You better employed where you are! Md de Caylus writes to you about a thing, which I join with her in desiring you to do, if it be to be done. spoke, when you was in this country, of the Chinese manner of making fire-works, which are infinitely more admirable than ours, and I think you mentioned one Mr. Pound who had the secret; be so good as to send it to Mde de Caylus. It is for a young person, whom you will not be sorry to oblige. dear Sir. Adieu, DEAR SIR, LETTER III. FROM THE SAME. December 26, 1723. YOUR letter of the 15th of November came to my hands just as I was leaving the country to come to this place; and since my being here, besides a little business, I have had some return of my illness, but it seems to be over, and was, I hope, nothing more than the last pang of an expiring malady. The good intelligence you are at present in with your father, gives me a most sensible pleasure; and I hope, that you will be able to settle your affairs at last, in such a manner as to make you amends for all the trouble you have gone through. When I endeavoured to assist you, I believed at that time there way was power; I have had since some reason to believe there is none: and I had rather attribute to the want of this, than to the want of inclination, any coldness which you may find. The books were here at my arrival; and I am very thankful to you for them. I have gone through all that I proposed to myself in the of studying, wherein I was, when you gave us your good company. I never intended to do more than to examine, as well as I was able, the foundations on which those systems of Chronology and Ancient History which obtain in our Western world are built, à fin de sçavoir à quoy m'entenir. I have done this; and I have no more desire to pursue this study any further, than I have to be a proficient in Judicial Astrology. Who can resolve to build, with great cost and pains, when he finds how deep soever he digs, nothing but loose sand? Some have been so pleased with a high and lofty situation, that they have ventured upon this project; for my part, I incline not to imitate them; and to carry the similitude a little further, when such buildings are raised, I may be tempted to take a cursory view of them, but I can by no means resolve to dwell in them, a limine salutanda sunt. Since my being here, I have seen very few people; our friend the Abbe Conti but once: and then, he was so much out of order, that my conversation with him was very succinct. He has begun a Philosophical Poem, which will be finished, I believe, long before the Anti-Lucretius of the Cardinal de Polignac. Sir Isaac Newton's System will make the principal beauty of it. He recited the exorde to me, which I thought very fine; I need not tell you that he writes it in Italian. My fellow hermit is very affectionately your humble servant: she desires you would, for the present, give yourself no further trouble about the affair of Monsieur de la Roche Jacquelin. Adieu, dear Sir. I am, with all possible esteem, Yours, etc. INSCRIPTIONS in the Gardens of the Chateau de la PROPTER FIDEM, ADVERSUS REGINAM INTEMERATE SERVATAM, PROPTER OPERAM IN PACE GENERALI STRENUE SALTEM NAVATAM: INJUSTE EXULAT DULCE VIVIT * H. M. B. 1722. SI RESIPISCAT PATRIA, IN PATRIAM SI NON RESIPISCAT, UBIVIS MELIUS INSOLENTEM CERNERE SUAVE EST. HIC, MORTEM NEC APPETENS, NEC TIMENS, ET FELICIS ANIMI IMMOTA TRANQUILLITATE HIC, MIHI VIVAM, QUOD SUPEREST, AUT * Viz. Henry Marcilly Bolingbroke. This and the following Inscription, in the hand-writing of Lord Bolingbroke, were inclosed in the foregoing Letter. LETTERS ΤΟ RALPH ALLEN, ESQ. LETTER I. MR. POPE TO MR. ALLEN. Twitnam, April 30, 1736. I SAW Mr. M. yesterday, who has readily allowed Mr. V. to copy the Picture. I have inquired for the best Originals of those two subjects, which, I found, were favourite ones with you, and well deserve to be so, the discovery of Joseph to his Brethren, and the Resignation of the Captive by Scipio. Of the latter, my Lord Burlington has a fine one done by Ricci, and I am promised the other in a good Print from one of the chief Italian Painters. That of Scipio is of the exact size one would wish for a Basso Relievo, in which manner, in my opinion, you would best ornament your Hall, done in Chiaro obscuro. A man not only shews his Taste, but his Virtue, in the choice of such ornaments: and whatever example most strikes us, we may reasonably imagine, may have an influence upon others. So that the History itself, if well chosen, upon a rich man's |