ever, suppose those thoughts get the better of their devotions, but rather excite them and assist the warmth of them; while their prayer may be, that they may rise up and breed as irreproachable a young family as their parents have done. In a word, I fancy you all well, easy, and happy, just as I wish you; and next to that, I wish you all with me. Next to God, is a good man: next in dignity, and next in value.* Minuisti eum paulo minus ab angelis. If therefore I wish well to the good and the deserving, and desire they only should be my companions and correspondents, I must very soon and very much think of you. I want your company, and your example. Pray make haste to town, so as not again to leave us : discharge the load of earth that lies on you, like one of the mountains under which, the poets say, the giants (the men of the earth) are whelmed: leave earth, to the sons of the earth, your conversation is in heaven. Which that it may be accomplished in us all, is the prayer of him who maketh this short sermon; value (to you) three-pence. Adieu. * So, in verse, he has : "An honest Man's the noblest work of God." Bowles. Mr. Blount died in London the following year, 1726. Pope. Blount died of the small-pox; and was attended, during his illness, with the greatest affection and sorrow, by the Lady whose name is so often mentioned in these volumes. Soon after his death, Pope was much more explicit than he had ever been before, respecting the nature of his feelings towards Miss Martha. Bowles. By "the lady whose name is so often mentioned in these volumes," Mr. Bowles means Martha Blount; who attended her brother through the illness which terminated in his death, although she had not herself had the disease. The assertion of Mr. Bowles that after the death of Mr. Blount, " Pope was much more explicit than he had ever been before, respecting the nature of his feelings towards Miss Martha," is only an additional proof of his earnestness to avail himself of every opportunity of attributing that attachment to an improper motive. THE following correspondence with Martha and Teresa Blount is now for the first time presented to the public under one view; having in the former editions been dispersed under the heads of "Letters to Martha and Teresa Blount," "Letters to several Ladies," "Letters to several Persons," and "Miscellaneous Letters." The uniting these letters in any regular order has been attended with no small difficulty; as many of them are not only without a date, but without the name of the person to whom they are addressed; and consequently, notwithstanding the utmost care, something must still be trusted to conjecture. This however is of less importance, as many of the letters are merely complimentary, or on trivial subjects; but it has not been thought advisable to deprive the reader of any part of a correspondence which may be requisite to enable him to judge how far there is any just ground for the imputations which have been raised upon it, to misrepresent the motives and to discredit the memory of the parties. Ar last I do myself the honour to send you the Rape of the Lock; which has been so long coming out, that the lady's charms might have been half decayed, while the poet was celebrating them, and the printer publishing them. But yourself and your fair sister must needs have been surfeited already with this trifle; and therefore you have no hopes of entertainment but from the rest of this book,* wherein (they tell me) are some things that may be dangerous to be looked upon: however, I think you may venture, though you should blush for it, since blushing becomes you the best of any lady in England, and then the * From this passage, we learn, that this was the second impression of the Rape of the Lock, with the addition of the machinery; and that the Miss Blounts had already seen it as first published. |