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wit they were thought masters of. I am going to exemplify this to you, in putting into your hands (being encouraged by fo much indulgence) fome verfes of my youth, or rather childhood; which (as I was a great admirer of Waller) were intended in imitation of his manner; and are, perhaps, fuch imitations, as thofe you fee in aukward country dames, of the fine and wellbred ladies of the court. If you will take them with you into Lincolnshire, they may fave you one hour from the converfation ofthe country gentlemen and their tenants (who differ but in dress and name) which, if it be there as bad as here, is even worfe than my poetry. I hope your stay there will be no longer than (as Mr Wycherley calls it) to rob the country, and run away to London with your money. In the mean time, I beg the favour of a line from you, and am (as I will never cease to be)

Your, &c.

LETTER XIX.

Oct. 12. 1710.

I

return with impatience, feeing my friends there,

Deferred answering your laft, upon the advice I received, that you were leaving the town for fome time, and expected your having then a defign of among the firft of which I have reafon to account yourself. But my almost continual illnesses prevent that, as well as moft other fatisfactions of my life: However, I may fay one good thing, of fickness,

* One or two of thefe were fince printed among other Imitatations done in his youth.

that it is the best cure in nature for ambition, and defigns upon the world or fortune: It makes a man pretty indifferent for the future, provided he can but be easy, by intervals, for the present. He will be content to compound for his quiet only, and leave all the circumstantial part and pomp of life to those, who have a health vigorous enough to enjoy all the miftreffes of their defires. I thank God, there is nothing out of myself which I would be at the trouble of feeking, except a friend; a happiness I once hoped to have poffeffed in Mr Wycherley; but Quantum mutatus ab illo!. I have for fome years been employed much like children that build houses with cards, endeavouring very bufily and eagerly to raise a friendfhip, which the firft breath of any ill-natur❜d by-flander could puff away.· But I will trouble you no farther with writing, nor myself with thinking, of this fubject.

I was mightily pleased to perceive by your quotation from Voiture, that you had track'd me fo far as France. You fee 'tis with weak heads as with weak ftomachs, they immediately throw out what they received laft; and what they read, floats upon the furface of the mind, like oil upon water, without incorporating. This, I think, however, can't be faid of the love-verfes I laft troubled you with, where all (I am afraid) is fo puerile and fo like the author, that no body will fufpect any thing to be borrowed. Yet you (as a friend, entertaining a better opinion of them) it seems, fearch'd in Waller, but fearch'd in vain. Your judgment of them is (I think) very right-for it was my own opinion be

fore. If you think 'em not worth the trouble of correcting, pray tell me fo freely, and it will fave me a labour; if you think the contrary, you would particularly oblige me by your remarks on the feveral thoughts as they occur. I long tobe nibbling at your verfes, and have not forgot who promis'd me Ovid's elegy Ad Amicam navigantem. Had Ovid been as

long compofing it, as you in fending it, the lady might have failed to Gades, and received it at her return. I have really a great itch of criticism upon me, but want matter here in the country; which I defire you to furnish me with, as I do you in the town,

Sic fervat ftudii fœdera quifque fui.

I am obliged to Mr Caryl (whom you tell me, you met at Epfom) for telling you truth, as a man is in thefe days to any one that will tell truth to his advantage; and I think none is more to mine, than what he told you, and I should be glad to tell all the world, that I have an extreme affection and esteem for you.

Tecum etenim longos memini confumere foles,
Et tecum primas epulis decerpere noctes;
Unum opus et requiem pariter disponimus ambo,
Atque verecunda laxamus feria menfa.

By thefe Fpula, as I take it, Perfius meant the Portugal fnuff and burnt Claret, which he took with

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his master Cornutus; and the verecunda menfa was, without difpute, fome coffee-house table of the ancients. I will only obferve, that these four lines are as elegant and mufical as any in Perfius, not excepting thofe fix or feven which Mr Dryden quotes as the only fuch in all that author. I could be heartily glad to repeat the fatisfaction defcrib'd in them,. being truly

Your, &c.

LETTER XX.

October 28. 1710.

I

Am glad to find by your last letter that

you

write

to me with the freedom of a friend, fetting down your thoughts as they occur, and dealing plainly with me in the matter of my own trifles, which, 1 affure you, I never valued half fo much as I do that fincerity in you which they were the occafion of difcovering to me; and which while I am happy in, I may be trufted with that dangerous weapon, Poetry, fince I fhall do nothing with it, but after afking and following your advice. I value fincerity the more, as I find by fad experience, the practice of it is more dangerous ; writers rarely pardoning the executioners of their verfes, even tho' themfelves pronounce fentence upon them. As to Mr Philips's Paftorals, I take the first to be infinitely the best, and the second the worft; the third is for the greatest part a tranflation from Virgil's Daphnis. I will not foreftal your judgment of

the reft, only obferve in that of the Nightingale thefe lines (fpeaking of the musician's playing on the harp)

Now lightly fkimming o'er the strings they pass,
Like winds that gently brush the plying grafs,
And melting airs arife at their command;
And now, laborious, with a weighty hand
He finks into the cords, with folemn pace,
And gives the fwelling tones a manly grace.

To which nothing can be objected but that they are too lofty for paftoral, especially being put into the mouth of a shepherd, as they are here; in the poet's own person they had been (I believe) more proper• They are more after Virgil's manner than that of Theocritus, whom yet in the character of paftoral he rather seems to imitate. In the whole, I agree with the Tatler, that we have no better Eclogues in our language. There is a small copy of the fame author publish'd in the Tatler No. 12. on the Danish winter: "Tis poetical painting, and I recommend it to your peru

fal.

Dr Garth's poem I have not feen, but believe I fhall be of that critic's opinion you mention at Will's, who fwore it was good: for, tho' I am very cautious of fwearing after critics, yet I think one may do it more fafely when they commend, than when they blame.

I agree with you in your cenfure of the use of fea-terms in Mr Dryden's Virgil; not only because

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