nance, and to read them with pleasure would be dangerous on the other fide, becaufe of the infection. I will never believe, that you have any keen relish of them, till I find you write worfe than you do, which, I dare fay, I never fhall. Who that Petit de la Croife is, the pretended author of them *, Not the pretended Author, but the real tranflator, from an Arabic MS of the tales, which is in the French King's library. What was tranflated in ten fmall Volumes, is not more than the tenth part of the Original. The Eastern people have been always famous for this fort of Compofition in which much fine morality is conveyed; not indeed in a ftory always representing life and manners, but fuch as the eaftern fuperftitions made pafs amongst the people for fuch. Their great genius for this kind of writing appears from thefe very tales. But the policy of fome of the later princes of the Eaft greatly hurt it, by fetting all men upon compofing them, to furnish matter for their coffee-houfes and places of refort; which were enjoined to give this entertainment to the people, with defign to divert them from politics, and matters of itate. This Collection is fo ftrange a medley of sense and nonfenfe, that one would be tempted to think the Collector was fome Coffee man, who ga thered indifferently from the beft and worst. The contrivance he has invented of tying them together has led him into fuch a blunder, that after that one could not be furprized at any thing. The tales are fuppofed to be told to one of the Kings of Perfia of the Saffanian race before Mahomet, and yet the scene of them is laid in the Court of Harown Alrafchid the 26th Chalif, and the 5th of the Race of Abbafides. These are amongst the best, and, indeed, it is no wonder. He was one of the most munificent of the Chalifs, and the greatest encourager of Letters; fo that it was natural for men of genius in after times, to do this honour to his memory. But the Bishop talks of Petit de la Croife. M. Galland was the tranflator of the Arabian tales. The name of the other is to the collection, called the Perfian tales, of which I have nothing to say. I cannot tell but obferving how full they are in the descriptions of drefs, furniture, &c. I cannot help. thinking them the product of fome Woman's imagination: and, believe me, I would do any thing but break with you, rather than be bound to read them over with attention. I am forry that I was fo true a prophet in respect of the S. Sea, forry, I mean, as far as your lofs is concern'd: for in the general I ever was and still am of opinion, that had that project taken root and flourish'd, it would by degrees have overturn'd our conftitution. Three or four hundred millions was fuch a weight, that whichfoever way it had leaned, must have born down all before it-But of the dead we must speak gently; and therefore, as Mr. Dryden says somewhere, Peace be to its Manes! Let me add one reflection, to make you easy in your ill luck. Had you got all that you have loft beyond what you ventur'd, confider that your fuperfluous gains would have fprung from the ruin of feveral families that now want neceffaries! a thought, under which a good and good-natured man that grew rich by fuch means, could not, I perfuade myself, be perfectly easy. Adieu, and be lieve me, ever Your, &c. LETTER VII. From the Bishop of ROCHESTER. March 26, 1721. OU are not yourfelf gladder you are well, than I am; especially fince I can please myfelf with the thought that when you had loft your health elsewhere, you recovered it here. May these lodgings 6 lodgings never treat you worse, nor you at any time have less reason to be fond of them! I thank you for the fight of your * Verses, and with the freedom of an honeft, tho' perhaps injudicious friend, must tell you, that tho' I could like fome of them, if they were any body's elfe but yours, yet as they are yours and to be own'd as fuch, I can scarce like any of them. Not but that the four firft lines are good, efpecially the second couplet; and might, if followed by four others as good, give reputation to a writer of a lefs established fame: but from you I expect fomething of a more perfect kind, and which the oftener it is read, the more it will be admired. When you barely exceed other writers, you fall much beneath yourself: 'tis your misfortune now to write without a rival, and to be tempted by that means to be more careless, than you would otherwise be in your compofures. Thus much I could not forbear faying, tho' I have a motion of confequence in the House of Lords to day, and muft prepare for it. I am even with you for your ill paper; for I write upon worse, having no other at hand. I wifh you the continuance of your health most heartily; and am ever Yours, &c. I have fent Dr. Arbuthnot + the Latin MS. which I could not find when you left me; and I am * Epitaph on Mr. Harcourt. P. +Of Huetius, bishop of Avranches, left after his death. He was a mean reafoner: he once attempted it in a vast collection of fanciful and extravagant conjectures, which he called a Demonftration; mixed up with much reading, which his friends called learning, and delivered (by the allowance of all) in good latin. This not being received for what he would give it, he compofed a treatife of the weakness of the human under flanding: a poor fyftem of fcepticism; indeed little other than an abstract from Sextus Empiricus. 7 fo angry at the writer for his defign, and his manner of executing it, that I could hardly forbear fending him a line of Virgil along with it. The chief Reafoner of that philofophic farce is a GalloLigur, as he is call'd-what that means in English or French, I can't fay-but all he fays, is in fo loofe and flippery and trickifh a way of reasoning, that I could not forbear applying the passage of Virgil to him, Vane Ligur, fruftraque animis elate fuperbis ! To be ferious, I hate to fee a book gravely written, and in all the forms of argumentation, which proves nothing, and which fays nothing; and endeavours only to put us into a way of diftrufting our own faculties, and doubting whether the marks of truth and falfhood can in any cafe be diftinguished from each other. Could that bleffed point be made out (as it is a contradiction in terms to say it can) we hould then be in the most uncomfortable and wretched ftate in the world; and I would in that cafe be glad to exchange my Reafon, with a dog for his Instinct, to-morrow. I LETTER VIII. L. Chancellor HARCOURT to Mr. POPE. Decemb. 6, 1722: Cannot but fufpect myself of being very unreafonable in begging you once more to review the inclos'd. Your friendship draws this trouble on you. I may freely may freely own to you, that my makes me exceeding hard to be fatisfied with any thing which can be faid on fuch an unhappy subject. I caus'd tenderness I caus'd the Latin Epitaph to be as often alter'd before I could approve it. When once your Epitaph is fet up, there can be no alteration of it, it will remain a perpetual monument of your friendship, and, I affure myself, you will fo fettle it, that it fhall be worthy of you. I doubt whether the word, deny'd, in the third line, will justly admit of that conftruction which it ought to bear (viz.) renounced, deserted, &c. deny'd is capable, in my opinion, of having an ill fense put upon it, as too great uneafinefs, or more goodnature, than a wife man ought to have. I very well remember you told me, you could fcarce mend those two lines, and therefore I can fcarce expect your forgiveness for my defiring you to reconfider them. Harcourt ftands dumb, and Pope is forc'd to speak. I can't perfectly, at leaft without further difcourfing you, reconcile myself to the first part of that line; and, the word forc'd (which was my own, and, I perfuade myself, for that reafon only fubmitted to by you) feems to carry too doubtful a conftruction for an Epitaph, which, as I apprehend, ought as eafily to be understood as read. I fhall acknowledge it as a very particular favour, if at your best leifure you will perufe the inclos'd and vary it, if you think it capable of being amended, and let me fee you any morning next week. I am, &c. LET |