and friendly manner in which he was received and treated. By the favour of Dr. Lowth, the late excellent Bishop of London, I have feen a copy of this Effay on the Odyssey, with marginal obfervations written in Pope's own hand, and generally acknowledging the juftnefs of Spence's obfervations; and in a few inftances pleading, humorously enough, that fome favourite lines might be fpared. I fpeak from experience, when I fay, that I know no critical treatise better calculated to form the taste of young men of genius, than this Essay on the Odyssey. And left it fhould be thought that this opinion arises from my partiality to a friend with whom I lived fo many years in the happiest intimacy; I will add, that this alfo was the opinion of three perfons, from whose judgment there can be no appeal, Dr. Akenfide, Bishop Lowth, and Mr. James Harris. The two valuable preferments which Spence obtained, the Prebend of Durham, and the Profefforship of Modern Hiftory in Oxford, were owing to the intereft which Pope, among fome of his powerful friends, exerted in his favour. And it was upon Pope's recommendation that he travelled with Lord Middlefex, which was the foundation of his future good fortune.

To this learned and amiable man, on whofe friendfhip I fet the greatest value, am I indebted for moft of the

* Who tranfmitted an account of his friend Spence's life to Dr. Kippis, to be inferted in the Biographia Britannica, which I have read with great pleasure, and which I prefume is among the papers left by that learned and candid compiler.

the anecdotes relating to Pope mentioned in this edition, which he communicated to me when I was making him a vifit, 1754, at Byfleet in Surrey; a pleafant villa which had been prefented to him by Lord Lincoln.

The only bad accident Pope, in the course of his life, ever met with, was at the close of this year, when he was overturned in a deep water, and was with difficulty fnatched out of his coach by the poftilion, with a force that broke the glass, and cut two of his fingers fo defperately, that, though he was attended by St. André, a skilful and eminent furgeon, he loft the use of them. On which occafion Voltaire wrote to him a letter, which, as a fpecimen of his English, is here inferted in a note*.

* " SIR,

Swift,

re.

"I hear this moment of your fad adventure. That water you fell in, was not Hippocrene's water, otherwise it would have fpected you. Indeed, I am concerned beyond expreffion for the danger you have been in, and more for your wounds. Is it poffible that those fingers which have written the Rape of the Lock, and the Criticifin, which have dreffed Homer so becomingly in an English coat, fhould have been fo barbarously treated? Let the hand of Dennis, or of your poetafters, be cut off, yours is facred. I hope, Sir, you are now perfectly recovered; really your accident concerns me as much as all the disasters of a master ought to affect his fcholar. I am fincerely, Sir, with the admiration which you deferve,

"Your most humble fervant,
"VOLTAIRE.

"In my Lord Bolingbroke's house, Friday at noon, Nov. 16, 1726.”,

N. B. If Voltaire is frequently quoted in the following sheets, it is because he was a man of wit and penetration, though an un

believer;

Swift, coming to England, 1727, joined with Pope in publishing, in four volumes octavo, their Mifcellaneous Pieces, in profe and verfe; to which Pope wrote a Preface, complaining, among other inftances, of the ill ufage he had received from booksellers, and of the liberty Curll had taken in publishing his juve nile Letters, purchased from a Mrs. Thomas, a mistress of Mr. Cromwell. The two most remarkable paffages in this Preface are, where they fay, "That in feveral

parts of our lives, we have written fome things "which we may wish never to have thought on:" And when they alfo fay, " In regard to two perfons only, we wish our raillery, though ever so tender, or refentment ever so just, had not been indulged. "We speak of Sir T. Vanbrugh, who was a man of "wit and of honour; and of Mr. Addison, whose 60 name

believer; which, however, never appears in his tragedies; because he was the most celebrated of all our Author's contemporary poets; because he was an admirer and acquaintance of Pope; because they wrote on fimilar fubjects; because he had made particular remarks on many of our Author's pieces; and because both of them were patronized by Bolingbroke. I have been always as ready to cenfure his inconfiftencies as to praise his talents. At this time he was fupported and careffed by the British court and nobility, and particularly by Queen Caroline, to whom he dedicated the quarto edition of his Henriade, publifhed by fubfcription in Lon. don. The Marquis d' Argenfon, his intimate friend, fays of him, 1736: "Plaife au ciel que la magie de fon style n'accrédite pas des fauffes opinions & des idées dangereufes, qu'il ne defhonore pas ce ftyle charmant en profe & en vers, en le faisant fervir à des ouvrages dont les fujets foient indignes & du peintre & du coloris ; & qu'il ne devienne pas le chef d'une fecte à qui il arrivera, comme à bien d'autres, que les fectateurs fe tromperont fur les intentions de leur Patriarche!"

And now, in the year 1728, too much exafperated by the rude attacks of impotent fcribblers, and forgetting what he had faid in the before-mentioned Preface," that it is to be lamented that Virgil let "pass a line which told pofterity he had two enemies "called Barius and Mævius," he determined to crush his adversaries in a mafs, by one strong and decifive blow, and wrote his Dunciad: The history of which, is fo very minutely related by Pope himself, in a Dedication which he wrote to Lord Middlefex, under the name of Savage, who, by the way, affisted Pope in finding out many particulars of thefe Scribblers" lives, that it ought it be inserted in this place.

"I will relate the war of the Dunces, (for fo it has "been commonly called,) which began in the year 66 1727, and ended in 1730.

"When Dr. Swift and Mr. Pope thought it pro

per, for reafons fpecified in the Preface to their "Mifcellanies, to publish fuch little Pieces of theirs, "as had cafually got abroad, there was added to "them the Tréatife of the Bathos, or the Art of Sink"ing in Poetry. It happened, that in one Chapter "of this piece the feveral fpecies of bad Poets were "ranged in claffes, to which were prefixed almost "all the Letters of the Alphabet (the greateft << part of them at random); but fuch was the num"ber of poets eminent in that art, that fome one or "other

2

"other took every letter to himself: All fell into "fo violent a fury, that, for half a year or more, the "common newspapers (in most of which they had "fome property, as being hired writers) were filled "with the most abufive falfehoods and fcurrilities they could poffibly devife. A liberty no way to "be wondered at in those people, and in thofe papers, that for so many years, during the uncon"trouled licence of the prefs, had afperfed almost "all the great characters of the age; and this with impunity, their own perfons and names being ut"terly fecret and obscure.

"This gave Mr. Pope the thought, that he had "now fome opportunity of doing good, by detect

ing, and bringing into light, these common ene"mies of mankind; fince, to invalidate this univer"fal flander, it fufficed to fhew what contemptible "men were the authors of it. He was not without hopes, that, by manifefting the dulnefs of those, "who had only malice to recommend them, either "the bookfellers would not find their account in

employing them, or the men themselves, when dif<< covered, want courage to proceed in fo unlawful "an occupation. This it was that gave birth to the "Dunciad; and he thought it an happiness, that,

by the late flood of flander on himself, he had ac

quired fuch a peculiar right over their names as "was neceffary to this defign.

" On