if they should, thofe of whom all the world think in fuch a manner, must be men I cannot fear. Such in particular as have the meanness to do mischiefs in the dark, have feldom the courage to justify them in the face of day; the talents that make a Cheat or a Whisperer, are not the fame that qualify a man for an Infulter and as to private villainy, it is not fo fafe to join in an Affaffination, as in a Libel a, I will confult my safety fo far as I think becomes a prudent man: but not fo far as to omit any thing which I think becomes an honest one. As to personal attacks beyond the law, every man is liable to them: as for danger within the law, I am not guilty enough to fear any. For the good opinion of all the world, I know, it is not to be had for that of worthy men, I hope, I fhall not forfeit it: for that of the Great, or thofe in power, I may wish I had it; but if thro' mifrepresentations (too common about perfons in that station) I have it not, I fhall be forry, but not miferable in the want of it. It is certain, much freer Satirifts than I, have enjoy'd the encouragement and protection of the Princes under whom they lived. Auguftus and Maecenas made Horace their companion, tho' he had been in arms on the fide of Brutus; and, allow me to remark, it was out of the suffering a See the following Letter to a noble Lord. Party too, that they favour'd and distinguish'd Virgil. You will not fufpect me of comparing myself with Virgil and Horace, nor even with another Court-favourite, Boileau. I have always been too modeft to imagine my Panegyrics were incenfe worthy of a court; and that, I hope, will be thought the true reason why I have never offer'd any. I would only have obferv'd, that it was under the greatest Princes and beft Minifters, that moral Satirifts were most encouraged; and that then poets exercised the fame jurisdiction over the Follies, as Historians did over the Vices of Men. It may also be worth confidering, whether Auguftus himfelf makes the greater figure, in the writings of the former, or of the latter? and whether Nero and Domitian do not appear as ridiculous for their false Taste and Affectation, in Perfius and Juvenal, as odious for their bad Government in Tacitus and Suetonius? In the firft of these reigns it was, that Horace was protected and carefs'd; and in the latter that Lucan was put to death, and Juvenal banish'd. you my vince you, I would not have faid fo much, but to fhew whole heart on this subject; and to conI am deliberately bent to perform that Request which you make your laft to me, and to perform it with Temper, Justice, and Refolution may Refolution. As your Approbation (being the testimony of a found head and an honeft heart) does greatly confirm me herein, I wish you may live to fee the effect it hereafter have upon me, in fomething more deferving of that approbation. But if it be the Will of God (which, I know, will also be yours) that we must separate, I hope it will be better for You than it can be for me. You are fitter to live, or to die, than any man I know. Adieu, my dear friend! and may God preserve your life easy, or make your death happy a. This excellent perfon died Feb. 1734-5 [We find by Letter xix. that the Duchefs of Buckinghamshire would have engaged Mr. Pope to draw her husband's Character. But though he refufed this office, yet in his Epiftle, on the Characters of Women, thefe lines, To beirs unknown defcends th' unguarded ftore, are fuppofed to mark her out in fuch a manner as not to be mistaken for another; and having faid of himself, that he held a lye in profe and verfe to be the fame: All this together gave a handle to his enemies, fince his death, to publifh the following Paper (intitled, The Character of Katharine, &c.) as written by him. On which account (in vindication of the deceased Poet) we have fubjoined to it a Letter to a friend, that will let the Reader fully into the history of the writing and publication of this extraordinary CHARACTER.] The CHARACTER of KATHARINE, LATE Duchefs of Buckinghamshire and Normanby. By the late Mr. P O P E. SH HE was the daughter of James the fecond, and of the Countess of Dorchester, who inherited the Integrity and Virtue of her father with happier fortune. She was married first to James earl of Anglefey; and secondly, to John Sheffield duke of Buckinghamshire and Normanby; with the former fhe exercised the virtues of Patience and Suffering, as long as there was any hopes of doing good by either; with the latter all other Conjugal virtues. The man of fineft fenfe and sharpest discernment, she had the happiness to please; and in that, found her only pleasure. When he died, it seemed as if his fpirit was only breathed into her, to fulfil what he had begun, to perform what he had concerted, and to preserve and watch over what he had left, his only fon; in the care of whofe Health, the forming of whose Mind, and the improvement of whose Fortune, fhe acted with the conduct and fenfe of the Father, foften'd, but not overcome, with the tenderness of the Mother. Her Understanding was such as must have made a figure, had it been in a man; but the Modefty of her sex threw a veil over its luftre, which nevertheless fupprefs'd only the expreffion, not the exertion of it; for her sense was not fuperior to her Refolution, which, when once she was in the right, preferv'd her from making it only a tranfition to the wrong, the frequent weakness even of the best women. She often followed wife counfel, but fometimes went before it, always with |