than what I fcribble myself: yet, I must confess, I ought to be more humbled by your praise than exalted, which commends my little fenfe with fo much more of yours, that I am difparaged and disheartened by your commendations; who give me an example of your wit in the first part of your letter, and a definition of it in the laft; to make writing well (that is, like you) more difficult to me than ever it was before. Thus the more great and just your example and definition of wit are, the lefs I am capable to follow them. Then the best way of fhewing my judgment, after having feen how you write, is to leave off writing; and the best way to ! fhew my friendship to you, is to put an end to your trouble, and to conclude

Yours, etc.

WH

LETTER II.

March 25, 1705.

HEN I write to you, I foresee a long letter, and ought to beg your patience before hand; for if it proves the longest, 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 interest, 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 distinctly I fee my faults: Spots and blemishes, you know, are never fo plainly discovered as in the brightest sunshine. Thus I am mortified by those commendations which were defigned to encourage me: for praise to a young wit, is like rain to a tender flower; if it be moderately beltowed, it chears and revives; but if too lavishly, overcharges and depreffes him. Mest men in years, as they are generally discouragers of youth, are like old trees, that, being paft bearing them

nature too.

felves, will fuffer no young plants to flourish beneath them: but, as if it were not enough to have outdone all your coevals in wit, you will excell them in goodAs 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 fhould be esteemed any otherwife, than as we value fruits for being early, which nevertheless are the most infipid, and the worst of the year. In a word, I must blame you for treating me with fo much compliment, which is at best but the smoke of friendship. I neither write, nor converse with you, to gain your praise, but your affection. Be so 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, etc.

γου

LETTER IV.

From Mr. WY CHERLEY.

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 justice, for giving you your due; who should not let your modefty be fo unjust 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. Put if compliment be the fmoke only of friendship (as you fay) however, you must allow there is no fmoke but

His Paftorals, written at fixteen years of age.

You

there is fome fire; and as the facrifice of incense offered to the Gods would not have been half so sweet to others, if it had not been for its fmoke; fo friendship, like love, cannot be without fome incenfe, to perfume the name it would praise and immortalize. But fince you say you do not write to me to gain my praise, but my affection, pray how is it poffible to have the one without the other? we must admire before we love. 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 fo hard to do, that I, who love no difficulties, can't be perfuaded to it. Befides, the vanity of a scribler is such, that he will never part with his own judgment to gratify another's; especially when he must take pains to do it: and though 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 last 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 beft; 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 lasting as it is agreeable, and it can never be tedious, but more acceptable and obliging to

Your, etc.

I

LETTER V.

From Mr. WY CHERLEY.

April 7, 1705.

Have received yours of the fifth, wherein your modefty refuses the just praises I give you, by which you lay claim to more, as a bishop gains his bishopric by saying he will not epifcopate; but I must confess, whilft I displease you by commending you, I please myfelf: just 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 so justly given.

As to my enquiry after your intrigues with the Mufes, you may allow me to make it, fince no old man can give fo young, fo 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 visits 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 pushing young men, whose fancies are so 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 trust a scribler 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, etc.

I

LETTER VI.

April 30, 1705.

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 your 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 speeches with which you now make me blush; and change them to wholesome advices, and free sentiments, which might make me wiser and happier. I know 'tis the general opinion, that friendship is beft 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 fo, 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 affift or encourage him in the courfes he purfues; as that of two old men is frequently on the fcore of fome profit, lucre, or design 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 fhould have lefs of felf-love; fo the friendship between them is the more likely to be true, and unmixed with too much felf-regard.

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