WARTON informs us, that in the Bodleian Library, among Rawlinson's books and papers, is a large Quarto of these Letters, the original copies, with the poft-mark on moft of them, which Mrs. Thomas delivered to Curl, and which Rawlinfon procured from Curl. He fays, "On a comparifon, carefully made, it appears that Curl had omitted fome, mutilated others, and blended two together." With respect to this Collection, he observes justly, "thatthofe are best which are written by the perfons that have been most converfant in the world, and knew moft of life; that those of our Author feem evidently defigned for the public eye, and are fometimes inconfiftent with the facility and unrefervedness that ought to take place, and be predominant in a friendly and familiar correfpondence:" of which kind he quotes "the Letters of three celebrated Ladies, Madame de Sevigné, Madame Maintenon, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, as masterpieces;" as "alfo the correspondence betwixt Boileau and Racine, published by his fon :" and we must join with him in lamenting, that Sprat did not publish a large collection of his friend Cowley's Letters, which he had in his poffeffion, especially as he himself fays, "it was a way of writing. in which Cowley particularly excelled, as in thefe he always expreffed the native tenderness and innocent gaiety of his heart." That Gray was a better writer of Letters than Pope, there can be no doubt. It has been obferved, that in the article of Letter-writing, the English have few fo good writers as the French. There certainly are not fuch copious collections in the English language. Lady Montagu's, which have been collected and published since Warton's obfervations, are eminently interefting, owing to the ease of the style; the delicate and humourous touches of character; the lively tone of defcription, where it is incidentally ufed'; and, above all, the intereft excited by feeing, as it were before our eyes, the picture of vivacity, youth, beauty, and fashion, fading into age; in accompanying the fame perfon through the viciffitudes of life, and partaking in her feelings, as a mother and grandmother, whom we had admired in the splendour of youth, ftation, talents, and beauty. In remarks prefixed to the correfpondence of the late amiable Cowper, Mr. Hayley, speaking of epiftolary writers, vindicates the English from the reflections of Warton and Melmoth. He quotes, as eminent - eminent examples of epiftolary language, "the Letters of Sir Philip Sydney, the Letters of Effex, the favourite and victim of Elizabeth, and particularly, of Anne Boleyn, to Henry VIII. To Madame Sevigné he oppofes Lady Ruffel, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu." Hayley has alfo taken fome pains to vindicate the character of Pope, as a Letter-writer; but the Public have pronounced, and I think justly. His Letters in general are not written fo naturally as thofe of Gay, Swift, and Bolingbroke: yet he delights in the idea of "pouring out himself," as he calls it; whereas (and I will not speak merely of those written in youth, the faults of which he acknowledges,) they appear in general as much the refult of labour (after many efforts rendered more easy perhaps) as his Verfes. They want that charm, which no elegance of language can atone for-nature. Cowper, therefore, very properly defignates him as a Maker of Letters. He fat down gravely and folemnly, to fhew himself magnanimous, warm-hearted, fincere, candid, humane, &c. Like all profeffors, what he says he often says in direct opposition to what he feels. At least, when he fays, "Thefe trifles diflurb me not at all;"-" I write juft what comes into my head;""I pour out my heart," &c.—a fevere judge of character would think he felt quite the reverse; though, whilft writing in his study, contemplating his laurel circus, &c. from the window, where he had nothing to disturb him, he might, in a moment of triumphant self-applause, think, "What a happy, liberal, friendly, candid being, am I?" The Letters of Cowper, also a Poet, form a perfect contrast to Pope's. In the one, I think I fee a mind friving to be great, and affecting to be unaffected; in the other, we contemplate, not the Studious loftinefs, but the playfulness of a mind naturally lofty, throwing at random a ray of fweetnefs, cheerfulness, and tenderness, upon whatever fubject occurs, mixed occafionally with feverer touches of wisdom, and a mournful, but feldom angry, furvey of the follies of mankind. We fee the playful humour, mingled with melancholy, and the melancholy, mingled with kindness, focial feelings, fincerity, and tenderness. 1 cannot close this parallel without one remark. Because Warton and Johnfon have spoken as they felt of Pope, Hayley accufes them of unfriendliness. There are certain facts, which ought to have certain judgments pronounced on them, by every one who affumes, as his guide, truth and fidelity. If Pope [6] has, in many inftances, exhibited undoubted marks of duplicity, ought they who exprefs their feelings, to be called unfriendly? I fay confidently, I have no bias but that on the fide of Truth. I do not object to the sentiments of those who imagine that Pope's Letters evince fincerity, candour, &c. but I cannot admit that those who think other wife ought to be called unfriendly. I will fay, if I had read thofe Letters, without knowing the author, or his character, I should have thought him different from what he has endeavoured to depicture himself; and feeling this, I have no hesitation to avow it. I do not deny that many of the Letters are written with eloquence. Those are the beft, that display his filial affection, and his friendship: but the egotifm, the affected contempt of every body but those of his own coterie, the ease that is laboured, and the warmth that is ftudied, make them infinitely lefs interefting than the Letters of Gay, Jervis, or Arbuthnot. In all other respects, I will join freely in opinion with Mr. Hayley: "The Letters of Pope are valuable in many points of view: they exhibit extraordinary fpecimens of mental power, and a contemplative spirit in very early youth; they fhew the progrefs of a tender, powerful, and irritable mind, in its acquaintance with polished life; the delights it enjoyed, the vexations it endured, the infirmities it contracted, and the virtues it exerted, in a long career of memorable enmities, and of friendships more worthy of unfading remembrance.” To this account it may be added, that the Letters of the first Lord Strafford are some of the finest specimens in the English language, of fimplicity, energy of thought, and unadorned ftrength of expreffion. IT Binfield in Windfor Foreft, Dec. 26, 1704*. T was certainly a great fatisfaction to me to fee and converse with a Man, whom in his writings I had fo long known with pleasure; but it was a high addition If one were to judge of this fet of Letters by the manner of thinking and turn of expreffion, one fhould conclude they had been all mis-titled; and that the letters given to the boy of fixteen, were written by the man of feventy, and fo on the contrary; such sober sense, fuch gravity of manners, and fo much judgment and knowledge of compofition, enlivened with the sprightliness of manly wit, diftinguish thofe of Mr. Pope: while, on the other hand, a childish jealousy, a puerile affectation, an attention and lying at catch for turns and points, together with a total ignorance and contempt of order, of method, and of all relation of the parts to one another to compose a reasonable whole, make up the character of thofe of Mr. Wycherley. However, those ingredients in the Characters of the two distant ages of life, which Cicero makes Cato so much commend, "Ado"lefcens in quo Senile aliquid, Senex in quo eft Adolefcens aliquid," feem to have been the cement of their friendship. 66 The author's age then Sixteen. WARBURTON, POPE. addition to it, to hear you, at our very first meeting, doing justice to your dead friend Mr. Dryden. I was not fo happy as to know him: Virgilium tantum vidi. Had I been born early enough, I must have known and loved him: For I have been affured, not only by yourself, but by Mr. Congreve and Sir William Trumbul, that his perfonal Qualities were as amiable as his poetical, notwithstanding the many libellous mifrepresentations of them, against which the former of these Gentlemen has told me he will one day vindicate him. I fuppofe thofe injuries were begun by the violence of Party, but 'tis no doubt they were continued by envy at his fuccefs and fame: And those Scriblers who attacked him in his latter times, were only like gnats in a fummer evening, which are never very troublesome but in the finest and most glorious feafon; for his fire, like the fun's, fhined clearest towards its setting. You must not therefore imagine, that when you told me my own performances were above those Critics, I was fo vain as to believe it; and yet I may not When a very young Boy, he prevailed with a friend to carry him to a Coffee-house which Dryden frequented; where he had the fatisfaction he here speaks of. WARBURTON. He fince did fo, in his dedication to the Duke of New.. castle, prefixed to the duodecimo Edition of Dryden's Plays, 1727. POPE. с The fact feems to have been juft the reverse. One of the firft Satires against him was the Duke of Buckingham's Rebearsal; and one of the lalt, Montague's parody of his Hind and WARBURTON, Panther. |