prosper your particular, tho' in general miseries no honest man can be easy.

For a brief period Pope stayed quietly at Twickenham, engaged, presumably, in building his ruined arch with a cargo of six tons of rough stone and Bath stone which arrived from Bristol. It was not long, however, before he went off on another round of visits, including a stay with Lord Lyttelton, for whose grounds he planned three buildings. He still hoped to get to Prior Park, but writes: "I am really sore and sick of a journey so many days after it that it deprives me of all the enjoyment and quiet I propose by it, and can only give my friends pain and no pleasure."

On his return he found his pavement new-laid, and observes: "I think all my vanities of this sort are at an end; and I will excuse them to the connoisseurs by setting over my door, in conclusion of them, Parvum Parva decent. I must charge you for encouraging some of them, and others of my friends for encouraging others. But I have had my share, too, of discouragement and censure from enemies; nevertheless, upon the whole, I neither repent much, nor am very proud, but tolerably pleased with them."

In October Allen was expected to pay a short visit to Twickenham, and Pope had promised to return with him on the 19th and spend several weeks at Prior Park. He had already begun his work upon the new book of "The Dunciad," which he hoped to finish in the country. Yet in a letter to Lord Marchmont, dated October 10, he says:

1 Unpublished except for the paragraph in brackets.

"I may tell you that I am determined to publish no more in my life-time, for many reasons, but principally through the zeal I have to speak the whole truth, and neither to praise or dispraise by halves, or with worldly managements. I think fifty an age at which to write no longer for amusements, but for some use, and with design to do some good. I never had any uneasy desire of fame, or keen resentment of injuries, and now both are asleep together.1 Other ambitions I never had, than to be tolerably thought of by those I esteemed; and this has been gratified beyond my proudest hopes."

By November 3 Pope was at Bath, whence he wrote an affectionate letter to Lord Lyttelton, praying not to be forgotten. His political interest was evidently waning, as his absorption grew deeper in the new poem, and he confesses that he can do little or nothing to assist his Opposition friends.

"I fear I live in vain," he continues; "that is, must live only to myself. Yet I feel every day what the Puritans call outgoings of my soul, in the concern I take for some of you, which, upon my word, is a warmer sensation than any I feel in my own, and for my own being. Why are you a courtier? Why is Murray a lawyer? It may be well for other people, but what is that to your own enjoyment, to mine? I would have you both pass as happy and satisfied a life as I have done; you will both laugh at this, but I would have you know, had I been tempted by nature and Providence with the same talents that you and he have, I would have

1 How much truth there was in this boast may be seen later, in his resentment against Cibber's letter.

done as you do. But if either of you ever become tired or stupid, God send you my quiet and my resignation."

Lyttelton replied with his usual cordiality. He envied his friend the quiet and happiness he enjoyed with the Allens. But he wished that Lord Bolingbroke were in England, that he might exhort and animate Pope not to bury his talents in a philosophical indolence, but employ them in the cause of virtue. "The corruption and hardship of the present age is no excuse, for your writings will last to ages to come, and do good a thousand years hence if they can't now; but I believe they would be of great present benefit. The moral song may steal into our hearts and teach us to be as good sons, as good friends, as beneficent, as charitable as Mr. Pope, and that would be serving your country, though you can't raise her up such ministers or such senators as you desire."

CHAPTER LVIII

1742

Change of Government-" The New Dunciad " -Cibber's Letter

IN July 1741 a general election had taken place, which went badly for Walpole, who began to realise that he was nearly at the end of his tether. On December I the new Parliament met. An attack having been opened by Pulteney on the conduct of the war, Walpole accepted the challenge by fixing January 21 for the consideration of the state of the nation. The numerical proportions of the two parties were nearly equal, and the majority would depend upon the results of the contested election returns. Walpole made a bold bid for favour by offering the Prince of Wales an additional fifty thousand a year, but Frederick refused the favour from his hands, though the Boy Patriots secretly attempted to make terms with the minister. On January 21 Pulteney moved that the papers relating to the war should be referred to a secret committee. Walpole made a brilliant speech in his own defence, and the motion was defeated by three votes. But in a subsequent division on a contested election return the Government was beaten by one vote,

and Walpole saw that the game was up. He was created Earl of Orford on February 9, and resigned office on February 11. Lord Wilmington became Prime Minister, with Lord Carteret as Secretary of State.

So much is necessary to make clear certain allusions in Pope's letters at the beginning of this year. Bethel was still in Italy, and on January 1 the poet wrote him a letter which, for once, contained a little public news.

BATH, January 1st [1742].

"Poor Cleland! I shall never forgive Sir Robert.1 Why is he always singling out my friends to hurt so? In my conscience, if he had known 'em he had made them more his friends than his way of thinking allows him to believe. He has painted some of 'em more formidable than they were, upon the supposition they were not so. Unless (what indeed in Cleland's case might be more probable, as he was so much beneath his fearing him) he be too credulous to Informers. For you and I certainly knew that Cleland had been much softened and temperate in his speeches as to party of late years. So much, that he had been suspected by the other party; and though it was a severe, yet it was an honourable mortification for him to lose his bread, in proof of the contrary. Since he was to die so soon, I am glad he was thus justified; that if he was hurt by scoundrels who wanted his place, or wanted to show their zeal to get some other, he was raised and preserved in the opinion of better men. . . .

1 Cleland died in September 1741, having been dismissed from his post as Land-tax Commissioner the previous July.