He than I expected to hear. I hope your next will give me a better account. Poor Mr. Bethel too is very ill in Yorkshire. And, I do assure you, there are no two men I wish better to. I have known and esteemed him for every moral virtue these twenty years and more. has all the charity, without any of the weakness of ----; and, I firmly believe, never faid a thing he did not think, nor did a thing he could not tell. I am concerned he is in fo cold and remote a place, as in the Wolds of Yorkshire, at a hunting-feat. If he lives till spring, he talks of returning to London, and, if I pofsibly can, I would get him to lye out of it at Twickenham, tho' we went backward and forward every day in a warm coach, which would be the properest exercise for both of us, fince he is become so weak as to be deprived of riding a horse. L. Bolingbroke stays a month yet, and I hope Mr. Warburton will come to town before he goes. They will both be pleased to meet each other; and nothing, in all my life, has been so great a pleasure to my nature, as to bring deserving and knowing men together. It is the greatest favour that can be done, either to great genius's or useful men. I wish too, he were a while in town, if it were only to lye a little in the way of some proud and powerful VOL. IX. Y ful perfons, to fee if they have any of the best fort of pride left, namely, to serve 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. ever met; and I could wish it were at Twickenham, tho' only to fee you and Mrs. Allen twice there instead 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 must see you here or no where. Let that be an additional reason for your coming and staying what time you can. The utmost 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 Battersea, 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, fear, will be imprudent, and thought insolent. At least, hitherto, all comply with the proclamation a. I write thus early, that you may let me know if your day continues, and I will have every room in my house as warm for you as the owner always would be. It may poffibly be, that I shall be taking the secret flight I speak 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 scale, as to keeping me here (tho', in truth, it now bears very hard upon me again, and the leaft accident of cold, or motion almost, throws me into a very dangerous and fuffering condition.) God send you long life, and an eafier enjoyment of your breath than I now can expect, I fear, &c. a On the Invasion, at that time threatened from France and the Pretender. 1 Ya LETTERS LETTERS OF Mr. POPE то Mr. WARBURTON. I LETTER XCVII. April 11, 1739 Have just received from Mr. R. two more of your Letters. 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 so extremely clear, short, and full, that I think Mr. Crouzaz ought never to have another answerer, and deserved not fo good an one. I can only say, you do him too much honour, and me too much right, so odd c as the expression seems, for you have made my fystem as clear as I ought to have done and could not. It is indeed the same system as mine, but illustrated with a ray of your own, as they say our natural body is the same still when it is glorified. I am fure I like it better than I did before, and so will every man else. I know I meant just what you explain, but I did not explain my own meaning so 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 fincerest acknowledgements. I cannot but wish these letters were put together in one book, and intend (with your leave) to procure a tranflation of part, at leaft, of all them into French; but I shall not proceed a step without your confent and opinion, &c. T LETTER XCVIII. May 26, 1739. HE diffipation in which I am obliged to live through many degrees of civil obligation, which ought not to rob a man of him d They were all tranflated into that language by a French gentleman of condi tion, who is now in an eminent station in his own country. Y3 felf |