LETTERS TO AND FROM EDWARD BLOUNT, ESQ. From 1714 to 1725. LETTER I. MR. POPE TO EDWARD BLOUNT, ESQ. August 27, 1714. HATEVER ftudies on the one hand, or amufe WHATEVER ments on the other, it fhall be my fortune to fall into, I fhall be equally incapable of forgetting you in any of them. The task I undertook, though of weight enough in itself, has had a voluntary increase by the enlarging my defign of the Notes; and the neceffity of confulting a number of books has carried me to Oxford: But I fear, through my Lord Harcourt's and Dr. Clarke's means, I fhall be more converfant with the pleasures and company of the place, than with the books and manuscripts of it. I find still more reafon to complain of the negligence of the Geographers in their Maps of old * a The Tranflation of Homer's Iliad. Greece, P. * The learned and entertaining Mr. Wood, in his discourse on the original genius of Homer, cenfures the inaccuracies of this would raise no There is scarce Greece, fince I looked upon two or three more noted names in the public libraries here. But with all the care I am capable of, I have fome caufe to fear the engraver will prejudice me in a few fituations. I have been forced to write to him in so high a style, that, were my epistles intercepted, it small admiration in an ordinary man. an order in it of lefs importance, than to remove fuch and fuch mountains, alter the course of such and fuch rivers, place a large city on fuch a coast, and raze an, other in another country. I have fet bounds to the fea, and faid to the land, Thus far fhalt thou advance and no further. In the mean time, I, who talk and command at this rate, am in danger of lofing my horfe, and ftand in fome fear of a country Justice o. To difarm me indeed may be but prudential, confidering what armies I have at present on foot, and in my service; a hundred thousand Grecians are no contemptible body; for all that I can tell, they may be Map which Pope himself drew to be prefixed to his Homer. Among other things, he fays, " that so capital an error, for instance, as that of discharging the Scamander into the Ægean Sea, inftead of the Hellefpont, is a ftriking fpecimen of the careless, and fuperficial manner, in which this matter has been treated." And he adds, "the tranflator is as inconfiftent, fometimes, with his own incorrect Map, as both he and his Map are with the real fituation of the ground." These remarks are more valuable, bẹcause they were made by an accurate obferver, on the spot, with Homer in his hand. Þ This relates to the Map of ancient Greece, laid down by our Some of the Laws were, at this time, put in force against the Papists. |