The idea that I have for an epic poem, of late, turns wholly on civil and ecclesiastical government. The hero is a prince who establishes an empire; that prince is our Brutus from Troy, and the scene of the establishment, England.-The same.

The plan of government is much like our original plan, supposed so much earlier; and the religion introduced by him is the belief of one God, and the doctrines of morality. The same.

Brutus is supposed to have travelled into Egypt, and there to have learned the unity of the Deity, and the other purer doctrines afterwards kept up in the Mysteries.-The

same.

Though there is none of it writ as yet, what I look upon as more than half the work is already done, for it is all exactly planned. The same.

"It would take up ten years?" O much less, I should think, as the matter is already quite digested and prepared.-The same.

What was first designed for an Epistle on Education, as part of my Essay-scheme,

is now inserted in my fourth Dunciad; as the subject for two other epistles there (those on civil and ecclesiastical government) will be treated more at large in my Brutus.-The same.

I never save any thing, unless I meet with such a pressing case as is an absolute demand upon me, then I retrench fifty pounds or so from my own expenses. As for instance, had such a thing happened this then I would not have built my two summer-houses *.-The same.

year,

I would be buried in Twitnam church if I should fall any where near it, in the place where my father and mother lie; and would have no other epitaph but the words SIBIQUE OBIIT, and the time added to theirs.-The same.

In the list of papers ordered to be burnt were the pieces for carrying on the Memoirs of Scriblerus, and several copies of verses by Dean Parnell †. I interceded in vain for both. As to the latter, he said

*Those on the banks of the Thames.

This is a mistake. Parnell never was a dean: he was archdeacon.-M.

that they would not add any thing to the Dean's character.-The same.

The rule laid down in the beginning of the Essay on Man, of reasoning only from what we know, is certainly a right one, and will go a great way towards destroying all the school metaphysics; and as the church writers have introduced so much of these metaphysics into their systems it will destroy a great part of what is advanced by them too. The same.

At present we can only reason of the divine justice from what we know of justice in man. When we are in other scenes, we may have truer and nobler ideas of it; but while we are in this life, we can only speak from the volume that is laid open before us.-The same.

The theological writers quite from Clarke down to Jacob Behmen have all, almost equally, platonized and corrupted the truth. That is to be learnt only from the Bible, as it appears nakedly there; without the wresting of commentators, or the additions of schoolmen.-The same.

There is hardly laying down particular

rules for writing our language, or whether such a particular use of it is proper: one has nothing but authority for it. Is it in Sir William Temple, or Locke, or Tillotson? If it be, we may conclude that it is right, or at least won't be looked upon as wrong.-The same.

The great matter to write well is, "to know thoroughly what one writes about," and "not to be affected."-The same. [Or as he expressed the same thing afterwards in other words, "to write naturally and from one's knowledge."]

On Lord Hyde's return from his travels, his brother-in-law, the Lord Essex, told him, with a great deal of pleasure, that he had got a pension for him. It was a very handsome one, and quite equal to his rank. All Lord Hyde's answer was, " How could you tell, my lord, that I was to be sold; or, at least, how could you know my price so exactly?"-The same.

I should not choose to employ some that

* It was on this account that Mr. Pope compliments him with that passage—―

66

disdain what Cornbury disdains."

could do it to translate some of my poems into Latin; because, if they did it as they ought, it would make them good for nothing else. The same.

1744.

I shall be very glad to see Dr. Hales, and always love to see him, he is so good and worthy a man. Yes, he is a very good man; only-I'm sorry-he has his hands so much imbrued in blood. What, he cuts up rats? Ay, and dogs too!-The same. [And with what emphasis and concern he spoke it.]

Indeed, he commits most of these barbarities with the thought of its being of use to man; but how do we know that we have a right to kill creatures that we are so little above as dogs, for our curiosity, or even for some use to us?—The same.

"I used to carry it too far: I thought they had reason as well as we."-" So they have, to be sure. All our disputes about that are only a dispute about words. Man has reason enough only to know what it is ne