I LETTER VIII. From Sir WILLIAM TRUMBULL. 1 Jan. 19, 1715-16. Should be afham'd of my long idleness, in not acknowledging your kind advice about Echo, and your most ingenious explanation of it relating to popular tumults; which I own to be very useful; and yet give me leave to tell you, that I keep myself to a fhorter receipt of the fame Pythagoras, which is Silence; and this I fhall obferve, if not the whole time of his discipline, yet at least till your return into this country. I am obliged further to this method, by the most severe weather I ever felt; when, tho' I keep as near by the fire fide as may be, yet gelidus concrevit frigore fanguis; and often I apprehend the circulation of the blood begins to be ftop'd. I have further great loffes (to a poor farmer) of my poor oxen-Intereunt pecudes, ftant circumfufa pruinis ·Corpora magna boum, &c. Pray comfort me, if you can, by telling me that your fecond volume of Homer is not frozen; for it muft be exprefs'd very poetically, to say now, that the preffes fweat. I cannot forbear to add a piece of artifice I have been guilty of, on occafion of my being obliged to congratulate the birth-day of a friend of mine: when finding I had no materials of my own, I very frankly fent him your imitation of Martial's epigram on Antonius Primus*. This has been applauded fo * Fam numerat placido felix Antonius ævo, &c. much, much, that I am in danger of commencing Poet, perhaps laureat, (pray defire my good friend Mr. Rowe to enter a caveat) provided you will further increase my ftock in this bank In which proceeding I have laid the foundation of my estate, and as honestly, as many others have begun theirs. But now being a little tender, as young beginners often are, I offer to you (for have conceal'd the true author) whether you will give me orders to declare who is the father of this fine child or not? Whatever you determine, my fingers. pen, and ink are so frozen, that I cannot thank you more at large. You will forgive this and all other faults of, Dear Sir, Your, &c. Reviews his life, and in the ftrict survey } VOL. VII. LET LETTERS TO AND FROM SEVERAL PERSONS. From 1711, to 1714. I LETTER I. To the Hon. J. C. Efq. June 15, 1711. Send you Dennis's remarks on the * Effay; which equally abound in just criticisms and fine railleries. The few obfervations in my hand in the margins, are what a morning's leifure permitted me to make purely for your perufal. For I am of opinion that fuch a critic, as you will find him by the latter part of his Book, is but one way to be properly anfwer'd, and that way I would not take after what he informs me in his preface, that he is at this time perfecuted by fortune. This I knew not before; if I had, his name had been spared in the Effay, for that only reafon. I can't conceive what ground he has for fo exceffive a refentment; nor imagine how those † three lines can be called a re * On Criticism. But Appius reddens at each word you speak, Alection flection on his perfon, which only describe him fubject a little to anger on fome occafions. I have heard of combatants fo very furious, as to fall down themfelves with that very blow which they defign'd to lay heavy on their antagonists. But if Mr. Dennis's rage proceeds only from a zeal to discourage young and unexperienced writers from fcribling, he fhould frighten us with his verse, not profe: for I have often known, that, when all the precepts in the world would not reclaim a finner, fome very fad example has done the business. Yet to give this man his due, he has objected to one or two lines with reason, and I will alter them in case of another edition; I will make my enemy do me a kindness where he meant an injury, and fo ferve instead of a friend. What he obferves at the bottom of page 20 of his reflections, was objected to by yourself, and had been mended but for the hafte of the press: I confess it what the English call a Bull, in the expreffion, tho' the fenfe be manifest enough: Mr. Dennis's Bulls are feldom in the expreffion, they are generally in the fenfe. I shall certainly never make the leaft reply to him; not only because you advife me, but because I have ever been of opinion, that, if a book can't anfwer for itfelf to the public, 'tis to no fort of purpose for its author to do it *. If I am wrong in any fentiment of that Effay, I proteft fincerely, I don't defire all the world thould be deceived (which would be of very ill confequence) merely that I myself may be thought right (which is of very little confequence.) In works of Poetry, and generally, in whatever concerns the Compofition of a book, this rule is a very good one. In controverted Opinions the cafe is different. The advancement of truth, or the defence of an Author's honeft fame, may fometimes make it neceffary, or expedient for him to anfwer the Objections made to his book. I would M 2 I would be the first to recant, for the benefit of others, and the glory of myself; for (as I take it) when a man owns himself to be in an error, he does but tell you in other words, that he is wifer than he was. But I have had an advantage by the publishing that book, which otherwise I should never have known; it has been the occafion of making me friends and open abettors, of feveral gentlemen of known fenfe and wit; and of proving to me what I have till now doubted, that my writings are taken fome notice of by the world, or I fhould never, be attacked thus in particular. I have read that 'twas a cuftom among the Romans, while a General rode in triumph, to have the common foldiers in the treets that railed at him and reproached him; to put him in mind, that tho' his fervices were in the main approved and rewarded, yet he had faults enough to keep him humble. You will fee by this, that whoever fets up for wit in thefe days ought to have the conftancy of a primifive Chriftian, and be prepared to fuffer martyrdom in the cause of it. But fure this is the first time that a Wit was attacked for his Religion, as, you'll find, I am moft zealously in this treatife; and you know, Sir, what alarms I have had from the oppofite fide on this account. Have I not reason to cry out with the poor fellow in Virgil, * Quid jam mifero mihi denique reflat? Cui neque apud Danaos ufquam locus, et fuper ipfi 'Tis however my happiness that you, Sir, are impartial, Jove was alike to Latian and to Phrygian, * See the enfuing Letter. |