seems not so proper; it in some measure lessening the character of Achilles's generosity and piety, which is the very point of which Priam endeavours in this place to convince his son, and to reproach him with the want of. But the truth of this circumstance is no way to be questioned, being expressly taken from Homer, who represents Achilles weeping for Priam, yet receiving the gold, Iliad xxiv. For when he gives the body, he uses these words: "O my friend Patroclus! forgive me that I quit the corpse of him who killed thee; I have great gifts in ransom for it, which I will bestow upon thy funeral."

LETTER XVII.

I am, etc.

FROM MR. CROMWELL

Aug. 5, 1710.

LOOKING among some French rhymes, I was agreeably surprised to find in the Rondeau of Pour le moins-your Apoticaire and Lavement, which I took for your own; so much is your Muse of intelligence with the wits of all languages. You have re

his father; car (on s'attend qu'il va dire) je n'ai pû resister aux larmes de ce pere infortuné; mais non: for he has brought me a great ransom. Such passages prove that true heroism was never so little known, as in the times called heroic." Marmontel. Poetique, t. ii. p. 197.

The plain answer is, that Achilles speaks and behaves suitably to the manners, ideas, and sentiments of his age. 4 In Voiture's Poems. P.

fined upon Voiture3, whose Où vous savez is much inferior to your You know where-You do not only pay your club with your author (as our friend says) but the whole reckoning; who can form such pretty lines from so trivial a hint.

For my Elegy; it is confessed, that the topography of Sulmo in the Latin makes but an awkward figure in the version. Your couplet of the dog-star is very fine, but may be too sublime in this place. I laughed heartily at your note upon paradise; for to make Ovid talk of the garden of Eden, is certainly most absurd; but Xenophon in his Economics, speaking of a garden finely planted and watered (as is here described) calls it Paradisos: 'tis an interpolation indeed, and serves for a gradation to the celestial orb; which expresses in some sort the Sidus Castoris in parte cali-How trees can enjoy, let the naturalist determine; but the poets make them sensitive, lovers, batchelors, 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 justly find, you smooth your rigour: but an obliging thing is owing (you think) to one who so much esteems and admires you, and who shall ever be

Your, &c.

In which passage there is as little decency as gallantry. • Ovid's Amorum, 1. ii. el. xvi. Pars me Sulmo, etc. P.. As Dr. Darwin has so successfully done in a poem that abounds in beautiful descriptions, and interesting digressions and allusions to ancient mythology.

LETTER XVIII.

August 21, 1710.

YOUR Letters are a perfect charity to a man in retirement, utterly forgotten of all his friends but you; for since Mr. Wycherley left London, I have not heard a word from him; though just before, and once since, I writ to him, and though I knew myself guilty of no offence but of doing sincerely just what he bid me3-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 solicitous for, and very uneasy in the fear of any indisposition that may befal him. In what I sent you some time ago, you have not verse enough to be severe upon, in revenge for my last criticism; in one point I must persist, that is to say, my dislike of your Paradise, in which I take no pleasure; I know very well that in Greek it is not only used by Xenophon, but it is a common word for any garden; but in English it bears the signification and conveys the idea of Eden, which alone is (I think) a reason against making Ovid use it; who will be thought to talk too much like a Christian, in your version at least, whatever it might have been in Latin or Greek. for all the rest of my remarks, since you do not laugh at them as at this, I can be so civil as not to lay any stress upon them (as, I think, I told you be

8

As

Correcting his verses. See the letters in 1706, and the following years, of Mr. Wycherley and Mr. Pope. P.

fore); and in particular in the point of trees enjoying, you have, I must own, fully satisfied me that the expression is not only defensible, but beautiful. I shall be very glad to see your translation of the elegy, Ad amicam navigantem, as soon as you can; for without a compliment to you) every thing you write, either in verse or prose, is welcome to me; and you may be confident (if my opinion can be of any sort of consequence in any thing) that I will never be unsincere, though I may be often mistaken. To use sincerity with you is but paying you in your own coin, from whom I have experienced so much of it; and I need not tell you how much I really esteem you, when I esteem nothing in the world so much as that quality. I know, you sometimes say civil things to me in your epistolary style, but those I am to make allowance for, as particularly when you talk of admiring; it is a word you are so used to in conversation of Ladies, that it will creep into your discourse, in spite of you, even to your friends. But as women, when they think themselves secure of admiration, commit a thousand negligences, which show them so much at disadvantage and off their guard, as to lose the little real love they had before: so when men imagine others entertain some esteem for their abilities, they often expose all their imperfections and foolish works, to the disparagement of the little wit they were thought master of. I am going to exemplify this to you, in putting into your hands (being encouraged by so much indulgence) some verses of my youth, or rather childhood; which (as I was a great admirer of Waller) were intended

in imitation of his manner; and are, perhaps, such imitations, as those you see in awkward country dames, of the fine and well-bred ladies of the court. If you will take them with you into Lincolnshire, they may save you one hour from the conversation of the country gentlemen and their tenants (who differ but in dress and name), which, if it be there as bad as here, is even worse than my poetry. I hope your stay 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 cease to be)

Your, etc.

LETTER XIX.

Oct. 12, 1710.

I DEFERRED answering your last, upon the advice I received, that you were leaving the town for some time, and expected your return with impatience, having then a design of seeing my friends there, among the first of which I have reason to account yourself. But my almost continual illnesses prevent that, as well as most other satisfactions of my life: however, I may say one good thing of sickness, that it is the best cure in nature for ambition, and designs upon the world or fortune: it makes a man

9 One or two of these were since printed among other Imitations done in his youth. P.