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XIII.*

FROM MR. WEST.

I OUGHT to answer you in Latin, but I feel I dare not enter the lists with you-cupidum, pater optime, vires deficiunt. Seriously, you write in that language with a grace and an Augustan urbanity, that amazes me: Your Greek too is perfect in its kind. And here let me wonder that a man, longe Græcorum doctissimus, should be at a loss for the verse and chapter whence my epigram is taken. I am sorry I have not my Aldus with me, that I might satisfy your curiosity; but he, with all my other literary folks, are left at Oxford, and therefore you must still rest in suspense. I thank you again and again for your medical prescription. I know very well that those "risus, festivitates, et facetiæ" would contribute greatly to my cure, but then you must be my apothecary as well as physician, and make up the dose as well as direct it; send me, therefore, an electuary

*This was written in French, but as I doubted whether it would stand the test of polite criticism, so well as the preceding would of learned, I chose to translate so much of it as I thought necessary in order to preserve the chain of correspondence.

of these drugs, made up "secundum artem, et eris mihi magnus Apollo," in both his capacities, as a god of poets and a god of physicians. Wish me joy of leaving my college, and leave yours as fast as you can. I shall be settled at the temple very soon.

Dartmouth-Street, Feb. 21, 1737-8.

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Sæpe enim curis vagor expeditâ

Mente; dum, blandam meditans Camœnam,
Vix malo rori, meminive seræ

Cedere nocti;

* I choose to call this delicate Sapphic Ode the first original production of Mr. Gray's muse; for verses imposed either by school masters or tutors, ought not, I think, to be taken into the consideration. There is seldom a verse that flows well from the pen of a real poet if it does not flow voluntarily.

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Et, pedes quo me rapiunt, in omni
Colle Parnassum videor videre
Fertilem silvæ, gelidamque in omni

Fonte Aganippen.

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ego felix, vice si (nec unquam Surgerem rursus) simili cadentemn Parca me lenis sineret quieto

Fallere Letho!

Multa flagranti radiisque cincto
Integris ab! quam nihil inviderem,
Cum Dei ardentes medius quadrigas

Sentit Olympus?

Ohe! amicule noster, et unde, sodes tu μουσοπατακτος adeo repente evasisti? jam te rogitaturum credo. Nescio, hercle, sic plane habet. Quicquid enim nugarum

xoans inter ambulandum in palimpsesto scriptitavi, hisce te maxime impertiri visum est, quippe quem probare, quod meum est, aut certe ignoscere solitum probe novi : bonâ tuâ veniâ sit si forte videar in fine subtristior; nam risui jamdudum salutem dixi: etiam paulo mostitiæ studiosiorem factum scias, promptumque, Kaivois waλain daxguois σTEVELY xaxx.

O lachrymarum fons, tenero sacros
Ducentium ortus ex animo; quater
Felix! in imo qui scatentem
Pectore te, pia Nympha, sensit.

Sed de me satis. Cura ut valeas.

Jun. 1738.

XV.

FROM MR. WEST.

I RETURN you a thousand thanks for your elegant ode, and wish you every joy you wish yourself in it.-But, take my word for it, you will never spend so agreeable a day here as you describe: alas! the sun with us only rises to show us the way to Westminster-Hall. Nor must I forget thanking you for your little Alcaic fragment. The optic Naiads are infinitely obliged to you.

I was last week at Richmond Lodge, with Mr. Walpole, for two days, and dined with *Cardinal Fleury; as far as my short sight can go, the character of his great art and penetration is very just, he is indeed

Nulli penetrabilis astro.

I go to-morrow to Epsom, where I shall be for about a month. Excuse me, I am in haste, but believe me always, &c.

August 29, 1738.

*Sir Robert Walpole.

Mr. West seems to have been, indeed, in haste when he writ this letter; else, surely, his fine taste would have led him to have

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