fense is suppress'd,

It but retires into the reft,

according to the poetical, not the learned, Dodwell; who has done one thing worthy of eternal memory; wrote two lines in his life that are not nonfenfe !] So you have the advantage of being entertain'd with all the beauty of the boxes, without being troubled with any of the dulness of the ftage. You are fo good a critic, that 'tis the greatest happiness of the modern Poets that you do not hear their works: and next, that you are not fo arrant a critic, as to damn them (like the reft) without hearing. But now 1 talk of those critics, I have good news to tell you concerning myself, for which I expect you should congratu late with me: It is that, beyond all my expectations, and far above my demerits, I have been moft mercifully repriev'd by the fovereign power of Jacob Tonfon, from being brought forth to public punishment; and respited from time to time from the hands of those barbarous executioners of the Mufes, whom I was just now speaking of. It often happens, that guilty Poets, like other guilty Criminals, when once they are known and proclaim'd, deliver themselves into the hands of juftice, only to prevent others from doing it more to their disadvantage; and

* His hearing.

+ Omitted by the Author in his own edition.

VOL. III.

X x

not

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