516 
use with you, as well as the profession I 
shall ever be proud to make, of my be- 
ing, with all real affection and sincerity, 
and without all punctillio or compli- 
ment, Dear Sir, 
Your most faithful 
and obedient humble Servant, 
A Pope. 
To Joun Cary, jun. Esq. 
at Ladyholt, in Sussex. 
Binfield, 
Oct. 14, 1712. 
Tuo’ I writ to you but the last post, 
T shali not pretend I am asham’d or 
eoncern’d to trouble you so soon agen, 
aus the common phrase is, since (to speak 
fairly) no man, not you yourself, can be 
zat ev’ry hour so well imployed, but that 
you may look over a letter without much 
Toss of time, tho’ of never so small mo- 
ment. And indeed the making of apo- 
logies is only an art people have found 
out to be impertinent twice, under pre- 
tence of understanding that they have 
been so once. How soon Mr. Caryll 
may return trom abroad I cannot tell, 
and send the inclosed now that he may 
not be the last man that knows how 
grateiul his two most kind letters were 
tome. MetiinksI may be admitted to 
taik to him upon paper now, tho’ possi- 
bly he may not hear me these three 
weeks; as well as [ talk and converse 
with you all, almost every night in my 
sleeping dreams, no less than every day 
in my waking ones. As the prospect 
and scenes of Ladyholt have something 
visionary in them, even when I really see 
them, so methinks my very ideas, and 
traces of memory, in what relates to your 
family, have something so like reallity, 
that the bare remembrance is more lively 
and agreeable than the present fruition 
of all other conversation. 
But what particularly moves me to ac- 
cost you so presently a second time, is 
a period or two of your most pleasing 
letter, which demands another sort of 
reply than was any way of a piece with 
the idle raillery and frank impertinence 
of my last. ’Tis no affectation to say, 
that when I write to some few in the 
world, whom I love too well to be always 
telling ’em so, my soul flows out in every 
- word, without the least shadow of art or 
thought, my natural humor takes its 
course, and whether I am gay, or un- 
easy, I write myself out to the end of the 
paver, just as I then am. In my last, I 
DEAR SIR, 
had a whimsical fitt upon me, which . 
Original Letiers of Alexander Pope, Esq. 
’ his acquaintance. 
[Jan. t, 
might proceed from the good humor two 
letters from Mr. Caryll, and one just ar- 
rived from you, had spread over me; and 
I was so pleas’d with your kind expres- 
sions of friendship, as to forget even te 
thank you for’em.~ Tis not very natural 
fora man to make a fine bow to a fair 
Mistress, just after she has granted him 
the highest favour: there’s an abruptness 
in true gratitude; we swallow the kind- 
ness whole that we greedily receive, and 
express our sense of it at leisure after- 
wards. Be then assured, Sir, in one 
word, that I really value you, and hear- 
tily love you: that you was not mistaken 
in what you are pleas’d to say you ob- 
serv’'d of my manner of taking leave of 
your family, which indeed was not veid 
of some confusion, as well as concern. 
For in truth, I can’t but feel some confu- 
sion when I ain sensible of an obligation 
which I know I can no way return; and 
’tis in those moments only that I could 
curse my narrow fortune, and repine at 
Providence. All things else Lam pretty 
easie under, even under injuries or ca- 
lumnies (some of which kind I have been 
lately a sufferer by, and from a certain 
lady you and I talk’d of). But two lines 
of that admirable master of human life, 
Horace, are sufficient (well considered) 
at any time to comfort a man in those 
circumstances :-— : 
Falsus Honor juvat, & mendax Infamia 
terret, 
Quem? nisi mendosum, & mendacem. 
AsT shall ever wish for what may be 
pleasing to you, so I hope you have by 
this time the company of Mr. Stafford, 
for whom the extreme friendship you 
profess’d, together witha certain je ne scay 
guotin thelooks of that gentleman, which 
bespoke an unusual benevolence in me 
at first sight towards him, have imprint- 
ed in me a strange desire to be happy in 
As ‘tis natural for 
men who enjoy but little present happi- 
ness, to let their thoughts run forwards to 
some other in reversion, so I cannot but 
hope it may not be impossible for us to 
meet some time this winter in London, 
and (if you’l be so kind to give me no- 
tice) your time shall be mine, since I 
never go thither for any other business 
than to find those I leve—of which num- 
ber I beg you to think none has a greater 
share than yourself in the sincere affec- 
tion and esteem of, Dear Sir, 
Your most faithfull 
and obedient Servant, 
A. Pore. 
My 
” 
