LETTER III. March 25, 1705. THEN I write to you, I forefee a long let WHE ter, and ought to beg your patience before hand; for if it proves the longeft, it will be of course the worst I have troubled you with. Yet to express my gratitude at large for your obliging letter, is not more my duty than my intereft; as fome people will abundantly thank you for one piece of kindness, to put you in mind of bestowing another. The more favourable you are to me, the more diftinctly I fee my faults: Spots and blemishes, you know, are never fo plainly difcovered as in the brightest funshine. Thus I am mortified by thofe commendations which were defigned to encourage me: for praise to a young wit, is like rain to a tender flower; if it be moderately beftowed, it chears and revives; but if too lavifhly, overcharges and depreffes him. Moft men in years, as they are generally difcouragers of youth, are like old trees, that, being paft bearing themselves, will fuffer no young plants to flourish beneath them: but, as if it were not enough to have out-done all your coevals in wit, you will excel them in good-nature too. As for my green effays, if you find any pleasure in them, it must be fuch as a man naturally takes in obferving the firft fhoots and buddings of a tree which he has raised himself and 'tis impoffible they should be esteemed any otherwise, than as we value fruits for being early, which nevertheless are the most infipid, and the worft of the year. In a word, I must blame you for treating me with so much compliment, which is at best but the fmoke of friendfhip. I neither write, nor converfe with you, to * His Paftorals, written at fixteen years of age. gain gain your praife, but your Affection. Be fo much my friend as to appear my enemy, and tell me my faults, if not as a young Man, at least as an unexperienced Writer. I am, &c. LETTER IV. From Mr. WYCHERLEY. March 29, 1705. OUR letter of the twenty-fifth of March I have received, which was more welcome to me than any thing could be out of the country, tho' it were one's rent due that day; and I can find no fault with it, but that it charges me with want of fincerity, or juftice, for giving you your due; who fhould not let your modefty be fo unjuft to your merit, as to reject what is due to it, and call that compliment, which is fo fhort of your defert, that it is rather degrading than exalting you. But if compli ment be the fmoke only of friendship (as you fay) however, you must allow there is no smoke but there is fome fire; and as the facrifice of incenfe offered to the Gods would not have been half fo sweet to others, if it had not been for its fmoke; fo friendfhip, like love, cannot be without some incense, tọ perfume the name it would praife and immortalize. But fince you fay you do not write to me to gain my praife, but my affection, pray how is it poffible to have the one without the other? we muft admire be fore we love. You affirm, you would have me fo much your friend as to appear your enemy, and find out your faults rather than your perfections; but (my friend) that would be so hard to do, that I, who love no difficulties, can't be perfuaded to it. Besides, the the vanity of a scribler is such, that he will never part with his own judgment to gratify another's; efpecially when he must take pains to do it: and tho' I am proud to be of your opinion, when you talk of any thing or man but yourself, I cannot fuffer you to murder your fame with your own hand, without oppofing you; efpecially when you fay your laft letter is the worft (fince the longeft) you have favoured me with; which I therefore think the best, as the longest life (if a good one) is the best; as it yields the more variety, and is the more exemplary; as a chearful fummer's day, tho' longer than a dull one in the winter, is lefs tedious and more entertaining. Therefore let but your friendship be like your letter, as lafting as it is agreeable, and it can never be tedious, but more acceptable and obliging to Your, &c. I LETTER V. From Mr. WY CHERLEY. April 7, 1705. Have received yours of the fifth, wherein your modesty refuses the juft praises I give you, by which you lay claim to more, as a bishop gains his bishopric by faying he will not epifcopate; but I must confefs, whilst I difplease you by commending you, I please myself: juft as incenfe is fweeter to the offerer than the deity to whom 'tis offered, by his being fo much above it: For indeed every man partakes of the praise he gives, when it is fo juftly given. As to my enquiry after your intrigues with the Mufes, you may allow me to make it, fince no old B 4 man man can give fo young, so great, and able a favourite of theirs, jealoufy. I am, in my enquiry, like old Sir Bernard Gascoign, who used to say, that when he was grown too old to have his vifits admitted alone by the ladies, he always took along with him a young man to ensure his welcome to them ; for had he come alone he had been rejected, only because his vifits were not scandalous to them. So I am (like an old rook, who is ruined by gaming) forced to live on the good fortune of the pufhing young men, whofe fancies are fo vigorous that they enfure their fuccefs in their adventures with the Mufes, by their ftrength of imagination, Your papers are fafe in my cuftody (you may be fure) from any one's theft but my own; for 'tis as dangerous to truft a fcribler with your wit, as a gamester with the cuftody of your money.-If you happen to come to town, you will make it more difficult for me to leave it, who am Your, &c. LETTER VI. April 30, 1705. I your Cannot contend with you: You must give me leave at once to wave all your compliments, and to collect only this in general from them, that defign is to encourage me. But I feparate from all the reft that paragraph or two, in which you make me fo warm an offer of your Friendship. Were I poffeffed of that, it would put an end to all those fpeeches with which you now make me blush; and change them to wholfome advices, and free fentiments, which might make me wifer and happier. I know 'tis the general opinion, that friendship is best contracted betwixt perfons of equal age; but I have fo much intereft to be of another mind, that you must pardon me if I cannot forbear telling you a few notions of mine, in oppofition to that opinion. In the first place 'tis obfervable, that the love we bear to our friends, is generally caused by our finding the fame difpofitions in them, which we feel in ourfelves. This is but felf-love at the bottom : whereas the affection betwixt people of different ages cannot well be so, the inclinations of fuch being commonly various. The friendship of two young men is often occafioned by love of pleasure or voluptuoufnefs, each being defirous for his own fake of one to affist or encourage him in the courfes he purfues; as that of two old men is frequently on the fcore of fome profit, lucre, or defign upon others. Now, as a young man who is lefs acquainted with the ways of the world, has in all probability lefs of intereft; and an old man, who may be weary of himself, has, or should have lefs of felf-love; fo the friendship between them is the more likely to be true, and unmixed with too much felf-regard. One add to this, that such a friendship is of greater may ufe and advantage to both; for the old man will grow gay and agreeable to please the young one; and the young man more discreet and prudent by the help of the old one: fo it may prove a cure of those epidemical diseases of age and youth, fournefs and madness. I hope you will not need many arguments to convince you of the poffibility of this; one alone abundantly fatisfies me, and convinces to the heart, which is, that young as I am, and old as you are, I am your entirely affectionate, &c. Mr. Wycherley was at this time about feventy years old, Mr. Pope under feventeen. LET P. |