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getting them was by translations. - The

same.

I wrote the Essay on Criticism two or three years before it was printed.-The

same.

In translating both the Iliad and Odyssey, my usual method was to take advantage of the first heat, and then to correct each book, first, by the original, next by other translations, and lastly, to give it a reading for the versification only.-The same. [How much he has corrected, and in what manner, may be seen by the manuscripts of each, which are bound up; that of the Iliad in two volumes, and that of the Odyssey in one.]

From the manuscript of the latter it appears how truly he says, that "he translated twelve books of it." That volume contains the first draught of the 3d, 5th, 7th, and 9th books. Part of the 10th from

Now dropp'd our anchors in the bay. V. 157. to the end: the 13th and 14th, part of the 15th, from

Meantime the King, Eumæus, and the rest-V. 321.

to the end. And the 17th, 21st, 22d, and 24th: that is, ten books entire, and part of two others; which, with his great corrections in Broome's part, without reckoning more manuscript of his own which is lost, would make up the compass of twelve books at least. The same; and the manuscript itself.

Mr. Broome had 5007. and Mr. Fenton 3001. for their share in that translation.The same.

Some* wonder why I did not take in the fall of man in my Essay; and others† how the immortality of the soul came to be omitted. The reason is plain: they both lay out of my subject, which was only to consider man as he is in his present state, not in his past or future.-The same.

Some of Plato's and Cicero's reasonings on the immortality of the soul are very foolish; but the latter's is less so than the former's.-The same.

* Ramsey and some others, in letters sent him about that time.

+ Some of the Popish priests, in their letters.

Without revelation, it is certainly a grand peut-être.-The same.

"I pity you, sir, because you have now completed every thing belonging to your garden."-Why, I really shall be at a loss for the diversion I used to take in laying out and finishing things: I have now nothing left me to do but to add a little ornament or two at the line to the Thames. -Mr. Pope. [His design for this was to have a swan as flying into the river on each side of the landing place; then the statues of two river gods reclined on the bank between them and the corner seats or temples; with

Hic placido fluit amne Meles—

on one of their urns; and—

Magnis ubi flexibus errat Mincius,

on the other: then two turns in the first niches in the grove-work on the sides, with the busts of Homer and Virgil: and higher, two others, with those of Marcus Aurelius and Cicero.]

Hic placido fluit amne Meles.

"Where

is that verse on the river Meles ?"-In Politian's best poem; his Ambia.-Mr. Pope. [He had read Politian when he was very young, and then marked down this for the best of his pieces. To any thing that pleased him particularly, he used then to affix this mark +; and before the Ambia in his Politian, he had added, Optimum ut puto Politiani opus est. He still retained the same idea of it, though the Ambia seems to be more in Claudian's manner than some other pieces by the same author: and particularly his NUTRITIA; and I should imagine, is not so good as that. There were some few marks besides of a mistaken taste in Mr. Pope, from that early and unguided reading of his. He met with Statius very early, liked him much, and translated a good deal from him; and to the last he used to call him the best of all the Latin epic poets after Virgil. However, these two instances, and perhaps a little more regard for Ovid's Metamorphoses than he might otherwise have had for that piece, are all the instances that I can recollect of

this kind; and how soon after his first setting out must he have formed a most excellent taste, who could write so just and admirable a poem as the Essay on Criticism before he was twenty?]

At this day, as much company as I have kept, and as much as I love it, I love reading better. I would rather be employed in reading, than in the most agreeable conversation.—Mr. Pope.

I was just going to ask you a very foolish question, "What should we read for ?" For? why, to know facts; but I should read in quite a different manner now than I did when I had my great early fit of reading. Then 'twas only for the diversion of the story, now it should be to make myself and others better. I would mark down on such an occasion, the people concerned proceeded in such a manner: it was evidently wrong, and had a very ill effect: a statesman therefore should avoid it in a like case. Such a one did good, or

* From about 14 to 21.

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