as the title page of my third edition pretends it to be. When I see you next, I will fhew you the several paffages altered, and added by the author, befide what have mentioned to me. you I protest to you, this last perufal of him has given me fuch new degrees, I will not fay of pleasure, but of admiration and astonishment, that I look upon the fublimity of Homer, and the majesty of Virgil with fomewhat lefs reverence than I used to do. I challenge you, with all your partiality, to fhew me in the first of these any thing equal to the Allegory of Sin* and Death, either as to the greatness and justness of the invention, or the height and beauty of the colouring. What I looked upon as a rant of Barrow's†, I now begin to think a serious truth, and could almost venture to fet my hand to it, Hæc quicunque legit, tantum ceciniffe putabit But more of this when we meet. When I left the town * Though Addison cenfures the introduction of fuch an allegory in an epic poem, yet at the fame time he highly extols the bold and fublime imagery it contains. Lord Kaimes joins with Voltaire and the French Critics, as might be expected, in condemning it. They faftidiously call it naufeous and difgufting. What would Atterbury have thought of the grofs misrepre sentations and tasteless cenfures of his acquaintance Voltaire on Milton, had he lived to have read the article, Epopée, in the Queftious fur l'Encyclopedie, in which he fays, "Les Grecs recommandaient aux poetes de facrifier aux Graces; Milton a facrifié au Diable?" I have never met with a French writer, or a Frenchman, that had any true taste for Milton. VOL. VIII. town the D. of Buckingham continued fo ill that he received no meffages; oblige me fo far as to let me know how he does; at the fame time I fhall know how you do, and that will be a double fatisfaction to Your, etc. MY LORD, LETTER IV. THE ANSWER. Nov. 20, 1717. I AM truly obliged by your kind condolence on my Father's death, and the defire you exprefs that I should improve this incident to my advantage. I know your Lordship's friendship to me is fo extenfive, that you include in that with both my fpiritual and my temporal advantage; and it is what I owe to that friendship, to open my mind unreservedly to you on \ this head. It is true, I have loft a parent for whom no gains I could make would be any equivalent. But that was not my only tie: I thank God another still remains (and long may it remain) of the fame tender nature: Genitrix eft mihi-and excufe me if I fay with Euryalus, nequeam lacrymas perferre parentis. A rigid divine may call it a carnal tie, but fure it is a virtuous one: At least I am more certain that it is a duty of nature to preserve a good parent's life and happiness, happiness, than I am of any fpeculative point what ever. Ignaram hujus quodcunque pericli Hanc ego, nunc, linquam ? For fhe, my Lord, would think this feparation more grievous than any other, and I, for my part, know as little as poor Euryalus did, of the fuccefs of fuch an adventure (for an adventure it is, and no fmall one, in spite of the most positive divinity). Whether the change would be to my spiritual advantage, God only knows: This I know, that I mean as well in the religion I now profefs, as I can poffibly ever do in another. Can a man who thinks fo juftify a change, even if he thought both equally good? To fuch an one, the part of Joining with any one body of Christians might perhaps be eafy, but I think it would not be fo, to Renounce the other. Your Lordship has formerly advised me to read the best controverfies between the Churches. Shall I tell you a fecret? I did fo at fourteen years old (for I loved reading, and my father had no other books); there was a collection of all that had been written on both fides in the reign of King James the Second: I warmed my head with them, and the confequence was, that I found myself a Papist and a Protestant by turns, according to the last book I read. I am afraid moft This is an admirable picture of every Reader bufied in religious controverfy, without poffeffing the principles on which a right judgment of the points in queftion is to be regulated. W. most seekers are in the fame cafe, and when they stop, they are not fo properly converted, as outwitted. You fee how little glory you would gain by my converfion. And after all, I verily believe your lordship and I are both of the fame religion, if we were thoroughly understood by one another; and that all honeft and reasonable Chriftians would be fo, if they did but talk enough together every day; and had nothing to do together, but to ferve God, and live in peace with their neighbour. As to the temporal fide of the question, I can have no difpute with you; it is certain, all the beneficial circumstances of life, and all the fhining ones, lie on the part you would invite me to. But if I could bring myself to fancy, what I think you do but fancy, that I have any talents for active life, I want health for it; and befides it is a real truth, I have lefs Inclination (if poffible) than Ability. Contemplative life is not only my fcene, but it is my habit too. I begun my life where most people end theirs, with a dif-relish of all that the world calls Ambition: I don't know why 'tis called fo, for to me it always feemed to be rather stooping than climbing. I'll tell you my politic and religious fentiments in a few words. In tics, I think no further than how to preferve the of my life, in any government under which I live; nor in my religion, than to preserve the peace of my confcience in any church with which I communicate. I hope all churches and all governments are fo far of my poli peace God, as they are rightly understood, and rightly administered: And where they are, or may be wrong, I leave it to God alone to mend or reform them; which whenever he does, it must be by greater inftruments than I am. I am not a Papist, for I renounce the temporal invasions of the Papal power, and detest their arrogated authority over Princes and States. I am a Catholic in the ftricteft sense of the word. If I was born under an abfolute Prince, I would be a quiet fubject; but I thank God I was not. I have a due sense of the excellence of the British constitution. In a word, the things I have always wifhed to fee, are not a Roman Catholic, or a French Catholic, or a Spanish Catholic, but a True Catholic: And not a King of Whigs*, or a King of Tories, but a King of England. Which God of his mercy grant his present Majefty may be, and all future Majefties. You fee, my Lord, I end like a preacher: This is Sermo ad Clerum, not ad Populum. Believe me, with infinite obligation and fincere thanks, ever Your, etc. Happy if this fentiment was universally adopted! |