"honeftly, when we do or fuffer any thing in 66 a good caufe." The unwarrantable publication of his letters at leaft did him the fervice to fhew that he conftantly enjoyed the friendship of worthy men; and that if a catalogue were to be taken of his friends and his enemies, he needs not to blush at either. Many of these letters having been written on the most trying occurrences, and all in the opennefs of friendship, they afford a proof what his real fentiments were; as they flowed warm from the heart, and fresh from the occafions; without the leaft thought that the world should ever be witnefs to them. Had he fate down with a defign to draw his own picture, he could not have done it fo truly; for whoever fits for it (whether to himself or another) will inevitably find the features more compofed, than his appear to be in these letters. But if an author's hand, like a painter's, be more diftinguishable in a flight fketch, than in a finished picture, this very careleffnefs will make them the better known from fuch counterfeits, as have been, and may be imputed to him, either through a mercenary or malicious defign. After our author had published the Epilogue to his Satires, wherein he took leave of the public, his health growing daily more and more infirm, he was obliged to abate his application, and inftead of meditating farther publications, he determined to give a more correct edition of his works; and to this end, in the year 1743, the intire Poem of the DUNCIAD*, made its appearance by way of fpecimen. Our author made fome progrefs in this design, but did not live to complete it. He had, for the greater part of his life, been fubject to an habitual headach; and to this complaint, which he inherited from his mother, was added a dropfy in his breast, under which he laboured in the latter part of his days, and at length expired 30th May, 1744, about eleven o'clock at night. Juft before his death, he fell into continual flumberings, and yielded his breath fo imperceptibly, that the people who moft conftantly attended him, could not tell when he expired. His body, pursuant to his own requeft, was depofited in the fame vault with thofe of his parents, to whofe memory he had erected a monument with the following infcription written by himself. D. O. M. ALEXANDER POPE, VIRO INNOCUO, PROBRO, PIO, XCIII. Oв. MCDCXXXIII PARENTIBUS BENE MERENTIBUS FILIUS FECIT * The Fourth book was first printed feparately in the year 1742. Hh 4 The The laft line was added after his death in pursuance of his will; the reft was done on the death of his parents. The present Bishop of Gloucester, with a generous and amiable affection, has fince erected an elegant monument, in the church of Twickenham, to the memory of his deceafed friend: an engraving of which, the reader will find at the end of this volume. Mr. POPE had long foreseen that his end was approaching, and he beheld the hafty progrefs of his infirmities, with manly fortitude and refignation. In his feveral accounts of his health to his private friends, he describes the desperate flate of his conftitution, without any unbecoming emotions, or unmanly lamentations. In a Letter to Mr. Allen, speaking of another diforder which did not prove mortal, he fays "I am in no pain, my cafe is not curable, and "muft in course of time, as it does not dimi"nish, become painful at first, and then fatal. "And what of all this? Without any distemper at all, life itself does fo, and is itself a pain, "if continued long enough. So that provi"dence is equal, even between what seems fo "wide extremes, as health and infirmity.” In another letter to the fame person, he fays "I am very fure I have not much "ftrength left, nor much life; all it can allow me will be to fee you, and (if I can stretch it " fo "fo far) one friend more abroad: In either of your houses if I drop, I drop contented; "otherwife Twickenham will fee the last of "me." In a letter to Mr. Bethel, he likewise expresses himself on the same subject with a certain degree of unconcern and even pleasantry. "I am tied down," fays he, "from any distant "flights; a horse hereabouts muft needs be like a carrier's horse, always in a road, for my life "(as you know) is perpetually carrying me between this place and London: to this narrow "horizon my courfe is confined; and I fancy it "will end here; and I fhall foon take up my "inn, at Twickenham church or at Westminster, "as it happens to be my laft ftage." Again, addreffing himself to the fame perfon, he draws a moft pleafing picture of the decline of life. "I would be very glad," fays he, " methinks, "if after a friendship of fo many years, in the "whole courfe of which no one mistake, no one paffion, no one intereft has arifen, to interrupt our conftant, easy and open commerce, if it were yet referved for us to pass a year or two together in a gentle walk down "the hill, before we lie down to reft: the evening of our days is generally the calmest, and "the most enjoyable of them." 、 ་་ During During the course of his illnefs, and in his laft hours, he behaved with that compofure and ferenity which feldom fails to attend a pure confcience and elevated mind. He feems to have rifen fuperior even to his laft infirmities. But two days before he died, he fat in the garden for three hours in a sedan; and took an airing in Bufhy-park, the very day before he died. He would dine in company, when many under the like circumftances would have languished in bed. One day being brought to table, he appeared fo ill, that the company thought him expiring; which occafioned Mrs. Anne Arbuthnot, the excellent daughter of an excellent father, to exclaim, "Mercy upon us! "this is quite an Egyptian feast." Lord Bolingbroke, who was likewife prefent, feemed to be affected with the deepeft concern at his friend's defperate condition. Mr. POPF, however, not only beheld his approaching end with magnanimity, but he spoke of it with chearfulnefs; in adoring the goodness of the Deity in the flattering hopes he has permitted nature to indulge men, even amidst the fenfe of the defperateness of their condition. "A dropfy in the breaft, which is my cafe, I "know to be incurable," faid he one day to the prefent Bishop of Gloucefter, "and yet I fre"quently catch myself in indulging, before I am "aware, with this pleafing delufive hope." Which is more to be admired here, his piety or ftrength of mind! Not |