fion. Your couplet of the dog-ftar is very fine, but may be too fublime in this place. I laugh'd heartily at your note upon Paradife; for to make Ovid talk of the garden. of Eden, is certainly moft abfurd; but Xenophon in his Oeconomics, fpeaking of a garden finely planted and watered (as is here defcribed) calls it Paradifos: 'Tis an interpolation indeed, and ferves for a gradation to the celeftial orb; which expreffes in fome fort the Sidus Cafloris in parte cœli-How trees can enjoy, let the naturalifts determine; but the poets make them fenfitive, lovers, bachelors, and married. Virgil in his Georgics, lib. ii. Horace Ode xv. lib. ii. Platanus cælebs evincet ulmos. Epod ii. Ergo aut adulta vitium propagine Altas maritat populos. Your critique is a very Dolcepiccante; for after the many faults you juftly find, you fmooth your rigour: but an obliging thing is owing (you think) to one who fo much efteems and admires you, and who shall ever be Your, etc. LETTER XVIII. Auguft 21, 1710. YOUR Letters are a perfect charity to a man in retirement, utterly forgotten of all his friends but you; for fince Mr. Wycherley left London, I have not heard a word from him; though just before, and once fince, I writ to him, and tho' I know my felf guilty of no offence but of doing fincerely juft what he* bid me-Hoc mihi libertas, hoc pia lingua dedit !-But the greatest injury he does me is the keeping me in ignorance of his welfare, which I am always very folicitous for, and very uneafy in the fear of any indifpofition that may befal him. In what I fent you fome time ago, you have not verse enough to be severe upon, in revenge for my laft criticism: In one point I must perfift, that is to fay my diflike of *Correcting his verfes. See the letters in 1706, and the following years, of Mr. Wycherley and Mr. Pope. your Paradife, in which I take no pleasure; I know very well that in Greek 'tis not only us'd by Xenophon, but is a common word for any garden; but in English it bears the fignification, and conveys the Idea of Eden, which alone is (I think) a reafon against making Ovid ufe it; who will be thought to talk too much like a Chriftian in your verfion at leaft, whatever it might have been in Latin or Greek. As for all the reft of my remarks, fince you do not laugh at them as at this, I can be fo civil as not to lay any stress upon them (as, I think, I told you before) and in particular in the point of trees enjoying, you have, I muft own, fully fatisfied me that the expreffion is not only defenfible, but beautiful. I fhall be very glad to fee your tranflation of the elegy, Ad amicam navigantem, as foon as you can; for (without a compliment to you) every thing you write, either in verfe or profe, is welcome to me; and you may be confident, (if my opinion can be of any fort of confequence in any thing) that I will never be unfincere, tho' I may be often mistaken. To ufe fincerity with you is but paying you in your own coin, from whom I have experienced fo much of it; and I need not tell you, how much I really esteem you, when I efteem nothing in the world fo much as that quality. I know, you fometimes fay civil things to me in your epiftolary ftyle, but thofe I am to make allowance for, as particularly when you talk of admiring; 'tis a word you are fo us'd to in converfation of Ladies, that it will creep into your difcourfe, in fpite of you, even to your friends. But as women, when they think themselves fecure of admiration, commit a thousand negligences, which show them fo much at difadvantage and off their guard, as to lofe the little real love they had before: fo when men imagine others entertain fome efteem for their abilities, they often expofe all their imperfections and foolish works, to the difparagement of the little wit they were thought mafters of. I am going to exemplify this to you, in putting into your hands (being encouraged by fo much indulgence) fome verfes of my youth, or rather childhood; which (as I was a great ad mirer of Waller) were intended in imitation of his manner * ; and are perhaps, fuch imitations, as thofe you fee in aukward country dames, of the fine and well bred ladies of the court. If you will take them with you into Lincolnshire, i they may fave you one hour from the converfation of the country gentlemen and their tenants (who differ but in drefs and name) which, if it be there as bad as here, is even worse than my poetry. I hope your ftay there will. be no longer than (as Mr. Wycherley calls it) to rob the country, and run away to London with your money. In the mean time I beg the favour of a line from you, and am (as I will never ccafe to be) Your, etc. I LETTER XIX. Oct. 12, 1710. Deferred anfwering your laft, upon the advice I receiv'd, that you were leaving the town for fome time, and expected your return with impatience, having then a defign of seeing my friends there, among the firft of which I have reafon to account yourself. But my almoft continual ineffes prevent that, as well as most other fatisfactions of my life: However, I may fay one good thing of fickness, that it is the beft cure in nature for ambition, and defigns upon the world or fortune: It makes a man pretty indifferent for the future, provided he can but be eafy, by intervals, for the prefent. He will be content to compound for his quiet only, and leave all the circumftantial part and pomp of life to those, who have a health vigorous enough to enjoy all the miftreffes of their defires. I thank God, there is nothing out of myself which I would be at the trouble of feeking, except a friend; a happiness I once hop'd to have poffefs'd in Mr. Wycherley; but -Quantum mutatus ab illo !—I have *One or two of these were fince printed among other Imitations done in his youth. for for fome years been employ'd much like children that build houses with cards, endeavouring very bufily and eagerly to raife a friendship, which the firft breath of any illnatur'd by-ftander could puff away.-But I will trouble you no farther with writing, nor myself with thinking, of this fubje&t. I was mightily pleased to perceive by your quotation from Voiture, that you had track'd me fo far as France, You fee 'tis with weak heads as with weak ftomachs, they immediately throw out what they received laft; and what they read, floats upon the furface of the mind, like oil upon water, without incorporating. This, I think, however, can't be faid of the love-verfes I laft troubled you with, where all (I am afraid) is so puerile and so like the author, that no body will fufpect any thing to be borrow'd. Yet you (as a friend, entertaining a better opinion of them) it fecms, fearch'd in Waller, but fearch'd in vain. Your judgment of them is (I think) very right, for it was my own opinion before. If If you think 'em not worth the trouble of correcting, pray tell me fo freely, and it will fave me a labour; if you think the contrary, you would particularly oblige me by your remarks on the feveral thoughts as they occur. I long to be nibbling at your verses, and have not forgot who promis'd me Ovid's elegy Ad Amicam navigantem. Had Ovid been as long compofing it, as you in fending it, the lady might have fail'd to Gades, and receiv'd it at her return. I have really a great itch of criticism upon me, but want matter here in the country; which I defire you to furnish me with, as I do you in the town, Sic fervat ftudii fœdera quifque fui. I am obliged to Mr. Caryl (whom, you tell me, you met at Epfom) for telling you truth, as a man is in thefe days to any one that will tell truth to his advantage; and I think none is more to mine, than what he told you, and I should be glad to tell all the world, that I have an extreme affection and efteem for you. Tecum Tecum etenim longos memini confumere foles, Et tecum primas epulis decerpere noctes ; By thefe Epula, as I take it, Perfius meant the Portugal Snuff and burnt Claret, which he took with his mafter' Cornutus; and the verecunda menfa was, without dispute, fome coffee-house table of the ancients. I will only obferve, that these four lines are as elegant and mufical as any in Perfius, not excepting those fix or seven which Mr. Dryden quotes as the only fuch in all that author.1 could be heartily glad to repeat the fatisfaction defcrib'd in them, being truly Your, etc. LETTER XX. October 28, 1710. I Am glad to find by your last letter that you write to me with the freedom of a friend, fetting down your thoughts, as they occur, and dealing plainly with me in the matter of my own trifles, which, I affure you, I never valued half fo much as I do that fincerity in you which they were the occafion of discovering to me; and which while I am happy in, I may be trufted with that dangerous weapon, Poetry, fince I shall do nothing with it but after asking and following your advice. I value fincerity the more, as I find by fad experience, the practice of it is more dangerous; writers rarely pardoning the executioners of their verfes, even tho' themfelves pronounce fentence upon them.-As to Mr. Philips's Paftorals, I take the first to be infinitely the beft, and the fecond the worft; the third is for the greateft part a tranflation from Virgil's Daphnis. I will not foreftal your judgment of the reft, only observe in that of the Nightingale thefe lines (fpeaking of the musicians playing on the harp) |