"You give me an account in your letter of the trouble you have undergone for me, in comparing my papers you took down with you, with the old printed volume, and with one another of that bundle you have in your hands; amongst which, you say, you find numerous repetitions of the same thoughts and subjects; all which, I must confess, my want of memory has prevented me from imagining, as well as made me capable of committing; since, of all figures, that of tautology is the last I would use, at least forgive myself for. But seeing is believing; wherefore I will take some pains to examine and compare those papers in your hands with one another, as well as with the former printed copies or books of my damned miscellanies; all which (as bad a memory as I have) with a little more pains and care, I think I can remedy. Therefore I would not have you give yourself more trouble about them, which may prevent the pleasure you have, and may give the world, in writing upon new subjects of your own; whereby you will much better entertain yourself and others." "As to what you call freedom with me (which you desire me to forgive) you may be assured I would not forgive you, unless you did use it; for I am so far, from thinking your plainness an offence to me, that I think it a charity and an obligation, which I shall always acknowledge with all sort of gratitude for it."

The reply of Pope to this letter, which termi

nated his critical labours on the poems of Wycherley, and which is highly creditable to his temper and conduct, is the last of their correspondence; but it sufficiently appears, from other circumstances, that even before this time some impressions unfavourable to their friendship had been made on the mind of Wycherley, which Pope did not, however, attribute to the freedoms he had taken with his poems, but to the malice of some person, "who had not been wanting in insinuating malicious untruths of him to Mr. Wycherley." What these were, we have not been informed; but whatever they may have been, they did not extinguish in the breast of Pope his attachment to his friend, of whom he always spoke with the greatest attachment and kindness, as appears from his letters to Mr. Cromwell, in one of which he says: "Be assured that gentleman (Wycherley) shall never, by any alteration in me, discover any knowledge of his mistake; the hearty forgiving of which is the only kind of return I can possibly make him for so many favours. And I may derive this pleasure at least from it, that whereas I must otherwise have been a little uneasy to know my incapacity of returning his obligations, I may now, by bearing his frailty, exercise my gratitude and friendship, more than himself either is, or perhaps ever will be sensible of:

"Ille meos primus qui me sibi junxit amores

Abstulit! ille habeat secum servetque sepulchro."

From this it appears, that Pope, in his acquaintance with Wycherley, acted throughout the part of a sincere and constant friend; having not only criticized the poems submitted to him with freedom and judgment, but having thereby rendered the author an essential service, of which he seems to have been truly sensible. When some degree of jealousy or distrust appears to have been excited between them, Pope still conducts himself as a person conscious of his own integrity, and still retaining the most friendly attachment, as is evinced by his continuing to visit Wycherley occasionally to the time of his death, in December, 1715, and by the manner in which he always spoke of him afterwards. Yet, upon this connexion, the last editor of Pope has thought proper to remark, that "the whole transaction brings to our recollection the character and language of Trissotin, in the inimitable comedy of Molière, the Femmes Savantes !"*

The literary connexions of Pope now began rapidly to extend, and with them the number of his correspondents. Early in the year 1705, Mr. Wycherley had sent a copy of the Pastorals to Mr. Walsh, who had distinguished himself as the author of several poems, and in the opinion of Dryden was the best critic of his time. In his reply,

*Bowles's Pope, vol. vii. p. 57.

+ William Walsh, Esq. of Abberley, in Worcestershire, Gentleman of the Horse in Queen Anne's reign.

dated April 20, 1705, that gentleman expresses a most favourable opinion of these early productions. "I have read them over several times," says he, "with great satisfaction. The preface is very judicious and very learned, and the verses very tender and easy. The author seems to have a particular genius for that kind of poetry, and a judgment that much exceeds the years you told me he was of. He has taken very freely from the ancients, but what he has mixed of his own with theirs, is not inferior to what he has taken from them. It is not flattery at all to say, that Virgil had written nothing so good at his age. I shall take it as a favour if you will bring me acquainted with him; and if he will give himself the trouble any morning to call at my house, I shall be very glad to read the verses over with him, and give him my opinion of the particulars more largely than I can do well in this letter."

This attention on the part of Mr. Walsh led, as might be expected, to an immediate interview between him and Pope, which terminated in their mutual esteem and friendship, and Pope spent a good part of the summer of 1705 with Mr. Walsh, at his seat at Abberley.* A correspondence afterwards took place between them, which is in many respects highly interesting. From this, Walsh appears to have been a general and elegant scholar, and to have been well acquainted with the Italian

*Spence's Anec. p. 20. Malone's ed.

poets. So particularly delighted was he with their numerous authors of Pastoral Comedy, that he recommended to Pope to write an English one on the same model. The answer of Pope is a masterpiece of just criticism, and displays, even at that early age, the rare faculty of a sound and discriminating judgment. "I have not attempted," says he, "any thing of a pastoral comedy, because I think the taste of our age will not relish a poem of that sort. People seek for what they call wit, on all subjects and in all places, not considering that nature loves truth so well, that it hardly ever admits of flourishing. Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but impairs what it would improve. There is a certain majesty in simplicity, which is far above all the quaintness of wit; insomuch that the critics have excluded wit from the loftiest poetry, as well as from the lowest; and forbid it to the epic no less than to the pastoral." A still more decisive instance of the proficiency which Pope had made in his studies, and particularly in the niceties of English versification, may be found in another letter to Mr. Walsh, of the 22d October, 1706, which contains many observations never before made on that subject, and may be considered in some respects as the prototype of the Essay on Criticism. This is the last letter that appears in their correspondence,* Mr. Walsh having died in 1708, at

* It seems probable that Pope paid a second visit to Mr. Walsh in the summer of 1707, as a letter of Walsh appears of the