such different periods of life, Pope has himself exercised his wit and good sense, in demonstrating that it has its advantages over more equal attachments. "I know," says he to Mr. Wycherley, (April 30, 1705,) "it is the general opinion, that friendship is best contracted between persons of equal age; but I have so much interest to be of another mind, that you must pardon me if I cannot forbear telling you a few notions of mine in opposition to that opinion. In the first place, it is observable that the love we bear to our friends, is generally caused by our finding the same dispositions in them which we feel in ourselves. This is but self-love at the bottom, whereas the affection between persons of different ages cannot well be so; the inclination of such, being commonly various. The friendship of two young men is often occasioned by love of pleasure, or voluptuousness; each being desirous for his own sake, of one to assist or encourage him in the course he pursues; as that of two old men is frequently on the score of some profit, lucre, or design upon others. Now, as a young man, who is less acquainted with the ways of the world, has in all probability less of interest; and an old man, who may be weary of himself has, or should have, less of self-love; so the friendship between them is more likely to be true, and unmixed with too much self-regard. One may add to this, that such a friendship is of greater use and advantage to both; for the old man will grow gay and agreeable to please the young one, and the young man more discreet and prudent by the help of the old one; so it may prove a cure of those epidemical diseases of age and youth, sourness and madness. I hope you will not need many arguments of the possibility of this. One alone abundantly satisfies me, and convinces to the heart; which is, that young as I am, and old as you are, I am your entirely affectionate," &c.

That the friendship between Wycherley and Pope was cemented by an interchange of good offices, there is every reason to believe; nor was it wholly deprived of those advantages to which Pope has so freely alluded in the foregoing passage, as may appear from the following extract from a letter of Wycherley. “As to your hearing of my being ill, I am glad, and sorry, for the report. In the first place glad, that it was not true; and in the next, sorry that it should give you any disturbance or concern, more than ordinary, for me; for which, as well as your concern for my future well-being in life, I think myself most eternally obliged to you; assuring your concern for either, will make me more careful of both. Yet, for your sake, I love this life so well, that I shall the less think of the other; but it is in your power to ensure my happiness in one and the other, both by your society and good example; so not only contribute to my felicity here, but hereafter."

The advantages which Pope derived from this intercourse were of the highest importance to him, and opened the path in which he found his early and substantial fame. At the request of their author, he undertook the correction of Wycherley's fugitive poems, in the execution of which he displayed a bold, correct, and manly style of criticism; neither servilely commending their beauties, nor sparing their defects. " I have done," says he 3, "all that I thought could be of advantage to them. Some I have contracted, as we do sunbeams, to improve their energy and force; some I have taken quite away, as we take branches from a tree to add to the fruit; others I have entirely new expressed, and turned more into poetry. The few things I have entirely added, you will excuse. You

2 February 28, 1707-8.

3 April 10, 1706.

may take them lawfully for your own, because they are no more than sparks, lighted up by your fire." Dr. Warton has observed, that several of Pope's lines, very easy to be distinguished, may be found in the posthumous editions of Wycherley's Poems; particularly in those "on Solitude," "on the Public," and "on the mixed Life."

The critiques and emendations of Pope were for some time received with the warmest approbation by Wycherley, who expressed his gratitude to Pope in a Copy of Verses which the latter has prefixed to his works, and which do no discredit either to him or their author; but as this task was continued for several years, and as Wycherley, from a very defective memory, the consequence of a severe illness, continued to send pieces to Pope, in which the same ideas were perpetually repeated, Pope found it necessary to apprize him of this circumstance, and accordingly, in a letter dated April 15, 1710, he says: "Upon comparison with the former volume, I find much more repeated than I till now imagined, as well as in the present volume; which, if (as you told me last) you would have me dash over with a line, will deface the whole copy extremely, and to a degree that I fear may displease you. I have every where marked in the margins the page and line, both in this and the other part; but if you order me not to cross the lines, or would any way else limit my commission, you will oblige me by doing it in your next letter; for I am at once fearful of sparing you, and of offending you by too impudent a correction." To this, Wycherley, on the 27th of the same month, replies: "You give me an account in your letter of the trouble you have undergone for me, in comparing my papers you took down with you, with the old printed volume, and with one another of that bundle you have in your hands; amongst which, you say, you find numerous re

petitions of the same thoughts and subjects; all which, I must confess, my want of memory has prevented me from imagining, as well as made me capable of committing; since, of all figures, that of tautology is the last I would use, at least forgive myself for. But seeing is believing; wherefore I will take some pains to examine and compare those papers in your hands with one another, as well as with the former printed copies or books of my damned miscellanies; all which (as bad a memory as I have), with a little more pains and care, I think I can remedy. Therefore I would not have you give yourself more trouble about them, which may prevent the pleasure you have, and may give the world, in writing upon new subjects of your own; whereby you will much better entertain yourself and others." "As to what you call freedom with me (which you desire me to forgive), you may be assured I would not forgive you, unless you did use it; for I am so far from thinking your plainness an offence to me, that I think it a charity and an obligation, which I shall always acknowledge with all sort of gratitude for it.”

The reply of Pope to this letter, which terminated his critical labours on the poems of Wycherley, and which is highly creditable to his temper and conduct, is the last of their correspondence; but it sufficiently appears, from other circumstances, that even before this time some impressions unfavourable to their friendship had been made on the mind of Wycherley, which Pope did not, however, attribute to the freedoms he had taken with his poems, but to the malice of some person, "who had not been wanting in insinuating malicious untruths of him to Mr. Wycherley." What these were, we have not been informed; but whatever they may have been, they did not extinguish in the breast of Pope his attachment to his friend, of whom he always spoke with the greatest attachment and

kindness, as appears from his letters to Mr. Cromwell, in one of which he says: "Be assured that gentleman (Wycherley) shall never, by any alteration in me, discover any knowledge of his mistake; the hearty forgiving of which is the only kind of return I can possibly make him for so many favours. And I may derive this pleasure at least from it, that whereas I must otherwise have been a little uneasy to know my incapacity of returning his obligations, I may now, by bearing his frailty, exercise my gratitude and friendship, more than himself either is, or perhaps ever will be sensible of:

"Ille meos primus qui me sibi junxit amores

Abstulit! ille habeat secum servetque sepulchro."

From this it appears, that Pope, in his acquaintance with Wycherley, acted throughout the part of a sincere and constant friend; having not only criticised the poems submitted to him with freedom and judgment, but having thereby rendered the author an essential service, of which he seems to have been truly sensible. When some degree of jealousy or distrust appears to have been excited between them, Pope still conducts himself as a person conscious of his own integrity, and still retaining the most friendly attachment, as is evinced by his continuing to visit Wycherley occasionally to the time of his death, in December, 1715, and by the manner in which he always spoke of him afterwards. Yet, upon this connexion, the last editor of Pope has thought proper to remark, that "the whole transaction brings to our recollection the character and language of Trissotin, in the inimitable comedy of Molière, the Femmes Savantes 4!"

The literary connexions of Pope now began rapidly to extend, and with them the number of his corre

4 Bowles's Pope, vol. vii. p. 57.