temporary relief: they threw off the blame from himself, and laid upon fortune and accident a wretchedness of his own creating.

But though this method of quarrelling in his poems with his situation served to relieve himself, yet it was not easily endured by the gentlemen of the neighbourhood, who did not care to confess themselves his fellow-sufferers. He received many mortifications upon that account among them; for, being naturally fond of company, he could not endure to be without eventheirs, which however, among his English friends he pretended to despise. In fact, his conduct, in this particular, was rather splenetic than wise; he had either lost the art to engage, or did not employ his skill in securing those more permanent, though more humble connexions, and sacrificed for a month or two in England, a whole year's happiness by his country fire-side at home.

However, what he permitted the world to see of his life was elegant and splendid; his fortune (for a poet) was very considerable, and it may easily be supposed he lived to the very extent of it. The fact is, his expences were greater than his income, and his successor found the estate somewhat impaired at his decease. As soon as ever he had collected in his annual revenues, he immediately set out for England, to enjoy the company of his dearest friends, and laugh at the more prudent world that were minding business and gaining money. The friends to whom, during the latter part of his life, he was chiefly attached, were Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, Jervas, and Gay. Among these he was particularly happy, his mind was entirely at ease, and gave a loose to every harmless folly that came uppermost. Indeed, it was a society, in which, of all others, a wise man might be most foolish without incurring any danger or contempt. Perhaps the reader will be pleased to see a letter to him

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from a part of this junto, as there is something striking even in the levities of genius. It comes from Gay, Jervas, Arbuthnot, and Pope, assembled at a chophouse near the Exchange, and is as follows:

'I WAS last summer in Devonshire, and am this winter at Mrs. Bonyer's. In the summer I wrote a poem, and in the winter I have published it; which I have sent to you by Dr. Elwood. In the 'summer I ate two dishes of toad-stools of my own 'gathering, instead of mushrooms; and in the win'ter I have been sick with wine, as I am at this time, 'blessed be God for it, as I must bless God for all things. In the summer I spoke truth to damsels ; ' in the winter I told lies to ladies: Now you know ' where I have been, and what I have done. I shall 'tell you what I intend to do the ensuing summer; "I propose to do the same thing I did last, which was 'to meet you in any part of England, you would ap'point; don't let me have two disappointments. I have longed to hear from you, and to that intent I 'teazed you with three or four letters; but, having no answer, I feared both yours and my letters might have miscarried. I hope my performance will please the Dean, whom I often wished for, and to whom 'I would have often wrote, but for the same reasons 'I neglected writing to you. I hope I need not tell 'you how I love you, and how glad I shall be to hear from you; which, next to the seeing you, 'would be the greatest satisfaction to your most af'fectionate friend and humble servant, J. G.

'DEAR MR. ARCHDEACON,

Though my proportion of this epistle should be 'but a sketch in miniature, yet I take up half this

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page, having paid my club with the good company both for our dinner of chops and for this paper. The poets will give you lively descriptions in their way; I shall only acquaint you with that which is directly my province. I have just set the last hand to a couplet, for so I may call two nymphs in one piece. They are Pope's favourites: and though few, you will guess must have cost me more pains ⚫ than any nymphs can be worth. He has been so unreasonable as to expect that I should have made 'them as beautiful upon canvas, as he has done up' on paper. If this same Mr. P- should omit to write for the dear frogs, and the Pervigilium, I ⚫ must entreat you not to let me languish for them, ⚫ as I have done ever since they crossed the seas: remember by what neglects, &c. we missed them when we lost you, and therefore I have not yet forgiven any of those triflers that let them escape and ⚫ run those hazards. I am going on the old rate, and want you and the Dean prodigiously, and am in hopes of making you a visit this summer, and of hearing from you both now you are together. For'tescue, I am sure, will be concerned that he is not in Cornhill, to set his hand to these presents, not only as a witness, but as a

It is so great an honour to a poor Scotchman to ⚫ be remembered at this time a-day, especially by an ⚫ inhabitant of the Glacialis Ierne, that I take it very thankfully, and have, with my good friends, remembered you at our table in the chop-house in Exchange-Alley. There wanted nothing to complete our happiness but your company, and our dear friend the Dean's. I am sure the whole entertain

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'ment would have been to his relish. Gay has got 'so much money by his Art of Walking the Streets, that he is ready to set up his equipage: he is just going to the Bank, to negotiate some Exchange bills. Mr. Pope delays his second volume of his 'Homer till the martial spirit of the rebels is quite quelled, it being judged that the first part did some 'harm that way. Our love again and again to the dear Dean. Fuimus torys, I can say no more.

ARBUTHNOT.'

'When a man is conscious that he does no good himself, the next thing is to cause others to do 'some. I may claim some merit this way, in hast'ening this testimonial from your friends abovewriting their love to you indeed wants no spur, 'their ink wants no pen, their pen wants no hand, 'their hand wants no heart, and so forth, (after the imanner of Rabelais; which is betwixt some mean'ing and no meaning); and yet it may be said, when present thought and opportunity is wanting, their pens want ink, their hands want pens, their hearts 'want hands, &c. till time, place, and conveniency, 'concur to set them writing, as at present, a sociable meeting, a good dinner, warm fire, and an easy si'tuation do, to the joint labour and pleasure of this epistle.

Wherein if I should say nothing I should say much (much being included in my love), though 'my love be such, that, if I should say much, I 'should yet say nothing, it being (as Cowley says) equally impossible either to conceal or to express it. If I were to tell you the thing I wish above all things, it is to see you again; the next is to see here your treatise of Zoilus, with the Batrachomuomachia, and the Pervigilium Veneris, both which poems are master-pieces in several kinds; and I question not the prose is as excellent in its sort, as

'the

the Essay on Homer. Nothing can be more glo'rious to that great Author, than that the same hand that raised his best statue, and decked it with ' its old laurels, should also hang up the scare-crow of 'his miserable critic, and gibbet up the carcase of Zoilus, to the terror of the witlings of posterity. 'More, and much more, upon this and a thousand other subjects, will be the matter of my next letter, 'wherein I must open all the friend to you. At this 'time I must be content with telling you, I am faithfully your most affectionate and humble servant,

'A. POPE.'

If we regard this letter with a critical eye, we must find it indifferent enough; if we consider it as a inere effusion of friendship, in which every writer contended in affection, it will appear much to the honour of those who wrote it. To be mindful of an absent friend in the hours of mirth and feasting, when his company is least wanted, shews no slight degree of sincerity. Yet probably there was still another motive for writing thus to him in conjunction. The above-named, together with Swift and Parnell, had some time before formed themselves into a society, called the Scribblerus Club, and I should suppose they commemorated him thus, as being an absent member.

It is past a doubt that they wrote many things in conjunction, and Gay usually held the pen. And yet I do not remember any productions which were the joint effort of this society, as doing it honour. There is something feeble and quaint in all their attempts, as if company repressed thought, and genius wanted solitude for its boldest and happiest exertions. Of those productions in which Parnell had a principal share, that of the origin of the Sciences from the Monkies

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