suppositions it passes for, 1. religion; 2. philosophy; 3. example; 4. wit; and 5. the cause of wit, and the end of it. The second part contains the advantages of Dulness; 1st, in business; and 2dly, at court, where the similitudes of the bias of a bowl, and the weights of a clock, are directly tending to the subject, though introduced before in a place where there was no mention made of those advantages (which was your only objection to my adding them). The third contains the happiness of Dulness in all stations, and shews in a great many particulars, that it is so fortunate as to be esteemed some good quality or other in all sorts of people; that it is thought quiet, sense, caution, policy, prudence, majesty, valour, circumspection, honesty, &c. The fourth part I have wholly added, as a climax which sums up all the praise, advantage, and happiness of Dulness in a few words, and strengthens them by the opposition of the disgrace, disadvantage, and unhappiness of wit, with which it concludes.* Though the whole be as short again as at first, there is not one thought omitted, but what is a repetition of something in your first volume, or in this * This is totally omitted in the present edition. Some of the lines are these: "Thus Dulness, the safe opiate of the mind, The last kind refuge weary wit can find; No pains it takes, and no offence it gives, Warburton. very paper. Some thoughts are contracted, where they seemed encompassed with too many words; and some new expressed or added, where I thought there wanted heightening, (as you'll see particularly in the simile of the clock-weights,*) and the versification throughout is, I believe, such as nobody can be shocked at. The repeated permissions you give me of dealing freely with you, will (I hope) excuse what I have done: for if I have not spared you when I thought severity would do you a kindness, I have not mangled you where I thought there was no absolute need of amputation. As to particulars, I can satisfy you better when we meet; in the mean time pray write to me when you can; you cannot too often. * It was originally thus expressed: "As clocks run fastest when most lead is on;" in a letter of Mr. Pope's to Mr. Wycherley, dated April 3, 1705, and in a paper of verses of his, To the Author of a Poem called Successio, which got out in a Miscellany in 1712, three years before Mr. Wycherley died, and two after he had laid aside the whole design of publishing any poems. Pope. These two similes of the Bias of a Bowl, and the Weights of a Clock, were at length put into the first book of the Dunciad. And thus we have the history of their birth, fortunes, and final establishment. Warburton. The above-mentioned verses of Pope, "To the Author of a Poem intitled Successio," are reprinted in the present edition, vol. i. p. 55. LETTER XV. FROM MR. WYCHERLEY. Nov. 22, 1707. You may see by my style, I had the happiness and satisfaction to receive yesterday, by the hands of Mr. Englefyld, your extreme kind and obliging letter, the 20th of this month; which, like all the rest of yours, did at once mortify me, and make me vain; since it tells me, with so much more wit, sense, and kindness than mine can express, that my letters are always welcome to you. So that even whilst your kindness invites me to write to you, your wit and judgment forbid me; since I may return you a letter, but never an an swer. Now, as for your owning your assistance to me, in overlooking my unmusical numbers, and harsher sense, and correcting them both with your genius, or judgment, I must tell you, I always own it (in spite of your unpoetic modesty) who would do with your friendship as your charity; conceal your bounty to magnify the obligation; and even while you lay on your friend the favour, acquit him of the debt: but that shall not serve your turn; I will always own, it is my infallible Pope has, or would redeem me from a poetical damning, the second time; and save my rhymes from being condemned to the critics' flames to all eternity; but (by the faith you profess), you know your works of supererogation, transferred upon an humble acknowledging sinner, may save even him; having good works enough of your own besides, to ensure yours, and their immortality. And now for the pains you have taken to recommend my dulness, by making it more methodical, I give you a thousand thanks; since true and natural dulness is shewn more by its pretence to form and method, as the sprightliness* of wit by its despising both. I thank you a thousand times for your repeated invitations to come to Binfield: you will find, it will be as hard for you to get quit of my mercenary kindness to you, as it would be for me to deserve, or return yours: however, it shall be the endeavour of my future life, as it will be to demonstrate myself, Your, &c. LETTER XVI. TO MR. WYCHERLEY. Nov. 29, 1707. THE compliments you make me, in regard of any inconsiderable service I could do you, are very unkind, and do but tell me in other words, that my friend has so mean an opinion of me, as * By sprightliness he must mean extravagance of wit. For sober wit would no more despise method than it would despise words, or any other vehicle it uses, to make itself seen to advantage. Warburton. to think I expect acknowledgments for trifles; which, upon my faith, I shall equally take amiss, whether made to myself or to any other. For God's sake (my dear friend) think better of me, and believe I desire no sort of favour so much, as that of serving you more considerably than I have been yet able to do. I shall proceed in this manner with some others of your pieces; but since you desire I would not deface your copy for the future, and only mark the repetitions, I must, as soon as I have marked these, transcribe what is left on another paper; and in that, blot, alter, and add all I can devise, for their improvement. For you are sensible, the omission of repetitions is but one, and the easiest part, of yours and my design; there remaining besides to rectify the method, to connect the matter, and to mend the expression and versification. I will go next upon the poems On Solitude, On the Public, and On the Mixed Life; the Bill of Fare, the Praises of Avarice, and some others. I must take notice of what you say of " my pains to make your dulness methodical;" and of your hint, "that the sprightliness of wit despises method." This is true enough, if by wit you mean no more than fancy or conceit; but in the better notion of wit, considered as propriety, surely method is not only necessary for perspicuity and harmony of parts, but gives beauty even to the minute and particular thoughts, which receive an additional advantage from those which precede or fol |