have done; fo we fhall 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 shall (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 myself.

LETTERS

LETTERS

TO AND FROM

Dr. ATTERBURY, Bishop of ROCHESTER.

From the Year 1716 to 1723.

LETTER I.

The Bishop of ROCHESTER to Mr. POPE.

I

*

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 beft and the only judge. This is my fincere opinion, which I give, because you afk it: and which I would not give, tho' afk'd, but to a man I value as much as I do you, being fenfible how improper it is, on many

* The General Preface to Mr. Pope's Poems, firft printed 1717, the year after the date of this letter. P. accounts,

accounts, for me to interpofe in things of this nature; which I never understood well, and now understand somewhat lefs than ever I did. But I can deny you nothing; efpecially fince you have had the goodness 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, and which therefore I shall be very loth to part with. In other matters which relate to polite writing, I fhall feldom differ from you: or, if I do, fhall, 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, &c.

LETTER

II.

The Bishop of ROCHESTER to Mr. POPE.

I

Feb. 18, 1717.

Hop'd to find you last night at Lord Bathurst's, and came but a few minutes after you had left him. I brought Gorbodoc with me; and Dr. Arbuthnot telling me he should see you, I depofited the book in his hands: out of which, I think,

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

P.

my

my Lord Bathurst got it before we parted, and from him therefore you are to claim it. If Gorboduc fhould ftill miss his way to you, others are to answer for it; I have delivered up my 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 perfon 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 pleafure 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, &c.

I

LETTER III.

The Bishop of ROCHESTER to Mr. POPE.

Bromley, Nov. 8, 1717.

Have nothing to say to you on that melancholy fubject, with an account of which the printed papers have furnish'd 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

† An Heroic Poem writ at 15 years old.

P.

have it now in your power, to pursue that method of thinking and living which you like best. 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 no man living, who wishes you better, or would be more pleas'd -to contribute any ways to your fatisfaction 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 fee you next, I will shew you the several paffages alter'd, and added by the author, befide what you mentioned to me.

I proteft to you, this laft perufal of him has given me fuch new degrees, I will not fay of pleafure but of admiration and aftonishment, that I look upon the fublimity of Homer, and the majefty of Virgil with fomewhat lefs reverence than I ufed to do. I challenge you, with all your partiality, to fhew me in the first of these any thing equal to the Allegory of Sin and Death, either as to the greatness 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 serious truth, and could almost venture to fet my hand to it,

Hæc quicunque legit, tantum cecinie putabit

Mæoniden 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

Your, &c.

LET