To break its peace, there must be fome guilt or consciousness, which is inconfiftent with its own principles. Not but malice and injustice have their day, like fome poor fhort-lived vermine that die in fhooting their own ftings. Falhood is Folly (fays Homer) and liars and calumniators at last hurt none but themselves, even in this world in the next 'tis charity to fay, God have mercy on them! they were the devil's vicegerents upon earth, who is the father of lies, and, I fear, has a right to dispose of his children.

I've had an occasion to make these reflections of late more justly than from any thing that concerns my writings; for it is one that concerns my morals, and (which I ought to be as tender of as my own) the good character of another very innocent perfon, who I'm fure shares your friendship no less than I do. No creature has better natural difpofitions, or would act more rightly or reafonably in every duty, did the act by herself, or from herself; but you know it is the misfortune of that family to be governed like a ship, I mean the Head guided by the Tail, and that by every wind that blows in it.

LETTER XVI,

Mr POPE to the Earl of Ox FOR D.

MY LORD,

YOUR

Oct. 21. 1721.

OUR Lordship may be furprised at the liberty I take in writing to you: tho' you will allow me always to remember, that you once permitted me that honour, in conjunction with fome others who better deferved it. I hope you will not wonder I am fill defirous to have you think me your grateful and faith

ful fervant; but, I own, I have an ambition yet farther, to have others think me so, which is the occafion I give your Lordship the trouble of this. Poor Par nelle, before he died, left me the charge of publishing these few remains of his: I have a strong defire to make them, their author, and their publisher, more confiderable, by addressing and dedicating them all to you. There is a pleasure in bearing testimony to truth, and a vanity perhaps, which is at least as excufable as any vanity can be. I beg you, my Lord, to allow me to gratify it, in prefixing this Paper of honeft verfes to the book. I fend the book itself, which, I dare fay, you'll receive more fatisfaction in perusing, than you can from any thing written upon the fubject of yourself. Therefore I am a good deal in doubt, whether you will care for fuch an addition to it. All I fhall fay for it is, that 'tis the only dedication I ever writ, and fhall be the only one, whether you accept of it or not: for I will not bow the knee to a lefs man than my Lord Oxford, and I expect to fee no greater in my time.

After all, if your Lordship will tell my Lord Harley that I must not do this, you may depend upon a suppression of these verses (the only copy whereof I fend you); but you never fhall fupprefs that great, fincere, and entire refpect, with which, I am al

ways,

My Lord,

Your, &c.

I

LETTER

XVII.

The Earl of OXFORD to Mr POP E.

SIR,

Received

Brampton Castle, Nov. 6. 1721.

your packet, which could not but give me great pleasure, to fee you preferve an old friend in your memory; for it must needs be very agreeable to be remember'd by those we highly value. But then, how much fhame did it caufe me, when I read your very fine verfes inclofed? my mind reproached me how far fhort I came of what your great friendship and delicate pen would partially defcribe me. You ask my confent to publish it: to what ftraits doth this reduce me? I look back indeed to thofe evenings I have ufefully and pleafantly spent, with Mr Pope, Mr Parnelle, Dean Swift, the Doctor, &c. I fhould be glad the world knew You admitted me to your friendship, and fince your affection is too hard for your judgment, I am contented to let the world know how well Mr Pope can write upon a barren subject. I return you an exact copy of the verses, that I may keep the Original, as a testimony of the only error you have been guilty of. I hope very speedily to embrace you in London, and to affure you of the particular esteem and friendship wherewith I am

PP

VOL. V.

Your, &c.

OXFORD.

LETTERS

TO AND FROM

EDWARD BLOUNT, Esq.

From the Year 1714 to 1725.

LETTER I.

Mr POPE to EDWARD BLOUNT, Esq.

W1

Aug. 27. 1714.

7Hatever ftudies on the one hand, or amusements on the other, it fhall be my fortune to fall into, I fhall be equa lly incapable of forgetting you in. any of them. The tafk I undertook, tho' of weight enough in itself, has had a voluntary increase by the enlarging my defign of the Notes; and the neceffity of confulting a number of books has carried me to Oxford: but, I fear, thro' my Lord Harcourt's and Dr Clark's means, I fhall be more converfant with the pleasures and company of the place, than with the books and manufcripts of it.

I find still more reafon to complain of the negligence of the Geographers in their maps of old Greece, fince I looked upon two or three more noted names in the public libraries here. But with all the care I

am capable of, I have fome cause to fear the engraver will prejudice me in a few fituations. I have been forced to write to him in fo high a ftyle, that were my epistle intercepted, it would raife no finall admi-' ration in an ordinary man. There is fcarce an order in it of less importance, than to remove fuch and fuch mountains, alter the courfe of fuch and fuch rivers, place a large city on fuch a coaft, and raze another in another country. I have fet bounds to the fea, and faid to the land, Thus far fhalt thou advance, and no further*. In the mean time, "I who talk aud cómmand at this rate, an in danger of lofing my horf, and stand in some fear of a country justice †. To difarm me indeed may be but prudential, confidering what armies I have at prefent on foot, and in my fervice; a hundred thoufand Grecians are no contemptible body; for all that I can tell, they may be as formidable as four thousand priests; and they feem proforces to fend against thofe in Barcelona. per fiege deferves as fine a poem as the Iliad, and the ma chining part of poetry would be the jufter in it, as, they fay, the inhabitants expect angels from heaven to their affiftance. May I venture to fay, who am a Papist, and say to you who are a Papift, that nothing is more astonishing to me, than that people fo greatly warmed with a fenfe of liberty, fhould be capable of harbouring fuch weak fuperftition; and that fo

That

* This relates to the Map of ancient Grecce, laid down by our Author in his obfervations on the fecond Iliad.

+ Some of the Laws were, at this time, put in force against the Papifts.