Works, containing additional letters, tracts, and poems, not hitherto published. With notes and life of the author
iiH*. \ h 1 mk h ■i^ «<^ ^^^^^^^I^^^^HSk^ *^"^x ^^E JBKi ^^ ^^^^^^1 k m. presented to ^be Xibrar^ ottbc innivereit^ of ^Toronto be /IDabel anb minitreD Gartwrigbt in memory ot tbcir granDtatber 3obn Solomon Cartvvviabt, Esq, ant) ot tbeic tatbcr 5obn IRobison Cartwnabt, JEsq, THE WORKS OF JONATHAN SWIFT, D.D. THE WORKS OF JONATHAN SWIFT, H.D. DEAN or ST PATRICK'S, DUBEIN ; CONTAINING ADDITIONAL LETTERS, TRACTS, AND POEMS, NOT HITHEKTO PUBLISHED ; WITH •NOTES, AND A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, BY Sir WALTEE SCOTT, Bart. SECOND EDITION. VOLUME XVII. EDINBURGH : PRINTED FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO. EDINBURGH; AND HURST, ROBINSON, AND CO. LONDON. 1824. PR S7JII EDINBURGH : PRINTED BY JAMES BAI.I.AXTYNE AND CO. CONTENTS OF VOLUME SEVENTEENTH. EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. FAGE. To IVIr Pope^ 3 From Mr Pope, 7 From Dr Arbuthnot, 11 From the Earl of Oxford, 13 To Mr Pope, 14 To Dr Stopford, 17 From jNIr Pope and Lord Bolingbroke, 20 From the Duchess of Hamilton, 24 To Lord Palmerston, ib. From Lord Palmerston, 26 To Lord Palmerston, ......... 28 From Dr Arbuthnot, 31 To Mr Worrall, \ . .32 From the Earl of Peterborow, ib. To the Earl of Peterborow, 33 To Dr Sheridan, 39 To Mr Worrall, 42 To Dr Stopford, 45 From Lord Bolingbroke to the Three Yahoos of Twickenham, Jo- nathan, Alexander, John, 48 To Dr Sheridan, 49 To Mr Pope, . 51 5 u CONTENTS. To Mr Worrall,. To the Same, From ]Mr Pope, To ]\Irs Howard,. From ]Mr Pope, From ]Mr Pulteney, From ^Ir Gay, From Dr Arbuthnot,. From Lord Bolingbroke, From ^Ir Gay, From Dr Arbuthnot, From Mr Pope, From Mrs Howard, To Mrs Howard,. To :Mr Pope, From ]Mr Gay, To the Earl of Peterborow, To :Mr Pope, To !Mrs Howard,. From Lady Bolingbroke, From the Same,. To Mrs Howard,. From Lord Bolingbroke, From Mr Gay, From ;Mr Pope, To :Mr Walhs, Mr Pope to W. Fortescue, Esq. To Dr Sheridan,. From Lord Bolingbroke, To Archbishop King, From the Prince of Lilliput, From Monsieur Voltaire, Monsieur Voltaire au Compte To Dr Sheridan,. From Lord Bolingbroke, From the Same, From the Same, To Dr Sheridan,. De M. L'Abbe Des Fontaines, A M. L'Abbe Des Fontaines, To Mrs Howard,. To Mrs ^Martha Blount, From Lord Bolingbroke, de JVIorville, PAGE. 52 53 55 56 58 61 63 65 67 69 74 77 80 82 84 86 90 92 94 95 97 98 100 102 103 105 106 107 109 110 113 114 lU 116 119 120 121 122 125 129 131 133 134 CONTENTS. iii PAGE, To Dr Swift, 134 From j\Ir Pulteney to Mr Pope, 135 From Chevalier Ramsay, lb. From ]\Irs Howard, 16 To Dr Sheridan, 137 To Mrs Howard, . 139 To the Same, 140 To Dr Sheridan, 142 To the Same, 143 Mr Pope to Dr Sheridan, . . .^ 145 From IVIrs Howard, 146 To :Mr Worrall, . . 147 To Mrs Howard, 148 From Mr Pope, 149 To iMr Pope, 151 From the Earl of Oxford, 153 From ]Mr Gay and Mr Pope, 155 To :Mr Pope, 158 To Mr Gay, . 161 From Dr Arbuthnot, 165 From ^Monsieur Voltaire, 167 From the Same, 168 To Mrs Moore, 169 To Lord Carteret, 171 From Lord Bolingbroke and Mr Pope, 173 From Mr Gay, 175 To Mrs Martha Blount, 177 From Mr Gay, 180 From Mr Pope, 182 From Mrs Martha Blount, 186 To i\Ir Pope, 188 To Lord Carteret, 190 From Mr Gay, 193 To Mr Pope, 194 From Mr Pope, 196 From Ml- Gay, 198 To Mr Pope, 200 To Dr Sheridan, .... * 202 To the Same, 204 Mr Pope to Dr Sheridan, 206 To Mr Worrall, 208 From IMr Pope, 210 To the Rev. Mr Wallis, 212 IT CONTEXTS. Dr Sheriilau to I,ord Mountcashel, From :Mr Gay, To :SIr Worrall,. To the Same, To the Same, To Mr Poi>e, To the Same, From Francis Geogeghan, Esq. From William Flower, Esq. From IVIr Gay, To Mr Gay, From Dr Arbuthnot, To Lord Bolingbroke, From a Quaker in Philadelphia, From Lady Johnson, To Lord Bolingbroke,. From the Chevalier Ramsay, From Dr Arbuthnot, From the Same, From Lady Catherine Jones, To Mr Pope, From Lord Bolingbroke, From iVIr Pope, To :Mr Pope, To Lord Bolingbroke,. From Mr Gay, From Lord Bohngbroke, From Mr Pope, To a certain Esquire, From Lord Bathurst, From ]Mr Gay, From the Earl of Oxford, From Mr Gay, From Mr Pope and Lord Bolingbroke^ To the Rev, Mr Blachford, To Lady Worsley, From Lord Bathurst, From Mr Gay, From the Earl of Oxford, From Lord Bathurst, From Lady Betty Germain, From Mr Gay, To Mr Gay, PAGE. 213 216 218 219 220 224. 226 235 237 240 243 245 247 250 ib. 251 256 257 258 259 260 264 269 272 274 277 279 281 286 289 292 293 295 298 301 302 304 307 309 311 313 315 318 CONTENTS. To Lord Chesterfield,. From Dr Arbuthiiot, To Mr Gay, To the Duchess,. To the Countess of Suffolk, From JMr Gay, From Lord Chesterfield, From Lady Elizabeth Germain, To IMrs Whiteway, To Lady Santry,. To the Earl of Chesterfield, From Lord Bolingbroke, From JMr Pulteney, From Lady EHzabeth Germain, From JMr Gay, From Lord Bolingbroke and JMr Pope, From Lord Bolingbroke and JMr Pope, To JMr Gay, .... From JMr Gay, .... From Lord Bathurst, From JMr Gay, .... To Ventoso, .... From Lady Betty Germain,. To JMr Pope, .... A Counterfeit Letter to the Queen, To JMr Gay, .... From the Duchess of Queensberry and JMr Gay, To JMr Pope, To the Countess of Suffolk, From Lord Bolingbroke, To JMr Gay and the Duchess of Queensberry, From Lady Betty Germain, To JMr Gay and the Duchess of Queensberry, From the Countess of Suffolk, To Sir Charles Wogan, To JMr Gay and the Duchess of Queensberry, To the Countess of Suffolk,. From Lady Betty Germain,. From JMr Gay and the Duke of Queensberry, From JMr Gay and JMr Pope, From Lady Betty Germain,. From JMr Gay, To the Rev. JMr Windar, VOL. XVII. PAGli. . 320 . 323 . 32o . 328 329 333 336 337 339 340 341 343 345 347 348 350 354 358 361 364 368 371 374 375 379 381 384 388 392 395 406 409 411 414 417 424 427 432 434 436 440 442 443 Vi CONTENTS. PAGE. From Lady Betty Germain, . 445 From Sir Charles ^Vogaii, . 447 From ]Mr Gay, . 497 To iVIr Faulkner, ........ . 499 To Lady Acheson, . 501 From Lady Acheson, . . . • " • ib. To Mr Gay, . 502 From Lady Betty Germain, . 505 SWIFT'S EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. LETTERS FROM SEPTEMBER 1725 TO MAY 1732. VOL. XVII. SWIFT'S EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. TO MR POPE. September 29, 1725. I AM now returning to the noble scene of Dublin, into the grcmde mo7ide, for fear of burying my parts, to sig- nalize myself among curates and vicars, and correct all corruptions crept in, relating to the weight of bread and butter, through those dominions where I govern.^ I have employed my time (beside ditching) in finishing, correcting, amending, and transcribing my travels,| in four parts complete, newly augmented, and intended for the press, when the world shall deserve them, or rather when a printer shall be found brave enough to venture his ears. I like the scheme of our meeting after dis- tresses and dispersions, but the chief end I propose to myself in all my labours is, to vex the world rather than divert it ; and if I could compass that design, without hurting my own person or fortune, I would be the most indefatigable writer you have ever seen, without read- ing. I am exceedingly pleased that you have done with * The liberties of St Patrick's Cathedral. t Those of Gulliver. 4 EPISTOLARY COllRESPONDENCE. translations : Lord-treasurer Oxford often lamented that a rascally world should lay you under a necessity of misemploying your genius for so long a time. But since you will now be so much better employed, when you think of the world, give it one lash the more, at my request. I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities ; and all my love is toward individuals ; for instance, I hate the tribe of lawyers, but I love counsellor such a one, and judge such a one : It is so with physicians, (I will not speak of my own. trade,) soldiers, English, Scotch, French, and the rest. But principally I hate and detest that animal called man ; although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth. This is the system upon which I have governed myself many years, (but do not tell ;) and so I shall go on till I have done with them. I have got materials to- ward a treatise, proving the falsity of that definition animal rationale, and to shew it should be only rationis capax* Upon this great foundation of misanthropy, (though not in Timon's manner,) the whole building of my travels is erected ; and I never will have peace of mind till all honest men are of my opinion : by conse- quence you are to embrace it immediately, and procure that all who deserve my esteem may do so too. The matter is so clear that it will admit of no dispute ; nay, ** These and similar passages contain a great deal of wild and vio- lent invectiye against mankind, which has been perhaps too hastily adopted as expressive of Swift's actual sentiments. It ought, how- ever, to be remembered, that if the Dean's principles were misan- thropical, his practice was benevolent. Few have written so much with so little view either to fame or to profit, or to aught but benefit to the public. EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. 5 I will hold a hundred pounds that you and I agree in the point. I did not know your Odyssey was finished, being yet in the country, which I shall leave in three days. I thank you kindly for the present, but shall like it three- fourths the less, from the mixture you mention of other hands ; however, I am glad you saved yourself so much drudgery. — I have been long told by Mr Ford of your great achievements in building and planting, and espe- cially of your subterranean passage to your garden, whereby you turned a blunder into a beauty, which is a piece of Ars Poetica, I have almost done with harridans, and shall soon become old enough to fall in love with girls of four- teen. The lady* whom you describe to live at court, to be deaf, and no party-woman, I take to be mytholo- gy, but know not how to moralize it. She cannot be Mercy, for Mercy is neither deaf, nor lives at court : Justice is blind, and perhaps deaf, but neither is she a court lady : Fortune is both blind and deaf, and a court lady, but then she is a most damnable party-woman, and will never make me easy, as you promise. It must be Riches, which answers all your description : I am glad she visits you, but my voice is so weak that I doubt she will never hear me. Mr Lewis sent me an account of Dr Arbuthnot's ill- ness, which is a very sensible affliction to me, who, by living so long out of the world, have lost that hardness of heart contracted by years and general conversation. I am daily losing friends, and neither seeking nor get- * Pope meant Mrs Howard, as appears by his answer. 6 EPISTOLARY COHRESPONDENCE. ting others. O if the world had but a dozen Arbuth- nots in it, I would burn my travels ! but, however, he is not without fault : there is a passage in Bede highly commending the piety and learning of the Irish in that age, where, after abundance of praises, he overthrows them all, by lamenting that, alas ! they kept Easter at a wrong time of the year. So our doctor has every quality and virtue that can make a man amiable or use- ful ; but, alas ! he hath a sort of slouch in his walk ! I pray God protect him, for he is an excellent Christian, though not a Catholic. I hear nothing of our friend Gay, but I find the court keeps him at hard meat. I advised him to come over here with a lord-lieutenant. Philips writes little flams (as Lord Leicester called those sort of verses) on Miss Carteret. A Dublin blacksmith, a great poet, has imi- tated his manner in a poem to the same miss. Philips is a com plainer, and on this occasion I told Lord Car- teret that complainers never succeed at court, though railers do. Are you altogether a country gentleman, that I must address to you out of London, to the hazard of your lo- sing this precious letter, which I will now conclude, al- though so much paper is left. I have an ill name, and therefore shall not subscribe it, but you will guess it comes from one who esteems and loves you about half as much as you deserve, I mean as much as he can. I am in great concern, at what I am just told is in some of the newspapers, that Lord Bolingbroke is much hurt by a fall in hunting. I am glad he has so much youth and vigour left, (of which he has not been thrifty,) but I wonder he has no more discretion. EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. FROM MR POPE. October 15, 1725. I AM wonderfully pleased with the suddenness of your kind answer. It makes me hope you are coming toward us, and that you incline more and more to your old friends in proportion as you draw nearer to them ; and are getting into our vortex. Here is one,* who was once a powerful planet, but has now (after long expe- rience of all that comes of shining) learned to be con- tent with returning to his first point, without the thought or ambition of shining at all. Here is an- other,! who thinks one of the greatest glories of his fa- ther was to have distinguished and loved you, and who loves you hereditarily. Here is Arbuthnot recovered from the jaws of death, and more pleased with the hope of seeing you again than that of reviewing a world, every part of which he has long despised, but what is made up of a few men like yourself. He goes abroad again, and is more cheerful than even health can make a man, for he has a good conscience into the bargain, which is the most catholic of all remedies, though not the most universal. I knew it would be a pleasure U you to hear this, and in truth that made me write s^ soon to you. I am sorry poor F.^ is not promoted in this age ; for certainly if his reward be of the next, he is of all poets * Bolingbroke. f Lord Oxford. t Ambrose Philips, with whom Pope had a well-known feud. 8 EPISTOLARY CORHESPONDENCK. the most miserable. I am also sorry for another rea- son ; if they do not promote him, they will spoil the conclusion of one of my satires, where, having endea- voured to correct the taste of the town in wit and cri- ticism, I end thus ; But what avails to lay down rules for sense ? In George's reign these fruitless lines were writ. When Ambrose Philips was preferr'd for wit ! Our friend Gay is used as the friends of Tories are by Whigs, and generally by Tories too. Because he had himioiu' he was supposed to have dealt with Dr Swift ; in like manner as when any one had learning formerly, he was thought to have dealt with the devil. He puts his whole trust at court in that lady* whom I described to you, and whom you take to be an allegorical creature of fancy : I wish she really were Riches for his sake ; though as for yours, I question whether (if you knew her) you would change her for the other. Lord Bolingbroke had not the least harm by his fall. I wish he had received no more by his other fall ; Lord Oxford had none by his. But Lord Bolingbroke is the most improved mind, since you saw him, that ever was improved without shifting into a new body or being ; paulo minus ah angelis. I have often imagined to my- self, that if ever all of us meet again, after so many va- * Mrs Howard. Gay trusted to her influence as the prince's mis- tress, not aware that the real governess of the family was the princess herself, who, though indulgent to her husband's gallantries, was suf- ficiently jealous of her political influence over him, and never failed to disconcert all the schemes of those who hoped to rise by Mrs How- ard's interest. EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. 9 rieties and changes, after so much of the old world and of the old man in each of us has been altered, that scarce a single thought of the one, any more than a single atom of the other, remains just the same ; I have fancied, I say, that we should meet like the righteous in the mil- lennium, quite in peace, divested of all our former pas- sions, smiling at our past follies, and content to enjoy the kingdom of the just in tranquillity. But I find you would rather be employed as an avenging angel of wrath, to break your vial of indignation over the heads of the wretched creatures of this world ; nay, would make them eat your book, which you have made (I doubt not) as bitter a pill for them as possible. I would not tell you what designs* I have in my head (beside writing a set of maxims in opposition to all Rochefoucalt's f principles) till I see you here, face to face. Then you shall have no reason to complain of me, for want of a generous disdain of this world, though I have not lost my years in yours and their service. Lord Oxford, too, (whom I have now the third time mentioned in this letter, and he deserves to be always mentioned in everything that is addressed to you, or comes from you,) expects you : that ought to be enough to bring you hither ; it is a better reason than if the nation expected you. For I really enter as fully as you * This was only said as an oblique reproof of the horrid misanthro- py in the foregoing letter ; and whieh^ he supposed, might be chiefly occasioned by the Dean's fondness for Rochefoucalt, whose Maxims are founded on the principle of an universal selfishness in human na- ture.— Dr Warton. f " Who is the great philosopher/' says Addison, " for adminis- tering of consolation to the idle, the curious, and the worthless part of mankind." — Dr Warton. 10 EPISTOLAPvY COKRESPONDENCE. can desire into your principle of love of individuals : and I think tlie way to have a public spirit is first to liave a private one ; for who can believe (said a friend of mine) that any man can care for a hundred thousand people who never cared for one ? No ill-humoured man can ever be a patriot, any more than a friend. I designed to have left the following page for Dr Ar- buthnot to fill, but he is so touched with the period in yours to me concerning him, that he intends to answer it by a whole letter. He, too, is busy about a book, which I guess he will tell you of. So, adieu. What re- mains worth telling you ? Dean Berkeley is well, and happy in the prosecution of his scheme.* Lord Oxford and Lord Bolingbroke in health, Duke Disney f so also ; Sir ^Villiam Wyndham better, Lord Bathurst well. These, and some others, preserve their ancient honour, and ancient friendship. Those who do neither, if they were d d, what is it to a Protestant priest, who has nothing to do with the dead ? I answer for my own part as a Papist, I would not pray them out of purga- tory. My name is as bad a one as yours, and hated by all bad people, from Hopkins and Sternhold to Gildon and Gibber ; the first prayed against me with the Turk ; and a modern imitator of theirs (whom I leave you to find out) has added the Christian to them, with proper definitions of each, in this manner : — * His scheme for a religious settlement at Bermudas. — Bowles. f Duke Disney is often mentioned with affectionate and familiar kinchiess by the party. He lived at Greenwich, as appears by Gay's ballad : . '' I hear facetious Disney say, Duke, that's the room for Pope, and that for Gay." — Bowles. EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. 11 The P<)j)€'s the Whore of Babylon, The Turk he is a Jew ; The Christian is an infidel That sitteth in a pew.* FROM DR ARBUTHNOT. London, Oct. 17, 1725. Dear Sir, I HAVE the vanity to think, that a few friends have a real concern for me, and are uneasy when I am in distress ; in consequence of which I ought to communi- cate with them the joy of my recovery. I did not want a most kind paragraph in your letter to Mr Pope, to convince me that you are of the number ; and I know that I give you a sensible pleasure in telling you, that I think myself at this time almost perfectly recovered of a most unusual and dangerous distemper, an impos- thume in the bowels ; such a one, that, had it been in the hands of a chirurgeon, in an outward and fleshy part, I should not have been well these three months Duke Disney, our old friend, is in a fair way to recover of such another. There have been several of them, oc- casioned, as I reckon, by the cold and wet season. Peo- ple have told me of new impostures (as they call them) every day. Poor Sir William Wyndham has an impos- thume : I hope the Bath, where he is going, will do him See Pope's ballad, beginning, " Whoe'er of February last, In Flying-Post the news saw," &c. 12 EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. good. The hopes of seeing once more the Dean of St Patrick's revives my spirits. I cannot help imagining some of our old club met together like mariners after a storm. For God's sake do not tantalize your friends any more. I can prove, by twenty unanswerable arguments, that it is absolutely necessary that you should come over to England ; that it would be committing the greatest absui'dity that ever was, not to do it the next approach- ing winter. I believe, indeed, it is just possible to save your soul without it, and that is all. As for your book, (of which I have framed to myself such an idea, that I am persuaded there is no doing any good upon mankind without it,) I will set the letters myself, rather than that it should not be published.* But before you put the fi- nishing hand to it, it is really necessary to be acquaint- ed with some new improvements of mankind, that have appeared of late, and are daily appearing. Mankind has an inexhaustible source of invention in the way of folly and madness. I have only one fear, that when you come over, you will be so much coveted and taken up by the ministry, that unless your friends meet you at their tables, they will have none of your company. This is really no joke ; I am quite in earnest. Your deafness is so necessary a thing, that I almost begin to think it an affectation. I remember vou used to reckon dinners. I know of near half a year's dinners, where you are already bespoke. It is worth your while to come to see your old friend Lewis, who is wiser than ever he was, the best of husbands. I am sure I can say, from * The Dean had said Gulliver's Travels should be printed so soon as he could find a printer brave enough to risk his ears. See the pre- cedini; letter to Pope, p. 3. EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. 13 my own experience, that he is the best of friends. He was so to me, when he had little hope I should ever live to thank him. You must acquaint me before you take your journey, that we may provide a convenient lodging for you among your friends. I am called away this moment, and have only time to add, that I long to see you, and am most sincerely, Dear Sir, Your most faithful humble servant, Jo. Arbuthnot. FROM THE EARL OF OXFORD. Dover Street, Oct. 19, 1725. Reverend Sir, I hope you will excuse these few lines for once, when I tell you that yesterday morning, I thank God, my wife was safely delivered of a son, and both mother and child are as well as can be expected. I fancy this will not be disagreeable news to the Dean of St Pa- trick's, except he be very much altered, which I believe not. I will not trouble you with any more, but to tell you that I am, with great respect, sir. Your most obedient servant, Oxford. 14 EPISTOLARY COURESPONDENCE. TO MR POPE. Nov. 26, 1725. I SHOUED sooner have acknowledged yours, if a fe- verish disorder and the relics of it had not disabled me for a fortnight. I now begin to make excuses, because I hope I am pretty near seeing you, and therefore I would cultivate an acquaintance ; because if you do not know me when we meet, you need only keep one of my letters, and compare it with my face, for my face and let- ters are counterparts of my heart. I fear I have not ex- pressed that right, but I mean well, and I hate blots : I look in yoiu' letter, and, in my conscience, you say the same thing but in a better manner. Pray tell my Lord Bolingbroke that I wish he were banished again, for then I should hear from him, when he was full of philosophy, and talked de contemj)tu nmndi. My Lord Oxford was so extremely kind as to write to me immediately an account of his son's birth ; which I immediately ac- knowledged, but before the letter could reach him, I wished it in the sea ; I hope I was more afflicted than his lordship. It is hard that parsons and beggars should be overrun with brats, while so great and good a fa- mily wants an heir to continue it. I have received his father's picture, but I lament {suh sigillo confeasiorm) that it is not so true a resemblance as I could wish. Drown the world ! I am not content with despising it, but I would anger it, if I could with safety. I wish there were an hospital built for its despisers, where one EPISTOLARY COllKESPONDENCE. 15 might act with safety, and it need not be a large build- ing, only I would have it well endowed. P**| is Jbri chancelant whether he shall turn parson or no. But all employments here are engaged, or in reversion. Cast wits and cast beaux have a proper sanctuary in the church ; yet we think it a severe judgment, that a fine gentleman, and so much the finer for hating eccle- siastics, should be a domestic humble retainer to an Irish prelate. He is neither secretary nor gentleman- usher, yet serves in both capacities. He has published several reasons why he never came to see me, but the best is, that I have not waited on his lordship. We have had a poem sent from London in imitation of that on Miss Carteret. It is on Miss Harvey of a day old ; we say and think it is yours. I wish it were not, because I am against monopolies. You might have spared me a few more lines of your satire, but I hope in a few months to see it all. To hear boys like you talk of millenniums and tranquillity ! I am older by thirty years. Lord Bolingbroke by twenty, and you but by ten, than when we last were together : and we should differ more than ever, you coquetting a maid of honour, my lord looking on to see how the gamesters play, and I railing at you both. I desire you and all my friends will take a special care that my disaffection to the world may not be imputed to my age, for I have credible witnesses ready to depose, that it hath never varied from the twenty-first to the f — ty-eighth year of my life, (pray fill that blank charitably.) I tell you, after all, that I do not hate mankind, it is voiis autres who hate t Philips, doubtless. 16 EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. them, because you would have them reasonable animals, and are angry at being disappointed : I have always re- jected that definition, and made another of my own. I am no more angry with than I was with the kite that last week flew away with one of my chickens ; and yet I was pleased when one of my servants shot him two days after. This I say, because you are so hai'dy as to tell me of your intentions to write maxims in opposition to Rochefoucault, who is my favourite, because I found my whole character in him ; however, I will read him again, because it is possible I may have since undergone some alterations. Take care the bad poets do not outwit you, as they have served the good ones in every age, whom they have provoked to trans- mit their names to posterity. Maevius is as well known as Virgil, and Gildon will be as well known as you, if his name gets into your verses : and as to the difference between good and bad fame,* it is a perfect trifle. I ask a thousand pardons, and so leave you for this time, and I will write again without concerning myself whe- ther you \vrite or not. I am, &c. Jon. Swift. * " I desire fame," says a certain philosopher, "let this occur : if I act well, I shall have the esteem of all my acquaintance; and what is all the rest to me ?" — Dr Warton. 6 EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. 17 TO DR STOPFORD. WRETCHED DUBLIN, IN MISERABLE IRELAND. November 26, 1725. Dear Jim, I HAD your kind letter from Paris, dated Nov. 14, N. S. I am angry with you for being so short, unless you are resolved not to rob your journal- book. What have vou,s autres voijageurs to do but write and ram- ble ? Your picture of K. C. I. will be a great present whenever I shall receive it, which I reckon will be about the time of your return from Italy ; for my Lord Ox- ford's picture was two months coming from London. Mr Pope is very angry with you, and says you look on him as a prophet, who is never esteemed in his own country, and he lays all the blame upon you, but will be pacified if you see him when you come back. Your other correspondents tell me, that Mr G., beside his clothes, lost 200/. in money, which to me you slur over. I like your Indian's answers well ; but I suppose the queen was astonished if she was told, contrary to her notions, that the great people were treated and main- tained by the poor. Mrs Johnson denies you to be a slave, and says you are much more so in quaUty of a governor ; as all good princes are slaves to their sub- jects. I think you are justly dealt with ; You travelled with liberty to work your slavery, and now you travel with slavery to work your liberty. The point of ho- nour will not be so great, but you have equal opportu- VOL. XVII. B 18 EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. nities to in form yourself and satisfy your curiosity. The hap})ier you were abroad in your first travels, the more miserable you were at your return ; and now the case will be directly contrary. I have been confined a fortnight with a little feverish disorder, and the con- sequences of it, but now am as usual, with tolerable health. As to intelligence, here is the house of commons, with a little remains of the nation's spirit against Wood's coin, are opposing the court in their unreason- able demands of money to satisfy the wanton and pre- tended debts of the crown, and all party but that of court and country seem to be laid asleep. I have said and A\Tit to the lieutenant what I thought was right, and so have my betters ; but all surdis aurihus : This is enough for such a hermit as I to tell you of public matters. Your friends are all well, and you have not been long enough absent for any material accident to fall out. Here is a great rumour of the king's being dead, or dying at Hanover, which has not the least ef- fect on any passion in me. Dr Delany is a most perfect courtier ; Sheridan full of his own affairs and the base- ness of the world ; Dr Helsham a so7i aise at home or abroad ; the Dean of St Patrick's sitting like a toad in a corner of his great house, with a perfect hatred of all public actions and persons. You are desired to bring over a few of the testons, and what d'ye call (Julio's, I think) of Parme, Florence, and Rome, which some people would be glad of for curiosities, and will give you other money for them. If you are rich enough to buy any good copies of pictures by great hands, I desire when you would buy two to buy three, and the third shall be taken off vour hands, with thanks, and all accidents be EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. I9 answered by the buyer. The people of Ireland have just found out that their fathers, sons, and brothers, are not made bishops, judges, or officers civil or military, and begin to think it should be otherwise ; but the go- vernment go on as if there were not a human creature in the kingdom fit for anything but giving money. Your brother paid the money to the lady; — What would you have more ? This is a time of no events. Not a robbery or murder to be had, for want of which and poetry the hawkers are starving. Take care of your health, and come home by Switzerland ; from whence travel blindfold till you get here, which is the only way to make Ireland tolerable. I am told the pro- vost has absolutely given away all your pupils. Pray God give you grace to be hated by him and all such beasts while you live. I excused your bashfulness to the lieutenant, who said he observed and understood it, and liked you the better. He could govern a wiser na- tion better, but fools are fit to deal with fools ; and he seems to mistake our calibre, and treats de haut en has, and gives no sugar plums. Our Dean Maule and Dr Tisdall have taken upon them the care of the church, and make wise speeches of what they will amend in St Andrew's vestry every week, to a crew of parsons of their own kind and importance. The primate and the Earl of Cavan govern the house of lords. The A. B.D.* attacked the same in the castle for giving a good living to a certain animal called a Welsh black,f which the * Archbishop of Dublin. t It should probably be printed Walth. for Waliham Black. These were a gang of deer-stealers, who made themselves notorious under this nick-name, and were at length broken up in consequence of the murder of a game-keeper. 20 KriSTOLAllY COUllESFONDENCE. other excused, alleging he was preferred to it by Lord To^^'nsllend. It is a cant word for a deer-stealer. This fellow was leader of a gang, and liad the honour of han2:ing half a dozen of his fellows in quality of informer, which was his merit. If you cannot match me that in Italy, step to Muscovy, and from thence to the Hotten- tots. I am Just going out of town for two days, else I would have filled my paper with more nothings. Pray God l)less you, and send you safe back to this place, which it is a shame for any man of worth to call his home. Jon. Swift. FROM Mn POPE AND LORD EOLINGBROKE. December 10, 1725. I FtXD myself the better acquainted with you for a long absence, as men are with themselves for a long affliction : Absence does but hold off a friend, to make one see him more truly. I am infinitely more pleased to hear you are coming near us, than at anything you seem to think in my favour ; an opinion which has joer- haps been aggrandized by the distance or dulness of Ireland, as objects look larger through a medium of fogs : and yet I am infinitely pleased with that too. I am much the happier for finding (a better thing than our wits) our judgments jump, in the notion that all scribblers should be past by in silence. To vindicate EPISTOLAllY CORRESPONDENCE. 21 one's self against such nasty slander, is much as wise as it was in your countryman, when the people imputed a stink to him, to prove the contrary by shewing his backside. So let Gildon and Philips rest in peace ! What Virgil had to do with Msevius,* that he should wear him upon his sleeve to all eternity, I do not know. I have been the longer upon this, that I may prepare you for the reception both you and your works may possibly meet in England. We your true acquaintance will look upon you as a good man, and love you : others will look upon you as a wit, and hate you. So you know the worst ; unless you are as vindictive as Virgil, or the aforesaid Hibernian. I wish as warmly as you, for an hospital in which to lodge the despisers of the world ; only I fear it would be filled wholly like Chelsea, with maimed soldiers, and such as had been disabled in its service. I would rather have those that, out of such generous principles as you and I, despise it, fly in its face, than retire from it. Not that I have much anger against the great, my spleen is at the little rogues of it ; it would vex one more to be knocked on the head with a piss-pot, than by a thunder- bolt. As to great oppressors, they are like kites or eagles, one expects mischief from them ; but to be squirted to death (as poor Wycherley said to me on his death-bed) by apothecaries' apprentices, by the under- strappers of under-secretaries to secretaries who were no secretaries — this would provoke as dull a dog as Ph — sf himself. So much for enemies, now for friends. Mr L * Or Pope with Tibbald, Concauen, Smedley, &c. — Dr Warton. t Philips. 23 EPISTOLARY COKUESPOxVDENCE. thinks all this indiscreet : the Doctor not so ; he loves mischief the best of anv ffood-natured man in Engfland. Lord B. is above trifling : when he writes of anything in this world, he is more than mortal ; if ever he trifles, it must be when he turns a divine. Gay is writing tales for Prince William ; I suppose Mr Philips will take this very ill, for two reasons, one that he thinks all childish things belong to him, and the other, because he will take it ill to be taught that one may write things to a child without being childish. What have I more to add ? but that Lord Oxford desires earnestly to see you : and that many others whom you do not think the worst of, will be gratified by it ; none more, be assured, than Yours, &c. P. S. Pope and you are very great wits, and I think very indifferent philosophers ; if you despised the world as much as you pretend, and perhaps believe, you would not be so angry with it. The founder of your sect,* that noble original whom you think it so great an honour to * Very different is the opinion that Lord Shaftesbury has given of Seneca, the person here alluded to. " 'Tis not/' says he finely, " the person, character, or genius, but the style and manner of this great man, which we presume to censure. We acknowledge his noble sen- timents and worthy actions ; we own the patriot and good minister ; but we reject the writer. Where an universal monarchy was actually established, and the interest of a whole world concerned ; he surely must have been esteemed a guardian angel, who, as a prime minister, could, for several years, turn the very worst of courts, and worst-con- ditioned of all princes, to the fatherly care and just government of mankind. Such a minister was Seneca, under an Agrippina and a Nero." — Characteristics, Vol. iii. p. 23. — Dr Warton. EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE. 23 resemble, was a slave to the worst part of the world, to the court ; and all his big words were the language of a slighted lover, who desired nothing so much as a reconciliation, and feared nothing so much as a rupture. 