rate they go on, they will do mischief to themselves, and good to nobody else.

You know that Gay goes to Hanover, and my lord treasurer has promised to equip him. Monday is the day of departure; and he is now dancing attendance for money to buy him shoes, stockings, and linen. The duchess has turned him off*, which I am afraid will make the poor man's condition worse, instead of better.

verses.

The dragon was with us on Saturday night last, after having sent us really a most excellent copy of I really believe when he lays down, he will prove a very good poet. I remember the first part of his verses was complaining of ill usage; and at last he concludes,

"He that cares not to rule, will be sure to obey,

When summon'd by Arbuthnot, Pope, Parnell, and Gay."

Parnell has been thinking of going chaplain to my lord Clarendon; but they will not say whether he should or not. I am to meet our club at the Pall-mall coffeehouse, about one to-day, where we cannot fail to remember you. The queen is in good health; much in the same circumstances with the gentleman I mentioned, in attendance upon her ministers for something she cannot obtain. My lord and my lady Masham, and lady Fair, remember you kindly; and none with more sincere respect than your affectionate brother, and humble servant, JO. ARBUTHNOT.

FROM MR. POPE.

June 18, 1714.

WHATEVER apologies it might become me to make at any other time for writing to you, I shall use

* The duchess of Monmouth, to whom he had been sercetary. H

none now, to a man who has owned himself as splenetick as a cat in the country. In that circumstance, I know by experience a letter is a very useful, as well as amusing thing: if you are too busied in state af fairs to read it, yet you may find entertainment in folding it into divers figures, either doubling it into a pyramidical, or twisting it into a serpentine form; or if your disposition should not be so mathematical, in taking it with you to that place where men of studious minds are apt to sit longer than ordinary; where, after an abrupt division of the paper, it may not be unpleasant to try to fit and rejoin the broken lines together. All these amusements I am no stranger to in the country, and doubt not but (by this time) you begin to relish them, in your present contemplative

situation.

I remember a man, who was thought to have some knowledge in the world, used to affirm, that no people in town ever complained they were forgotten by their friends in the country: but my increasing experience convinces me he was mistaken, for I find a great many here grievously complaining of you, upon this score. I am told farther, that you treat the few you correspond with in a very arrogant style, and tell them you admire at their insolence in disturbing your meditations, or even inquiring of your retreat: but this I will not positively assert, because I never received any such insulting epistle from you. My lord Oxford says you have not written to him once since you went but this perhaps may be only policy, in him or you and I, who am half a whig, must not entirely credit any thing he affirms. At Button's it is reported you are gone to Hanover, and that Gay goes only on an embassy to you. Others apprehend some dangerous state treatise from your retirement;

*At a friend's house in Berkshire. See the preceding letters. N.

and a wit who affects to imitate Balzac, says, that the ministry now are like those heathens of old, who received their oracles from the woods. The gentlemen of the Roman catholick persuasion are not unwilling to credit me, when I whisper that you are gone to meet some Jesuits commissioned from the court of Rome, in order to settle the most convenient methods to be taken for the coming of the pretender. Dr. Arbuthnot is singular in his opinion, and imagines your only design is to attend at full leisure to the life and adventures of Scriblerus*. This indeed must be granted of greater importance than all the rest; and I wish I could promise so well of you. The top of my own ambition is to contribute to that great work, and I shall translate Homer by the by. Mr. Gay has acquainted you what progress I have made in it. I cannot name Mr. Gay, without all the acknowledgments which I shall ever owe you, on his account. If I writ this in verse, I would tell you, you are like the sun, and while men imagine you to be retired or absent, are hourly exerting your indulgence, and bringing things to maturity for their advantage. Of all the world, you are the man (without flattery) who serve your friends with the least ostentation; it is almost ingratitude to thank you, considering your temper; and this is the period of all my letter which I fear you will think the most impertinent. I am with the truest affection,

Yours, &c.

This project (in which the principal persons engaged were Dr. Arbuthnot, Dr. Swift, and Mr. Pope) was a very nobie one. It was to write a complete satire in prose upon the abuses in every branch of science, comprised in the history of the life and writings of Scriblerus; the issue of which were only some detached parts and fragments, such as the Memoirs of Scriblerus," the "Travels of Gulliver," the “Treatise of the Profound," the literal "Criticisms on Virgil," &c. WARBURTON.

But the three last-mentioned works were not at all on the character of Dr. Scribierus,

DI, WARTON.

FROM THOMAS HARLEY, ESQ*.

SIR,

June 19, 1714. YOUR letter gave me a great deal of pleasure. I do not mean only the satisfaction one must always find in hearing from so good a friend, who has distinguished himself in the world, and formed a new character, which nobody is vain enough to pretend to imitate. But you must know, the moment after you disappeared, I found it was to no purpose to be unconcerned, and to slight (as I really have done) all the silly stories and schemes I met with every day; the effects of self-conceit, and a frightened, hasty desire of gain. They asked me, "Has not the Dean left the town? Is not Dr. Swift gone into the country?"-Yes; and I would have gone into the country too, if I had not learned, one cannot be hurt till one turns one's back; for which reason I will go no more on their errands. But, seriously, you never heard such bellowing about the town of the state of the nation, especially among the sharpers, sellers of bearskinst, and the rest of that kind: nor such crying, and squalling among the ladies; insomuch that it has at last reached the house of commons; which I am sorry for, because it is hot and uneasy sitting there in this season of the year. But I was told to day, that, in some countries, people are forced to watch day

He

*This gentleman was cousin to the lord treasurer. died in January 1727; and left his estate to Edward Harley, esq.

H.

+ Stockjobbers. He who sells that of which he is not possessed, is said proverbially to sell the bear's skin, while the bear runs in the woods. And it being common for stockjobbers to make contracts for transferring stock at a future time, though they were not possessed of the stock to be transferred, they are called sellers of bearskins. H.

and night, to keep wild beasts out of their corn. Do you not pity me, for yielding to such grave sayings, to be stifled every day in the house of commons?

When I was out of England, I used to receive five or six letters each post with this passage, "As for what passes here, you will be informed by others much better; therefore I shall not trouble you with any thing of that sort." You will give me leave to use it now, as my excuse to you for not writing news. I hope, honest Gay will be better supplied by some friend or other. Before I received your direction, I had ordered my servant, who comes next Monday out of Herefordshire, to leave your horse at the Crown in Farringdon, where you can easily send for him. I hear he was so fat, they could not travel him till he was taken down; and I ordered he should go short journeys he is of a good breed, and therefore I hope will prove well; if not, use him like a bastard, and I will choose another for you. I am, sir, your most faithful humble servant, T. HARLEY.

FROM MR. THOMAS *.

REVEREND SIR,

June 22, 1714.,

IT was with some difficulty, that I prevailed with myself to forbear acknowledging your very kind letter. I can only tell you, it shall be the business of my life, to endeavour to deserve the opinion you ex-, press of me, and thereby to recommend myself to the continuance of your friendship.

* Secretary to lord treasurer. See pp. 47. 70.-A letter to the earl of Oxford from this Mr. Thomas, who retired into Wales, on the Antiquity of English and British Poetry, may be seen among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum. N. 7