HEARTILY thank you for the very kind Letter, and kind Entertainment, which gave me a greater pleasure than I almost ever received in any Entertainment; it was so easy, and so warm an one. I left you all with regrett: pray tell Mr. Hay so, and Mr. Ayscough: I conclude Mr. Murray is gone from you-You'll oblige me in sending those Letters, not that I'll take from you any one testimony of my Regard and Love for you, wch you think worth the keeping. You shall have a fair acct of 'em when you come this way but the sooner I have them the better, by a safe hand. My health is pretty well restored, I know is the news you'l best like from this place; and the rest is only to repeat

This is the only letter of Pope among Mr. Spence's Papers, and it will account for the absence of others. After Pope had found his letters a marketable commodity, he got all he could back from his correspondents.-The date of the year is omitted, as is almost always the case in Pope's letters; but I should judge this letter to have been written about the year 1735.-Editor.

that sincere truth you have heard so often, and shall hear while I live, that I am most affectionately

Mr. Spence.

No. II.

Yours.

A. POPE.

THO

FROM MR. CHRISTOPHER PITT.

HO' eternally plagued with composing sermons for myself, and differences for my Parishioners, and with Parish treats, and choosing Church-wardens; I have stole a minute, you see, to thank you for your kind letter; Methinks 'tis a long time Jo, since we have heard from one another before; I don't know which of the two is in fault, but I hope we shall, both mend for the future.-If you are in earnest when you commend my translation, I have reason to be proud indeed!—And I must own that it is something the better for your perusal and advice; had you been so kind as to have read and remarked on the whole Translation, I should have been better satisfied with it. But as it is I have met with encouragement (I don't mean money) for this slight performance. I am glad to find, by another part of your letter, have made so great a progress in Astronomy of late, and I'll assure you Odso! I am afraid I shall want room for the following Prologue for the Blandford Strollers, which I writ about a month ago.

that you

Genteels! of old the Prologue led the way,
To lead, defend, and usher in the play;
As saucy footmen run before the coach,
And thunder at the door my Lord's approach;
But though they speak your Entertainment near,
Most Prologues speed like other bills of fare;
Seldom the languid stomach they excite,
And oftner cloy, than whet the appetite.

As for our play-it is not worth our cares,
Our Prologue craves your mercy for the play'rs ;

That is-Your money; for by Heav'n I swear,
White gloves and House rent are excessive dear.
Since here are none but friends,-the truth to own;
Though in a coach our company came down,
Yet, I most shrewdly fear, they must depart
Ev'n in their old original a cart.*

With pride inverted and fantastic pow'r,
We strut the fancied sovereigns of an hour.
While duns our Emperors and Heroes fear
And Cleomenes starves in earnest here.
The mightiest Kings and Queens we keep in pay,
Support their pomp on eighteenpence a day.
Our Cyrus has been forc'd to pawn his coat,
And all our Cæsars cant command a groat.
Our Scipios Anthonys and Pompeys break,
And Cleopatra shifts but once a week.

To aggravate the case, we have not one
Of all the new refinements of the Town.
No moving statue, no lewd harlequins ;
No pasteboard play'rs, no Actors in machines;
No rosin to make lightning; ('twould exhaust us
To buy a Devil and a Doctor Faustus ;)
No millers, Windmills, Dragons, Conjurers,
To exercise your eyes, and spare your ears.
No paper seas, no thunder from the skies;
No witches to descend, no stage to rise;
Scarce one for us the Actors.-We can set
Nothing before you but mere sense and wit;
A bare downright old fashion'd English feast,
Such as a Briton only can digest;

Such as your homely fathers used to love,
Who only came to hear and to improve.

Humbly content and pleased with what was drest
When Shakspeare, Lee, and Dryden ranged the feast.
I am Dear Jo. Yours very truly

CH. PITT.

* Which proved true, for they went away in one yesterday.

DEAR JOS:

No. III.

FROM MR. R. DOWNES.*

L. Derry Jan. 24. 1728.

OURS of the 17 of Dec': I have now before me, which

YOUR

had been sooner answer'd, had I returned sooner from a Tour I have been lately making among my Acquaintance in this part of the World. I reced: it the Day before I set out upon this Expedition, but as I intended that should be very short, I ventur'd to defer writing to you till my return. The sollicitations of my Friends and an Inclination to rambling, has kept me out much longer, than I proposed, and is the true reason of my dear Jos:'s not hearing from me. Your easiness under the Disappointments, with my Schemes of sending money to you have met with is no small Addition to the Obligation I have long been under to you: It is with great Grief I must tell you, that your last Disappointment was owing to the Death of the dear [friend] to whom I directed you to apply. He died about the beginning of Dec': of a [cruel] consumptive Disorder, which had oppress'd him for some Months, and incapacitated him for Business of any kind. The Nature of his distemper laid us under some apprehensions of Danger, but never lead us to think that he was so near his end. Since this unhappy accident I have communicated that Affair to my Brother Tom, at whose return to Oxon, which will be some time in the Summer, I will certainly send you what money is due for Interest, and (if I can possibly,) the Principal but however I would not have you depend upon the latter because it is more than I can absolutely engage to perform, unless your Occasions should call for it, and then I will infallibly have it paid however I come by it.

* My old friend, Bob Downes, is at present Dean of Derry in Ireland. My other great friend, Mr. Smyth, (who paid me that unlucky visit at Lyons, when I was with Lord Middlesex,) is perhaps not unlikely to be Bishop't in the same country.

Mr. Spence to his Mother, Nov. 4, 1741.

The Acct you give of the State of Religion in Oxon, is really a melancholy one. Stevens of Trinity, whose Person I do not know, I remember to have heard mention'd as an ingenious Man, and particularly noted for his Knowledge in the Mathematicks. I have often thought, that the Study of the Mathematicks however usefull and necessary in Natural Knowledge, yet when enter'd too deeply into, is of no very great Service to Religion. For tho', when moderately pursued, it may indeed be of use in forming a clear Head and distinct Judgement, yet there is this evil attends a too close Application to them; that the Mind being, by long use, accustomed to close with none but demonstrative Truths, does not easily rest in anything which falls short of Demonstration. So that when the Truths of reveal'd Religion come under its scrutiny, however clear they may be from their own proper Arguments, yet the Mind is dissatisfied, and rejects them for want of that kind of Evidence which it has been accustomed to, but which they neither pretend to, nor indeed are capable of. Whether this be the true reason of the thing I cannot say, but if I am singular in my Opinion I have this to say for myself, that experience has of late been pretty much of my side as to the matter of Fact, that Men of Mathematical Heads, and your great Masters of Demonstration, have been among the foremost, who have run into the Principles of Deism. The other Person you speak of, Caber, I do not know; Young Dodwell I have had some Acquaintance with, and am the more sorry to hear that he is among the infected; you do not say whether he was expell'd or not. I should be glad to know in your next what were the real or pretended Grounds of those Persons, whom you mention, being against the Programma. Because it is possible they may be able to give better Reasons for their dissenting, than the ill-natur'd World will be ready to give for them. Tom joins with me in humble Service to you, Coxed, Coker, and all Friends. He seems to think Mr. Coker's Memory wants a jog to put him in Mind of writing to him according to promise, which he desires you to do. My hearty Service to honest Jack Briscoe, and wherever else you

think