fays to Mr. Jervas,

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Poor Poetry! the little that's left of it here longs to cross the Seas, and leave Euf"den in full and peaceable Poffeffion of the British "Laurel."

Before the next Spring, instead of going to Italy, he went to settle at Twickenham, and fo bufy and particular he was in every Thing, that he said himself, the History of his Tranfplantation and Settlement, would require a Volume, if he was to enumerate the many Projects, Difficulties, and various Fates attending that Part of his Life, here he past an entire Year of his Lifewithout any fix'd Abode in London, or more than paffing a Day or two in a Month at most in Town, fo that he was chiefly in his Closet, and if he prepared nothing there for publick View, this Year makes almost a Blank in his Life.

Methinks the Moralifts and Philofophers have generally run too much into Extremes in commending intirely either Solitude, or publick Life. In the former, Men for the most Part grow ufelefs by too much Reft, and in the latter are deftroyed by too much Precipitation; as Waters lying ftil, putrify and are good for nothing, and running violently on do but the more Mischief in their Paffage to others, and are fwallowed up and loft the fooner themselves. Thofe indeed who can be useful to all States, fhould be like gentle Streams, that not only glide thro' lonely ValTeys and Forefts amidst the Flocks and the Shepherds, but vifit populous Towns in their Course, and are at once of Ornament and Service to them. But there are another Sort of People who feem defign'd for Solitude, fuch I mean, as have more to hide than to fhow: As for my own Part, I am of those of whom Seneca fays, Tam umbratiles funt, ut putent in turbido effe quicquid in luce eft. Some Men, like fome Pictures, are fitter for a Corner than a full Light; and

I believe fuch have a natural Bent to Solitude (to car ry on the former Similitude) are like Waters which may be forced into Fountains, and exalted into a great Height, may make a noble Figure and a louder Noife, but after all they would run more fmoothly, quietly and plentifully, in their own natural Courfe upon the Ground. The Confideration of this would make me very well contented with the Poffeffion only of that Quiet which Cowley calls the Companion of Obfcurity.

Good God! What an incongrous Animal is Man? How unfettled is his beft Part, his Soul; and how changing and variable in his Frame of Body? The Conftancy of the one fhook by every Notion, the Temperament of the other affected by every Blaft of Wind! What is Man altogether but one mighty Inconfiftency! Sickness and Pain is the Lot of one half of us; Doubt and Fear the Portion of the other! What a Buftle we make about paffing our Time, when all our Space is but a Point? What Aims and Ambitions are crowded into this little Instant of our Life, which (as Shakespear finely words it) is Rounded with a Sleep?

Thefe Exclamations and Queries are Mr. Pope's, and whoever thinks in this Train, muft fee the whole World and all its contemptible Grandeurs leffen before him at every Thought. 'Tis enough to make one remain in a Poize of Inaction void of all Defires, of all Defigns and Atchievements whatever.

But we must return (thro' our very narrow Condition of Being) to our narrow felves, and those Things that affect ourfelves: Our Paffions, our Interefts flow in upon us, and unphilofophize us into mere Mortals.

But thefe Reflections fuit but ill for the Times about which we are writing: For foon after this the

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South Sea Project took Effect, which run up that Stock to above a thousand per Gent. and ruined fo ma ny Families, that the Lamentation was general, almost all Degrees of People were engaged; the Courtiers, moft Perfons of Quality, Gentlemen, Merchants, Tradefmen, Artizans, even common Servants, who almost all fuffered, except a few, who were behind the Curtain and in the Secret. Mr. Pope was a great Enemy to the Scheme, and then and fince has fufficiently fhewn how he detefted the Contrivers of it, and pitied the Sufferers, among which were fome of his great Friends, publick Enquiry was made after fome of the Promotersof it, but the Iniquity was fix'd where the Search did not reach, and the Wrong was without Reparation.

In this Calamity was funk for a Time the very Spirit of the Nation, and Arts feem'd to stand still the Gentry were impoverished, and only a few confederate Villains, and thofe favoured by them, any tolerable Figure, Families of dejected Faces, that were a Month before bleft with a Train of Domefticks and shining Equipages, were feen on Foot fighing through the publick Streets: This Mr. Pope thought once to have made the Subject of a particular Satire, and certainly he had wanted nothing to whet the Edge of it, but fo many of the little common Writers laid hold of it, induc'd by Hunger and Request of Friends, that Mr. Pope left it to them, only occafionally in the Course of his Writing, giv ing now and then a Lafh, to let the World know he was neither Actor nor Abettor of any fuch Wickedness and Folly, which on Reflection looks more like Fascination and epidemical Madness, than the voluntary Act of a great and free People, after having had the Example of France to warn them.

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It was now when the Minds of the People were much dejected, that the Papifts endeavoured to eftablifh once more, if poffible, the Romish Religion, and accordingly from divers Parts of Italy and France, under different Covers and Pretenfions came flocking, regular Priests, Dominicans, Carmelitans, Francifcans, and fome Jefuits, and Notice was taken that there were many of our reform'd Church daily perverted, the Infection fpread much among the lower Sort of People, for thofe miffionary Priests ⚫ had a Fund of Money fufficient to put a Youth out Apprentice to any Artizan who was of the Romish Faith, on Condition that he should constantly adhere to the Mass, and they likewife lent Money to young Men juft out of their Apprenticeships, Sums not exceeding twenty Pounds, to fet up with, as well as that they paid fmall Debts, not exceeding half that Sum, for Perfons involv'd, ftill on the Terms of renouncing the Religion here by Law establish'd, and embracing the Sacrament of Transubstantiation, and fince that Time, the Number of Papifts in England has increas'd confiderably, but we dare be perfwaded, notwithstanding this, to fay what a certain great Prelate of Canterbury pofitively pronounced on his Death-bed, that Popery should never darken this Nation any more, indeed his own Writings remain a ftrong Prefervative against it.

Many of the abovementioned Miffionaries or Emiffaries, which you please to call them, made themfelves known to Mr. Pope, who was wiser than to have any Hand in the Affair, and told them, that they were breaking the Laws of this Land, and refifting the higher Powers, which St. Paul had exprefly forbid, as well as broke their religious Vows, to all which they pleaded a Difpenfation from Rome, which is a Salvo for any Thing, they even went fo far

far as to tempt him to retire abroad, and become a Prieft, giving him frequent Promises of great ecclefiaftical Dignities; but the most that ever we know was gain'd from him was once to fay, that if his Religion had been the common Religion of England, he would have been in holy Orders; fo that had it not been for the Revolution which happened the very Year he was born, inftead of having the Life of a great Poet to write, we had in all Probability, had that of a Bishop, or fome mitred Abbot.

But the Nation had been long uneafy, even in fome former Reigns, with Fears of Popery and arbitrary Power; and then many of the very Court and Council appear'd unfatisfy'd on that Account. Some were vex'd alfo for two other Reasons; the great Diminution of their Salaries by the ill-tim'd Retrenchments of the Treasury, and their finding all the Power and Favour ingrofs'd by a few, and those also the foolisheft of all the Roman Party.

But a more dangerous Symptom of the future Change, was a Defertion among the Officers of King James's Army, and at laft of the Lord Churchill himself, tho' a Kind of Favourite.

Yet all this was nothing in Comparison of the Princess's withdrawing herself from Court by Night, without any Servants, except the Lady Churchill and Mrs. Berkly, conducted by the Bishop of London, whofe late Difgrace at Court had help'd him to a reverential Sort of Popularity, which he, of all the Bifhops, would leaft have found otherwife.

'Tis no Wonder after this, if the King began to mistrust every Body; which made him on a fudden leave his Army at Salisbury, in order to confider his Condition more fecurely at London. In quitting his Army thus fuddenly, the King was thought too fufpicious and precipitate: But he had just before err'd

as