preference of their style or writing, but merely as they preferved the memory of fome friendships which will ever be dear to him, or set in a true light fome matters of fact, from which the fcriblers of the times had taken occafion to asperse either his friends or himself. He therefore lay'd by the Originals, together with thofe of his correfpondents, and caused a copy to be taken to depofite in the library of a noble friend; that in case either of the revival of flanders, or the publication of furreptitious Letters, during his life or after, a proper use might be made of them.

The next year, the pofthumous works of Mr. Wycherley were printed, in a way difreputable enough to his memory. It was thought a justice due to him, to fhew the world his better judgment; and that it was his last refolution to have fuppreffed thofe poems. some of the letters which had passed between him and our author cleared that point, they were published in 1729, with a few marginal notes added by a friend.

As

If in these Letters, and in those which were printed without his confent, there appear too much of a juvenile ambition of wit, or affectation of gaiety, he may reasonably hope it will be confidered to whom, and at what age,

he

he was guilty of it, as well as how foon it was over. The reft, every judge of writing will fee, were by no means efforts of the genius, but emanations of the heart: and this alone may induce any candid reader to believe their publication an act of neceffity, rather than of vanity.

It is notorious, how many volumes have been published under the title of his correfpondence, with promises ftill of more, and open and repeated offers of encouragement to all perfons who should send any letters of his for the prefs. It is as notorious what methods were taken to procure them, even from the publisher's own accounts in his prefaces, viz. by tranfacting with people in neceffities, * or of abandoned + characters, or fuch as dealt without names in the dark. Upon a quarrel $ with one of these laft, he betrayed himself fo far, as to appeal to the public in Narratives and Advertisements: like that Irish highwayman a few years before, who preferr'd a bill against his companion, for not fharing equally in the money, rings and watches, they had traded for in partnership upon Hounslow-heath.

* See the Preface to vol. I. of a Book called Mr. Pope's Literary Correspondence.

+ Postscript to the Preface to Vol. IV.

Narrative and Anecdotes before Vol. II.

Several

Several have been printed in his name which he never writ, and addreffed to perfons to whom they never were written*: counterfeited as from bishop Atterbury to him, which neither that bishop nor he ever faw†; and advertised even after that period when it was made felony to correspond with him.

I know not how it has been this author's fate, whom both his fituation and his temper have all his life excluded from rivalling any man, in any pretenfion, (except that of pleafing by poetry) to have been as much aspersed and written at, as any First Minister of his time: pamphlets and news-papers have been full of him, nor was it there only that a private man, who never troubled either the world or common conversation with his opinions of Religion or Government, has been reprefented as a dangerous member of Society, a bigotted Papift, and an enemy to the establishment. The unwarrantable publication of his Letters hath at leaft done him this fervice, to fhew he has constantly enjoyed the friendship of worthy men; and that if a catalogue were to be taken of his

* In Vol. III. Letters from Mr. Pope to Mrs. Blount, &c.

+ Vol. II. of the fame, 8°. p. 20. and at the end of the Edition of his Letters in 12°, by the bookfellers of London and Westminster; and of the laft Edition in 12°, printed for T. Cooper, 1725.

friends

friends and his enemies, he needs not to blush at either. Many of them having been written on the most trying occurrences, and all in the openness of friendship, are a proof what were his real fentiments, as they flowed warm from the heart, and fresh from the occafion; without the least thought that ever the world should be witness to them. Had he fate down with a defign to draw his own picture, he could not have done it fo truly; for whoever fits for it (whether to himself or another) will inevitably find the features more compofed, than his appear in these letters. But if an author's hand, like a painter's, be more distinguishable in a flight fketch than in a finished picture, this very care

leffness will make them the better known from fuch counterfeits, as have been, and may be imputed to him, either through a mercenary or malicious defign.

We hope it is needless to say, he is not accountable for feveral paffages in the furreptitious editions of thofe Letters, which are fuch as no man of common sense would have published himself. The errors of the prefs were almost innumerable, and could not but be extremely multiplied in fo many repeated editions, by the avarice and negligence of piratical printers, to not one of whom he ever gave the least Title,

or

or any other encouragement than that of not profecuting them.

For the Chafms in the correfpondence, we had not the means to fupply them, the Author having deftroyed too many Letters to preserve any Series. Nor would he go about to amend them, except by the omiffions of fome paffages, improper, or at least impertinent, to be divulged to the public: or of fuch entire Letters, as were either not his, or not approved of by him.

He has been very fparing of those of his friends, and thought it a refpect shown to their memory, to fupprefs in particular fuch as were most in his favour. As it is not to Vanity but to Friendship that he intends this Monument, he would fave his enemies the mortification of fhowing any further how well their Betters have thought of him: and at the fame time. fecure from their cenfure his living friends, who (he promises them) fhall never be put to the blush, this way at leaft, for their partiality to him.

But however this collection may be received, we cannot but lament the Caufe, and the Neceffity of fuch a publication, and heartily wish no honest man may be reduced to the same. To ftate the cafe fairly in the present situation. A bookfeller advertises his intention to publish VOL. VII.

b

your