it for you to be destroyed by the foolish kindness ('tis all one whether real or pretended) of those who are able to bear the poison of bad wine, and to engage you in so unequal a combat? As to Homer, by all I can learn, your business is done: therefore come away and take a little time to breathe in the country. I beg now for my own sake, and much more for yours; methinks Mr. has said to you more than

once,

Heu fuge, nate dea, teque his, ait, eripe flammis !

I am

Your, etc.

LETTER IV.

TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL.

March 12, 1713.

THOUGH any thing you write is sure to be a pleasure to me, yet I must own your last letter made me uneasy; you really use a style of compliment, which I expect as little as I deserve it. I know 'tis a common opinion that a young scribbler is as ill pleased to hear truth as a young lady. From the moment one sets up for an author, one must be treated as ceremoniously, that is as unfaithfully,

As a King's favourite, or as a King.

This proceeding, joined to that natural vanity which first makes a man an author, is certainly enough to render him a coxcomb for life. But I must grant it

as a just judgment upon poets, that they whose chief pretence is Wit, should be treated as they themselves treat Fools, that is, be cajoled with praises. And, I believe, Poets are the only poor fellows in the world whom any body will flatter.

I would not be thought to say this, as if the obliging letter you sent me deserved this imputation, only it put me in mind of it; and I fancy one may apply to one's friend what Cæsar said of his wife; 'It was not sufficient that he knew her to be chaste himself, but she should not be so much as suspected.'

As to the wonderful discoveries, and all the good news you are pleased to tell me of myself, I treat it, as you who are in the secret, treat common news, as groundless reports of things at a distance: which I, who look into the true springs of the affair, in my own breast, know to have no foundation at all. For Fame, though it be (as Milton finely calls it) the last infirmity of noble minds, is scarce so strong a temptation as to warrant our loss of time here: it can never make us lie down contentedly on a death-bed (as some of the Ancients are said to have done with that thought). You, Sir, have yourself taught me, that an easy situation at that hour can proceed from no ambition less noble than that of an eternal felicity, which is unattainable by the strongest endeavours of the wit, but may be gained by the sincere intentions of the heart only. As in the next world, so in this, the only solid blessings are owing to the goodness of the mind, not the extent of the capacity: friendship here is an emanation from the same source as beatitude is there the same benevolence and grateful disposi

tion that qualifies us for the one, if extended farther, makes us partakers of the other. The utmost point of my desires in my present state terminates in the society and good-will of worthy men, which I look upon as no ill earnest and foretaste of the society and alliance of happy souls hereafter.

The continuance of your favours to me is what not only makes me happy, but causes me to set some value upon myself as a part of your care. The instances I daily meet with of these agreeable awakenings of friendship are of too pleasing a nature not to be acknowledged whenever I think of

you.

I am

Your, etc.

LETTER V.

April 30, 1713.

I HAVE been almost every day employed in following your advice, and amusing myself in painting, in which I am most particularly obliged to Mr. Jervas, who gives me daily instructions and examples. As to poetical affairs, I am content at present to be a bare looker-on, and from a practitioner turn an admirer, which is (as the world goes) not very usual. Cato was not so much the wonder of Rome in his days,

2

2 These praises of Addison seem to be very sincere, and to have come from the heart, before any coldness and disgust had taken place betwixt them. Irritated with the success of this Tragedy, Dennis wrote a severe criticism on its plan and fable; and, as Dr. Johnson says, "found and shewed many faults: he found them with anger, but he found them with acuteness, such

as he is of Britain in ours; and though all the foolish industry possible has been used to make it thought a party-play, yet what the author once said of another may the most properly in the world be applied to him, on this occasion;

Envy itself is dumb, in wonder lost,

And Factions strive, who shall applaud him most.

The numerous and violent claps of the Whig-party on the one side of the theatre, were echoed back by the Tories on the other; while the author sweated behind the scenes with concern to find their applause proceeding more from the hand than the head. This was the case too of the prologue writer3, who was clapped into a stanch Whig, at almost every two lines. I believe you have heard, that after all the applauses of the opposite faction, my Lord Bolingbroke sent

as ought to rescue his criticism from oblivion." He accordingly thought it worth republishing in his Life of Addison. "Pope," says Johnson, "had now an opportunity of courting the friendship of Addison, by villifying his old enemy, and could give resentment its full play, without appearing to revenge himself." He therefore published a " Narrative of the Madness of John Dennis;" a performance which left the objections to the play in their full force, and therefore discovered more desire of vexing the critic than of defending the poet. Addison, who was no stranger to the world, probably saw the selfishness of Pope's friendship; and resolving that he should have the consequences of his officiousness to himself, informed Dennis, by Steele, that "he was sorry for the insult, and that whenever he should think fit to answer his remarks, he would do it in a manner to which nothing could be objected."

The Life of Dennis is given in the fifth volume of the Biographia Britannica, by Dr. Kippis, with much candour and impartiality.

3 Himself.

for Booth, who played Cato, into the Box, between one of the acts, and presented him with fifty guineas; in acknowledgment (as he expressed it) for defending the cause of liberty so well against a Perpetual Dictator*. The Whigs are unwilling to be distanced this way, and therefore design a present to the same Cato very speedily; in the mean time they are getting ready as good a sentence as the former on their side so betwixt them, 'tis probable that Cato (as Dr. Garth expressed it) may have something to live upon, after he dies. I am

Your, etc.

LETTER VI.

FROM SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL.

Easthamstead, Feb. 22, 1714-15.

I AM sensibly obliged, dear Sir, by your kind present of the Temple of Fame, into which you are already entered, and I dare prophecy for once (though I am not much given to it) that you will continue there, with those,

Who ever new, not subject to decays,

Spread and grow brighter with the length of days.

There was nothing wanting to complete your obliging remembrance of me, but your accompanying it with

4

Bolingbroke evidently glanced at the power of the Duke of Marlborough. Quin exactly imitated, but did not equal Booth in playing this character.