not envy the world your ftudies; they will tend to the benefit of men againft whom you can have no complaint, I mean of all pofterity; and, perhaps, at your time of life nothing elfe is worth your care. What is every year of a wife man's life but a cenfure or critic on the past? Those whose date is the shortell live long enough to laugh at one half of it. The boy defpifes the infant, the man the boy, the philofopher both, and the Chriftian all. You may now begin to think your manhood was too much a puerility; and you will never suffer your age to be but a fecond infancy. The toys and baubles of your childhood are hardly now more below you than thofe toys of our riper and declining years, the drums and rattles of ambition, and the dirt and baubles of avarice. At this time, when you are cut off from a little fociety, and made a citizen of the world at large, you should bend your talents, not to ferve a party, or a few, but all mankind. Your genius fhould mount above that mift in which its participation and neighbourhood with earth hath long involved it. To shine abroad, and to Heaven, ought to be the bufinefs and the glory of your prefent fituation. Reinen ber it was at fuch a time that the greatest lights of antiquity dazzled and blazed the moft; in their retreat, in their exile, or in their death. But why do I talk of dazzling or blazing? it was then that they did good, that they gave light, and that they be came guides to mankind. Thofe aims alone are worthy of fpirits truly great, and fuch, I therefore hope, will be your's. Refentment indeed may remain, perhaps cannot be quite extinguished, in the nobleft minds; but revenge will never harbour there. Higher principles than thofe of the firft, and better principles than thofe of the latter, will infallibly influence men whose thoughts and whofe hearts are enlar ged, and cause them to prefer the whole to any part of mankind, especially to fo fmall a part as one's single self. Believe me, my Lord, I look upon you as a -fpirit entered into another life, as one juft upon the edge of immortality, where the paffions and affections must be much more exalted, and where you ought to defpife all little views, and all mean retrofpects. Nothing is worth your looking back, and therefore look forward, and make (as you can) the world look after you; but take care that it be not with pity, but with esteem and admira tion. I am, with the greateft fincerity, and paffion for your fame and happiness, LETTER Your's, &c. VI To Lady - from Mr Pope on witty and serious I Madam, letters. AM not at all concerned to think that this let ter may be less entertaining than fome I have fent. I know you are a friend that will think a kind letter as good as a diverting one. He that gives you his mirth, makes a much lefs prefent than he that gives you his heart; and true friends would rather fee fuch thoughts as they communicate only to one another, than what they `fquander about to all the world. They who can fet a right value on any thing, will prize one tender well-meant word above all that ever made them Faugh in their lives. If I did not think fo of you, I should never have taken much pains to endeavour to please you by writing, or any thing elfe. Wit, I am fure, I want, at least in the degree that I fee others have it, who would at all seasons alike be entertaining; but I would willingly have fome qualities that may be (at fome feasons) of more comfort to myself, and of more fervice to my friends. I would cut off my own heed, if it had nothing better than wit in it; and tear out my own heart, if it had no better difpofition than to laugh only myself, and laugh at all my neighbours. I know you will think it an agreeable thing to hear that I have done a great deal of Homer. If it be tolerable the world may thank you for it; for if I could have feen you every day, and imagined my company could every day have pleafed you, I fhould 'fcarce have thought it worth my while to please the world. How many verfes could I gladly have left unfinished, and turned into it, for people to fay what they would of, had I been permitted to pafs all thofe hours more pleafingly? Whatever fome may think, fame is a thing I am much lefs covetous of than your friendship; for that, I hope, will last all my life; the other I cannot anfwer for. What if they fhould both grow greater after my death? Alas! they would both be of no advantage to me. Therefore think upon it, and love me as well as ever you can while I live. Now I talk of fame, I fend you my Temple of Fame, which is juft come out: but my fentiments about it you will fee better by this epigram. What's fame with men, by custom of the nation, Is call'd in women only reputation : About them both why keep we fuch a pother ! To the Hon. Mrs H, from Mr Pope. Madam, ALL the pleasure or use of familiar letters is to give us the assurance of a friend's welfare; at least it is all I know, who am a mortal enemy and despiser of what they call fine letters. In this view, I promise you, it will always be a fatisfaction to me to write letters, and to receive them from you; because I unfeignedly have your good at my heart, and am that thing which many people make only a fubject to difplay their fine fentiments upon, a friend; which is a character that admits of little to be faid, till fomething may be done. Now, let me fairly tell you, I do not like your ftyle: it is very pretty, therefore I don't like it; and if you writ as well as Voiture, I would not give a farthing for fuch letters, unless I were to fell them to be printed. Methinks I have loft the Mrs L*** I formerly knew, who writ and talked like other people, (and fometimes better.) You muft allow me to fay, you have not faid a fenfible thing in all your letter, except where you speak of fhowing kindness, and expecting it in return; but the addition you make about your being but twoand-twenty is again in the ftyle of wit and abomination. To fhow you how very fatisfactory you wrote, in all your letters you have never told me how you do. Indeed I fee it was abfolutely ne ceffary for me to write to you, before you continue to take more notice of me; for I ought to tell you what you are to expect; that is to fay, kindnefs, which I never failed (I hope) to return; and not wit, which, if I want, I am not much concern ed, because judgment is a better thing; and if I had, I would make ufe of it, rather to play upon those I defpifed, than to trifle with thofe I loved. You fee, in fhort, after what manner you may most agreeably write to me. Tell me you are my friend, and you can be no more at a lofs about that article. As I have opened my mind upon this to you, it may also serve for Mr H— who will fee by it what manner of letters he must expect, if he correfponds with me. As I am too seriously your's and his fervant to put turns upon you inftead of good wifhes, fo, in return, I fhould have nothing but honest plain How do ye's, and, Pray remember me's; which, not being fit to be fhown to any body for wit, may be a proof we correfpond only for ourselves, in mere friendlinefs; as doth, God is my witness, LETTER Your very, &c. VIII. From Mr Pape to Mr Steele, on fickness and dying YOU young. OU formerly obferved to me, that nothing made a more ridiculous figure in a man's life than the difparity we often find in him fick and well: thus one of an unfortunate conftitution is perpetually exhibiting a miferable example of the weakness of his mind and of his body in their turns. I have had frequent opportunities of late to confider myself in these different views, and I hope have received fome advantage by it, if what Waller fays be true, that The foul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in new light thro' chinks that time has made. Then furely ficknefs contributing no less than old |