My name is as bad an one as yours, and hated by all bad Poets, from Hopkins and Sternhold to Gildon and Cibber. The first prayed against me with the Turk; and a modern Imitator of theirs (whom I leave you to find out) has added the Chriftian to 'em, with proper definitions of each in this manner.

The Pope's the Whore of Babylon,

The Turk he is a Jew:

The Chriftian is an Infidel
That fitteth in a Pew.

LETTER XIII.

FROM DR. SWIFT.

Nov. 26, 1725.

I

SHOULD fooner have acknowledged yours, if a fe verish disorder and the relics of it had not difabled me for a fortnight. I now begin to make excufes, because I hope I am pretty near feeing 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 letters are counterparts of my heart. 1 fear I have not expreffed that right, but I mean well, and I hate blots: I look in your letter, and in my confcience you fay the fame thing, but in a better man

ner. Pray tell my Lord Bolingbroke that I wish he were banished again, for then I should hear from him, when he was full of philofophy, and talked de contemptu mundi. My Lord Oxford was fo extremely kind as to write to me immediately an account of his fon's birth; which I immediately acknowledged, but before the letter could reach him, I wifhed it in the sea : I hope I was more afflicted than his Lordfhip. 'Tis hard that Parfons and Beggars fhould be over-run with brats, while fo great and good a family wants an heir to continue it. I have received his father's picture, but I lament (fub figillo confeffionis) that it is not so true a refemblance as I could with. Drown the world! I am not content with defpifing it, but I would anger it, if I could with fafety. I wish there were an Hofpital built for its Defpifers, where one might act with fafety, and it need not be a large building, only I would have it well endowed. P** is fort chancellant whether he shall turn Parfon or no. But all employments here are engaged, or in reverfion. Caft Wits and caft Beaux have a proper fanctuary in the church: yet we think it a fevere judgement, that a fine gentleman, and fo much the finer for hating Ecclefiaftics, should be a domestic humble retainer to an Irish Prelate. He is neither Secretary nor Gentleman-ufher, yet ferves in both capacities. He hath published several reasons why he never came to fee me, but the beft is, that I have not waited on

his Lordship. We have had a Poem fent from London in imitation of that on Mifs Carteret. It is on Mifs Harvey, of a day old; and we fay 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 fee 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 laft were together; and we should differ more than ever, you coquetting a maid of honour, my Lord looking on to fee how the gamefters play, and I railing at you both. I defire you and all friends will take a special care that my Difaffection to the world may not be imputed to my Age, for I have credible witnesses ready to depofe, that it hath never varied from the twenty-firft to the f--ty-eighth year

my

of

my life (pray fill that blank charitably). I tell you after all, that I do not hate mankind, it is vous autres who hate them, because you would have them reasonable Animals, and are angry at being disappointed: I have always rejected that definition, and made another of my own. I am no more angry withthan I was with the Kite that laft week flew away with one of my chickens; and yet I was pleafed when one of my fervants fhot him two days after. This I say, because you are so hardy as to tell me of your intentions to write Maxims in oppofition to Rochefoucault, who is my favourite, because I found my

F 3

whole

whole character in him; however I will read him again, because it is poffible I may have fince undergone fome alterations.-Take care the bad Poets do not out-wit you, as they have ferved the good ones in every age, whom they have provoked to transmit their names to pofterity. Mævius is as well known as Virgil, and Gildon will be as well known as you, if his name gets into your Verfes: and as to the difference between good and bad fame *, 'tis a perfect trifle, I afk a thousand pardons, and fo leave you for this time, and will write again without concerning myself whether you

write or no.

I am, etc.

LETTER XIV.

December 10, 1725.

FIND myself the better acquainted with you for a long Abfence, as men are with themfelves for a long Affliction: Abfence does but hold off a Friend, to make one fee him the more truly. I am infinitely more pleased to hear you are coming near us, than at any thing you seem to think in my favour; an opinion which

• This, methinks, is no great compliment to his own heart, WARBURTON.

"I defire Fame," fays a certain Philofopher: "Let this occur; if I a&t well I fhall have the efteem of all my acquaintance; and what is all the reft to me?"

WARTON.

which has perhaps 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 fhould be paffed by in filence. To vindicate one's felf against fuch nafty flander, is much as wife as it was in your country. man, when the people imputed a stink to him, to prove the contrary by fhewing his backfide. So let Gildon and Phillips reft in peace! What Virgil had to do with Mævius*, that he should wear him upon his fleeve to all eternity, I don't know. I've been the longer upon this, that I may prepare you for the reception both you and your works may poffibly 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 aforefaid 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 fuch as had been difabled in its fervice. I would rather have thofe, that out of fuch generous principles as you and I, defpife it, fly in its face, than retire from it; it would vex one more to be knocked

on

Or Pope with Tibbald, Concanen, and Smedley, &c. WARTON.