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

'ARBUTHNOT.'

. When a man is confcious that he does no good himself, the next thing is to cause others to do fome. I may claim fome merit this way, in haftening this teftimonial 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 fo forth, (after the manner of Rabelais; which is betwixt some mean❝ing and no meaning); and yet it may be faid, when prefent 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 fet them writing, as at prefent, a fociable 'meeting, a good dinner, warm fire, and an easy fituation do, to the joint labour and pleasure of this epiftle. "Wherein if I fhould fay nothing I fhould fay much (much being included in my love), though my love be fuch, that, if I fhould fay much, I fhould yet fay nothing, it being (as Cowley fays) equally impoffible either to conceal or to exprefs it.

If I were to tell you the thing I with above all things, it is to fee you again; the next is to fee here your treatise of Zoilus, with the Batrachomuomachia, and the Pervigilium Veneris, both which poems are mafter-pieces in feveral kinds; and I queftion not the profe is as excellent in its fort, as

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، the Effay on Homer. Nothing can be more glorious to that great Author, than that the fame hand that raised his best ftatue, and decked it with ، its old laurels, fhould alfo hang up the fcare-crow of 'his miferable critic, and gibbet up the carcafe of ، Zoilus, to the terror of the witlings of pofterity. 'More, and much more, upon this and a thousand ' other subjects, will be the matter of my next letter, 'wherein I muft open all the friend to you. At this ، time I muft be content with telling you, I am faith fully your most affectionate and humble fervant,

'A. POPE.'

If we regard this letter with a critical eye, we must find it indifferent enough; if we confider it as a mere effufion 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 abfent friend in the hours of mirth and feafting, when his company is leaft wanted, fhews no flight degree of fincerity. Yet probably there was ftill añother motive for writing thus to him in conjunction. The above-named, together with Swift and Parnell, had fome time before formed themselves into a fociety, called the Scribblerus Club, and I fhould fup. pose they commemorated him thus, as being an abfent member.

It is pat a doubt that they wrote many things in conjunction, and Gay ufually held the pen. And yet I do not remember any productions which were the joint effort of this fociety, as doing it honour. There is fomething feeble and quaint in all their attempts, as if company repreffed thought, and genius wanted folitude for its boldest and happiest exertions. Of thofe productions in which Parnell had a principal fhare, that of the origin of the Sciences from the Monkies VOL. IV.

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in Ethiopia, is particulaaly mentioned by Pope himfelf, in fome manufcript anecdotes which he left behind him. The Life of Homer alfo, prefixed to the tranflation of the Iliad, is written by Parnell and corrected by Pope; and, as that great poet affures us in the fame place, this correction was not effected without great labour. It is ftill ftiff,' fays he, and was written ftill ftiffer as it is, I verily think it coft me more pains in the correcting, than the writing it would have done.' All this may be easily credited; for every thing of Parnell's, that has appeared in profe, is written in a very aukward inelegant manner. It is true, his productions teem with imagination, and fhew great learning, but they want that ease and sweetness for which his poetry is fo much admired; and the language is alfo fhamefully incorrect. Yet, though all this must be allowed, Pope fhould have taken care not to leave his errors upon record against him, or put it in the power of envy to tax his friend with faults, that do not appear in what he has left to the world. A poet has a right to expect the fame fecrecy in his friend as in his confeffor; the fins he discovers are not divulged for punishment but pardon. Indeed, Pope is almoft inexcufable in this inftance, as what he seems to condemn in one place, he very much applauds in another. In one of the letters from him to Parnell, above mentioned, he treats the Life of Homer with much greater refpect, and feems to fay, that the profe is excellent in its kind. It must be confeffed, however, that he is by no means inconfiftent; what he fays in both places may very eafily be reconciled to truth; but who can defend his candour and his fincerity?

It would be hard, however, to fuppofe that there was no real friendship between thefe great men. The benevolence of Parnell's difpofition remains unimpeached; and Pope, though fubject to ftarts of paf

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fion and envy, yet never miffed an opportunity of being truly ferviceable to him. The commerce between them was carried on to the common intereft of both. When Pope had a Mifcellany to publish, he applied to Parnell for poetical affiftance, and the latter as implicitly fubmitted to him for correction. Thus they mutually advanced each other's intereft or fame, and grew ftronger by conjunction. Nor was Pope the only perfon to whom Parnell had recourfe for affiftance. We learn from Swift's letters to Stella, that he submitted his pieces to all his friends, and readily adopted their alterations. Swift, among the the number, was very useful to him in that particular; and care has been taken that the world should not remain ignorant of the obligation.

But in the connexion of wits, intereft has generally very little fhare; they have only pleasure in view, and can feldom find it but among each other. The Scribblerus Club, when the members were in town, were seldom asunder, and they often made excurfions together into the country, and generally on foot. Swift was ufually the butt of the company, and if a trick was played, he was always the fufferer. The whole party once agreed to walk down to the houfe of Lord B, who is ftill living, and whofe feat is about twelve miles from town. As every one agreed to make the beft of his way, Swift, who was remarkable for walking, foon left the reft behind him, fully refolved, upon his arrival, to chufe the very beft bed for himfelf, for that was his cuftom. In the mean time Parnell was determined to prevent his intentions, and taking horfe arrived at Lord B's by another way, long before him. Having apprized his lordship of Swift's defign, it was refolved at any rate to keep him out of the houfe; but how to effect this was the queftion. Swift never had the fmallpox, and was very much afraid of catching it: as foon

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foon therefore as he appeared ftriding along at fome distance from the house, one of his lordship's fervants was dispatched, to inform him, that the smallpox was then making great ravages in the family, but that there was a fummer-houfe with a field-bed at his fervice, at the end of the garden. There the dif appointed Dean was obliged to retire, and take a cold fupper that was fent out to him, while the rest were feafting within. However, at laft they took compaffion on him; and upon his promifing never to chuse the best bed again, they permitted him to make one of the company.

There is fomething fatisfactory in these accounts of the follies of the wife; they give a natural air to the picture, and reconcile us to our own. There have been few poetical focieties, more talked of, or productive of a greater variety of whimfical conceits, than this of the Scribblerus Club, but how long it lafted I cannot exactly determine. The whole of Parnell's poetical exiftence was not of more than eight or ten years continuance; his firft excurfions to England began about the year 1706, and he died in the year 1718; fo that it is probable the club began with him, and his death ended the connexion. Indeed, the feftivity of his converfation, the benevolence of his heart, and the generofity of his temper, were qualities that might ferve to cement any fociety, and that could hardly be replaced when he was taken away. During the two or three laft years of his life, he was more fond of company than ever, and could scarcely bear to be alone. The death of his wife, it is faid, was a lofs to him that he was unable to fupport or recover. From that time he could never venture to court the Mufe in folitude, where he was fure to find the image of her who firft infpired his attempts. He began therefore to throw himself into every company, and to feek from wine, if not

relief,