of my freedoms a, which I very innocently take, and moft with those I think most my friends. But this I know nothing of; perhaps he may have opened to you: and if I know 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 modesty, or a vicious distrust of another's value for you (those two eternal foes to merit) imagine that your letters and conversation are not always welcome There is no man more intirely fond of good-nature or ingenuity than myself, and I have feen too much of thofe qualities in you to be any thing less than

to me.

We fee by the letters to Mr. Cromwell, that Mr. Pope was wont to railly him on his turn for trifling and pedantic criticifm. So he loft

Your, &c.

his two early friends, Cromwell and Wycherley, by his zeal to correct the bad poetry of the one, and the bad tafte of the other.

LET

LETTER II.

Dec. 24, 1712.

IT

T has been my good fortune within this month past, to hear more things that have pleas'd me than (I think) almost 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 leaft mistaken, when you congratulate me upon your own good fuccefs: for I have more people out of whom to be happy, than any ill-natur❜d man can boast of. I may with honesty affirm to you, that, notwithstanding the many inconveniencies and disadvantages they commonly talk of in the Res angufta 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, self-love might make us philofophers, and convince us quantuli indiget Natura! Ourfelves are easily 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 natur'd man wants for his friends, or the indigent.

I fhall

greater

I shall fee you this winter with much pleasure than I could the last; and, I hope, as much of your time, as your attendance on the Duchefs a 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, tho' you are now fecretary to this Lady, that you are likewife fecretary to nine other Ladies, and are to write sometimes for them too. He who is forced to live wholly upon those 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 so with them at his leisure, and away.

I am

Your, &c.

LETTER III.

Aug. 23, 1713.

JUS

UST as I receiv'd yours, I was fet down to write to you, with fome fhame that I had fo long deferred it. But I can hardly repent my neglect, when it gives me the knowledge

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

VOL. VIII.

L

how

how little you infift upon ceremony, and how much a greater share in your memory I have, than I deserve. I have been near a week in London, where I am like to remain, till I become, by Mr. Jervas's help, Elegans Formarum Spectator. I begin to discover beauties that were till now imperceptible to me. Every corner of an eye, or turn of a nose or ear, the smallest 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 Lady'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 guess in how uneafy a ftate I am, when every day the performances of others appear more beautiful and excellent, and my own more despicable. 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 effigie, and made a Madona as old as her mother St. Anne. Nay, what is yet more miraculous, I have rivall'd St. Luke himself in painting, and as, 'tis said, an angel came and finished his piece, fo, you would fwear, a devil the last hand to

put

mine, 'tis fo begrim'd and fmutted. However I comfort myself with a Chriftian 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.

you

I am very much recreated and refreshed with the news of the advancement of the Fana, which, I doubt not, will delight the eye and fense of the fair, as long as that agreeable machine fhall play in the hands of pofterity. I › am glad your fan is mounted fo foon, but I would have varnish and glaze it at your leifure, and polish the sticks 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, &c.

* A Poem of Mr. Gay's, fo intitled.

L 2

LET