you right, you are of a temper to cement friendships, and not to divide them. I really much love Mr. Cromwell, and have a true affection for yourself, which, if I had any interest in the world, or power with those who have, I should not be long without manifefting to you. I defire you will not, either out of modefty, or a vicious distrust of another's value for you (those two eternal foes to merit) imagine that your letters and converfation are not always welcome to me. There is no man more entirely fond of good-nature or ingenuity than myfelf, and I have seen too much of those qualities in you to be any thing less than

Your, etc.

LETTER II.

Dec. 24, 1712.

T has been my good fortune within this month past,

IT

to hear more things that have pleafed me than ([ think) almoft in all my time befide. But nothing upon my word has been fo home-felt a fatisfaction as the news you tell me of yourself: and you are not in the least mistaken, when you congratulate me upon your own good fuccefs: for I have more people out of whom to be happy, than any ill-natured man can boast of. I may with honefty affirm to you, that, notwithstanding the many inconveniences and difadvantages they commonly talk of in the Res angufti domi, I have never found any other, than the inability of giving people of merit the only certain proof of our value for them, in doing them fome real fervice. For after all, if we could but think a little, felf-love might make us philofophers, and convince us quantuli indiget Natura! Ourfelves are eafily provided for; 'tis nothing but the circumftantials,

and the apparatus or equipage of human life, that cofts fo much the furnishing. Only what a luxurious man wants for horses, and footmen, a good-natured man wants for his friends, or the indigent.

I fhall fee you this winter with much greater pleasure than I could the laft'; and, I hope, as much of your time, as your attendance on the Duchefs will allow you to fpare to any friend, will not be thought loft upon one who is as much fo as any man, I must also put you in mind, though you are now fecretary to this Lady, that you are likewife fecretary to nine other Ladies, and are to write fometimes for them too. who is forced to live wholly upon thofe Ladies favours, is indeed in as precarious a condition as any He who does what Chaucer fays for fuftenance; but they are very agreeable companions, like other Ladies, when a man only paffes a night or fo with them at his leifure, and away.

I am

1

He

Your, etc.

LETTER III.

Aug. 23, 1713.

UST as I received yours, I was fet down to write

JUST

to you, with some fhame that I had so long deferred it. But I can hardly repent my neglect, when it gives me the knowledge how little you infiit upon ceremony, and how much a greater share in your memory, I have, than I deferve. I have been near a week in London, where I am like to remain, till I become, by Mr. Jervas's help, Elegans formar um spectator. I begin to dif

* Duchefs of Monmouth, to whom he was just then made Se cretary.

cover beauties that were till now imperceptible to me. Every corner of an eye, or turn of a nofe or ear, the fmallest degree of light or shade on a cheek, or in a dimple, have charms to distract me. I no longer look upon Lord Plaufible as ridiculous, for admiring a I ady's fine tip of an ear and pretty elbow (as the Plain Dealer has it) but am in fome danger even from the ugly and difagreeable, fince they may have their retired beauties, in one trait or other about them. You may guefs in how uneafy a ftate I am, when every day the performances of others appear more beautiful and excellent, and my own more defpicable. I have thrown away three Dr. Swifts, each of which was once my vanity, two Lady Bridgwaters, a Duchefs of Montague, befides half a dozen Earls, and one Knight of the garter. I have crucified Chrift over again in effigy, and made a Madona as old as her mother St. Anne. Nay, what is yet more miraculous, 'I' have rivalled St. Luke himfelf in painting, and as, 'tis faid, an angel came and finifhed his piece, fo, you would fwear, a devil put the laft hand to mine, 'tis fo begrim'd and fmutted. However, I comfort myself with a Christian reflection, that I have not broken the commandment, for my pictures are not the likeness of any thing in heaven above, or in earth below, or in the water under the earth. Neither will any body adore or worship them, except the Indians. fhould have a fight of them, who, they tell us, worship certain idols purely for their ugliness.

I am very much recreated and refreshed with the news of the advancement of the Fan *, which, doubt not; will delight the eye and fenfe of the Fair, as long as that agreeable machine fhall play in the hands of posterity. I am glad your fan is mounted fo foon, but I would

have you varnish and glaze it at your leifure, and polish the flicks as much as you can. You may then cause it to be borne in the hands of both fexes, no less in Britain than it is in China; where it is ordinary for a Mandarine to fan himself cool after a debate, and a Statesman to hide his face with it when he tells a grave lie.

I am, etc.

LETTER IV.

DEAR MR. GAY,

Wh

Sept 23, 1714.

!

ELCOME to your native foil!* welcome to your friends! thrice welcome to me! whether returned in glory, bleft with court-intereft, the love and familiarity of the great, and filled with agreeable hopes; or melancholy with dejection, contemplative of the changes of fortune, and doubtful for the future: Whether return'd a triumphant Whig, or a defponding Tory, equally all hail! equally beloved and welcome to me If happy, I am to partake in your elevation: if unhappy, you have still a warm corner in my heart, and a retreat at Binfield in the worst of times at your service. If you are a Tory, or thought fo by any man, I know it can proceed from nothing but your gratitude to a few people who endeavoured to ferve you, and whofe politics were never your concern. If you are a Whig, as I rather hope, and, as I think, your principles and mine (as brother poets) had ever a bias to the fide of Liberty,' I know you will be an honeft man, and an inoffenfive one. Upon the whole, I know you are incapable of

In the beginning of this year Mr. Gay went over to Hanover with the Earl of Clarendon, who was fent thither by Q Anne, On her death they returned to England; and it was on this occafion that Mr. Pope met him with this friendly welcome.

being fo much of either party as to be good for nothing. Therefore once more, whatever you are, or in whatever ftate you are, all hail!

One or two of your old friends complain'd they had heard nothing from you fince the Queen's death; I told them no man living lov'd Mr. Gay better than I, yet I had not once written to him in all his voyage. 'This I thought a convincing proof, how truly one may be a friend to another without telling him fo every month. But they had reasons to themselves to allege in your excufe; as men who really value one another, will never want fuch as make their friends and themselves. eafy. The late univerfal concern in public affairs, threw us all into a hurry of fpirits: even I, who am more a philofopher than to expect any thing from any Reign, was borne away with the current, and full of the expectation of the Succeffor. During your journey I knew not whither to aim a letter after you; that was a fort of fhooting flying: add to this the demand Homer had upon me, to write fifty verfes a day, befides learned notes, all which are at a conclufion for this year. Rejoice with me, O my friend, that my labour is over; come and make merry with me in much feasting: We will feed among the lilies (by the lilies I mean the Ladies.) Are not the Rofalindas of Britain as charming as the Bloufalindas of the Hague ? or have the two great Paftoral poets of our nation renounced love at the fame.. time for Philips, immortal Philips, hath deferted, yea, and in a ruftic manner kicked, his Rosalinda. Dr. Parnell and I have been infeparable ever fince you went. We are now at the Bath, where (if you are not, as I heartily hope, better engaged) your coming would be the greatest pleasure to us in the world. Talk not of expences: Homer fhall fupport his children. I beg a