of it gives you, that your merit is unquestionable. What would you have otherwise, from ignorance, envy, or those tempers which vie with you in your own way? I know this in mankind, that when our ambition is unable to attain its end, it is not only wearied, but exasperated too at the vanity of its labours; then we speak ill of happier studies, and sigh ing, condemn the excellence which we find above our reach.

k

My Zoilus, which you used to write about, I finished last spring, and left in town. I waited till I came up to send it you, but not arriving here before your book was out, imagined it a lost piece of labour. If you will still have it, you need only write me word.

Í have here seen the First Book of Homer', which came out at a time when it could not but appear as a kind of setting up against you. My opinion is, that you may, if you please, give them thanks who writ it. Neither the numbers nor the spirit have an equal mastery with yours; but what surprizes me more is, that, a scholar being concerned, there should happen to be some mistakes in the author's sense; such as putting the light of Pallas's eyes into the eyes of Achilles, making the taunt of Achilles to Agamemnon (that he should have spoils when Troy should be taken) to be a cool and serious proposal; the translating what you call ablution by the word offals, and so leaving water out of the rite of lustration, etc. but you must have taken notice of all this before. I write not to inform you, but to shew I always have you at heart. I am, etc.

* Printed for B. Lintot, 1715, 8o, and afterwards added to the last edition of his poems.

Written by Mr. Addison, and published in the name of Mr. Tickell.

EXTRACT from a LETTER of the Rev. Dr. BERKLEY, Dean of London-Derry.

July 7, 1715.

SOME days ago, three or four gentlemen and myself, exerting that right which all readers pretend to over authors, sate in judgment upon the two new Translations of the first Iliad. Without partiality to my countrymen, I assure you, they all gave the preference where it was due; being unanimously of opinion, that yours was equally just to the sense with Mr.'s, and without comparison more easy, more poetical, and more sublime. But I will say no more on such a thread-bare subject, as your late performance is at this time. I am, etc.

EXTRACT from a LETTER of Mr. GAY to Mr. POPE. July 8, 1715.

I have just set down Sir Samuel Garth at the opera. He bid me tell you, that every body is pleased with your translation, but a few at Button's; and that Sir Richard Steele told him, that Mr. Addison said the other translation was the best that ever was in any language. He treated me with extreme civility, and out of kindness gave me a squeeze by the fore-finger.

I am informed that at Button's your character is made very free with as to morals, etc. and Mr. Addison says, that your translation and Tickell's are both very well done, but that the latter has more of Homer.

I am, etc.

m Sir Richard Steele afterwards, in his preface to an edition of the Drummer, a comedy by Mr. Addison, shews it to be his opinion, “that Mr. Addison himself was the person who translated "this book."

EXTRACT from a LETTER of Dr. ARBUTHNOT to

Mr. POPE.

July 9, 1715.

I congratulate you upon Mr. T *'s first book. It does not indeed want its merit; but I was strangely disappointed in my expectation of a translation nicely true to the original; whereas in those parts where the greatest exactness seems to be demanded, he has been the least careful, I mean the history of ancient ceremonies and rites, etc. in which you have with great judgment been exact. I am, etc.

LETTER XXVI.

MR. POPE TO THE HON. JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ.

July 15, 1715.

I LAY hold of the opportunity given me by my Lord Duke of Shrewsbury, to assure you of the continuance of that esteem and affection I have long borne you, and the memory of so many agreeable conversations as we have passed together. I wish it were a compliment to say, such conversations as are not to be found on this side of the water: for the spirit of dissention is gone forth among us: nor is it a wonder that Button's is no longer Button's, when old England is no longer old England, that region of hospitality, society, and good humour. Party affects us all, even the wits, though they gain as little by politics as they do by their wit. We talk much of fine sense, refined sense, and exalted sense; but for use and happiness, give me a little common sense. I say this in regard to some gentlemen, professed wits of our acquaintance, who fancy they can make poetry of consequence at this time of day, in the midst of this raging fit of politics. For they tell me, the busy part of the nation are not more divided about Whig and Tory, than

n Tickell.

these idle fellows of the feather about Mr. T's and my Translation. I (like the Tories) have the town in general, that is the mob, on my side; but it is usual with the smaller party to make up in industry what they want in number, and that is the case with the little senate of Cato. However, if our principles be well considered, I must appear a brave Whig, and Mr. T. a rank Tory: I translated Homer for the public in general, he to gratify the inordinate desires of one man only. We have, it seems, a Great Turk in poetry, who can never bear a brother on the throne and has his mutes too, a set of nodders, winkers, and whisperers, whose business is to strangle all other offsprings of wit in their birth. The new translator of Homer is the humblest slave he has, that is to say, his first minister; let him receive the honours he gives me, but receive them with fear and trembling; let him be proud of the approbation of his absolute lord, I appeal to the people, as my rightful judges and masters; and if they are not inclined to condemn me, I fear no arbitrary high-flying proceeding from the small court-faction at Button's. But after all I have said of this great man, there is no rupture between us. We are each of us so civil and obliging, that neither thinks he is obliged: and I, for my part, treat with him, as we do with the Grand Monarch; who has too many great qualities not to be respected, though we know he watches any occasion to oppress us.

When I talk of Homer, I must not forget the early present you made me of Monsieur de la Motte's book; and I can't conclude this letter without telling you a melancholy piece of news, which affects our very entrails, L is dead, and soupes are no more! You see I write in the old familiar "This is not to "the minister, but to the friend However, it is

way.

• Alluding to St. John's letter to Prior, published in the Report of the Secret Committee.

some mark of uncommon regard to the minister that I steal an expression from a secretary of state.

LETTER XXVII.

TO MR. CONGREVE.

I am, etc.

January 16, 1714-15.

METHINKS, when I write to you, I am making a confession; I have got (I can't tell how) such a custom of throwing myself out upon paper without reserve. You were not mistaken in what you judged of my temper of mind when I writ last. My faults will not be hid from you, and perhaps it is no dispraise to me that they will not: the cleanness and purity of one's mind is never better proved, than in discovering its own fault at first view; as when a stream shews the dirt at its bottom, it shews also the transparency of the water.

My spleen was not occasioned, however, by any thing an abusive angry critic could write of me. I take very kindly your heroic manner of congratulation upon this scandal; for I think nothing more honourable than to be involved in the same fate with all the great and the good that ever lived; that is, to be envied and censured by bad writers.

You do more than answer my expectations of you, in declaring how well you take my freedom, in sometimes neglecting, as I do, to reply to your letters so soon as I ought. Those who have a right taste of the substantial part of friendship, can wave the cere monial: a friend is the only one that will bear the omission; and one may find who is not so by the very trial of it.

As to any anxiety I have concerning the fate of my Homer, the care is over with me: the world must be