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If I were to tell you the Thing I wish above all Things, it is to fee you again; the next is. to fee here your Treatife 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. Sort, as the Elay on Homer. Nothing can be. more glorious to that great Author, than that the. fame and that raised his best Statue, and decked. it with its old Laurels, fhould also hang up the Scare-crow of his miferable Critick, 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 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 fhall find it indifferent enough; if we confider it as 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 absent Friend in the Hours of Mirth and Feasting, when his Company is leaft wanted, fhews no flight Degree of Sincerity. 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 Society, called the Scribblerus Club, and I fhould fuppofe they commemorated him thus, as being an abfent Member.

It is past 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 Society, as doing it Honour.

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There is fomething feeble and queint in all their Attempts, as if Company repreffed Thought, and Genius wanted Solitude for its boldest and happiest Exertions. Of thofe Productions in which Parnell had a principal Share, that of the Origin of the Sciences from the Monkies in Ethiopia, is particularly mentioned by Pope himself, 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 still ftiffer as it is, I verily think it cost me more Pains in the Correcting, than the Writing it would have 'done.' All this may be eafily 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 thew great Learning, but they want that Eafe and Sweetness for which his Poetry is fo much admired, and the Language is alfo moft fhamefully incorrect. Yet, though all this must be allowed, Pope should 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 Secrecy in his Friend as in his Confeffor; the Sins he discovers are not divulged for Punishment but Pardon. Indeed Pope is almost 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 Respect, 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 easily be reconciled

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to Truth; but who can defend his Candour and his Sincerity?

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 Starts of Paffion and Envy, yet never miffed an Opportunity of being truly ferviceable to him. The Commerce between them was carried on to the common In

tereft 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 fubmitted his Pieces to all his Friends, and readily adopted their Alterations. Swift, among the Number, was very useful to him in that Particular; and Care has been taken that the World fhould not remain ignorant of the Obligation.

But in the Connexion of Wits, Interest has generally very little Share; they have only Pleafure in View, and can feldom find it but among each other. The Scribblerus Club, when the Members were in Town, were feldom afunder, 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 Sufferer. The whole Party once agreed to walk down to the House of Lord B- who is ftill living, and whofe Seat is about twelve Miles from Town. As every one agreed to make the best of his Way, Swift, who was remarkable for Walking, foon left all the Reft behind him, fully refolved, upon his Arrival, to chufe the very beft Bed for himself, for that was his Cuftom. In the mean

Time Parnell was determined to prevent his Intentions, and taking Horse, 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 House, but how to effect this was the Queftion. Swift never had the Small-pox, and was very much afraid of catching it: As foon therefore as he appeared ftriding along at fome Distance from the Houfe, one of his Lordship's Servants was difpatched, to inform him, that the Small-pox was then making greater Ravages in the Family, but that there was a Summer-house with a Field-bed at his Service, at the End of the Garden. There the disappointed Dean was obliged to retire, and take a cold Supper that was sent out to him, while the reft were feafting within. However, at laft, they took Compaffion on him; and upon his promifing never to chufe the best Bed again, they permitted him to make one of the Company.

There is fomething fatisfactory in thefe 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 Societies, more talked of, or productive of a greater Variety of whimsical Conceits than this of the Scribblerus Člub, but how long it lafted I cannot exactly determine. The Whole of Parnell's poetical Existence 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 Society, and that could hardly be replaced when he was taken away. During the Two or Three laft Years of his Life, he

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was more fond of Company than ever, and could fcarce 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 Muse in Solitude, 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, at leaft Infenfibility. Thofe Helps that Sorrow firft called in for Affiftance, Habit foon rendered neceffary, and he died before his fortieth Year, in fome Measure a Martyr to conjugal Fidelity.

Thus in the Space of a very few Years, Parnell attained a Share of Fame, equal to what most of his Cotemporaries were a long Life in acquiring. He is only to be confidered as a Poet; and the univerfal Efteem in which his Poems are held, and the reiterated. Pleasure they give in the Perufal, are a fufficient Test of their Merit. Hé appears to me to be the laft of that great School that had modelled itself upon the Ancients, and taught English Poetry to resemble what the Generality of Mankind have allowed to excel. A ftudious and correct Obferver of Antiquity, he fet himself to confider Nature with the Lights it lent him, and he found that the more Aid he borrowed from the One, the more delightfully he resembled the other. To copy Nature is a Talk the most bungling Workman is able to execute; to select fuch Parts as contribute to Delight, isreferved only for those whom Accident has bleft with uncommon Talents, or fuch as have read the Ancients with indefatigable Induftry. Parnell is ever happy in the Selection of his Images, and fcrupuloufly careful in the Choice of his Subjects. His Productions bear no Refemblance to thofe tawdry Things, which it has for fome Time been the Fashion to admire; in writing which the Poet fits

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