255 It is remarkable, that notwithstanding the acknowledged anxiety of Pope for the establishment of his literary fame, he should have selected his nearest friends for qualifications which have little or no connexion with that object, and have preferred plain good sense, integrity, and fidelity, to superiority of talent and splendor of reputation; a circumstance which may perhaps incline us to give credit to the asseveration he so frequently makes, that he was still more desirous of being esteemed a good man, than a great poet. Such seems to have been the basis of his friendship with Mr. Bethel; a gentleman of good fortune in Yorkshire, with whom he maintained an uninterrupted intercourse to the close of his life. It would, perhaps, be impossible to point out a more striking or a more delicate compliment, than that which he has paid to Mr. Bethel, in the Essay on Man; where, under the appearance of noticing an infirmity, he insinuates so high an opinion of his worth, as to suppose that if any thing could change the course of nature, it would be for the important object of alleviating the complaint of such a person. "Shall burning Etna, if a sage requires, He has also introduced him as an interlocutor in the second satire of the second book of Horace, as "One not vers'd in schools; But strong in sense, and wise without the rules. On the publication of the first edition of his poems in 1717, Pope presented a copy (being one of 100 copies printed in quarto for presents to his friends) to Mr. Bethel, with the following inscription: Viro, antiquâ probitate et amicitiâ prædito, Munusculum Alexandri Pope. Te mihi junxerunt nivei sine crimine mores, Et bene nota fides, et candor frontis honestæ, Mr. Bowles acknowledges that these verses are elegant; but thinks that Pope could not be the author of them, because at 256 fourteen years old he was unacquainted with Latin quantity, as appears by his writing malea for malea; an argument by no means conclusive, when we recollect that Pope, who only began to educate himself when he was twelve years of age, was upwards of twenty-nine when this inscription was written. It is not however improbable that these verses may be found in some modern writer of Latin poetry. The few letters which remain of this correspondence, and which are now first given under a separate head, rank among the best in the collection, and manifest the confidence which Pope had, as well in the judgment, as in the attachment of his friend. The editor had entertained hopes of being enabled to add to this valuable portion of the correspondence, through the kind recommendations of General Dowdeswell and Miss Dowdeswell, collateral relations to the friend of Pope, to W. J. Bethel, Esq., late highsheriff of the county of York, who has obligingly furnished the editor with several original letters from Pope to Mr. Slingsby Bethel, a younger brother of Mr. Hugh Bethel, and then a merchant in London; which, although not of sufficient importance to lay before the public, as relating chiefly to money transactions, &c., have been useful in ascertaining dates and circumstances in the Life of Pope. A single letter addressed to Mr. Hugh Bethel by Pope, when nearly at the last extremity, appears amongst them, and has been added, by the kind permission of the possessor, to the present collection. LETTERS TO MR. BETHEL. LETTER I. TO HUGH BETHEL, ESQ. July 12, 1723. I ASSURE you unfeignedly any memorial of your good-nature and friendliness is most welcome to me, who knew those tenders of affection from you are not like the common traffic of compliments and professions, which most people only give that they may receive; and is at best a commerce of vanity, if not of falsehood. I am happy in not immediately wanting the sort of good offices you offer ; but, if I did want them, I should not think myself unhappy in receiving them at your hands. This really is some compliment, for I would rather most men did me a small injury, than a kindness. I know your humanity, and, allow me to say, I love and value you for it: it is a much better ground of love and value, than all the qualities I see the world so fond of: they generally admire in the wrong place, and generally most admire the things they do not comprehend, or the things they |