LETTER V. Mr. STEELE to Mr. POPE. Nov. 12, 1712. I HAVE read over your Temple of Fame twice, and cannot find any thing amifs, of weight enough to call a fault, but fee in it a thousand thousand beauties. Mr, Addison shall fee it to-morrow: after his perufal of it, I will let you know his thoughts, I defire you would let me know whether you are at leifure or not? I have a defign which I fhall open a month or two hence, with the affiftance of the few like yourself. If your thoughts are unengaged, I fhall explain myself further. I am LETTER VI, The Anfwer, Your, &c, Nov. 16, 1712. have shewn to You oblige me by the indulgence you the poem I sent you, but will oblige me much more by the kind severity I hope for from you. No errors are fo trivial but they deserve to be mended. But fince you fay you fee nothing that may be call'd a fault, can you but think it so, that I have confin'd the attendance of * Guardian spirits to heaven's favourites only? I could point you to several, but it is my bufinefs to be informed of thofe faults I do not know; and as for those I do, not to talk of them but to correct them. You fpeak of that poem in a style I neither merit, nor expect; but, I affure you, if you freely mark or dash out, I shall look upon your blots to be its greatest beauties: I mean, if Mr, Addison and yourself should like it in the whole; otherwise the trouble of correction is what I would not take, for I was • This is not now to be found in the Temple of Fame, which was the Poem here spoken of. VOL. IV. Ε really really fo diffident of it as to let it lie by me these + two years, juft as you now fee it. I am afraid of nothing fo much as to impose any thing on the world which is unworthy of its acceptance. As to the last period of your letter, I fhall be very ready and glad to contribute to any design that tends to the advantage of mankind, which, I am fure, all yours do. I wish I had but as much capacity as leifure, for I am per fectly idle (a fign I have not much capacity.)` : If you will entertain the beft opinion of me, be pleas'd to think me your friend. Affure Mr. Addifon of my moft faithful fervice, of every one's efteem he must be affured already. I am LETTER VII. Your, &c. To Mr. STEELE. Nov. 29, 1712.. I AM forry you published that notion about Adrian's verfes as mine had I imagined you would ufe: my name, I should have express'd my fentiments with more modesty and diffidence. I only fent it to have your opinion, and not to publish my own, which I: diftrusted. But I think the fuppofition you draw from the notion of Adrian's being addicted to magic, is a little uncharitable, ("that he might fear no fort of deity, good or bad") fince in the third verfe he plainly teftifies his apprehenfion of a future ftate, by being folicitous whither his foul was going. As to what you mention of his ufing gay and ludricous expreffions, I have own'd my opinion to be that the expreffions are not fo, but that diminutives are as often in the Latin tongue, ufed as marks of tenderness and concern. Anima is no more than my foul, animula has the force of my dear foul. To fay virgo bella is not half fo endearing, Hence it appears th's Poem was writ when the Author was twenty-two years old. as virguncula bellula; and had Auguftus only called Ho-race lepidum hominem, it had amounted to no more than that he thought him a pleasant fellow : 'twas the homunciolum that express'd the love and tenderness that great Emperor had for him. And perhaps I should myself be much better pleas'd, if I were told you call'd me your little friend, than if you complimented me with the title of a great genius, or an eminent hand, as Jacob does all his authors. I am Your, &c. THIS LETTER VIII. From Mr. STEELE. ·Dec. 4, 1712. HIS is to defire of you that you would please to make an ode as of a chearful dying spirit, that is to fay, the Emperor Adrian's Animula vagula put into two or three ftanza's for mufic. If you comply with this, and send me word fo, you will very particularly oblige Your, &c. LETTER IX. The Answer. I Do not fend you word I will do, but have already done the thing you defire of me. You have it (as Cowley calls it) just warm from the brain. It came to me the first moment I waked this morning: Yet you'll fee, it was not fo abfolutely inspiration, but that I had in my head not only the verses of Adrian, but the fine fragment of Sappho, &c. The dying Chriftian to his SOUL OD E. I. Vital spark of heav'nly flame! E 2 Trem Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying, II. Hark! they whisper; Angels fay, III. The world recedes; it disappears! Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! LETTER X. To Mr. ADDISON. July 20, 1713. Am more joy'd at your return than I fhould be at that of the fun, fo much as I wish for him this melancholy wet feafon; but 'tis his fate too, like yours, to be displeafing to Owls and obfcene animals, who cannot bear his luftre. What put me in mind of thefe night-birds was John Dennis, whom, I think, you are best revenged upon, as the Sun was in the fable upon these bats and beaftly birds above-mentioned, only by shining on. I am fo far from efteeming it any misfortune, that I congratulate you upon having your fhare in that, which all the great men and all the good men that ever lived have had their part of, Envy and Calumny. To be uncenfured and and to be obfcure, is the fame thing. You may conclude, from what I here fay, that 'twas never in my thoughts to have offered you my pen in any direct reply to fuch a Critic, but only in fome little raillery; not in defence of you, but in contempt of him †. But indeed your opinion, that 'tis entirely to be neglected, would have been my own, had it been my own cafe; but I felt more warmth here, than I did when first I saw his book against myself (tho' indeed in two minutes it made me heartily merry.) He has written against every thing the world has approv'd these many years. 1 apprehend but one danger from Dennis's difliking our fenfe, that it may make us think fo very well of it, as to become proud and conceited, upon his difapprobation. I must not here omit to do justice to Mr. Gay, whole zeal in your concern is worthy a friend and honourer of you. He writ to me in the most preffing terms about it, though with that just contempt of the Critic that he deferves. I think in these days one honeft man is obliged to acquaint another who are his friends; when so many mifchievous infects are daily at work to make people of merit fufpicious of each other; that they may have the fatisfaction of feeing them look'd upon no better than themselves. I am Your, &c. I LETTER XI. Mr. ADDISON to Mr. POPE. O&. 26, 1713. Was extremely glad to receive a letter from you, but more fo upon reading the contents of it. The * Work you mention, will, I dare fay, very fufficiently recommend itself, when your name appears with the Proposals : and if you think I can any way contribute to the forwarding of them, you cannot lay a greater obligation upon This relates to the paper occafion'd by Dennis's Remarks upor. Cato, call'd Dr. Norris's Narrative of the Frenzy of John Dennis. The Tranflation of the Iliad. me, |