acquainted with the precise time of your visit to London; that I may have the pleasure to meet a man in the manner I would, whom I must esteem one of the greatest of my benefactors. I am, with the most grateful and affectionate regard,* &c.

LETTER VI.

April 16, 1740. You could not give me more pleasure than by your short letter, which acquaints me that I may hope to see you so soon. Let us meet like men who have been many years acquainted with each other, and whose friendship is not to begin, but

* What led M. de Crousaz and others, who have raised objections to the Essay on Man, into their misapprehensions respecting that poem, is the taking too narrow a view of the subject, and attributing too positive a meaning to particular passages which the author has afterwards modified, and which were intended by him to be taken with a reference to the whole. Thus in vindicating the course of Providence, and the established harmony of the universe, he rejects the conclusion which his adversaries have attempted to force upon him, of a compulsory and absolute necessity, and asserts the freedom of the human mind, and the consequent existence of vice and virtue; thereby considering the omniscience of the Deity and the freedom of human action as perfectly (although to us inexplicably) compatible with each othera sentiment which he has also expressed in his Universal Prayer: Yet taught us in this dark estate

To know the good from ill;

And binding nature fast in fate,

Left free the human will.

+ Their very first interview was in Lord Radnor's garden, just by Mr. Pope's at Twickenham. Dodsley was present; and was, he told me, astonished at the high compliments paid him by Pope as he approached him.

Warton.

continue. All forms should be past, when people know each other's mind so well: I flatter myself you are a man after my own heart, who seeks content only from within, and says to greatness, Tuas habeto tibi res, egomet habebo meas. But as it is but just your other friends should have some part of you, I insist on my making you the first visit in London, and thence, after a few days, to carry you to Twitenham, for as many as you can afford me. If the press be to take up any part of your time, the sheets may be brought you hourly thither by my waterman; and you will have more leisure to attend to any thing of that sort than in town. I believe also I have most of the books you can want, or can easily borrow them. I earnestly desire a line may be left at Mr. R.'s, where and when I shall call upon you, which I will daily inquire for, whether I chance to be here, or in the country. Believe me, Sir, with the truest regard, and the sincerest wish to deserve,

Yours, &c.

LETTER VII.

Twitenham, June 24, 1740.*

It is true that I am a very unpunctual correspondent, though no unpunctual agent or friend; and that, in the commerce of words, I am both poor and lazy. Civility and compliment generally are the goods that letter-writers exchange, which, * Written after Warburton's visit to Pope at Twickenham, where he stayed nearly a fortnight.

with honest men, seems a kind of illicit trade, by having been for the most part carried on, and carried furthest by designing men. I am therefore reduced to plain inquiries, how my friend does, and what he does? and to repetitions, which I am afraid to tire him with, how much I love him. Your two kind letters gave me real satisfaction, in hearing you were safe and well; and in shewing me you took kindly my unaffected endeavours to prove my esteem for you, and delight in your conversation. Indeed my languid state of health, and frequent deficiency of spirits, together with a number of dissipations, et aliena negotia centum, all conspire to throw a faintness and cool appearance over my conduct to those I best love; which I perpetually feel, and grieve at: but in earnest, no man is more deeply touched with merit in general, or with particular merit towards me, in any one. You ought therefore in both views to hold yourself what you are to me in my opinion and affection; so high in each, that I may perhaps seldom attempt to tell it you. The greatest justice, and favour too that you can do me, is to take it for granted.

Do not therefore commend my talents, but instruct me by your own. I am not really learned enough to be a judge in works of the nature and depth of yours. But I travel through your book as through an amazing scene of ancient Egypt or Greece; struck with veneration and wonder; but at every step wanting an instructor to tell me all I wish to know. Such you prove to me in the

walks of antiquity; and such you will prove to all mankind: but with this additional character, more than any other searcher into antiquities, that of a genius equal to your pains, and of a taste equal to your learning.

I am obliged greatly to you, for what you have projected at Cambridge, in relation to my Essay;* but more for the motive which did originally, and does consequentially in a manner, animate all your goodness to me, the opinion you entertain of my honest intention in that piece, and your zeal to demonstrate me no irreligious man. I was very sincere with you in what I told you of my own opinion of my own character as a poet, and, I think, I may conscientiously say, I shall die in it. I have nothing to add, but that I hope sometimes to hear you are well, as you shall certainly now and then hear the best I can tell you of myself.

I

LETTER VIII.

October 27, 1740.

AM grown so bad a correspondent, partly through the weakness of my eyes, which has much increased of late, and partly through other dis

* Mr. Pope desired the Editor to procure a good translation of the Essay on Man into Latin prose.

Warburton.

A translation of the Essay on Man into Latin was projected by Mr. Christopher Smart, of which some account is given in the Life of Pope prefixed to the present edition; where a Letter from Pope to Mr. Smart on this subject will also be found.

agreeable accidents, (almost peculiar to me,) that my oldest as well as best friends are reasonable enough to excuse me. I know you are of the number who deserve all the testimonies of any sort, which I can give you of esteem and friendship; and I confide in you, as a man of candour enough, to know it cannot be otherwise, if I am an honest one. So I will say no more on this head, but proceed to thank you for your constant memory of whatever may be serviceable or reputable to me. The Translation* you are a much better judge of than I, not only because you understand my work better than I do myself, but as your continued familiarity with the learned languages, makes you infinitely more a master of them. I would only recommend that the translator's attention to Tully's Latinity may not preclude his usage of some terms which may be more precise in modern philosophy than such as he could serve himself of, especially in matters metaphysical. I think this specimen close enough, and clear also, as far as the classical phrases allow; from which yet I would rather he sometimes deviated, than suffered the sense to be either dubious or clouded too much. You know my mind perfectly as to the intent of such a ver* Of his Essay on Man into Latin prose. Warburton. This is one of the most singular concessions ever made by any author. Warton.

Pope has certainly carried his acknowledgments to Warburton too far. Warburton might perhaps understand the subject better than Pope, but it can scarcely be said that he understood Pope's meaning better than Pope himself.