Only the Doctor I have never wishes to you. Poor Congreve is desLord Bolingbroke bids me again to tell you, he will take as a letter to himself, and reply to, every one that you fhall write to Gay or me; fo that we hope you will not be deterr'd from writing to fome of us, by an imagination that all will expect it. Yours, &c. You LETTER XVI. Mr. POPE to Dr. SWIFT. Sep. 3, 1726. OURS to Mr. Gay gave me greater fatiffaction than that to me (tho' that gave me a great deal) for to hear you were fafe at your journey's end, exceeds the account of your fatigues while in the way to it: otherwise believe me, every tittle of each is important to me, which fets any one thing before my Eyes that happens to you. I writ you a long letter, which I guess reach'd you the day after your arrival; fince then I had a conference with Sir R. Walpole, who expreft his defire of having seen you again before you left us: He faid he obferved a willingness in you to live among us; which I did not deny; but at the fame time told him, you had no fuch defign in your coming this time, which was meerly to fee a few of those VOL. VII. F you you loved but that indeed all those wished it, and particularly Lord Peterborow and my self, who with'd you lov'd Ireland lefs, had you any reafon to love England more. Í faid nothing but what I think would induce any man to be as fond of you as I, plain Truth, (did they know either it, or you.) I can't help thinking, (when I confider the whole, fhort Lift of our friends) that none of 'em except you and I are qualified for the Mountains of Wales. The Dr. goes to Cards, Gay to Court; one lofes money, one lofes his time. Another of our friends labours to be unambitious, but he labours in an unwilling foil. One † Lady you like has too much of France to be fit for Wales: - Another is too much a subject to Princes and Potentates, to relish that wild Taste of liberty and poverty. Mr. Congreve is too fick to bear a thin air; and fhe that leads him too rich to enjoy any thing. Lord Peterborow can go to any climate, but never ftay in any. Lord Bathurst is too great an husbandman to like barren hills, except they are his own to improve. Mr. Bethel indeed is too good and too honeft to live in the world, but yet it is fit, for its example, he should. We are left to ourfelves in my opinion, and may live where we please, in Wales, Dublin or Bermudas: And for me, I affure you, I love the world fo well, and it loves me fo well, that I care not in what + Lady Bolingbroke, a French Lady. part part of it I pass the reft of my days. funshine but in the face of a friend. I fee no I had a glympfe of a letter of yours lately, by which I find you are (like the vulgar) apter to think well of People out of power, than of people in power; perhaps it is a mistake, but however there's fomething in it generous. Mr. Py takes it extreme kindly, I can perceive, and he has a great mind to thank you for that good opinion, for which I believe he is only to thank his ill fortune: for if I am not in an error, he would rather be in power, than out. To fhew you how fit I am to live in the mountains, I will with great truth apply to myself an old sentence. Thofe that are in, < may abide in; and those that are out, may abide out; yet to me, thofe that are in fhall be as thofe that are out, and those that are out shall be as those that are in.' I am indifferent as to all thofe matters, but I mifs you as much as I did the first day, when (with a fhort figh) I parted. Wherever you are, (or on the Mountains of Wales, or on the coaft of Dublin, *-Tu mihi, magni fuperas dum faxa Timavi, Sive oram Illyrici legis aquoris—). I am and ever shall be Yours, &c. *Whether Timavus or th' Illyrian Coast, F 2 Dryden. LET A LETTER XVII. Mr. GAY to Dr. SwIFT. Nov. 17, 1726. Bout ten days ago a Book was published here of the Travels of one Gulliver, which hath been the converfation of the whole town ever fince: The whole impreffion fold in a week; and nothing is more diverting than to hear the different opinions people give of it, though all agree in liking it extreamly. "Tis generally faid that you are the Author, but I am told, the Bookfeller declares he knows not from what hand it came. From the highest to the lowest it is univerfally read, from the Cabinet-council to the Nurfery. The Politicians to a man agree, that it is free from particular reflections, but that the Satire on general focieties of men is too fevere. Not but we now and then meet with people of greater perfpicuity, who are in fearch for particular applications in every leaf; and it is highly probable we shall have keys published to give light into Gulliver's.defign. Your Lord — is the person who least approves it, blaming it as a defign of evil confequence to depreciate human nature, at which it cannot be wondered that he takes most offence, being himself the most accomplished of his fpecies, and fo lofing more 'than any other of that praise which is due both to to the dignity and virtue of a man. Your friend, my Lord Harcourt, commends it very much, although he thinks in fome places the matter too far carried. The Dutchefs Dowager of Marlborough is in raptures at it; fhe fays the can dream of nothing elfe fince the read it; she declares, that the hath now found out, that her whole life hath been loft in careffing the worst part of mankind, and treating the best as her foes; and that if she knew Gulliver, tho' he had been the worst enemy fhe ever had, she would give up all her prefent acquaintance for his friendship. You may fee by this, that you are not much injur'd by being fuppos'd the Author of this piece. If you are, you have disoblig'd us, and two or three of your best friends, in not giving us the least hint of it, while you were with us, and in particular Dr. Arbuthnot, who fays, it is ten thousand pities he had not known it, he could have added fuch abundance of things upon every fubject, Among Lady-critics, fome have found out that Mr. Gulliver had a particular malice to maids of honour. Those of them who frequent the Church, fay, his defign is impious, and that it is an infult on Providence, by depreciating the works of the Creator. Notwithstanding I am told the * Princess hath read it with great pleafure. As to other Criticks, they think the flying * Caroline, Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline, Confort of King George II, F3 |
