fo I find myself leaving the world, as fast as it leaves me. Companions I have enough, friends few, and thofe too warm in the concerns of the world, for me to bear pace with; or else fo divided from me, that they are but like the dead whofe remembrance I hold in honour. Nature, temper, and habit from my youth made me have but one strong defire: all other ambitions, my perfon, education, conftitution, religion, etc. confpired to remove far from me. That defire was, to fix and preferve a few lafting, dependable friendships: and the accidents which have dif appointed me in it, have put a period to all my aims. So I am funk into an idleness, which makes me neither care nor labour to be noticed by the rest of mankind; I propose no rewards to myself, and why fhould I take any fort of pains? Here I fit and fleep, and probably here I shall sleep till I sleep for ever, like the old man of Verona. I hear of what paffes in the bufy world with fo little attention, that I forget it the next day; and as to the learned world, there is nothing paffes in it. I have no more to add, but that I am, with the fame truth as ever, Your, etc. LETTER XXII. October 23, 1730. YOUR letter is a very kind one *, but I can't say fo pleafing to me as many of yours have been, through the account you give of the dejection of your fpirits. I wish the too conftant ufe of water does not contribute to it; I find Dr. Arbuthnot and another very knowing phyfician of that opinion. I alfo wifh you were not fo totally immersed in the country; I hope your return to town will be a prevalent remedy against the evil of too much recollection. I wish it partly for my own fake. We have lived little together of late, and we want to be physicians for one another. It is a remedy that agreed very well with us both, for many years, and I fancy our conftitutions would mend upon the old medicine of Studiorum Similitudo, etc. I believe we both of us want whetting; there are feveral here who will do you that good office, merely for the love of wit, which feems to be bidding the town a long and last adieu. I can tell you of no one thing worth reading, or feeing; the whole age feems refolved to justify the Dunciad, and it may stand for a public Epitaph or monumental Infcription In all this correfpondence with Gay, there appears to be a vein of more natural fentiments, and eafy unaffected language, than in most of his other Letters. WARTON. This is certainly true of the earlier Letters; but all of them are not fo. scription like that at Thermopylæ, on a whole people perished! There may indeed be a Wooden image or two of Poetry set up, to preserve the memory that there once were bards in Britain; and (like the Giants in Guildhall) fhew the bulk and bad taste of our ancestors: At present the poor Laureat and Stephen Duck serve for this purpose; a drunken fot of a Parfon holds forth the emblem of Inspiration, and an honeft industrious Thresher not unaptly reprefents Pains and Labour. I hope this Phænomenon of Wiltshire has appeared at Amesbury, or the Duchess will be thought infenfible to all bright qualities and exalted geniuses, in court and country alike. But he is a harmless man, and therefore I am glad. This is all the news talked of at Court, but it will please you better to hear that Mrs. Howard talks of you, though not in the fame breath with the Threfher, as they do of me. By the way, have you seen or converfed with Mr. Chubb *, who is a wonderful Pha i Eufden. nomenon WARBURTON. * The following original Letter from Chubb to Dodington, communicated by Mr. Wyndham, fome readers might be gratified in perufing. It fhews the lowness of Chubb's circumstances, and the liberality and kindness of Dodington. To the Right Honourable Geo. Dodington, Efquire, at his houfe in London. SIR, Jan. 30, 1730. Pursuant to your order, I waited on Mr. Dyke, and received fifty pounds; a favour so great, as vaftly to exceed my expectation, from any perfon or perfons in the world. For which bounty (whether from yourself alone, or in conjunction with any other perfon or perfons), as alfo for your good opinion of me, I beg nomenon of Wiltshire? I have read through his whole volume with admiration of the writer; though not always with approbation of the doctrine. I have past just three days in London in four months, two at Windsor, half an one at Richmond, and have not taken one excurfion into any other country. Judge now whether I can live in my library. Adieu. Live mindful of one of your firft friends, who will be fo till the last. Mrs: Blount deserves your remembrance, for fhe never forgets you, and wants nothing of being a friend'. I beg beg leave to return my most hearty thanks. As I would chufe to deferve the worthy character you give me; fo the best return I can make, is to wifh that fuch a rational and manly temper and behaviour may take place in, and fhew itself, in the lives of you and my other benefactors, as may render you the ornaments of our fpecies which, honoured Sir, is the fincere defire of Your moft obliged humble Servant, THO. CHUBB. He was a glover at Salisbury. How came the Commentator to imagine that the City fet him up to rival Locke? WARTON. *This was his quarto Volume, written before he had given any figns of thefe extravagancies, which have fince rendered his name fo noted. As the Court fet up Mr. Duck for the rival of Mr. Pope, the City at the fame time confidered Chubb as one who would eclipfe Locke. The modefty of the Court Pope kept him fober in the very intoxicating fituation, while the vanity of this new-fangled Philofopher affifted his fage admirers in turning his head. WARBURTON. Alluding to thofe lines in the Epift. on the Characters of Women, "With ev'ry pleasing, ev'ry prudent part, WARBURTON. The I beg the Duke's and her Grace's acceptance of my fervices: the contentment you exprefs in their company pleases me, though it be the bar to my own, in dividing you from us. from us. I am ever very truly LETTER XXIII. Your, etc. October 2, 1732. SIR Clem. Cottrel tells me you will fhortly come to town. We begin to want comfort in a few friends about us, while the winds whistle, and the waters roar. The fun gives us a parting look, but 'tis a cold one we are ready to change those distant favours of a lofty beauty, for a grofs material fire that warms and comforts more. I wish you could be here till your family come to town: you'll live more innocently, and kill fewer harmless creatures, nay none, except by your proper deputy, the butcher. It is fit for confcience fake, that you should come to town, and that the Duchefs fhould stay in the country, where no innocents of another species may fuffer by her. The plain meaning of which is, Pope could not infpire tenderness : hence he says, "Adieu, fond hope of mutual flame!" and this is the reason of his afferting, that his favourite Martha wanted" a heart." |