mere man. To tell

you

from whence the dart comes,

is to no purpose, fince neither of you will take the tender care to draw it out of my heart, and fuck the poison with your lips.

Here, at my Lord H's *, I fee a creature nearer an angel than a woman (though a woman be very near as good as an angel); I think you have formerly heard me mention Mrs. Tas a credit to the Maker of angels; fhe is a relation of his lordship's, and he gravely propofed her to me for a wife; being tender of her interefts, and knowing (what is a fhame to Providence) that she is lefs indebted to fortune than I. I told him, 'twas what he never could have thought of, if it had not been his misfortune to be blind; and what I never could think of, while I had eyes to fee both her and myself.

I must not conclude without telling you, that I will do the utmost in the affair you defire . It would be an inexpreffible joy to me if I could ferve you, and I will always do all I can to give myself pleasure. I with as well for you as for myfelf; I am in love with you both, as much as I am with myself, for I find myself most so with either, when I leaft fufpect it.

* Harcourt's.

Mrs. Jennings." Orig.

C.

This last paragraph is confiderably altered from the original, but it is not worth transcription. The affair here mentioned in which he promises to do his utmoft, was the purchase of an annuity for his fair correfpondent.

C.

LETTER XVI. *

THE HE chief cause I have to repent my leaving the town, is the uncertainty I am in every day of your fifter's ftate of health. I really expected by every post to have heard of her recovery, but on the contrary each letter has been a new awakening to my apprehenfions, and I have ever fince fuffered alarms upon alarms on her account t. No one can be more fenfibly touched at this than I; nor any danger of any I love could affect me with more uneafinefs. I have felt some weaknesses of a tender kind, which I would not be free from; and I am glad to find my value for people fo rightly placed, as to perceive them on this occafion.

I cannot be fo good a Christian as to be willing to refign my own happiness here, for hers in another life. I do more than wifh for her fafety, for every wifh I make I find immediately changed into a prayer,

and

*To Mifs Teresa Blount.-The illness of M. B. feems to have awakened Pope's particular tendernefs, and indeed the letter breathes fincerity, friendship, and affection.

† A passage in the e:iginal, which is omitted here, may perhaps ferve to illuftrate, if any thing can, the nature of Pope's attachment to Martha Blount. "A month ago I should have laughed at any one, who had told me my heart would be perpetually beating for a lady that was thirty miles off from me: and indeed I never imagined iny concern could be half fo great for any young woman whom I have been no more obliged to than to fo innocent an one as fhe. But, madam, it is with the utmost seriousness I affure you, no relation you have can be, &c." C.

and a more fervent one than I had learned to make

till now.

May her life be longer and happier than perhaps herself may defire, that is, as long and as happy as you can wish may her beauty be as great as poffible, that is, as it always was, or as yours is. But whatever ravages a merciless diftemper may commit, I dare promise her boldly, what few (if any) of her makers of vifits and compliments dare to do: fhe shall have one inan as much her admirer as ever. As for your part, Madam, you have me fo more than ever, fince I have been a witness to the generous tenderness you have fhewn upon this occafion *.

Your, etc.

I

LETTER XVII.†

AM not at all concerned to think that this letter may be less entertaining than fome I have sent: I know you are a friend that will think a kind letter as good

as

*The following lines in the original, which conclude the Letter, feem to allude to a correfpondence of which we have no other information: "I beg Mrs. Blount and Mr. Blount to believe me very faithfully their fervant, and that your good mother will accept of a thousand thanks for the favour of her ‡ Maid's Letters, and oblige me with the continuance of them every poft." + To Martha Blount.

Quære, whether Pope does not mean her daughters?

C.

as a diverting one. He that gives you his mirth makes a much less present than he that gives you his heart ; and true friends would rather fee fuch thoughts as they communicate only to one another, than what they fquander about to all the world. They who can set a right value upon any thing, will prize one tender, well-meant word, above all that ever made them laugh in their lives. If I did not think fo of you, I should never have taken much pains to endeavour to please you, by writing, or any thing else. Wit, I am sure, I want; at least in the degree that I fee others have it, who would at all seasons alike be entertaining but I would willingly have fome qualities that may be (at fome feafons) of more comfort to myself, and of more service to my friends. I would cut off my own head, if it had nothing better than wit in it; and tear. out my own heart, if it had no better difpofitions than to love only myself, and laugh at all my neighbours.

I know you will think it an agreeable thing to hear that I have done a great deal of Homer. If it be to. lerable, the world may thank you for it: for if I could have feen you every day, and imagined my company could have every day pleafed you, I should scarce have thought it worth my while to please the world. How many verses could I gladly have left unfinished, and turned into it, for people to fay what they would of, had I been permitted to pass all those hours more pleasingly? Whatever fome may think, Fame is a thing I am much lefs covetous of than your Friend

ship; for that, I hope, will last all my life; the other, I cannot answer for. What if they should both grow greater after my death? alas! they would both be of no advantage to me! Therefore think upon it, and love me as well as ever you can, while I live.

Now I talk of Fame, I fend you my Temple of Fame, which is juft come out: but my fentiments about it you will fee better by this Epigram:

What's Fame with Men, by cuftom of the Nation,
Is call'd in Women only Reputation :

About them both why keep we fuch a pother?
Part you with one, and I'll renounce the other.

LETTER XVIII.

LL the pleasure or ufe of familiar letters, is to

ALL

give us the affurance of a friend's welfare; at least 'tis all I know, who am a mortal enemy and despiser of what they call fine letters. In this view, I promise you, it will always be a fatisfaction to me to write letters and to receive them from you; because I unfeignedly have your good at my heart, and am that thing, which many people make only a subject to dif play their fine fentiments upon, a Friend: which is a character that admits of little to be faid, till fomething