Jeffery's veracity as an historian; and told me he was perfectly astonished, we of the Roman communion could doubt of the legends of his Giants, while we believe those of our Saints. I am forced to make a fair compofition with him; and, by crediting fome of the wonders of Corinæus and Gogmagog, have brought him fo far already, that he speaks respectfully of St. Chriftopher's carrying Christ, and the refufcitation of St. Nicholas Tolentine's chicken. Thus we proceed apace in converting each other from all manner of infidelity.

Ajax and Hector are no more to be compared to Corinæus and Arthur, than the Guelphs and Ghibellines are to the Mohocks of ever-dreadful memory. This amazing writer has made me lay afide Homer for a week, and when I take him up again, I shall be very well prepared to tranflate, with belief and reverence, the speech of Achilles's Horse.

You will excufe all this trifling, or any thing else which prevents a fheet full of compliment: And believe there is nothing more true (even more true than

any

Goddefs of woods, tremendous in the chace,
To mountain wolves and all the favage race,
Wide o'er th' aerial vault extend thy sway,
And o'er th' infernal regions void of day.
On thy third reign look down; disclose our fate,
In what new station fhall we fix our seat?
When shall we next thy hallow'd altars raise,
And choirs of virgins celebrate thy praise?

WARTON.

any thing in Jeffery is falfe) than that I have a conftant affection for you, and am, etc.

P.S. I know you will take part in rejoicing for the victory of Prince Eugene over the Turks *, in the zeal you bear to the Chriftian intereft, though your Coufin of Oxford (with whom I dined yesterday) fays, there is no other difference in the Christians beating the Turks, or the Turks beating the Chriftians, than whether the Emperor shall first declare war against Spain, or Spain declare it against the Emperor.

LETTER X.

Nov. 27, 1717.

THE question you propofed to me is what at prefent I am the most unfit man in the world to anfwer, by my lofs of one of the beft of Fathers. He had lived in fuch a courfe of Temperance as

enough to make the longest life agreeable to him, and in fuch a courfe of Piety as fufficed to make the moft fudden death fo alfo. Sudden indeed it was:

However,

"At which," fays Dr. Warton, "General Oglethorpe was prefent, and of which I have heard him give a lively defcription." He appears to have given the fame defcription in a company where

Dr Johnfon was prefent, and at his requeft. Bofwell erroneously has printed "the fiege of Bender," inftead of Belgrade.

C.

However, I heartily beg of God to give me such a one, provided I can lead fuch a life. I leave him to the mercy of God, and to the piety of a religion that extends beyond the grave: Si qua eft ea cura, etc.

He has left me to the ticklish management of fo narrow a fortune, that any one falfe ftep would be fatal. My mother is in that difpirited state of refignation, which is the effect of long life, and the lofs of what is dear to us. We are really each of us in want of a friend, of such an humane turn as yourself, to make almost any thing defirable to us. I feel your abfence more than ever, at the fame time I can lefs express my regards to you than ever; and fhall make this, which is the moft fincere letter I ever writ to you, the shortest and faintest perhaps of any you have received. It is enough if you reflect, that barely to remember any perfon when one's mind is taken up with a fenfible forrow, is a great degree of friendship. I can fay no more but that I love you, and all that are yours; and that I wifh it may be very long before any of yours shall feel for you what I now feel for my father. Adieu.

This Letter, evidently written from the heart, forms a contrast to fome of the preceding. It is indeed pathetic, manly, and unaffected. The following original note, in Pope's hand-writing, on the death of his father, more than any words, evinces his filial feelings and affection :

"To the Mifs BLOUNTS.

"My poor father died laft night. Believe, fince I don't forget you this moment, I never shall.

"A. POPE."

YOUR

LETTER XI.

Rentcomb in Gloucefterfhire, O. 3, 1721.

OUR kind letter has overtaken me here, for I have been in and about this country ever fince your departure. I am well pleafed to date this from a place fo well known to Mrs. Blount, where I write as if I were dictated to by her ancestors, whose faces are all upon me. I fear none fo much as Sir Chrif topher Guife, who, being in his fhirt, seems as ready to combat me, as her own Sir John was to demolish Duke Lancastere. I dare fay your Lady will recol. lect his figure. I looked upon the manfion, walls, and terraces; the plantations, and flopes, which Nature has made to command a variety of valleys and rifing woods; with a veneration mixed with a pleafure, that represented her to me in those puerile amusements, which engaged her fo many years ago in this place. I fancied I faw her fober over a fam pler, or gay over a jointed baby. I dare fay she did one thing more, even in those early times;

"bered her Creator in the days of her youth."

remem

You describe so well your hermitical state of life, that none of the ancient anchorites could go beyond you, for a cave in a rock, with a fine fpring, or any

of

Rentcomb in Gloucefterfhire is now in poffeffion of the Bishop of Durham, to whofe Lady it defcended.

of the accommodations that befit a folitary. Only I don't remember to have read, that any of those venerable and holy perfonages took with them a lady, and begat fons and daughters. You must modeftly be content to be accounted a patriarch. But were you a little younger, I should rather rank you with Sir Amadis, and his fellows. If Piety be so romantic, I shall turn hermit in good earnest; for, I fee, one may go fo far as to be poetical, and hope to fave one's foul at the fame time. I really wish myself something more, that is, a prophet; for I wish I were, as Habakkuk, to be taken by the hair of his head, and visit Daniel in his den. You are very obliging in saying, I have now a whole family upon my hands to whom to discharge the part of a friend; I affure you, I like them all fo well, that I will never quit my hereditary right to them; you have made me yours, and confequently them mine. I ftill fee them walking on my green at Twickenham, and gratefully remember, not only their green gowns, but the inftructions they gave me how to flide down and trip up the steepest flopes of my mount.

Pray think of me fometimes, as I fhall often of you, and know me for what I am, that is,

Your, etc.