of having acted well in it: And I hope you have receiv'd your Reward, in being happy where you are. I believe, in the religious Country you now inhabit, you'll be better pleas'd to find I confider you in this Light, than if I compar'd you to those Greeks and Romans, whofe Conftancy in fuffering Pain, and whofe Refolution in Purfuit of a generous End, you would rather imitate than boast of.

But I had a melancholy Hint the other Day, as if you were yet a Martyr to the Fatigue your Virtue made you undergo on this Side the Water. I beg, if your Health be reftor'd to you, not to deny me the Joy of knowing it: Your Endeavours of Service, and good Advices to the poor Papifts, put me in mind of Noah's preaching forty Years to thofe Folks that were to be drown'd at laft. At the worst, I heartily wish your Ark may find an Aratat, and your Wife and Family (the Hopes of the good Patriarch) land fafely, after the Deluge, upon the Shore of Totness.

I know you will take part in rejoicing for the Victory of Prince Eugene over the Turks, in the Zeal you bear to the Chriftian Intereft, though your Coufin of Oxford (with whom I dined Yesterday) fays, there is no other Difference in the Chriftians beating the Turks, or the Turks beating the Chriftians, than whether the Emperor fhall firft declare War against Spain, or Spain declare it against the Emperor. I must add another Apopthegm of the fame noble Earl; it was the Saying of a politick Prince, Time and he would get the better of any two others. To which Lord Oxford made this Answer,

Time and I 'gainst any two,

Chance and Ï'gainst Time and you.

I am,
Dear Sir, &a

We

We before faid, that Mr. Pope engag'd himself very much in the Affairs of this Family, and have, as we think, given fufficient Reafon for it; Had he had no real Efteem for Mr. Blount, his high Regard for Mrs. Blount had made him fhow himfelf kind to him; had he had no Value for her, the Merit, the great Merit of that Gentleman, had extorted the fame Love, Friendship, and Affection, he now bore him; he lov'd many, but these * above all.

It was here he was fure of Truth and Peace, the Gentleness and Evennefs of their Tempers were, as he enjoy'd the conftant Benefit, one of the chief Bleffings of his Life; it is not easy to express the great Satisfaction of certain Friendship, at all Times the fame, not a ruffling Paffion, but a folid, quiet, and fettled Amity, ripen'd by Time, to fly to for Counsel, to unbofom Secrets, to complain to, to hear Counsel, Secrets, and Complaints from, and laftly, (can there be a greater Pleafure?) to rejoice with. This Happiness was enjoy'd by Mr. Pope till Death, for Mrs. Blount, (to whom very few, if any can compare) as may be feen by Mr. Pope's Will, outlives him; but how little will all thofe fine Curiofities, thofe Urns, thofe Ornaments, and that sweet Grotto please, now what made them Things worse poffeffing, no longer appears among them: His Form,* because it contain❜d a Soul fo beautiful, never difpleas'd, Who is there fo beautiful that would not change that fading and uncertain Accident, for a Soul fo richly adorn'd? Or what external Grace could have been offer'd Mr. Pope, in lieu of thofe fhining inward Graces and Harmonies, which were

engrafted

*This Gentleman return'd after a Time, and died in London, in the Year 1726, greatly lamented by all his Acquaintance, especially our Author.

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engrafted in his large Mind? If he had not been fhackled with the Chain of mistaken Faith, he had been (nay, as it was, he was) a Wonder, and future Ages will read him with Admiration of Applause, despairing (as I believe most do now defpair) of feeing another Poet, to bring in Comparifon, in those Ways of Writing, in which he wrote and excell'd; for he excell'd in all he attempted. The Stile of Milton, nor his Manner, belong'd not to our Poet, Milton's Fame is built upon a lafting Foundation, without a Rival in any Refpect; but neither could he have come near our Poet, attempting in his Manner, lefs ftill could our Poet do in the Hudibraftick Way, though he admir'd Butler, he did nothing to refemble him, he hated bad Imitations, and seems wholly to have ow'd what is not his own, as to Numbers, to Waller and Dryden, and two better Masters none need ftudy; he lov'd Cowley, but co pied nothing from him, and Chaucer as a Wit, but for Numbers, our Language was then hardly begun to be polifh'd, yet the Strength of that Prince of the.. English Poets Genius, fometimes carried him as high, and as eafy Flights, as any of the Moderns, of which many Examples might be given: We think!! his Wit unequall'd by any Modern, taking them in better Language, as they appear now, What will they do when the Duft of as much Time, as fince Chaucer, fhall obfcure them to the future Ages? So that we are no longer to feek for an unanswerable Reafon for Mrs. Blount's publick and confefs'd Ad miration for our Poet; fhe, the fartheft in the World from a Coquet, had as little of the Prude, a Prude would never have had any Charms for Mr. Pope, to whom Mrs. Howe faid one Day, You Men call us Strange Names, fome of them I don't understand, Coquetry, indeed, I guess at; but Prudery, for Heaven's

Sake

Sake make me know thorougly what that Prudery is. Mr. Pope wrote her an Answer in the Leaf of an Ivory Book.

7HAT is Prudery? 'Tis a Beldam,

Seen with Wit and Beauty feldom,
Tis a. Fear that ftarts at Shadows,
Tis (no, 'tis n't) like Mifs Meadows.
Tisa Virgin hard of Feature,
Old, and void of all good Nature;
Lean and fretful, would feem wife,"
Yet plays the Fool, before the dies.
'Tis an ugly envious Shrew,

That rails at dear L'Epell and You!

On the Death of Mrs. Blount's Brother, who died of the Small Pox, which though he had never had, did not deter her from being conftantly with him. This must be acknowledged a Sifterly Love beyond the common Pitch, and fhews fuch Absence of Fear and Prefence of Mind, as is not to be expected in the Nature of her Sex, and muft furprize every Body. On this Occafion we fay Mr. Pope fent her the following, or b

Dear Madam,

HA AVING no lefs Admiration for your Cou

rage and good Nature, than Sympathy with your Grief, I am so highly fenfible of both the one and the other, that if I were capable to render you thofe Commendations which were juftly due to you, and that Comfort whereof you ftand in Need, I must confefs I fhould be much troubled where to begin ; for what Obligations can be more equally inforcing, than to render to fo eminent a Virtue the Honour it merits; and to fo violent Affliction the Comfort it VOL. II. requires?

E

wil brain

requires? But I am to blame to put a Distance be tween thefe two Things, fince Charity has fo per fectly united them, that the fond Affiftance you af forded your late Brother, should now prove an extraordinary Comfort to you, fince God will bestow that on you out of Juftice, which others obtain out of his Indulgence: his infinite Goodness being fuch, as will not fuffer, unrewarded, fo exemplary an Act of Tenderness, as what, through a Contempt, of your own Life, engaged you in the Offices of the beft and tendereft Sifter in the World, beyond the Limits of all. Obligations; and by an admirable Conftancy, made you affured amidit a Danger that terrifies the most Daring. afund

Upon this Account am, I eonfident that he will preferve you from the foul Diftemper you were above fearing, and wilkfhower on you, as a Reward of your Virtud, the Bleffings which are with'd you by diy va face Dear Madam, &c.

eroi yltfi2 a bogbi -After her Brother's Death he tells her, that the filll went on gaining greater Power over him. He, at her Defire, which he calls a Command, fent her fome Verfes, which he fays if Are Thould think very ill ones, fhe is the more obliged to him, in that he knowing it as well as fhe, had not forborn to fend them to her; and then adds; "

with you,a lafs Power than what you have within Me deal freely THESE FEW DAYS gained upon the, would not dave been fufficient to have prevailed with me to do Honflies her, that without her Command they had never known any Place but in his own Me mory. But the faire an opereft Declaration of the real Paffion ofvLove that can be made is a little far? ther in the Letter which we now have before us, and of which we are now speaking. I perceive, Maat nudimo sut noibi A meldiv of of banan