LETTER V. TO MR. BLOUNT. Feb. 10, 1715-16. AM just returned from the country, whither Mr. Rowe accompanied me, and passed a week in the forest. I need not tell you how much a man of his turn* entertained me; but I must acquaint you there is a vivacity and gaiety of disposition almost peculiar to him, which make it impossible to part from him without that uneasiness which generally succeeds all our pleasures. I have been just taking a solitary walk by moon-shine, full of reflections on the transitory nature of all human delights; and giving my thoughts a loose in the contemplation of those satisfactions which probably we may hereafter taste in the company of separate spirits, when we shall range the walks above, and perhaps gaze on this world at as vast * During this visit, it is said, that Pope desired him to write a Tragedy on the Death of Charles the First; which he declined, on account of the recency of the event, and the state of parties in this country. At the same time, also, Pope recommended to him, as another good subject for the Drama, the Story of Mary, Queen of Scots; "Which, if I undertake," said Rowe, "I will by no means introduce Queen Elizabeth; for where she appears, all the Queens and Heroines upon earth will make but a little figure." He preferred, and I think injudiciously, his Tragedy of Tamerlane to all his other pieces. As Bajazet was intended to represent Louis XIV., this play was not permitted to be acted, during the latter part of Queen Anne's reign, though constantly applauded and called for, till 1710. Warton. a distance as we now do on those worlds. The pleasures we are to enjoy in that conversation must undoubtedly be of a noble kind, and (not unlikely) may proceed from the discoveries each shall communicate to another, of God and of nature; for the happiness of minds can surely be nothing but knowledge. The highest gratification we receive here from company is mirth, which at the best is but a fluttering unquiet motion, that beats about the breast for a few moments, and after leaves it void and empty. Keeping good company, even the best, is but a less shameful art of losing time. What we here call science and study, are little better: the greater number of arts to which we apply ourselves are mere groping in the dark; and even the search of our most important concerns in a future being, is but a needless, anxious, and uncertain haste to be knowing, sooner than we can, what without all this solicitude we shall know a little later. We are but curious impertinents in the case of futurity. It is not our business to be guessing what the state of souls shall be, but to be doing what may make our own state happy; we cannot be knowing, but we can be virtuous. If this be my notion of a great part of that high science, divinity, you will be so civil as to imagine I lay no mighty stress upon the rest. Even of my darling poetry I really make no other use, than horses of the bells that jingle about their ears, (though now and then they toss their heads as if they were proud of them,) only to jog on a little more merrily. Your observations on the narrow conceptions of mankind in the point of friendship, confirm me in what I was so fortunate as at my first knowledge of you to hope, and since so amply to experience. Let me take so much decent pride and dignity upon me, as to tell you, that but for opinions like these which I discovered in your mind, I had never made the trial I have done; which has succeeded so much to mine, and, I believe, not less to your satisfaction; for, if I know you right, your pleasure is greater in obliging me, than I can feel on my part, till it falls in my power to oblige you. Your remark, that the variety of opinions in politics or religion is often rather a gratification, than an objection, to people who have sense enough to consider the beautiful order of Nature in her Variations, makes me think you have not construed Joannes Secundus wrong, in the verse which precedes that which you quote: Bene nota Fides, as I take it, does no way signify the Roman Catholic religion, though Secundus was of it. I think it was a generous thought, and one that flowed from an exalted mind, That it was not improbable but God might be delighted with the various methods of worshipping him, which divided the whole world.* I am pretty sure you and I should no This was an opinion taken up by the old Philosophers, as the last support of Paganism against Christianity: and the Missionaries to both the Indies tell us, it is the first answer modern Bar more make good inquisitors to the modern tyrants in faith, than we could have been qualified for lictors to Procrustes, when he converted refractory members with the rack. In a word, I can only repeat to you what, I think, I have formerly said; that I as little fear God will damn a man who has charity, as I hope that any priest can save him without it. I am, &c. LETTER VI. TO MR. BLOUNT. March 20, 1715-16. IF FIND that a real concern is not only a hindrance to speaking, but to writing too: the more time we give ourselves to think over one's own or a friend's unhappiness, the more unable we grow to express the grief that proceeds from it. It is as natural to delay a letter, at such a season as this, as to retard a melancholy visit to a person one cannot relieve. One is ashamed in that circumstance, to pretend to entertain people with trifling, insignificant affectations of sorrow on the one hand, or unseasonable barians give to the offer made them of the Gospel. But Christians might see that the notion is not only improbable, but impossible to be true, if the redemption of mankind was purchased by the death of Jesus, which is the gospel idea of his religion. Nor is there any need of this opinion to discredit persecution. For the iniquity of that practice does not arise from restraining what God permits or delights in, but from usurping a jurisdiction over conscience, which belongs only to his tribunal. Warburton. and forced gaieties on the other. It is a kind of profanation of things sacred, to treat so solemn a matter as a generous voluntary suffering, with compliments, or heroic gallantries. Such a mind as yours has no need of being spirited up into honour, or like a weak woman, praised into an opinion of its own virtue. It is enough to do and suffer what we ought; and men should know, that the noble power of suffering bravely is as far above that of enterprising greatly, as an unblemished conscience and inflexible resolution are above an accidental flow of spirits, or a sudden tide of blood If the whole religious business of mankind be included in resignation to our Maker, and charity to our fellow-creatures, there are now some people who give us as good an opportunity of practising the one, as themselves have given an instance of the violation of the other. Whoever is really brave, has always this comfort when he is oppressed, that he knows himself to be superior to those who injure him: for the greatest power on earth can no sooner do him that injury; but the brave man can make himself greater by forgiving it. If it were generous to seek for alleviating consolations in a calamity of so much glory, one might say, that to be ruined thus in the gross, with a whole people, is but like perishing in the general conflagration, where nothing we can value is left behind us. Methinks, the most heroic thing we are left ca |