gratified with in a mere name; or elfe, God have mercy upon poor ambition! Here is a dead vacation at prefent, no politics at Court, no trade in town, nothing ftirring but poetry. Every man, and every boy, is writing verses on the Royal Hermitage: I hear the Queen is at a lofs which to prefer: but for my own part I like none fo well as Mr. Poyntz's in Latin. You would oblige my Lady Suffolk if you tried your Mufe on this occafion. I am fure I would do as much for the Duchefs of Queensberry, if the defired it. Several of your friends affure me it is expected from you: one fhould not bear in mind, all one's life, any little indignity one receives from a Court; and therefore I am in hopes, neither her Grace will hinder you, nor you decline it.

The Volume of Miscellanies is just published, which concludes all our fooleries of that kind. All All your friends remember you, and, I affure you, no one

more than

Your, etc.

I

LETTER XXIV.

FROM MR. GAY TO MR. POPE.

October 7, 1732.

AM at last returned from my Somersetshire expedition, but fince my return I cannot fo much boast of my health as before I went, for I am frequently out of order with my colical complaints, fo as to make me uneafy and difpirited, though not to any violent degree. The reception we met with, and the little excurfions we made, were every way agreeable. I think the country abounds with beautiful profpects. Sir William Wyndham is at present amusing himfelf with fome real improvements, and a great many vifionary caftles. We are often entertained with feaviews, and fea-fifh, and were at fome places in the neighbourhood, among which I was mightily pleased with Dunfter Castle, near Minehead. It ftands upon a great eminence, and hath a profpect of that town, with an extensive view of the Bristol channel, in which are feen two small Islands called the Steep Holms and Flat Holms, and on t'other fide we could plainly diftinguish the divifions of fields in the Welsh coast. All this journey I performed on horseback, and I am very much disappointed that at present I feel myself fo little the better for it. I have indeed followed riding and exercise for three months fucceffively, and really think I was as well without it; fo that I begin to fear

the

the illness I have fo long and fo often complained of, is inherent in my conftitution, and that I have nothing for it but patience".

As to your advice about writing Panegyric *, 'tis what I have not frequently done. I have indeed done it fometimes againft my judgment and inclinations, and I heartily repent of it. And at prefent, as I have no defire of reward, and fee no just reason of praise, I think I had better let it alone. There are flatterers good enough to be found, and I would not interfere in any Gentleman's profeffion. I have feen no verses on thefe fublime occafions: fo that I have no emulation let the patrons enjoy the authors, and the authors their patrons, for I know myself unworthy.

I am, etc.

m Mr. Gay died the November following, at the Duke of Queensberry's houfe in London, aged 46 years.

P.

* Gay, we fee, would not take the advice his friend gave him to write fome Panegyric. I think the Duchefs of Queensberry diffuaded him from doing it, and that she was not pleased with one of the laft paragraphs of the preceding Letter.

What more mortifying than to fee the abject flattery into which even men of genius and talents have fometimes descended! While Louis XIV. was one day fhewing his gardens at Marly to Cardinal de Polignac, they were overtaken in their walk by a fudden fhower of rain; and the King expreffing his concern left the habit of the Cardinal fhould be foiled by the wet; "Ah! Sire! (faid the Author of Anti-Lucretius) la pluie de Marly ne mouille pas."

I

LETTER XXV.

MR. CLELAND TO MR. GAY".

December 16, 1731.

AM astonished at the complaints occafioned by a late Epistle to the Earl of Burlington; and I should be afflicted were there the least just ground for them. Had the writer attacked Vice at the time when it is not only tolerated but triumphant, and fo far from being concealed as a Defect, that it is proclaimed with oftentation as a Merit; I fhould have been apprehenfive of the confequence: had he fatyrized gamefters of a hundred thoufand pounds fortune, acquired by fuch methods as are in daily practice, and almost univerfally encouraged: had he over-warmly defended the Religion of his country, against fuch books as come from every press, are publickly vended in every fhop, and greedily bought by almost every rank of men; or had he called our excellent weekly writers by the fame names which they openly bestow on the greatest men in the Ministry, and out of the Ministry, for which they are all unpunished, and most rewarded:

in

n This was written by the fame hand that wrote the Letter to the Publisher, prefixed to the Dunciad: and what hand that was, no one who reads this collection of Letters can be at a lofs to afcertain. W.

It was by Pope himself.

in any of these cafes, indeed, I might have judged him too prefumptuous, and perhaps have trembled for his rafhness.

I could not but hope better from this fmall and modest Epistle, which attacks no vice whatsoever; which deals only in Folly, and not Folly in general, but a single species of it; that only branch, for the oppofite excellency to which the Noble Lord, to whom it is written, muft neceffarily be celebrated. I fancied it might escape cenfure, especially seeing how tenderly these Follies are treated, and really less accused than apologized for.

Yet hence the Poor are cloath'd, the Hungry fed,
Health to himself, and to his Infants Bread

The Lab'rer bears.

Is this fuch a crime, that to impute it to a man must be a grievous offence? 'Tis an innocent Folly, and much more beneficent than the want of it; for ill tafte employs more hands, and diffufes expence more than a good one. Is it a moral defect? No, it is but a natural one, a want of taste. It is what the best good man living may be liable to. The worthiest Peer may live exemplarily in an ill-favoured houfe, and the beft reputed citizen be pleased with a vile garden. I thought (I fay) the author had the common liberty to obferve a defect, and to compliment a friend for a quality that distinguishes him which I know not how any quality should do, if we were not to remark that it was wanting in others.

But,