: hike for this is the point, the single point, I now aim at; though I know, the generality of the world, who are unacquainted with my intentions and views, think the very reverse of this character belongs to me. I do not know how I have rambled into this account of myself: when I sat down to write, I had no thought of making that any part of my letter. You might have been sure, without my telling you, that my right hand is at ease, else I should not have overflowed at this rate: and yet I have not done; for there is a kind intimation in the end of yours, which I understood, because it seems to tend towards employing me in something that is agreeable to you. Pray explain yourself, and believe that you have not an acquaintancè in the world that would be more in earnest on such an occasion than I; for I love you, as well as esteem you. All the while I have been writing, pain, and a fine thrush, have been severally endeavouring to call off my attention; but both in vain, nor should I yet part with you, only that the turning over a new leaf frights me a little, and makes me resolve to break through a new temptation, before it has taken too fast hold on me. I am, &c. Dear sir, LETTER VII. Dr. Atterbury to Mr. Pope. The Tower, April 10, 1723. I thank you for all the instances of your friendship, both before and since my misfortunes. A little time will complete them, and separate you and me. But in what part of the world soever I am, I will live mindful of your sincere kindness to me; and I will please myself with the thought, that I still live in your esteem and affection as much as ever I did, and that no accident of life, no distance of time or place, will alter you in that respect. It never can alter me; who have loved and valued you ever since I knew you: and I shall not fail to do it when I am not allowed to tell you so; as the case will soon be. Give my faithful services to Dr. Arbuthnot, and my thanks for what he sent me, which was much to the purpose, if any thing can be said to be to the purpose, in a case that is already determined. Let him know my defence will be such, that neither my friends need blush for me, nor will my enemies have great occasion of triumph, though they are sure of the victory. I shall want his advice before I go abroad, in many things: but I question whether I shall be permitted to see him, or any body, but such as are absolutely necessary towards the despatch of my private affairs. If so, God bless you both! and may no part of the ill fortune that attends me, ever pursue either of you! I know not but I may call upon you at my hearing, to say something about my way of spending my time at the Deanery, which did not seem calculated towards managing plots and conspiracies. But of that I shall consider. You and I have spent many hours together upon much pleasanter subjects: and, that I may preserve the old custom, I shall not part with you now till I have closed this letter with three lines of Milton; which you will, I know, readily, and not without some degree of concern, apply to your ever affectionate, &c. "Some nat❜ral tears he dropp'd, but wip'd them soon: The world was all before him, where to choose His place of rest, and Providence his guide," LETTER VIII. Mr. Pope to Dr. Atterbury, in answer to the preceding letter. April 20, 1723. It is not possible to express what I think, and : The what I feel only this, that I have thought and felt for nothing but you, for some time past; and that I shallthink of nothing so long for the time to come. greatest comfort I had was an intention, to attend you in your journey, to which I had brought that person to consent, who alone, could have hindered me, by a tie which, though it may be more tender, I do not think more strong, than that of friendship. But I fear there will be no way left me to tell you this great truth, that I remember you, that I love you, that I am grateful to you, that I value and esteem you most highly. You prove yourself, my lord, to know me for the friend I am, in judging that the manner of your defence, and your reputation by it, is a point of great concern to me; and, in assuring me it shall be such, that none of your friends shall blush for you. Let me further prompt you to do yourself the best and most lasting justice: the instruments of your fame to posterity will be in your own hands. May it not be, that Providence has appointed you to some great and useful work, and calls you to it this severe way? You may more eminently and more effectually serve the public, even now, than in the stations which you have so honourably filled. I am tenderly sensible of the wish you express, that no part of your misfortune may pursue me. But, God knows, I am every day less and less fond of my native country, (torn as it is by party-rage,) and I begin to ! consider a friend in exile as a friend in death: one gone before, whither I am not unwilling nor unprepared to follow after; and where, however various or uncertain the roads and voyages may be, I cannot but entertain a pleasing hope that we may meet again. I faithfully assure you, that, in the mean time, there is no one, living or dead, of whom I shall think oftener or better than of you. I shall look upon you as in a state between both, in which you will have from me all the passions and warm wishes that can attend the living, and all the respect and tender sense of loss that we feel for the dead. And I shall ever depend upon your con stant friendship, kind memory, and good offices, though I were never to see or hear the effects of them; as we trust in benevolent spirits, who, though we never see or hear them, we think are constantly serving us, and praying for us. Whenever I am wishing to write to you, I shall conclude you are intentionally doing so to me; and every time that I think of you, I will believe you are thinking of me. I never shall suffer to be forgotten (nay, to be but faintly remembered) the honour, the pleasure, which I must ever have, in reflecting how frequently you havẹ delighted me, how kindly you have distinguished me, how cordially you have advised me! In conversation, in study, I shall always want you, and wish for you: in my most lively, and in my most thoughtful hours, I shall equally bear about me the impressions of you. And perhaps it will not be in this life only, that I shall have cause to remember and acknowledge the friendship of the bishop of Rochester. I am, &c. Alexander Pope. LETTER IX. Mr. Pope to Dr. Atterbury. Once more. I write to you, as and this once, I fear, will be the last! May, 1723. I promised; and no May you will soon be drawn between my friend and me, thing left but to wish you a long good night. enjoy a state of repose in this life, not unlike that sleep of the soul which some have believed is to succeed it, where we lie utterly forgetful of that world from which we are gone, and ripening for that to which we are to go! If you retain any memory of the past, let it only image to you what has pleased you best; sometimes, present a dream of an absent friend, or bring you back an agreeable conversation. But, upon the whole, I hope you will think less of the time past than of the future; as the former has been less kind to you than the latter I trust will be. Do not envy the world your studies: they will tend to the benefit of men, against whom you can have no complaint,-I mean of all posterity. What is every year of a wise man's life but a censure or critic on the past? Those whose date is the shortest, live long enough to laugh at one half of it: the boy despises the infant, the man the boy, the philosopher both, and the Christian all. You may now begin to think your manhood was too much a puerility; and you will never suffer your age to be but a second infancy. The toys and bawbles of your childhood are hardly now more below you, than those toys of our riper and of our, declining years, the drums and rattles of Ambition, and the dirt and bubbles of. Avarice. you are cut off from a little society, At this time, when and made a citizen |