reasonably in every duty, did fhe 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 OXFORD. Oct. 21, 1721. YOUR 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 deserved it. I hope you will not wonder I am still defirous to have you think me your grateful and faithful fervant; but, I own, I have an ambition yet farther, to have others think me fo, which is the occafion I give your Lordship the trouble of this. Poor Parnelle, before he died, left me the charge of publishing thefe few remains of his: I have a ftrong defire to make them, their author, and their publisher, more confiderable, by addreffing and dedicating them all to you. There is a pleasure in bearing teftimony to truth, and a vanity perhaps, which at least is as excufable as any vanity can be. I beg you, my Lord, to allow me to gratify it in prefixing this paper of honeft verses to the book. I fend the book itself, which, I dare fay, you'll receive more fatisfaction in perufing, 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 time. my After all, if your Lordship will tell my Lord Harley that I must not do this, you may depend upon a fuppreffion of thefe verfes (the only copy whereof I fend you), but you never shall fupprefs that great, fincere, and entire respect, with which I am always, My LORD, Your, etc. I SIR, LETTER XVII. The Earl of OXFORD to Mr. POPE. Brampton-Castle, Nov. 6, 1721. RECEIVED 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 thofe we highly value. But then how much shame did it caufe me, when I read your very fine verses inclos'd? my mind reproach'd 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 usefully and pleasantly spent, with Mr. Pope, Mr. Parnelle, Dean Swift, the Doctor, etc. I should 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 teftimony 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 efteem and friendship wherewith I am, your, etc. OXFORD. LETTERS TO AND FROM EDWARD BLOUNT, Efq. From the Year 1714 to 1725. LETTER I. Mr. POPE to EDWARD BLOUNT, Efq; WHAT August 27, 1714. HATEVER ftudies on the one hand, or amusements on the other, it fhall be my fortune to fall into, I fhall be equally incapable of forgetting you in any of them. The task I undertook, though of weight enough in itfelf, has had a voluntary increafe 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 manuscripts of it. I find still more reason to complain of the negligence of the Geographers in their maps of old Greece, fince I look'd upon two or three more roted names in the publick 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 style, that were my epiftle intercepted, it would raise no fmall admiration in an ordinary man. There is fcarce an order in it of less importance than to remove fuch and fuch mountains, alter the course of fuch and fuch rivers, place a large city on fuch a coast, and raise another in another country. I have fet bounds to the sea, and said to the land, Thus far fhalt thou advance, and no farther *. In the mean time, I, who talk and command at this rate, am in danger of lofing my horse, and stand in fome 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 service; an hundred thousand Grecians are no contemptible body; for all that I can tell, they may be as formidable as four thousand priests; and they seem proper forces to fend against thofe in Barcelona. That fiege deferves as fine a poem as the Iliad, and the machining part of poetry would be the juster in it, as they say, the inhabitants expect angels from heaven to their affistance. May I venture to say, who am a Papist, and say to you who are a Papist, that nothing is more astonishing to me, than that people, fo greatly warm'd with a sense of liberty, fhould be capable of harbouring fuch weak fuperftition, and that so much bravery and fo much folly can inhabit the fame breasts ? I could not but take a trip to London on the death of the Queen, mov'd by the common curiosity of mankind, who leave their own business to be looking upon that of other men. I thank God, that, as for myfelf, I am below all the accidents of ftate-changes by my circumstances, and above them by my philofophy. *This relates to the map of ancient Greece, laid down by cur Author in his obfervations on the fecond Iliad. + Some of the laws were, at this time, put in force against the Papifts. Common charity of man to man, and universal good will to all, are the points I have most at heart; and I am fure, thofe are not to be broken for the fake of any governors, or government. I am willing to hope the best, and what I more with than my own or any particular man's advancement, is, that this turn may put an end entirely to the divifions of Whig and Tory; that the parties may love each other as well as I love them both, or at leaft hurt each other as little as I would either and that our own people may live as quietly as we shall certainly let theirs; that is to fay, that want of power itself in us may not be a furer prevention of harm, than want of will in them. I am fure, if all Whigs and all Tories had the spirit of one Roman Catholick that I know, it would be well for all Roman Catholicks; and if all Roman Catholicks had always had that fpirit, it had been well for all others; and we had never been charged with so wicked a spirit as that of perfecution. : I agree with you in my fentiments of the ftate of our nation fince this change: I find myself just in the fame fituation of mind you defcribe as your own, heartily wishing the good, that is, the quiet of my country, and hoping a total end of all the unhappy divifions of mankind by party-fpirit, which at best is but the madnefs of many for the gain of a few. I am, etc. LETTER II. From Mr. BLOUNT. IT is with a great deal of pleasure I fee your letter, dear Sir, written in a style that fhews you full of health, and in the midft of diverfions: I think those |