Bleft in each science, bleft in ev'ry strain!
Dear to the Mufe! to HARLEY dear-in vain!
For him, thou oft haft bid the World attend,
Fond to forget the Statesman in the Friend;
For SWIFT and him, defpis'd the farce of state,
The fober follies of the wife and great;
Dextrous, the craving, fawning crowd to quit,
And pleas'd to 'scape from Flattery to Wit.

Abfent or dead, ftill let a friend be dear,
(A figh the abfent claims, the dead a tear)
Recall thofe nights that clos'd thy toilfome days, 15
Still hear thy Parnelle in his living lays,

Who, careless now of Int'reft, Fame, or Fate,
Perhaps forgets that OXFORD e'er was great;
Or deeming meanest what we greatest call,
Beholds thee glorious only in thy fall.

And fure, if aught below the seats divine
Can touch Immortals, 'tis a Soul like thine:

S

10

20

A foul

NOTES.

ufed to fay that it was originally written in Spanish: from the early connection between the Spaniards and Arabians, it may be fufpected that it was an Oriental tale. Voltaire has inferted it in his Zadig, without mentioning a fyllable of the place whence he borrowed it.

VER. 21. And fure, if aught] Strength of mind appears to have been the predominant characteristic of Lord Oxford; of which he gave the most striking proofs when he was flabbed, difplaced, imprifoned. Thefe noble and nervous lines allude to thefe circumftances; of his fortitude and firmness another striking proof remains, in a letter which the Earl wrote from the Tower to a

friend,

A soul supreme, in each hard inftance try'd,
Above all Pain, all Paffion, and all Pride,
The rage of Pow'r, the blaft of public breath,
The luft of Lucre, and the dread of Death.

In vain to Deserts thy retreat is made;
The Muse attends thee to thy filent fhade:
'Tis her's, the brave man's latest steps to trace,
Rejudge his acts, and dignify difgrace.
When Int'reft calls off all her fneaking train,
And all th' oblig'd defert, and all the vain;
She waits, or to the scaffold, or the cell,
When the last ling'ring friend has bid farewell.

25

30

Ev'n

NOTES.

friend, who advised him to meditate an escape, and which is worthy of the greatest hero of antiquity. This extraordinary letter I had the pleasure of reading, by the favour of the Earl's excellent grand-daughter, the late Dutchefs Dowager of Portland, who inherited that love of literature and science, fo peculiar to her anceftors and family.

I am well informed that Bolingbroke was greatly mortified at Pope's bestowing these praises on his old antagonist, whom he mortally hated; yet I have feen two original letters in the hands of the fame Dutchefs of Portland, of Lord Bolingbroke to Lord Oxford, full of the most fulfome flattery of the man whom he affected to defpife, and of very idle and profane applications of Scripture.

The vifions of Parnelle, at the end of his Poems, published in the Guardian, are in a rugged inharmonious style; as indeed is the Life of Zoilus, printed 1717; and also the Effay on the Life of Homer, prefixed to our Author's tranflation: and his Essay on the Different Styles in Poetry is rather a mean performance.

Ev'n now, the shades thy Ev'ning-walk with bays,
(No hireling fhe, no prostitute to praise)
Ev'n now, obfervant of the parting ray,
Eyes the calm Sun-fet of thy various Day,
Through Fortune's cloud one truly great can fee,
Nor fears to tell, that MORTIMER is he.

36

40

EPISTLE

ΤΟ

JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ.

SECRETARY OF STATE.

A

SOUL as full of Worth, as void of Pride,
Which nothing feeks to fhew, or needs to hide,
Which nor to Guilt nor Fear, its Caution owes,
And boasts a Warmth that from no Paffion flows.
A face untaught to feign; a judging Eye,
That darts fevere upon a rifing Lie,

And strikes a blush through frontless Flattery.
All this thou wert; and being this before,
Know, Kings and Fortune cannot make thee more.
Then scorn to gain a Friend by servile ways,
Nor wish to lose a Foe these Virtues raise;
But candid, free, fincere, as you began,
Proceed-a Minister, but still a Man.
Be not (exalted to whate'er degree)
Afham'd of any Friend, not ev'n of Me:

NOTES.

Secretary of State] In the year 1720.

5

10

The

P.

310

The Patriot's plain, but untrod, path pursue;

If not, 'tis I must be asham'd of You.

I SHALL add a dialogue by Mr. Pope, in verfe, that is genuine :

POPE.

" Since old friend is grown so great,
As to be Minister of State,

my

I'm told, but 'tis not true I hope,

That Craggs will be afham'd of Pope."

CRAGGS.

"Alas! if I am fuch a creature,

To grow the worse for growing greater;
Why, faith, in fpite of all my brags,
'Tis Pope must be afham'd of Craggs."