are extreamly defirable, if they could be got with juftice, and without avarice; of which vice although I cannot charge myself yet, nor feel any approaches towards it, yet no ufurer more wifheth to be richer, (or rather to be furer of his rents) but I am not half so moderate as you; for, I declare I cannot live eafily under double to what you are satisfied with.

I hope Mr. Gay will keep his three thousand pounds, and live on the intereft, without decreafing the principal one penny; but I do not like your feldom feeing him: I hope, he is grown more difengaged from his intentness on his own affairs, which I ever difliked, and is quite the reverse to you, unless you are a very dexterous disguiser. I defire my humble fervice to Lord Oxford, Lord Bathurst, and particularly to Mrs. Blount, but to no Lady at court. God blefs you for being a greater Dupe than I: I love that character too myself, but I want your charity.

Adieu.

LETTER XXXVIII.

Mr. POPE to Dr. SWIFT.

me

Oct. 9, 1729.

my

books at

me

receivede

T pleases me that you laft; but you have never once told me if you approve the whole, or disapprove not of

fome

fome parts of the Commentary, &c. It was my principal aim in the entire work to perpetuate the friendship between us, and to fhew that the friends or the enemies of one, were the friends or enemies of the other: If in any particular, any thing be ftated or mentioned in a different manner from what you like, pray tell me freely, that the new Editions now coming out here, may have it rectify'd. You'll find the octavo rather more correct than the quarto, with fome additions to the Notes and Epigrams caft in, which I wish had been encreased by your acquaintance in Ireland. I rejoyce in hearing the Drapiers-Hill is to emulate Parnaffus; I fear the country about it is as much impoverished. I truly fhare in all that troubles you, and wish you removed from a scene of distress, which I know works your compaffionate temper too ftrongly. But if we are not to see you here, I believe I fhall once in my life fee you there. You think more for me, and about me, than any friend I have, and think better for me. Perhaps you'll not be contented, tho' I am, that the additional one hundred pounds a year is only for my life; my mother is yet living, and I thank God for it: fhe will never be troublesome to me, if it but please God fhe be not fo to herself: but a melancholy object it is to obferve the gradual decays both of body and mind, in a perfon to whom one is tyed by the links of both. I can't tell whether her death itself would be fo afflicting.

you

You are too careful of my worldly affairs: I am rich enough, and I can afford to give away. one hundred pounds a year. Don't be angry; I will not live to be very old. I have Revelations to the contrary. I would not crawl upon the earth without doing a little good when I have a mind to do it: I will enjoy the pleasure of what I give, by giving it, alive, and feeing another enjoy it. When I die, I fhould be afhamed to leave enough to build me à monument, if there were a wanting friend above ground.

Mr. Gay affures me his three thousand pounds are kept entire and facred; he seems to languish after a line from you, and complains tenderly. Lord Bolingbroke has told me ten times over he was going to write to you. Has he or not? The Doctor is unalterable, both in friendship and Quadrille his wife has been very near death last week: his two brothers buried their wives within thefe fix weeks. Gay is fixty miles off, and has been fo all this fummer, with the Duke and Dutchefs of Queensberry. He is the fame man: So is every one here that you know mankind is unamendable. * Optimus ille qui minimis urgetur- Poor like the reft, the cries at the thorn in her foot, but will suffer nobody to pull it out. The Court-lady I have a good opinion of, yet Í have treated her more negligently than you wou'd do, because you like to see the infide of

*He is best who bath the fewest Faults.

is

1

a court, which I do not. I've feen her but twice. You have a defperate hand at dashing out a character by great ftrokes, and at the fame time a delicate one at fine touches. God forbid you fhou'd draw mine, if I were confcious of any guilt: But if I were conscious. only of folly, God fend it! for as nobody can detect a great fault fo well as you, nobody would fo well hide a small one. But after all, that Lady means to do good, and does no harm, which is a vaft deal for a Courtier. I can affure you that Lord Peterborow always fpeaks kindly of you, and certainly has as great a mind to be your friend as any one. I must throw away my pen; it cannot, it will never tell what I inwardly am to you. you, * Quod nequeo monftrare, & fentia tantum.

* Which I can conceive only, but am not able

to express.

K 3

LETTER

I

LETTER XXXIX.

Lord BOLINGBROKE to Dr. SWIFT.

Bruffels, Sept. 27, 1729.

Have brought your French* acquaintance thus far on her way into her own country, and confiderably better in health than she was when she went to Aix. I begin to entertain hopes that he will recover fuch a degree of health as may render old age fupportable. Both of us have clofed the tenth Luftre, and it is high time to determine how we shall play the laft act of the Farce, Might not my life be entitled much more properly a What-d'ye call it than a Farce? fome comedy, a great deal of tragedy, and the whole interfperfed with fcenes of Harlequin, Scaramouch, and Dr. Baloardo, the prototype of your Hero.-I used to think fometimes formerly, of old age and of death; enough to prepare my mind; not enough to anticipate forrow, to dafh the joys of youth, and to be all my life a dying. I find the benefit of this practice now, and find it more as I proceed on my journey: Little regret when I look backwards, little apprehenfion when I look forward. You complain grievously of your fituation in Ireland: I would complain of mine too in England: But I will not, nay I ought not; for I find by long experience that I

Lady Bolingbroke,

can