LETTERS

TO AND FROM

EDWARD BLOUNT, Efq.

From 1714 to 1725.

LETTER I.

Mr. POPE to EDWARD BLOUNT, Efq;

W

August 27, 1714.

Hatever ftudies on the one hand, or amusements on the other, it shall be my fortune to fall into, I fhall be equally incapable of forgetting you in any of them. The tafk I undertook, though of weight enough in itself, has had a voluntary increase by the inlarging my defign of the Notesb; and the neceffity of confulting a num

P.

a The Translation of Ho- | Odyssey were Dr. Broome's. mer's Iliad. But they fpeak their re fpective Authors.

The notes on the Iliad were his own: Those on the

ber of books has carry'd me to Oxford: But I fear, thro' my Lord Harcourt's and Dr. Clarke's means, I fhall be more converfant with the pleafures and company of the place, than with the books and manufcripts of it.

I find still more reafon to complain of the negligence of the Geographers in their Maps of old Greece, fince I look'd upon two or three more noted names in the public libraries here. But with all the care I am capable of, I have fome caufe to fear the engraver will prejudice me in a few fituations. I have been forced to write to him in fo high a ftyle, that, were my epiftles intercepted, it would raise no small admiration in an ordinary man. There is scarce an order in it of less importance, than to remove fuch and fuch mountains, alter the courfe of fuch and fuch rivers, place a large city on fuch a coaft, and raze another in another country. I have fet bounds to the fea, and faid to the land, Thus far fhalt thou advance, and no furtherc. In the mean time, I, who talk and command at this rate, am in danger of lofing my horse, and stand in fome fear of a country Juftice. To difarm me indeed may be but prudential, con

This relates to the Map of ancient Greece, laid down by our Author in his obfervations on the fecond Iliad. P.

d Some of the Laws were, at this time, put in force a gainst the Papists.

fidering

fidering what armies I have at present on foot, and in my service; a hundred thousand Grecians are no contemptible body; for all that I can. tell, they may be as formidable as four thousand Priests; and they feem proper forces to fend against those in Barcelona. That fiege deferves as fine a poem as the Iliad, and the machining part of poetry would be the juster in it, as, they fay, the inhabitants expect Angels from heaven to their affiftance. May I venture to fay who am a Papist, and fay to you who are a Papist, that nothing is more astonishing to me; than that people fo greatly warm'd with a sense of Liberty, fhould be capable of harbouring fuch weak fuperftition, and that fo much bravery and fo much folly can inhabit the fame breasts?

I could not but take a trip to London on the death of the Queen, mov'd by the common curiofity of mankind, who leave their own bufinefs to be looking upon other mens. I thank God, that, as for myself, I am below all the accidents of state-changes by my circumstances, and above them by my philofophy. Common charity of man to man, and univerfal good-will to all, are the points I have moft at heart; and, I am fure, thofe are not to be broken for the fake

of any governors, or government. I am willing to hope the best, and what I more with than my own or any particular man's advancement,

is, that this turn may put an end entirely to the divifions of Whig and Tory; that the parties may love each other as well as I love them both, or at least hurt each other as little as I would either and that our own people may live as quietly as we shall certainly let theirs that is to say, that want of power itself in us may not be a furer prevention of harm, than want of will in them. I am fure, if all Whigs and all Tories had the fpirit of one Roman Catholic that I know, it would be well for all Roman Catholics; and if all Roman Catholics had always had that fpirit, it had been well for all others; and we had never been charged with fo wicked a spirit as that of Perfecution.

I with you agree in my fentiments of the ftate of our nation fince this change; I find myself just in the fame fituation of mind you defcribe as your own, heartily withing the good, that is, the quiet of my Country, and hoping a total end of all the unhappy divifions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.

I am, &c.

LET

LETTER II.

From Mr. BLOUNT.

T is with a great deal of pleasure I fee

IT

your

letter, dear Sir, written in a style that shews you full of health, and in the midst of diverfions: I think thofe two things neceffary to a man who has fuch undertakings in hand as Yours. All lovers of Homer are indebted to you for taking fo much pains about the fituation of his Heroes' kingdoms; it will not only be of great ufe with regard to his works, but to all that read any of the Greek hiftorians; who generally are ill understood thro' the difference of the maps as to the places they treat of, which makes one think one author contradicts another. You are going to fet us right; and 'tis an advantage every body will gladly fee you engrofs the glory of.

You can draw rules to be free and easy, from formal pedants; and teach men to be short and pertinent, from tedious commentators. However, I congratulate your happy deliverance from fuch authors, as you (with all your humanity) cannot with alive again to converse with. Critics will quarrel with you, if you dare to please without their leave; and Zealots will