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a Dimple, have Charms to distract me. I no longer look upon Lord Plaufible as ridiculous, for admiring a Lady's fine Tip of an Ear, and pretty Elbow, (as the Plain Dealer has it ;) but I am in fome Danger, even from the Ugly and Difagreeable, fince they may have their retired Beauties in one Part or other about them. You may guefs in how uneafy a State I am, when every Day the Performances of others apppear more beautiful and excellent, and my own more despicable. I have thrown away three Dr. Swift's each of which was once my Vanity; two Lady Bridgewaters, a Dutchefs of Montagu, half a Dozen Earls, and one Knight of the Garter. I have crucified Chrift over-again in Effigy, and made a Modena as old as her Mother St. Anne. Nay, what is yet more miraculous, I have rivall'd St. Luke himself in Painting; and, as it is faid an Angel came and finifhed his Piece, fo you would fwear a Devil put the laft Hand to mine, it is fo begrim'd and fmutted. However, I comfort myself with a Chriftian Reflection, that I have not broken the Commandment; for my Pictures are not the Likeness of any thing in Heaven above, or in the Earth below, or in the Waters under the Earth. Neither will any Body adore or worship them, except the Indians fhould have a Sight of them, who they tell us worship certain Pagods, or Idols, purely for their Uglinefs.

1am, &c.

With this ingenious Artift there remained an uninterrupted Friendship till Death, and while our Author was tranflating Homer, though Mr. Fervas was then in Ireland, he was in his Houfe in London, improving himself in Painting, when at Reft from the laborious Tafk of changing Greek Phrases into English ones; for, as he himself fays on this very Occafion,

ATranflator is no more a Poet than a Taylor is a Man, Mr. Fervas was entertain'd mean Time in the House of Dr. Swift, and this Opportunity of many Friends being abfent, Mr. Pope took to go to Oxford, where finding Dr. Clark, there grew immediately between them a Defire of each others Company. Dr. Clark was a great Scholar, a Man of great Penetration, much Speculation, a Philofopher, and a Lover of free Debate and Enquiry, having a Propenfity to Argument, and never declining (in an amicable cool Manner) to enter into Controverfy, he propos'd to himself vast Pleasure in difcourfing with Mr. Pope concerning the Proofs of his Religion, and why he affented to the unreasonable Injunctions and Traditions of the Romish Church, in Oppofition to the Scriptures, to his own Intereft, and the more valuable Decifion of Reason; But in this Dr. Clark was altogether mistaken, for once when he hinted, tho' but at Distance, expreffing fuch a Defire, Mr. Pope understood it and told him; faid he, my Reverend Friend, Dr. Clark, it is but a little while I can enjoy your improving Company, here in Oxford, which we will not fo mifpend, as it would be doing, should we let it pafs in talking of Divinity, neither would there be Time for either of us half to explain our felves, and at laft you would be Proteftant Clark and 1 Papist Pope i fo that other Difcourfes, doubtlefs both more pleafant and profitable, fill'd up their Hours of Converfation, which were very frequent, of theie last men, tioned Paffages Mr. Pope writes to Mr. Jervas at Ireland, November 29, 1716.

Dear Sir,

HAT you have not heard from me of late, ascribe not to the ufual Laziness of

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your Correfpondent, but to a Ramble to Oxford, where your

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Name is mentioned with Honour, even in a Land flowing with Tories. I had the good Fortune there to be often in the Converfation of Dr. Clark: He entertain❜d me with several Drawings, and particularly with the original Defign of Inigo Jones's Whiteball. I there faw and reverenc'd fome of your firft Pieces; which future Painters are to look upon' as we Poets do on the Culex of Virgil, and Batrachom of Homer.

Having named this latter Piece, give me Leave to afk what is become of Dr. Parnelle and his Frogs? Oblitufque meorum, oblivifcendus & illis, might be Horace's Wifh, but will never be mine while I have fuch meorums as Dr. Parnelle and Dr. Swift. I hope the Spring will reftore you to us, and with you all the Beauties and Colours of Nature. Not but I congratulate you on the Pleasure you must take in being admir'd in your own Country, which fo feldom happens to Prophets and Poets: But in this you have the Advantage of Poets; you are Mafter of an Art that must profper and grow rich, as long as People love or are proud of themselves, or their own Perfons. However, you have ftay'd long enough methinks, to have painted all the numberless Hiffories of old Ogygia. If you have begun to be hiftorical, I recommend to your Hand the Story which every pious Irishman ought to begin with, that of St. Patrick; to the End you may be oblig'd (as Dr. Parnelle was, when he tranflated the Batrachommachia) to come into England to copy the Frogs, and fuch other Vermine as were never feen in that Land fince the Time of that Confeffor.

I long to fee you a History Painter. You have already done enough for the Private, do fomething for the Publick; and be not confined, like the Reft, to draw only fuch filly Stories as our own Faces tell of

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The Ancients too expect you should do them Right; thofe Statues from which you learn'd your beautiful and noble Ideas, demand it as a Piece of Gratitude from you, to make them truly known to all Nations, in the Account you intend to write of their Characters. I hope you think more warmly than ever of that Defign.

As to your Enquiry about your Houfe, when I come within the Walls they put me in mind of those of Carthage, where your Friend, like the wandring Trojan,

animum Pictura pafcit inani;

For the fpacious Manfion, like a Turkish Caravanferah, entertains the Vagabonds with only bare Lodg ing. I rule the Family very ill, keep bad Hours, and let out your Pictures about the Town. See what it is to have a Poet in your House! Frank indeed does all he can in fuch a Circumftance; for confidering he has a wild Beaft in it, he conftantly keeps the Door chain'd: Every Time it is open'd, the Links rattle, the rufty Hinges roar. The House feems fo fenfible that you are its Support, that it is ready to drop in your Abfence; but Iftill truft myfelf under its Roof, as depending that Providence will preserve so many Raphaels, Titians, and Guidos as are lodg'd in your Cabinet. Surely the Sins of one Poet can hardly be fo heavy, as to bring an old House over the Heads of fo many Painters. In a Word your Houfe is falling, but what of that? I am only a Lodger, and

Dear Sir, &c.

To this Friend Mr. Pope fent an Epistle in Verfe, with Mr. Dryden's Tranflation of Frejnoy's Art of Painting. This Epiftle is wrote in a Stile truly

friendly,

friendly, yet truly poetical: He closes it with the following beautiful moral Reflection:

Yet fhould the Graces all thy Figures place,
And breathe an Air divine on ev'ry Face;
Yet fhould the Mufes bid my Numbers roll,
Strong as their Charms, and gentle as their Soul
With Zeuxis, Helen thy Bridgwater vie,
And these be fung till Granville's Myra die :
Alas how little from the Grave we claim?
Thou but preferv'st a Face, and I a Name,

Which was more pleafing to Mr. Fervas than all the Reft of the Poem, and without Doubt our Poet on Purpose inferted it, knowing him to be a thinking Man, and one who spent many Hours in Reading, chiefly Books of Moral Philofophy, to which Study he inclin'd, and few were better able to express in Words as well as in Colours, the Difference of the Paffions; fo that he would have gain'd the Reputation (though not fo much Money) as a History Painter. Whoever obferves any of his Pourtraits, will fee a certain Expreffion, with a Livelinefs in the Caft of the Face, or Countenance, that convinces in a Manner, without feeing the Originals, that they are Refemblances of real Life, not the meer Picture of the Painter's Hand, but of the Idea the Object fix'd upon his Mind.

He once drew the Picture of a Lady of Quality, who return'd it on his Hands, as not thinking it fo handsome as the herself was, and he painted another Pourtrait for her, with which fhe was exceedingly pleas'd, for it was very beautiful; Mr. Jervas confefs'd, that except the Colour of the Hair, and a few Reiterations, (that there might be, though ever fo diftant, fome Refemblance) he had taken it from

one

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