a part of this junto, as there is fomething ftriking even in the levities of genius. It comes from Gay, Jervas, Arbuthnot, and Pope, affembled at a chophoufe near the Exchange, and is as follows:

'MY DEAR SIR,

'I WAS laft fummer in Devonshire, and am this ' winter at Mrs. Bonyer's. In the fummer I wrote a poem, and in the winter I have published it; ' which I have sent to you by Dr. Elwood. In the ⚫ fummer I ate two difhes of toad-ftools of my own gathering, inftead of mushrooms; and in the winter I have been fick with wine, as I am at this time, 'bleffed be God for it, as I muft blefs God for all things. In the fummer I spoke truth to damfels; in the winter I told lies to ladies: Now you know where I have been, and what I have done. I fhall 'tell you what I intend to do the enfuing fummer; I propofe to do the fame thing I did laft, which was to meet you in any part of England, you would appoint; 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 anfwer, I feared both yours and my letters might ⚫ have mifcarried. I hope my performance will please the Dean, whom I often wifhed for, and to whom I would have often wrote, but for the fame reasons ⚫ I neglected writing to you. I hope I need not tell you how I love you, and how glad I fhall be to hear from you; which, next to the feeing you, would be the greateft fatisfaction to your most af⚫fectionate friend and humble fervant, J. G.1

DEAR MR. ARCHDEACON,

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

'page

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 defcriptions in their way; I fhall only acquaint you with that which is directly my province. I have juft fet the laft hand to a couplet, for fo I may call two nymphs in one piece. They are Pope's favourites: and though few, you will guess muft have coft me more pains 'than any nymphs can be worth. He has been fo un'reasonable as to expect that I should have made them ⚫ as beautiful upon canvas, as he has done upon paper. If this fame Mr. P- fhould 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 fince they croffed the feas: remember by 'what neglects, &c. we miffed them when we loft you, and therefore I have not yet forgiven any of thofe triflers that let them efcape and run thofe hazards. I am going on the old rate, and want you and the Dean prodigiously, and an in hopes of making you a vifit this fummer, and of hearing from you both now you are together. For⚫tefcue, I am fure, will be concerned that he is not in Cornhill, to fet his hand to these presents, ⚫ not only as a witness, but as a

• Serviteur tres humble

C. JERVAS.

It is fo 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, remem⚫bered you at our table in the chop-house in ExchangeAlley. There wanted nothng to compleat our happiness but your company, and our dear friend *the Dean's. I am fure the whole entertainment

• would

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 fpur, 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 fome meaning 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 eafy fitua❝tion 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

'the

the Effay on Homer. Nothing can be more gla rious to that great Author, than that the fame hand that raised his best statue, and decked it with its old laurels, fhould alfo hang up the fcare-crow of ⚫ his miserable critic, and gibbet up the carcase of Zoilus, to the terror of the witlings of pofterity. 'More, and much more, upon this and a thoufand other fubjects, will be the matter of my next letter, < wherein I muft open all the friend to you. At this * time I must be content with telling you, I am faithfully 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 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 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 another 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 should sup. pofe they commemorated him thus, as being an abfent member.

.

It is paft 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 boldeft and happieft exertions. Of those productions in which Parnell had a principal fhare, that of the origin of the Sciences from the Monkies VOL. IV.

C

ia

in Ethiopia, is particulaaly mentioned by Pope him. felf, 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 sweetnefs 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 againft 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 difcovers are not divulged for punifhment but pardon. Indeed, Pope is almoft inexcufable in this inftance, as what he feems 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