I RETURN you the book you were pleased to send me, and with it your obliging letter, which deserves my particular acknowledgment: for, next to the pleasure of enjoying the company of so good a friend, the welcomest thing to me is to hear from him. I expected to find, what I have met with, an admirable genius in those Poems, not only because they were Milton's, or were approved by Sir. Hen.

5

Secretary of State to King William the Third. P.

L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Lycidas, and the Masque of Comus. 7 From hence it appears, that these four exquisite Poems of Milton were read, and relished, and recommended, by our author, much earlier than they are supposed to have been. He has taken many expressions from them in the Eloisa and the Temple of Fame, and other pieces. See the Preface to the second edition, 1791, p. 10, of Milton's smaller Poems, by T. Warton. That a

;

Wooton, but because you had commended them and give me leave to tell you, that I know nobody so like to equal him, even at the age he wrote most of them, as yourself. Only do not afford more cause of complaints against you, that you suffer nothing of yours to come abroad; which in this age, wherein wit and true sense is more scarce than money, is a piece of such cruelty as your best friends can hardly pardon. I hope you will repent and amend; I could offer many reasons to this purpose, and such as you cannot answer with any sincerity; but that I dare not enlarge; for fear of engaging in a style of Compliment, which has been so abused by fools and knaves, that it is become almost scandalous. I conclude therefore with an assurance which shall never vary, of my being ever, etc.

LETTER II.

FROM SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL.

April 9, 1708.

I HAVE this moments received the favour of yours of the 8th instant; and will make you a true excuse

person of Trumbull's taste and literature should not have been before acquainted with these Poems of Milton, is a clear proof how little they were known and regarded in general.

• There is something particularly pleasing in the letters of this amiable and honest old statesman; they breathe an air of uncommon good temper, good sense, candour, and tranquillity of mind. See particularly Letters III. VI. and VIII. Several

(though perhaps no very good one) that I deferred the troubling you with a letter, when I sent back your papers, in hopes of seeing you at Binfield before this time. If I had met with any fault in your performance, I should freely now (as I have done too presumptuously in conversation with you) tell you my opinion; which I have frequently ventured to give you, rather in compliance with your desires than that I could think it reasonable. For I am not yet satisfied upon what grounds I can pretend to judge of poetry, who never have been practised in the art. There may possibly be some happy genius's, who may judge of some of the natural beauties of a poem, as a man may of the proportions of a building, without having read Vitruvius, or knowing any thing of the rules of architecture; but this, though it may sometimes be in the right, must be subject to many mistakes, and is certainly but a superficial knowledge; without entering into the art, the methods, and the particular excellencies of the whole composure, in all the parts of it.

Besides my want of skill, I have another reason why I ought to suspect myself, by reason of the great affection I have for you; which might give too much bias to be kind to every thing that comes from you. But after all, I must say (and I do it with an old-fashioned sincerity) that I entirely approve of your translation of

:

curious letters of Sir W. Trumbull, written while he was Embassador in France, are preserved in the Paper-office and some relating to the cruel Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, are published in the Memoirs of Sir John Dalrymple, vol. i. p. 123.

those pieces of Homer, both as to the versification and the true sense that shines through the whole: nay I am confirmed in my former application to you, and give me leave to renew it upon this occasion, that you would proceed in translating that incomparable poet, to make him speak good English, to dress his admirable characters in your proper, significant, and expressive conceptions, and to make his works as useful and instructive to this degenerate age, as he was to our friend Horace, when he read him at Præneste: Qui, quid sit pulcrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid I break off with that quid non? with which I confess I am charmed.

non, etc.

Upon the whole matter I intreat you to send this presently to be added to the Miscellanies, and I hope it will come time enough for that purpose.

I have nothing to say of my Nephew B-'s observations, for he sent them to me so late, that I had not time to consider them; I dare say he endeavoured very faithfully (though, he told me, very hastily) to execute your commands.

All I can add is, that if your excess of modesty should hinder you from publishing this Essay, I shall only be sorry that I have no more credit with you, to persuade you to oblige the public, and very particularly, dear Sir,

Your, etc.

"Hence it appears that Sir W. Trumbull was the very first person that urged him to undertake a translation of the Iliad of Homer.

LETTER III.

FROM SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL.

March 6, 1713.

I THINK a hasty scribble shows more what flows from the heart, than a letter after Balzac's manner1, in studied phrases; therefore I will tell you as fast as I can, that I have received your favour of the 26th past, with your kind present of the Rape of the Lock. You have given me the truest satisfaction imaginable, not only in making good the just opinion I have ever had of your reach of thought, and my Idea of your comprehensive genius; but likewise in that pleasure I take as an Englishman to see the French, even Boileau himself in his Lutrin, out-done in your poem; for you descend, leviore plectro, to all the nicer touches, that your own observation and wit furnish, on such a subject as requires the finest strokes and the liveliest imagination. But I must say no more (though I could a great deal) on what pleases me so much; and henceforth, I hope, you will never condemn me of partiality, since I only swim with the stream, and approve of what all men of good taste (notwithstanding the jarring of parties) must and do universally applaud. I now come to what is of vast moment, I mean the preservation of your health, and beg of you earnestly to get out of all Tavern-company, and fly away tanquam ex incendio. What a misery is

' I wish our author had attended to this observation.