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moment it takes place will be the head of the party, and those two persons [i.e., Pulteney and Carteret] cease so to be at that instant.

"That it is proper to continue to live with them, however, in all the same terms of friendly intercourse, and with the same appearance of intimacy, may so strengthen the plea to it by showing how extremely they have been trusted, deferred to, and comply'd with.

"That all persons (many of which there certainly are) as may be determined to join in the pursuit of the original measures of the Opposition, should be determined by all sorts of private application (whether Whigs or Tories), but by no means apply'd to in the collective body, or too generally, but in separate conversations and arguments.

"That upon every important occasion the things resolv'd upon shall be pushed by the persons in this secret, how much soever the others may hang off, which will reduce these to the dilemma of joyning with the Court or of following their friends with no good grace."

" 1

The over-cleverness of these schemes, so characteristic of all Bolingbroke's strategy, met with no success, and accordingly, though Walpole's unpopularity increased daily, and the day of his downfall approached, the utterances of the Prince of Wales' followers breathe nothing but anger and disappointment. Their feelings are reflected in the curious fragment by Pope entitled '1740,' where all sections, and almost every member, of the Opposition, are impartially abused. The pertinacity with which the school of Bolingbroke clung to their favourite idea is illustrated in a very interesting manner by the concluding lines of this poem:

"Alas! on one alone our all relies,

Let him be honest, and he must be wise;
Let him no trifler from his [father's] school,
Nor like his [father's father] still a [fool]
Be but a man! unministered, alone,
And fire at once the senate and the throne;
Esteem the public love his best supply,

A [king's] true glory his integrity;

Rich with his [Britain] in his [Britain] strong,
Affect no conquest, but endure no wrong.
Whatever his religion or his blood,

His public virtue make his title good.

Europe's just balance and our own may stand,
And one man's honesty redeem the land."

1 Letter from Pope to Lyttelton, No. 7 Vol. IX., p. 179.

It is worth observing that Pope's love of ambiguity appears very strongly in the last couplet but one of these verses, which may evidently be construed as referring either to the Prince of Wales or the Pretender.

CHAPTER XV.

THE CLOSING YEARS OF POPE'S LIFE.

Assists Dodsley, Savage, and Johnson-Attack of Crousaz on the Essay on Man-Warburton-The 'New Dunciad '-Quarrel with CibberRalph Allen-Martha Blount and the Allens-Pope's Will-Last Illness and Death-Bolingbroke's attack on Pope's memory-Character of Atossa.

1739-1744.

Ir must not be forgotten that Pope's character shows another side from that of inordinate self-love. While he was descending to petty frauds for the exaltation of his reputation, and was loudly proclaiming his own virtue in his satires upon the age, he was frequently engaged in those acts of unostentatious charity which obviously made up a considerable portion of his life. Many of these deeds of kindness were on behalf of men engaged in a struggle for success in or through literature. Thus when Dodsley first started as a publisher, Pope, who had been pleased with his poem 'The Toyshop,' gave him liberal assistance. Richard Savage had in earlier years rendered him some small services in procuring him information concerning the dunces with whom he was at war, and in fathering documents to which he did not care to set his own name. The poet in return had done all that he could to place his assistant in a position of ease and independence. This was no very agreeable task. Savage had unquestionable genius, but, like Pope and many other men of strong imagination, his vanity prevented him from believing that he could ever do wrong. He was at once arrogant and servile; a beggar and a would-be man of fashion; he accepted charity willingly, but thought himself entitled to rail at his benefactors whenever they crossed his

wishes. While the Queen lived he had received from her a small yearly pension in return for the birthday odes which he wrote in her honour. After her death he found himself without any means of subsistence. His friends clubbed

together to allow him, on certain conditions, fifty pounds a year, twenty of which came from Pope. Savage resented the conditions, and expected that the pension would be paid him whether he complied with them or not. One by one his friends discontinued their subscriptions, but Pope, in spite of his petulance, remained constant in his friendship. He used his interest on his behalf with his former patrons; bore patiently with his childish ill-humour, and continued to pay him regularly the sum he had promised, until, in 1743, he believed he had evidence that Savage had returned his kindness with gross ingratitude. On making this discovery he wrote to him the second of the two letters that are preserved, informing him that he must henceforth leave him to his own resources.'

Still more interesting is the story of his connection with Johnson. On the same day that Pope published the First Dialogue of 'Seventeen Hundred and Thirty-Eight' Johnson, then an unknown writer, brought out his 'London,' which was received by the public with even more favour than Pope's satire. Pope himself was much interested in the poem. He showed no jealousy, but commissioned the younger Richardson to find out what was known of the author. When Richardson, after enquiry, informed him that he was an obscure man, Pope observed, He will soon be déterré.' He proceeded to make further investigations himself, and finding that Johnson was a strong opponent of Walpole, and that he suffered from St. Vitus's Dance, he wrote to Lord Gower in his behalf, but without success. When Johnson afterwards heard of this application he showed a strong desire to see the note in

1 Letter from Pope to Savage, Vol. X., p. 102.

2 Boswell's Life of Johnson', p. 36 (Croker's edition).

which Pope recorded it, and observed, "Who would not be proud to have such a man as Pope so solicitous in enquiring about him?

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Had he known earlier of Pope's efforts to help him, it is possible that he might have been less eager to prosecute some translations which about this period caused the poet considerable anxiety. Johnson was himself engaged with Crousaz' Commentary on the Abbé du Resnel's translation of the Essay on Man,' but he temporarily abandoned it in deference to the opinion of his publisher, Cave. "I think, however," he wrote to the latter in September 1738, "the "Examen' should be pushed forward with the utmost expedition. Thus 'This day, &c., an Examen of Mr. Pope's Essay, &c.; containing a succinct Account of the Philosophy of Mr. Leibnitz on the System of the Fatalists with a Confutation of their Opinions, and an Illustration of the Doctrine of Free Will' (with what else you think proper)." This translation, the work of Johnson's friend, Miss Elizabeth Carter, served to popularize the objections to the Essay on Man' which, even in the French original, had attracted much attention. As has been already said, when the poem first made its appearance, Pope's apprehension had chiefly been, that the author might be exposed to the charge of Deism. Such, however, was the confusion of religious thought in England in George the Second's reign, that the Essay, although its poetical qualities at once roused the public interest, escaped condemnation on the charge of heresy, and it was left to a foreigner to point out the logical consequences of the principles on which it was based.

2

In 1737 Jean Pierre de Crousaz, Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy in the University of Lausanne, having read the poem in the French translation of the Abbé du Resnel, showed that its reasoning led directly to fatalistic conclusions destructive of the foundations of Natural Religion. The

1 Boswell's Life of Johnson,' pp. 37, 41 (Croker's edition).

2 Boswell's Life of Johnson,' p. 39 (Croker's edition).

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