perfons, to fee if they have any of the best fort of pride left, namely, to ferve learning and merit, and by that means diftinguish themselves from their predeceffors. I am, &c. I LETTER XCVI. Mr. POPE to Mr. ALLEN. March 6. I am Thank you very kindly for yours. fure we fhall meet with the fame hearts we ever met; and I could wifh it were at Twickenham, tho' only to fee you and Mrs. Allen twice there inftead of once. But, as matters have turned out, a decent obedience to the government has fince obliged me to refide here, ten miles out of the capital; and therefore I muft fee you here or no where. Let that be an additional reafon for your coming and staying what time you can. The utmoft I can do, I will venture to tell you in your ear. I may flide along the Surrey fide (where no Middlesex justice can pretend any cognizance) to Batterfea, and thence cross the water for an hour or two, in a close chair, to dine with you, or fo. But to be in town, I fear, will be imprudent, and thought At least, hitherto, all comply with infolent. I write thus early, that you may let me know if your day continues, and I will have every room in my houfe as warm for you as the owner always would be. It may poffibly be, that I fhall be taking the fecret flight I fpeak of to Battersea, before you come, with Mr. Warburton, whom I have promised to make known to the only great man in Europe, who knows as much as He. And from thence we may return the 16th, or any day, hither, and meet you, without fail, if you fix your day. I would not make ill health come into the fcale, as to keeping me here (tho', in truth, it now bears very hard upon me again, and the leaft accident of cold, or motion almoft, throws me into a very dangerous and fuffering condition.) God fend you long life, and an easier enjoyment of your breath than I now can expect, I fear, &c. a On the Invafion, at that time threatened from France. and the Pretender. LETTERS O F Mr. POPE то Mr. WARBURTON. I' LETTER XCVII. April 11, 1739, Have just received from Mr. R. two more of your Letters a. It is in the greatest hurry imaginable that I write this, but I cannot help thanking you in particular for your Third Letter, which is fo extremely clear, fhort, and full, that I think Mr. Crouzaz b ought never to have another answer, and deferved not fo good an one. I can only fay, you do him too much honour, and me too much right, fo odd as the a Commentaries on the Efay on Man. A Swifs profeffor who wrote remarks upon the philofophy of that Essay. expreffion expreffion feems, for you have made my system as clear as I ought to have done and could not. It is indeed the fame fyftem as mine, but illuftrated with a ray of your own, as they fay our natural body is the fame still when it is glorified. I am fure I like it better than I did before, and fo will every man elfe. I know I meant just what you explain, but I did not explain my own meaning fo well as you. You understand me as well as I do myself, but you express me better than I could express myself. Pray accept the fincereft acknowledgments. I cannot but wish these letters were put together in one book, and intend (with your leave) to procure a tranflation of part, at least, or of all of them into French; but I fhall not proceed a step without your confent and opinion, &c. LETTER XCVIII. May 26, 1739. TH HE diffipation in which I am obliged to live through many degrees of civil obligation, which ought not to rob a man of himfelf who paffes for an independent one, and < They were all tranflated | tion, who is now in a very into that language by a eminent ftation in his own French gentleman of condi country. Y yet make me every body's fervant more than my own: This, Sir, is the occafion of my filence to you, to whom I really have more obligation than to almost any man. By writing, indeed, I propofed no more than to tell you my sense of it: As to any corrections of your Letters, I could make none, but what refulted from inverting the Order of them, and thofe expreffions relating to myself which I thought exaggerated. I could not find a word to alter in the last Letter, which I return'd immediately to the Bookfeller. I must particularly thank you for the mention you have made of me in your Poftfcript d to the laft Edition of the Legation of Moses. I am much more pleased with a compliment that links me to a virtuous Man, and by the best fimilitude, that of a good mind (even a better and stronger tye than the fimilitude of ftudies) than I could be proud of any other whatsoever. May that independency, charity, and competency attend you, which fets a good priest above a bishop, and truly makes his Fortune; that is, his happiness in this life as well as in the other. He means, a Vindication of the Author of the Divine Legation, against fome papers in the Weekly Mifcellany: in which the Editor applied to himself those lines in the Epiftle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Me let the tender office long engage, &c. LET |