at the disposal of others. I drink the waters, and am in hopes to lay in a stock of health, some of which I wish to communicate to you. Dr Delany told me you had been upon a journey, and I really fancy taking horse is as good as taking the waters; I hope you have found benefit by it. The Beggar's Opera is acted here; but our Polly has got no fame, though the actors have got money. I have sent by Dr Delany, the opera, Polly Peachum, and Captain Macheath. I would have sent you my own head (which is now engraving to make up the gang), but it is not yet finished. I suppose you must have heard that I have had the honour to have had a ser mon preached against my works by a court chaplain, which I look upon as no small addition to my fame. Direct to me here when you write; and the -sooner that is, the sooner you will make me happy.

TO MR POPE.

June 1, 1728.

I LOOK upon my Lord Bolingbroke and us two as a peculiar triumvirate, who have nothing to expect or to fear; and so far fittest to converse with one another only he and I are a little subject to schemes, and one of us (I would not say which) upon very weak appearances,' and this you have nothing to do

Dr Thomas Herring, then preacher to the Society in Lincoln's Inn, and afterward Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr Swift, in the Intelligencer, No. III. published in Ireland, speaks with great asperity of Dr Herring, on account of his sermon against the Beggar's Opera.-B. See Vol. IX. p. 293.

with. I do profess without affectation, that your kind opinion of me as a patriot (since you call it so) is what I do not deserve; because what I do is owing to perfect rage and resentment, and the mortifying sight of slavery, 'folly, and baseness about me, among which I am forced to live. And I will take my oath that you have more virtue in an hour than I in seven years; for you despise the follies and hate the vices of mankind without the least ill effect on your temper; and with regard to particular men, you are inclined always rather to think the better, whereas with me it is always directly contrary. I hope, however, this is not in you, from a superior principle of virtue, but from your situation, which has made all parties and interests indifferent to you; who can be under no concern about high and low church, whig and tory, or who is first minister. Your long letter was the last I received till this by Dr Delany, although you mention another since. The Doctor told me your secret about the Dunciad, which does not please me, because it defers gratifying my vanity in the most tender point, and perhaps may wholly disappoint it. As to one of your inquires, I am easy enough in great matters, but have a thousand. paltry vexations in my little station, and the more contemptible the more vexatious. There might be a Lutrin writ upon the tricks used by my chapter to tease me. I do not converse with one creature of station or title, but I have a set of easy people whom I entertain when I have a mind: I have formerly described them to you, but when you come you shall have the hónours of the country as much as you please, and I shall, on that account, make a better figure as long as I live. Pray God preserve Mrs Pope for your sake and ease; I love and esteem her too much to

wish it for her own; if I were five-and-twenty I would wish to be of her age, to be as secure as she is of a better life. Mrs P. B. has writ to me, and is one of the best letter-writers I know; very good sense, civility and friendship, without any stiffness For constraint. The Dunciad has taken wind here, but if it had not, you are as much known here as in England, and the university lads will crowd to kiss the hem of your garment. I am grieved to hear that my Lord Bolingbroke's ill health forced him to the Bath. Tell me, is not temperance a necessary virtue for great men, since it is the parent of ease and liberty, so necessary for the use and improvement of the mind, and which philosophy allows to be the greatest felicities of life? I believe, had health been given so liberally to you, it would have been better husbanded without shame to your parts.

JON SWIFT.

FROM MR POPE.

Dawley, June 28, 1728.

I Now hold the pen for my Lord Bolingbroke, who is reading your letter between two haycocks, but his attention is somewhat diverted by casting his eyes on the clouds, not in admiration of what you say, but for fear of a shower. He is pleased with your placing him in the triumvirate between yourself and me: though he says, that he, doubts he

.

Patty Blount,

shall fare like Lepidus, while one of us runs away with all the power, like Augustus, and another with all the pleasures, like Anthony. It is upon a foresight of this that he has fitted up his farm, and you will agree that his scheme of retreat at least is not founded upon weak appearances. Upon his return from the Bath, all peccant humours, he finds, are purged out of him; and his great temperance and economy are so signal, that the first is fit for my constitution, and the latter would enable you to lay up so much money as to buy a bishoprick in England. As to the return of his health and vigour, were you here, you might inquire of his haymakers; but as to his temperance, I can answer that (for one whole day) we have had nothing for dinner but mutton broth, beans and bacon, and a barn-door fowl.

Now his lordship is run after his cart, I have a moment left to myself to tell you, that I overheard him yesterday agree with a painter for 2001. to paint his country hall with trophies of rakes, spades, prongs, &c. and other ornaments, merely to countenance his calling this place a farm-now turn over a new leaf.

He bids me assure you, he should be sorry not to have more schemes of kindness for his friends than of ambition for himself: there, though his schemes may be weak, the motives at least are strong; and he says farther, if you could bear as great a fall and decrease of your revenues, as he knows by experience he can, you would not live in Ireland an hour.

The Dunciad is going to be printed in all pomp, with the inscription, which makes me proudest. It will be attended with proeme, prolegomena, testimonia scriptorum, index authorum, and notes va riorum As to the latter, I desire you to read over

VOL. XVII.

the text, and make a few in any way you like best; * whether dry raillery, upon the style and way of commenting of trivial critics; or humorous, upon the authors in the poem; or historical, of persons, places, times; or explanatory, or collecting the parallel passages of the ancients. Adieu. I ain pretty well, my mother not ill. Dr Arbuthnot vexed with his fever by intervals; I am afraid he declines, and we shall lose a worthy man: I am troubled about him very much.

DEAR SIR,

FROM MR GAY.

• I am, &c.

Bath, July 6, 1728.

THE last news I have heard of you was from Mr Lancelot, who was at this place with Lord Sussex, who gave me hopes of seeing you the latter end of this summer. I wish you may keep that resolution, and take the Bath in your way to town. You, in all probability, will find here some or most of those you like to see. Dr Arbuthnot wrote to me to-day from Tunbridge, where he is now for the recovery of his health, having had several relapses of a fever: he tells me that he is much better, and that in August he intends to come hither. Mr Congreve and I often talk of you, and wish you health and every good thing; but often, out of self-interest, we wish you with us. In five or six days I set out upon an

Dr Swift did so,-WARBURton.