appear, from a curious Letter to Racine the Son, who had accufed him of infidelity, here inferted. "J'AUROIS eu l'honneur, Monfieur, de répon"dre plutôt à votre lettre, fi je n'avois pas toujours "attendu le beau présent dont vous m'avez honoré. J'ai reçu enfin votre Poëme fur la Religion. Le "plaifir que me caufa cette lecture eût été fans mé lange, fi je n'avois eu le chagrin de voir que vous m'imputiez des principes que j'abhorre. Je ne m'en "fuis confolé qu'en lifant l'endroit de votre avertiffe"ment ou vous déclarez que n'entendant pas l'origi«nal Anglois vous ne pouvez pas juger de l'Essai "fur l'Homme par vous même ; & que vous n'attaque, pas mes principes, mais les fauffes conféquences qu'on "en a tirées, & les dangereufes maximes que quelques "perfonnes ont cru y trouver. Cet aveu est une << preuve éclatante de votre candeur, de votre pru"dence, & de votre charité. "Je puis vous affurer, Monfieur, que votre entière "ignorance de notre Langue, m'a été beaucoup moins "fatale que la connoiffance imparfaite qu'en avoient mes traducteurs, qui les a empêché de penétrer mes " véritables fentimens. Toutes les beautés de la verfification de M. D. R... ont été moins honora "bles à mon Poëme, que fes méprifes continuelles "fur fur mes raifonnemens & fur ma doctrine ne lui ont « été préjudiciables. Vous verrez ces méprifes re« levées & réfutées dans l'ouvrage Anglois que j'ai "l'honneur de vous envoyer. Cet ouvrage eft un "commentaire critique & philofophique par le fça"vant Auteur de la Divine Légation de Moife. 66 Je me flatte que le Chevalier de Ramfay, rempli "comme l'eft d'un zele ardent pour la vérité, vou"dra bien vous en expliquer le contenu. Alors je "m'en rapporterai à votre justice, & je me flatte que "tous vos foupçons feront diffipés. "En attendant ces éclairciffemens, je ne fçaurois me refufer le plaifir de répondre nettement à ce "que vous defirez fçavoir de moi. Je déclare donc hautement & très-fincèrement, "que mes fentimens font diamétralement oppofés à "ceux de Spinoza & même à ceux de Leibnitz, puif"qu'ils font parfaitement conformés à ceux de M, "Pascal & de M. l'Archevêque de Fenelon, & que je ferois gloire d'imiter la docilité du dernier, en "foumettant toujours toutes mes opinions particu "lières aux décifions de l'Eglife. "A LONDRES, "le 1 Septembre 1742." "Je fuis, avec, &c. Voltaire has affirmed, "that Pope, to his know. ledge, had not skill enough in the French language ❝ to have been able to have written this Letter to Ra❝cine; C 4 "cine; and that if he really wrote it, he must sud"denly have been bleft with a gift of tongues, as a "reward for writing fo admirable a work as the Effay on Man." "If you would read," fays Metaftafio, "this poem "without fcruple, I recommend to you the excellent "tranflation in terza rima, lately published, 1770, by "Count Giuf. Ferrero di Lauriano. In the judicious, "christian, and learned notes with which he has illuf“trated the work, you will see the innocence of the ઃઃ 66 original evidently proved. You will find in Pope a great poet and a deep philofopher; but not such "axioms as are neceffary to fupport his own fyftem." Few pieces can be found that, for depth of thought, and penetration into the human mind and heart, excel the Epistle to Lord Cobham, first published 1733. This nobleman appears to have been much courted by the wits and writers of his time. Congreve addreffed two Epiftles in a pleafing and flowing ftyle to him, and in a manner very Horatian. The most laboured of the two ends with a thought much cenfured by Swift; "that men have been always the "fame:" "That virtue now is neither more nor lefs, Among memory Among the many infcriptions at Stow, that to the * of Congreve is expreffed with a particular warmth of affection. Cobham being difmiffed from the command of his regiment, by a pretty violent act of the Minifter, against whofe measures he had voted, particularly on the Excife Bill, became a popular character among the patriots. To him Glover infcribed his Leonidas, a poem much read and celebrated at its first publication; as to a person highly distinguished by his disinterested zeal, and unshaken fidelity to his country, not lefs in civil life than in the field; and Dr. King introduced him, in his Templum Libertatis, as a principal figure, under the name of Varius; a long and languid work, that certainly leant more to Republicanism than to Jacobitism, though King was commonly, and as I think, from my knowledge of him at that period of his life, falfely reckoned a Jacobite; for he was for ever ridiculing, as I well remember, the doctrine of paffive obedience and non-refistance. But it was the cant of that time, and the art of the Minifter and his adherents, to stigmatize every man that dared to oppose his measures with that odious and contemptible name. Cobham, in his retirement from the court and bufiness, employed himself in making and beautifying the harfh terms, * Dr. Young once expreffed himself to me in very of what he termed the vanity of Congreve, in bequeathing by his will ten thousand pounds to the Duchefs of Marlborough, and nothing to Mrs. Bracegirdle, who had been long his favourite, and to whom he had many obligations. the celebrated gardens at Stow, of which Lord Peterborough fays to Pope, on his vifiting them, "I went "thither to see what I had feen, and was fure to like. I "had the idea of thofe gardens fo fixed in my imagi"nation by many descriptions, that nothing furprised 66 me; immenfity and Vanbrugh appear in the “whole, and in every part. I confess the stately "Saccharifa at Stow; but am content with my "little Amoret :" meaning Bevis Mount, near Southampton. Lord Cobham wrote two Letters to Pope on occafion of this Epiftle, which are fo full of good fense, that they ought to be brought forward, and inferted in this place, as they are not found in the collection of our Author's Letters. "Stowe, Nov. 1, 1733. "THOUGH I have not modesty enough not to be "pleased with your extraordinary compliment, I have "wit enough to know how little I deferve it. You "know all mankind are putting themselves upon the "world for more than they are worth, and their "friends are daily helping the deceit. But I am " afraid I fhall not pass for an abfolute patriot; how"ever, I have the honour of having received a pub"lic teftimony of your efteem and friendship, and "am as proud of it as I could be of any advantage "which could happen to me. As I remember, when` "I faw the Brouillion of this Epistle, it was per "plexed; |