I

LETTER XII.

Dr. SWIFT to Mr. POPE.

do not

Nov. 26, 1725. Should fooner have acknowledged yours, if a feverish diforder and the relicks of it had not difabled me for a fortnight. I now begin to make excufes, because I hope I am pretty near seeing you, and therefore I would cultivate an acquaintance; because, if you know me when we meet, you need only keep one of my letters, and compare it with my face, for my face and letters are counterparts of my heart; I fear I have not expreffed that right, but I mean well, and I hate blots; I look in your letter, and in my confcience you fay the fame thing, but in a better manner. Pray tell my Lord Bolingbroke that I wish he were banished again, for then I should hear from him, when he was full of philosophy, and talked * de contemptu mundi. My Lord Oxford was fo extreamly kind as to write to me immediately an account of his fon's birth, which I immediately acknowledged, but before my letter could reach him I wifhed it in the fea: I hope I was more afflicted than his Lordship. It is hard that Parfons and Beggars should be over-run with bratts, while fo great and good a family wanteth an heir to continue it. I have received his father's Picture, but I lament † (fub figillo

*Contemning the World.

Under the Seal of Confeffion.

figillo confeffionis) that it is not fo true a refemblance as I could with. Drown the world! I am not content with defpifing it, but I would anger it, if I could with fafety. I wish there were an Hofpital built for its defpifers, where one might act with fafety, and it need not be a large building, only I would have it well endowed. Philips is * fort chancellant whether he fhall turn Parfon or no. But all employments here are engaged, or in reverfion. Caft Wits and caft Beaux have a proper fanctuary in the church: yet we think it a fevere judgment, that a fine gentleman, and so much a finer for hating Ecclefiafticks, fhould be a domeftic humble retainer to an Irish Prelate. He is neither Secretary nor Gentleman-ufher, yet ferveth in both capacities. He hath published several reasons why he never came to see me; but the beft is, that I have not waited on his Lordship. We have had a Poem fent from London in imitation of his on Mifs Carteret. It is on Mifs Harvy of a day old; and we fay and think it is yours. I wish it were not, because I am against monopolies you might have fpared me a few more lines of your Satire, but I hope in a few months to fee it all. To hear boys like you talk of Millenniums and tranquility! I am older by thirty years, Lord Bolingbroke by twenty, and you but by ten, than when we laft

* Very wavering.

Mr. Philips was Secretary to Dr. Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, Primate and Metropo litan of all Ireland,

laft were together; and we should differ more than ever, you coquetting a maid of honour, my Lord looking on to fee how the gamefters play, and I railing at you both. I defire you and all my friends will take a special care that my difaffection to the World may not be imputed to my Age; for, I have credible witneffes ready to depofe, that it hath never varied from the twenty-firft to the f-ty eighth year of my life, (pray fill that blank charitably.) I tell you after all, that I do not hate mankind, it is *vous autres who hate them, because you would have them reasonable Animals, and are angry at being disappointed: I have always rejected that definition, and made another of my own. I am no more angry with Philips, than I was with the Kite that laft week flew away with one of my chickens; and yet I was pleased when one of my fervants fhot him two days after. This I fay, because you are fo hardy as to tell me of your intentions to write maxims in oppofition to Rochefoucault, who is my favourite, because I found my whole character in him; however I will read him again, because it is poffible I may have fince undergone fome alterations. Take care the bad poets do not out-wit you, as they have ferved the good ones in every age, whom they have provoked to tranfmit their names to pofterity. Mævius is as well known as Virgil, and Gildon will be as well known as you, if his name gets into your verfes and as to the difference between

:

* People of your way of thinking,

good

good and bad fame, it is a perfect trifle. I ask a thousand pardons, and fo leave

you for this

time, and will write again without concerning my self whether you write or no.

I am, &c.

I'

LETTER XIII.

Mr. POPE to Dr. SWIFT.

Dec. 10, 1725.

Find my felf the better acquainted with you for a long Abfence, as men are with themselves for a long Affliction: Abfence does but hold off a Friend, to make one fee him the more truly. I am infinitely more pleas'd to hear you are coming near us, than at any thing you feem to think in my favour; an opinion which has perhaps been aggrandized by the distance or dulnefs of Ireland, as objects look larger through a medium of Fogs: and yet I am infinitely pleas'd with that too. I am much the happier for finding (a better thing than our Wits) our Judgements jump, in the notion that all Scriblers fhould be paft by in filence. To vindicate ones felf against such nafty flander, is much as wife as it was in your country-man, when the people imputed a stink to him, to prove the contrary by fhewing his backfide. So let Gildon and Philips reft in peace! What Virgil hath to do with Mævius, that he fhould wear him upon his fleeve to all eternity, do not know. I have been the longer upon

this,

this, that I may prepare you for the reception both you and your works may poffibly meet in England. We your true acquaintance will look upon you as a good man, and love you; others will look upon you as a Wit, and hate you. So you know the worft; unless you are as vindicative as Virgil, or the aforefaid Hibernian.

I wish as warmly as you, for an Hospital in which to lodge the Defpifers of the world; only I fear it wou'd be filled wholly like Chelsea, with maimed Soldiers, and fuch as had been difabled in its fervice. I wou'd rather have thofe, that out of fuch generous principles as you and I, defpife it, fly in its face, than retire from it. Not that I have much anger against the Great, my fpleen is at the little rogues of it it would vex one more to be knock'd on the head with a Pifs-Pot, than by a Thunderbolt. As to great Oppreffors, they are like Kites or Eagles, one expects mifchief from them; but to be fquirted to death (as poor Wycherley faid to me on his death-bed) by Apothecaries Apprentices, by the understrappers of under-fecretaries to fecretaries who were no fecretaries this wou'd provoke as dull a dog as Philips himself.

;

So much for enemies, now for friends. Mr. *Lewis thinks all this indifcreet: the Dr. not fo; he loves mifchief the beft of any good-natur'd

man

* Secretary to Lord Treasurer Oxford. Vide Vol. II. of the Author's Works.