correct too much; for in Poetry, as in Painting, a Man may lay Colours one upon another, till they ftiffen and deaden the Piece. Befides, to bestow heightning on every Part is monftrous: Some Parts ought to be lower than the reft; and nothing looks more ridiculous, than a Work, where the Thoughts, however different in their own Nature, seem all on a level: 'Tis like a Meadow newly mown, where Weeds, Grass, and Flowers are all laid even, and appear undiftinguifh'd. I believe too, that fometimes our firft Thoughts are the best, as the first fqueezing of the Grapes makes the finest and richest Wine.

I have not attempted any Thing of Paftoral Comedy, because I think the Tafte of our Age will not relish a Poem of that Sort. People feek for what they call Wit, on all Subjects, and in all Places; not confidering that Nature loves Truth fo well, that it hardly ever admits of flourishing; Conceit is to Nature what Paint is to Beauty; it is not only needlefs, but impairs what it wou'd improve. There is a certain Majefty in Simplicity, which is far ahove all the Quaintness of Wit: Infomuch, that the Criticks have excluded it from the loftieft Poetry, as well as the loweft, and forbid it to the Epic no lefs than the Paftoral. I fhou'd certainly displease all those who are charm'd with Guarini and Bonarelli, and imitate Taffo not only in the Simplicity of his Thoughts, but in that of the Fable too. If furprifing Discoveries fhou'd have Place in the Story of a Paftoral Comedy, I believe it wou'd be more agreeable to Probability, to make them the Effects of Chance than of Defign; Intrigues not being very confiftent with that Innocence which ought to conftitute a Shepherd's Character. There is nothing in all the Aminta (as I remember) but happens by meer

Accident; unless it be the meeting of Aminta with Sylvia at the Fountain, which is the Contrivance of Daphne, and even that is the moft fimple in the World: The contrary is obfervable in Paftor Fido, where Corifca is fo perfect a Mistress of Intrigue, that the Plot could not have been brought to pafs without her. I am inclin'd to think the Paftoral Comedy has another Difadvantage, as to the Manners: Its General Defign is to make us in love with the Innocence of a rural Life, fo that to introduce Shepherds of a vicious Character, must in some measure debase it; and hence it may come to pafs, that even the virtuous Characters will not shine so much, for Want of being opposed to their Contraries.-Thefe Thoughts are purely my own, and therefore I have reafon to doubt them: But I hope your Judgment will fet me right.

Mr. WALSH to Mr. POPE.

July 20. 1706.

Had fooner return'd you Thanks for the Favour

I but was in hopes of giving

I

you an Account at the fame time of my Journey to Windfor; but I am now forced to put that quite off, being engaged to go to my Corporation of Richmond in Yorkshire. I think you are perfectly in the right in your Notions of Paftoral; but I am of Opinion, that the Redundancy of Wit you mention, tho' 'tis what pleases the common People, is not what ever pleases the beft Judges. Paftor Fido indeed has had more Admirers than Aminta; but I will venture to fay, there is a great deal of Difference between the Admirers of one and the other. Corif ca, which is a Character generally admir'd by the

ordinary

ordinary Judges, is intolerable in a Pastoral; and Bonarelli's Fancy, of making his Shepherdefs in love with two Men equally, is not to be defended, whatever Pains he has taken to do it.

Now to return to Mr. Pope.

It was about this Time he began to correspond by Letters to fuch of his learned and poetical Friends as were at a Distance from him; and one of the first of thefe was Mr. Wycherley, who was above fifty Years older than Mr. Pope, had wrote feveral applauded Comedies, and is mention'd by a very great Critick and Wit, to be one of the two who in that Age had ever hit upon the true Comedy. This Gentleman is very ill ufed by Giles Jacob, in his Lives and Characters of the English Poets; where, without mentioning one of the very fine Things he has wrote, he contents himself with faying:

WILLIAM WYCHERLEY, Efq;

THIS Gen; but he thereby rather lef

HIS ingenious Gentleman publifh'd a Volume

fened his Fame, than increas'd it; tho' he tells you in the Postscript to his Preface, that they were written at a Time, when ''twas not fo much his Head's Occafion to write, as his Pocket's; when he defign'd his Works should have made him live, and not he to have made them live; and that he wrote not to give Pains to his Mind, but to ease it from Pains; to play the Fool with ridiculous Thoughts, rather than run mad with anxious ones. He has a Satirical Preface to his Criticks, who were fuch before they were his Readers: He begins; ❝ To you, I fay, you "Anti-Wits, I direct my Difcourfe; who, like "Gamefters ante manum, venture your little Stocks of Wit or Credit in Parnaffus, but to de

❝ prive

"prive others of theirs, tho' you have no other Sort "of Wit, but what you firft borrow, or purloin, "from the bold Pufhers for Fame, the Scribblers, 66 your adventrous Benefactors; whom you, like "Rooks at Play, (when you have got all you can "by them) attack and push with their own Coin "and Stores of Senfe; fo, like the other Rooks, "live on the Destruction of your best Friends and "Maintainers; and upon gutting a Book, as the "Midnight Judicature do upon gutting a House." His Preface is long and full of Wit and pointed Satire against the Criticks; and he has a Dedication to the greatest Friend of the Muses, Vanity: which ends with a Satire on himself, and his large Work.

And outward Greatnefs does confefs,
Moft often inward Emptiness,

And great Books, as great Heads (we know)
Contain less as they make more Show.

To his Bookfeller, who defir'd his Picture before his Book, he has these Lines:

To fhow this Book my Writing, Act, and Deed, You'd have me to it put my Mark or Head.

Of Love he writes thus:

If Love's a Bleffing (as it is) you say,
We for it ought not then to pay, but pray;
Since Bleffings, as they go for more divine,
Shou'd more be gain'd by Pray'r, or Praise, than

Coin.

This Description of Love I take to be very good :

Know,

Know, Love is not by Precept taught,
Ner what it is, can Reafon prove,
Above Expreffion, above Thought,
Inftinct, by which our Senses move;
Which, by Denying, is confess'd,

And oft exprefs'd by Dumbness best.

He has these Lines on a Lady's Pofteriors, which he discover'd on her falling over a Stile:

My Heart held out against your Face and Eyes,
But cou'd no more, against your Breech and Thighs,
Which they both took and wounded by Surprize;
Who did (as 'twere) 'till then in Ambuth lie
For my poor Life, at least my Liberty;

So fecret Enemies more Mifchief do,
The less still they their Pow'r to do it, show.
By that Affaffinate my Life's betray'd

Mr. Wycherley, in his Poems, is very fatirical on Courtiers, efpecially in his Praise of Ignorance, dedicated to the Court; and his Heroick Epiftle, to the Honour of Pimps and Pimping, dedicated to the Court, and written at a Time when fuch were most confiderable there. And speaking of Wit recommending a Perfon, he has these Verses:

To Court, to gain Mens, Womens Favour, go, Be fure, no more Wit than they have to show; Since each Sex fears Men moft, of the moft Wit, Will fuch into their Secrets leaft admit, For Fear of their discovering their Shame, Avoid their Courtship, but to 'scape their Blame, And still their Pleasure lofe, to keep their Fame.

}

This Gentleman, at the End of his humorous Pre

face