very virtue which fecures his prefent ftate from all the forrows incident to ours, does but aggrandise our fenfation of its being remov'd from our fight, from our affection, and from our imitation; for the friendship and fociety of good men does not only make us happier, but it makes us better. Their Death does but complete their felicity before our own, who probably are not yet arrived to that degree of perfection which merits an immediate reward. That your dear brother and my dear friend was fo, I take his very removal to be a proof; Providence would certainly lend virtuous men to a world that fo much wants them, as long as in its juftice to them it could fpare them to us. May my foul be with those who have meant well, and have acted well to that meaning! and, I doubt not, if this prayer be granted, I shall be with him. Let us preserve his memory in the way he would best like, by recollecting what his behaviour would have been, in every incident of our lives to come, and doing in each just as we think he would have done; fo we shall have him always before our eyes, and in our minds, and (what is more) in our lives and manners. I hope when we shall meet him next, we shall be more of a piece with him, and confequently not to be evermore feparated from him. I will add but one word that relates to what remains of yourself and me, fince fo valued a part of us is gone; it is to beg you to accept, as yours by inheritance, of the vacancy he has left in a heart, which (while he could fill it with fuch hopes, wishes, and affections for him as fuited a mortal creature) was truly and warmly his; and fhall (I affure you in the fincerity of forrow for my own lofs) be faithfully at your fervice while I continue to love his memory, that is, while I continue to be myfelf.

Mr. Digby died in the year 1726, and is buried in the church of Sherburne in Dorsetshire, with an Epitaph written by the Author.

I

LETTER I.

The Bishop of ROCHESTER to Mr. POPE.

Decemb. 1716.

RETURN your Preface, which I have read twice with pleasure. The modefty and good sense there is in it, must please every one that reads it: And fince there is nothing that can offend, I fee not why you should. balance a moment about printing it-always provided, that there is nothing faid there which you may have occafion to unfay hereafter: of which you yourself are the best and the only judge. This is my fincere opinion, which I give, because you ask it and which I would not give, tho' asked, but to a man I value as much as I do you; being fenfible how improper it is on many accounts, for me to interpofe in things of this

*The general preface to Mr. Pope's Poems, firft printed 1717 the year after the date of this letter.

nature; which I never understood well, and now understand somewhat less than ever I did. But I can deny you nothing; especially fince you have had the goodnefs often, and patiently, to hear what I have faid against rhyme, and in behalf of blank verfe; with little difcretion, perhaps, but, I am fure, without the leaft prejudice being myself equally incapable of writing well in either of those ways, and leaning therefore to neither fide of the queftion, but as the appearance of reafon inclines me. Forgive me this error, if it be one; an error of above thirty years ftanding, anđ which therefore I fhall be very loth to part with. In other matters which relate to polite writing, I fhall seldom differ from you: or, if I do, shall, I hope, have the prudence to conceal my opinion: I am as much as I ought to be, that is, as much as any man can be, Your, etc.

I

LETTER II.

The Bishop of ROCHESTER to Mr. POPE.

Feb. 18, 1717.

HOPED to find you last night at Lord Bathurst's, and came but a few minutes after you had left him. I brought Gorboduc* with me; and Dr. Arbuthnot telling me he should fee you, I depofited the book in his hands out of which, I think, my Lord Bathurst got it before we parted, and from him therefore you are to claim it. If Gorboduc should still miss his way to you, others are to answer for it; I have delivered up my

* A Tragedy, written in the Reign of Edward the fixth (and much the best performance of that Age) by Sackville, afterwards Earl of Dorfet, and Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth. It was then very fcarce, but lately reprinted by R. Dodfley in Pall-mall.

truft. I am not forry your Alcander* is burnt; had I known your intentions, I would have interceded for the first page, and put it, with your leave, among my curiofities. In truth, it is the only inftance of that kind I ever met with, from a person good for any thing elfe, nay for every thing elfe to which he is pleas'd to turn himself.

Depend upon it, I fhall fee you with great pleasure at Bromley; and there is no request you can make to me, that I fhall not moft readily comply with. I wish you health and happiness of all forts, and would be glad to be inftrumental in any degree towards helping you to the least share of either. I am always, every where, moft affectionately and faithfully

Your, etc.

I

LETTER III.

The Bishop of ROCHESTER to Mr. POPE.

Bromley, Nov. 8, 1717.

HAVE nothing to fay to you on that melancholy subject, with an account of which the printed papers have furnished me, but what you have already faid to yourself.

When you have paid the debt of tenderness you owe to the memory of a Father, I doubt not but you will turn your thoughts towards improving that accident to your own ease and happiness. You have it now in your power, to pursue that method of thinking and living which you like beft. Give me leave, if I am not a little too early in my applications of this kind, to congratulate you upon it; and to affure you that there is

* An Heroick Poem writ at 15 years old.

no man living, who wishes you better, or would be more pleas'd to contribute any ways to your fatiffaction or fervice.

I return you your Milton, which, upon collation, I find to be revifed, and augmented, in feveral places, as the title-page of my third edition pretends it to be. When I see you next, I will fhew you the feveral paffages alter'd, and added by the author, befide what you mentioned to me.

I proteft to you, this last perufal of him has given me fuch new degrees, I will not fay of pleasure, but of admiration and astonishment, that I look upon the fublimity of Homer, and the majefly of Virgil, with fomewhat lefs reverence than I used to do. I challenge you, with all your partiality, to fhew me in the first of thefe any thing equal to the Allegory of Sin and Death, either as to the greatnefs and juftnefs of the invention, or the height and beauty of the colouring. What I look'd upon as a rant of Barrow's, I now begin to think a ferious truth, and could almoft venture to fet hand to it.

my

Haec quicunque legit, tantum cecinifsse putabit

Maeoniden Ranas, Virgilium Culices.

But more of this when we meet.

When I left the town

the D. of Buckingham continued fo ill that he receiv'd no meffages; oblige me fo far as to let me know how he does; at the fame time I fhall know how you do, and that will be a double fatisfaction to

5

Your, etc.