LETTER XVIII.

April 21, 1726.

DEAR SIR, I HAVE a great inclination to write to you, though I cannot by writing, any more than I could by words, express what part I bear in your sufferings. Nature and esteem in you are joined to aggravate your affliction the latter I have in a degree equal even to yours, and a tie of friendship approaches near to the tenderness of nature: yet, God knows, no man living is less fit to comfort you, as no man is more deeply sensible than myself of the greatness of the loss. That very virtue which secures his present state from all the sorrows incident to ours, does but aggrandize our sensation of its being removed from our sight, from our affection, and from our imitation; for the friendship and society of good men does not only make us happier, but makes us better. Their death does but complete their felicity before our own, who probably are not yet arrived to that degree of perfection which merits an immediate reward. That your dear brother and my dear friend was so, I take his very removal to be a proof; Providence would certainly lend virtuous men to a world that so much wants them, as long as in its justice to them it could spare them to us. May my soul be with those who have meant well, and have acted well to that meaning! And, I doubt not, if this prayer be granted, I shall be with him. Let us preserve his memory in the way he would best like, by recollecting what his behaviour would have been, in every incident of our

lives to come, and doing in each just as we think he would have done; so we shall have him always before our eyes, and in our minds, and (what is more) in our lives and manners. I hope when we shall meet him next we shall be more of a piece with him, and consequently not to be evermore separated from him. I will add but one word that relates to what remains of yourself and me, since so valued a part of us is gone; it is to beg you to accept, as yours by inheritance, of the vacancy he has left in a heart, which (while he could fill it with such hopes, wishes, and affections for him as suited a mortal creature) was truly and warmly his; and shall (I assure you in the sincerity of sorrow for my own loss) be faithfully at your service while I continue to love his memory, that is, while I continue to be myself.

Mr. Digby died in the year 1726, and is buried in the Church of Sherburne in Dorsetshire, with an Epitaph written by the Author. P.

LETTERS

TO AND FROM

DR. ATTERBURY,

BISHOP OF ROCHESTER,

From the Year 1716 to 1723.

LETTER I.

THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER TO MR. POPE.

December, 1716.

I RETURN your1 Preface, which I have read twice with pleasure. The modesty and good sense there is in it, must please every one that reads it: And since there is nothing that can offend, I see not why you should balance a moment about printing it— always provided, that there is nothing said there which you may have occasion to unsay hereafter; of which you yourself are the best and the only judge. This is my sincere opinion, which I give, because you ask it: And which I would not give, though asked, but to a man I value as much as I do you; being sensible how improper it is, on many accounts, for me to interpose in things of this nature; which I never understood well, and now understand somewhat less than ever I did. But I can

1

The general Preface to Mr. Pope's Poems, first printed 1717, the year after the date of this letter. P.

For

deny you nothing; especially since you have had the goodness often, and patiently, to hear what I have said against rhyme, and in behalf of blank verse; with little discretion perhaps, but, I am sure, without the least prejudice: Being myself equally incapable of writing well in either of those ways, and leaning therefore to neither side of the question, but as the appearance of reason inclines me. give me this error, if it be one; an error of above thirty years standing, and which therefore I shall be very loath to part with. In other matters which relate to polite writing, I shall seldom differ from you: Or, if I do, shall, I hope, have the prudence to conceal my opinion. I am, as much as I ought to be, that is, as much as any man can be,

Your, etc.

LETTER II.

THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER TO MR. POPE.

Feb. 18, 1717.

I HOPED to find you last night at Lord Bathurst's, and came but a few minutes after you had left him.

In the dispute about the respective merits of rhyme and blank verse, Lord Kaimes seems to have observed with acuteness and judgment, that rhyme is but indifferently suited to elevated and sublime subjects, as producing a certain gaiety, airiness, and cheerfulness, not according with the gravity of the sentiments. In his 18th chapter of Elements of Criticism, are many just observations, with some exceptions, on the comparative merits of rhyme and blank verse, worth a diligent perusal.