be at a stand for a little while till they remember the passage of Virgil. I grant a famous passage of any great author is very convenient for a print or to a medal. The motto Ite, missa est, was admirable for the medal of king James the Second, Ænus est intus suited very well Lewis the Fourteenth, and so forth. Here the thing is quite différent : it is not a single hémistiche, known by every body, that strikes a full light on the mind of the reader ; this is a long allusion to that latin verse, et vera incessu patuit dea. The quick flash of the Latin loses its brightness in the long English commentary. Two verses are enough, one for rhyme and one for sense. I hope sir Homer Pope and sir Ovid Gay will be so kind as to forgive my boldness ; you know I entertain for them the sense of the highest esteem : I admire their works, I love their persons, I would with all my heart live with them, but you know I am tied ; I am fettered here by my studies, my works, my fortune and my health. The baronne has been very sick, but is recovered. I thank you for the lamentable story of the bookbinder. Pray, my dear, send me the remarks which the traveller Motraye bas scribbled on my history. I was a fool to print so few copies of that book : they bave made here four editions of it : the fourth édition was sent to me this very morning. I have differed to print Ériphyle, because I intend to try it again on the theatre next year. Enough of my affairs ; those of the French parliament, the tracasseries of the priests, the foolish rage of the jesuits and jansenists I despise, and I do not care a pin for ail these facetious troubles, unless we have barricades. I live very easy at your baronne′s house ; while you go roaming abroad, I stay at home like a Carthusian. Farewell, my dear friend, love the English nation, ingratiate me with your friends : tell chiefly my lord and my lady Bolingbroke I am attached to them for life. My respects to the great foes. Mr Pulteney and my lord and lady Harvey. Drink my health with the glutton Pope. Write often. Get my plates out of Woodman’s hands when the time shall be proper. Farewell[1].
- ↑ Traduction : Je suis fâché que M. Bernard ait eu mon compliment aux seigneurs du parterre, et qu’il vous ait envoyé ce que je ne voulais montrer à personne, et ce que vous avez communiqué à tant de monde. Je ne m’excuserai point en vous disant que la copie de Bernard n’était pas exacte en plusieurs endroits. Je savais très-bien que ce discours fait en un jour et à la hâte pouvait être entendu du parterre, mais non passer à l’examen réfléchi des lecteurs. Puisque je ne vous l’avais pas envoyé, pourquoi donc l’avoir montré à d’autres ? Après tout, je vous pardonne, ainsi qu’à Bernard, en faveur de votre amabilité. Milady Sandwich se charge de procurer le Craftsman à l’abbé de Rothelin ;
