triumphs of this nature deserve perhaps to be considered rather as subjects of regret, than as sources of real glory. If the most eminent departed authors could revisit the human scene, after residing in a purer sphere, and revise their own productions, they would probably annihilate all the virulent invectives which the intemperance of human passions has so abundantly produced.

Among the pitiable infelicities in the frame of Pope, we may justly reckon the irritability of his temper; and it was an additional misfortune to him, that some of his friends, whom he most esteemed, excited him to such an exercise of his talents as had a tendency to encrease his constitutional infirmity. bury, who after perusing his character of Addison, exhorted him to persevere in the thorny path of satire, would have better consulted both the happiness, and the renown of his friend, had he endeavoured to lead hls affectionate ductile spirit into a su blimer sphere of literary ambition!

-In this

But to speak of Pope as a writer of Letters!character, as in that of a poet, he has had the ill-fortune to suffer by hasty and indiscriminate censure. It has been a fashion to say, the Letters of Pope are stiff, and affected. Even Cowper has spoken of them in such terms of general condemnation, as I am confident, his candid spirit would have corrected, had he been led to reflect and expatiate on the subject; for in truth, though many Letters of Pope have the disgusting defects of formality and affectation, there are several, in which he makes a near approach to that excellence, that delightful assemblage of ease, freedom, and dignity, which enchants the reader, in the epistolary language of my departed friend. The Letters of Pope are

valuable in many points of view. They exhibit extraordinary specimens of mental power, and a contemplative spirit in very early youth. They shew the progress of a tender, powerful, and irritable mind in its acquaintance with polished life, the delights it enjoyed, the vexations it endured, the infirmities it contracted, and the virtues it exerted, in a long career of memorable enmities, and of friendships more worthy of unfading remembrance. He has passed himself so just and manly a censure on his juvenile affectation of epistolary wit, that on this point he is entitled to mercy from the severest of critics. It is not so easy to excuse him for the excess of his flattery. Yet on this article a friendly admirer of the author may find something to alledge in his behalf. Among the most offensive of his Letters we may reckon those to Lady Mary, peculiarly disgusting from their very gross, and very awkward adulation. But even this may be pardonable, if we allow, what appears very probable, that Pope was so fascinated by the beauty, and attractions of this accomplished lady, that he was absolutely in love with her, though not conscious of his passion. For the credit of both, it may be wished, that all traces of their intimacy, and of their quarrel, could be utterly forgotten; and the more so, because, with all their imperfections, each has displayed such a high degree of literary excellence, that the happier writings of both must be admired, as long as the language of England exists.

Lady Mary deserves to live in the grateful remembrance of her country, as the first English teacher, and patroness of inocu lation. She has probably rescued many thousand fair faces from

the ravages of a deforming distemper; she would indeed have been still more entitled to perpetual benediction, had she been able to accomplish as much (by example or precept) towards diminishing the barbarous influence of those mental distempers, envy, hatred, and malice; but instead of banishing them from her own spirit, she has exhibited, in writing against Pope, a portentous offspring of their execrable power.- -It would be a signal and a happy compliment to the literary reputation of this memorable lady, if her noble descendants would direct that the bitter verses, to which I allude, should be rejected from the future editions of her works. Her outrageous acrimony would then be gradually forgotten, as all who justly regard her memory must wish it to be. The verses in question may be rejected with the greater propriety, as they are said to have been partly composed by her associate, Lord Hervey. Let the peer and the poet (Hervey and Pope) shew themselves alternately mangling each other with equal virulence, though with different abilities, but let not a lady, so truly admirable in many points of view, be exhibited to all generations, as brandishing the scalping-knife of satirical malignity! Her more temperate writings exhibit infinitely too much of that contemptuous and malevolent spirit which she was apt to display against several illustrious authors of her own time- -a failing for which she has been censured with great justice and eloquence by a female writer of the present age, who may be regarded as greatly superior to Lady Mary not only in the graceful virtues most suited to her sex, but in her poetical talents. The candid, elegant, and animated biographer of Richardson (Mrs. Barbou) has admirably vindicated

the mental dignity of that enchanting moralist against the sarcastic detraction of Lady Mary.

Even

But let us return to the Letters of Pope! If they have sunk in the estimation of the public, there certainly was a time, when they contributed not a little to his renown. his unfriendly biographer, Johnson, says on this subject-"Pope's private correspondence, thus promulgated, filled the nation "with praises of his candour, tenderness, and benevolence, the "purity of his purposes, and the fidelity of his friendship."

This is probably the truth, though the Doctor seems to contradict himself in the course of a few pages, and says, with remarkable inconsistency, in speaking of the Letters published by Pope.- "The book never became much the subject of "conversation. Some read it, as a contemporary history, and some perhaps, as a model of epistolary language. But those, who read it, did not talk of it. Not much therefore was added it to fame or envy."

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If the surrepitious edition of Pope's Letters produced such a striking effect in the poet's favour, as the Doctor at first asserted, it is very improbable, that Pope's authentic publication of his own. correspondence should be so litttle regarded. There is also great improbability in the Doctor's conjecture, that Pope himself, with a very mean artifice, contrived the first clandestine appearance of his own Letters. Had he previously wished to print them, he might have pleaded the precedent of Howel's Letters, a popular book of our own country, and of merit sufficient to attract the notice and applause of foreigners; for the learned Morhof, in his History of Literature, expresses a wish

that Howel's Letters may be translated into Latin or German. If Pope wished for higher authority, among the poets of other nations, he might have found such an authority in the elder Tasso, who in writing to his friend, Claudio Tolomei, praises him with enthusiastic admiration, for having published one of the earliest collections of familar Letters in the Italian language, which the poet considers as worthy of being regarded as models; and in friendly emulation of which, he avows a design of impart ing to the world, two books of his own private Letters.

It is but just however to observe, on the other side, that Erasmus, a favourite author in the estimation of Pope, has said in one of his Letters, that he would by no means advise any writer to publish his own Letters, in his life time:-" Nulli velim autor esse, ut ipse vivus edat." The mild Erasmus confesses he wanted courage himself, for such a display of his talents; and declares, he wondered that St. Barnard not only published Letters of his own, but Letters, in which he had not scrupled to stigmatize the names of many.

But to return once more to the Letters of Pope!--" His epistolary excellence, (says Johnson) had an open field; he had no English rival living or dead." The biographer, before he made this remark, enumerated a few English writers of Letters, who had preceded Pope; but he forgot Sir William Temple, whose celebrated Letter to Lady Essex, on the death of her daughter, is a master-piece of tender reproof, and friendly admonition, against the indulgence of intemperate sorrow; a Letter admirable for its eloquence, and worthy of perpetual com

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