truth, I have less Inclination (if poffible) than Ability. Contemplative life is not only my scene, but it is my habit too. I begun my life where moft people end theirs, with a dif-relifh of all that the world calls Ambition: I don't know why 'tis call'd fo, for to me it always feem'd to be rather stooping than climbing. I'll tell you my politic and religious fentiments in a few words. In my politics, I think no further than how to preserve the peace of my life, in any government under which I live; nor in my religion, than to preserve the peace of my conscience in any church with which I communicate. I hope all churches and all governments are fo far of God, as they are rightly understood, and rightly adminiftred: and where they are, or may be wrong, I leave it to God alone to mend or reform them; which whenever he does, it must be by greater inftruments than I am. I am not a Papift, for I renounce the temporal invafions of the Papal power, and deteft their arrogated authority over Princes and States. I am a Catholick in the ftricteft fense of the word. If I was born under an abfolute Prince, I would be a quiet fubject; but I thank God I was not. I have a due fenfe of the excellence of the British conftitution. In a word, the things I have always wifhed to see are not a Roman Catholic, or a French Catholic, or a Spanifh Catholic, but a true Catholic: and not a King of Whigs, or a King of Tories, but a King of England. Which God of his mercy grant his prefent Majefty may be, and all future Majesties: You fee, my Lord, I end like a preacher: this is Sermo ad Clerum, not ad Populum. Believe me, with infinite obligation and fincere thanks, ever

Your, &c.

LET

LETTER V..

Sept. 23, 1720.

.

Hope you have fome time ago receiv'd the Sulphur, and the two volumes of Mr. Gay, as inftances (how fmall ones foever) that I wish you both health and diverfion. What I now fend for your perufal, I fhall fay nothing of; not to foreftall by a fingle word what you promis'd to say upon that fubject. Your Lordfhip may criticife from Virgil to these Tales; as Solomon wrote of every thing from the cedar to the hyffop. I have fome caufe, fince I laft waited on you at Bromley, to look upon you as a prophet in that retreat, from whom oracles are to be had, were mankind wife enough to go thither to confult you: The fate of the South-fea Scheme has, much fooner than I expected, verify'd what you told me. Moft people thought the time would come, but no man prepared for it; no man confider'd it would come like a Thief in the Night; exactly as it happens in the cafe of our death. Methinks God has punish'd the avaritious, as he often punishes finners, in their own way, in the very fin itself: the thirst of gain was their crime, that thirst continued became their pu→ nishment and ruin. As for the few who have the good fortune, to remain with half of what they imagined they had (among whom is your humble fervant) I would have them sensible of their felicity, and convinced of the truth of old Hefiod's ma xim, who, after half his eftate was fwallowed by the Directors of those days, resolv'd, that half to be more than the whole.

Does not the fate of these people put you in mind of two paffages, one in Job, the other from the Pfalmift?

VOL. VIII.

F

Men

Men fhall groan out of the CITY, and hiss them out of their PLACE.

They have dreamed out their dream, and awaking have found nothing in their hands.

Indeed the univerfal poverty, which is the confequence of univerfal avarice, and which will fall hardest upon the guiltlefs and induftrious part of mankind, is truly lamentable. The univerfal deluge of the S. Sea, contrary to the old deluge, has drowned all except a few Unrighteous men: but it is fome comfort to me that I am not one of them, even tho' I were to furvive and rule the world by it. I am much pleas'd with a thought of Dr. Arbuthnot's; he fays the Government and South-fea company have only lock'd up the money of the people, upon conviction of their Lunacy (as is ufual in the cafe of Lunaticks) and intend to reftore them as much as may be fit for fuch people, as faft as they fhall fee them return to their fenfes.

The latter part of your letter does me so much honour, and fhews me fo much kindness, that I muft both be proud and pleas'd, in a great degree; but I affure you, my Lord, much more the laft than the firft. For I certainly know, and feel, from my own heart which truly refpects you, that there may be a ground for your partiality, one way; but I find not the leaft fymptoms in my head, of any foundation for the other. In a word, the beft reason I know for my being pleas'd, is, that you continue your favour toward me; the best I know for being proud, would be that you might cure me of it; for I have found you to be fuch a phyfician as does not only repair, bur improve. I am, with the fincereft efteem, and moft grateful acknowledgment,

Your, &c.

LET

LETTER VI.

From the Bishop of ROCHESTER.

TH

HE Arabian Tales, and Mr. Gay's books, I receiv'd not till Monday night, together with your letter; for which I thank you. I have had a fit of the gout upon me ever fince I returned hither from Westminster on Saturday night laft: it has found its way into my hands as well as legs, fo that I have been utterly incapable of writing. This is the firft letter that I have ventured upon; which will be written, I fear, vacillantibus literis, as, Tully fays, Tyro's letters were, after his Recovery from an illness. What I faid to you in mine about the Monument, was intended only to quicken, not to alarm you. It is not worth your while to know what I meant by it: but when I fee you, you fhall. I hope you may be at the Deanry, towards the end of October, by which time, I think of settling there for the winter. What do you think of fome fuch fhort infcription as this in latin, which may, in a few words, fay all that is to be faid of Dryden, and yet nothing more than he deserves?

IOHANNI DRIDENO.

CVI POESIS ANGLICANA

VIM SVAM AC VENERES DEBET;

ET SIQVA IN POSTERVM AVGEBITVR LAVDE, EST ADHVC DEBITVRA:

HONORIS ERGO P. &c.

To fhew you that I am as much in earnest in the affair as you yourself, fomething I will send you too of this kind in English. If your defign holds of fixing Dryden's name only below, and his Bufto

F 2

above

above-may not lines like these be grav'd just under the name ?

This Sheffield rais'd, to Dryden's afhes juft,
Here fix'd his Name, and there his lawrel'd Buft.
What else the Mufe in Marble might express,
Is known already; Praise would make him less.

Or thus

More needs not; where acknowledg'd Merits reign,
Praife is impertinent; and Cenfure vain.

This you'll take as a proof of my zeal at least, tho' it be none of my talent in Poetry. When you have read it over, I'll forgive you if you should not once in your life-time again think of it.

And now, Sir, for your Arabian Tales. Ill as I have been, almost ever fince they came to hand, I have read as much of them, as ever I fhall read while I live. Indeed they do not please my tafte: they are writ with fo romantic an air, and, allowing for the difference of eaftern manners, are yet, upon any fuppofition that can be made, of fo wild and abfurd a contrivance (at least to my northern understanding) that I have not only no pleasure, but no patience, in perufing them. They are to me like the odd paintings on Indian fcreens, which at firft glance may furprize and please a little: but, when you fix your eye intently upon them, they appear fo extravagant, difproportion'd, and monftrous, that they give a judicious eye pain, and make him feek for relief from fome other object.

They may furnish the mind with fome new images: but I think the purchase is made at too great an expence for to read those two volumes through, liking them as little as I do, would be a terrible pe

nance,