me, that he will send a part of it to you some morning while he is there; and (if you shall think it worth while to descend to particulars) I should be glad you would tell me very freely your opinion about it; for he shall know nothing of the matter, that is not fit for the ears of a tender parent-though, by the way, he has ingenuity and merit enough (whatever his drama may have) to bear hearing his faults very patiently.

I must only beg you not to shew it, much less let it be copied; for it will be published, though not as yet.

2

I do not expect any more editions;1 as I have appeared in more magazines than one. The chief errata were sacred bower for secret; hidden for kindred (in spite of dukes and classics); and "frowning as in scorn" for smiling. I humbly propose, for the benefit of Mr. Dodsley and his matrons, that take awake for a verb, that they should read asleep, and all will be right. Gil Blas is the Lying Valet in

1 Of the "Elegy in a Country Church-yard."

2 Besides these errors of the text, in the Magazine of Magazines, the following occurred :- "their harrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke."-" And read their destiny in a nation's eyes."-"With uncouth rhymes and shapeless culture decked."- "Slow through the churchway pass we saw him borne," "-and many others of less consequence."-[Ed.]

3 "Awake and faithful to her wonted fires."

4 Gil Blas was a comedy by Edward Moore, acted at Drury Lane in 1751. The Lying Valet was a farce Garrick had written in 1740.-[Ed.]

five acts. The Fine Lady1 has half a dozen good lines dispersed in it. Pompey is the hasty production of a Mr. Coventry2 (cousin to him you knew) a young clergyman; I found it out by three characters, which once made part of a comedy that he shewed me of his own writing. Has that miracle of tenderness and sensibility (as she calls it) "Lady Vane" given you any amusement? Peregrine, whom she uses as a vehicle, is very poor indeed, with a few exceptions. In the last volume is a character of Mr. Lyttleton, under the name of "Gosling Serag," and a parody of part of his Monody, under the notion of a Pastoral on the death of his grandmother.-I am ever yours, T. GRAY.

3

LXXXII. TO HORACE WALPOLE.

Cambridge, October 8, 1751.

4

I SEND you this (as you desire) merely to make up half a dozen; though it will hardly answer your end in furnishing out either a head or a tail-piece. But your own fable may much better supply the place. You have altered it to its advantage; but there is

5

1 "The Female Rake, or the Modern Fine Lady" was by Soame Jenyns.-[Ed.]

2 Francis Coventry was the anonymous author of a popular jeu-d'esprit entitled The History of Pompey the Little; or the Life and Adventures of a Lap-Dog, first published in 1751.-[Ed.]

3 Peregrine Pickle, then just issued.-[Ed.]

4 The "Hymn to Adversity."

5 The "Entail;" see Walpole's Works, vol. i. p. 28.

still something a little embarrassed here and there in the expression. I rejoice to find you apply (pardon the use of so odious a word) to the history of your own times. Speak, and spare not. Be as impartial as you can; and after all, the world will not believe you are so, though you should make as many protestations as bishop Burnet. They will feel in their own breast, and find it very possible to hate fourscore persons, yea, ninety and nine: so you must rest satisfied with the testimony of your own conscience. Somebody has laughed at Mr. Dodsley, or at me, when they talked of the bat. I have nothing more either nocturnal or diurnal, to deck his miscellany with. We have a man1 here that writes a good hand; but he has little failings that hinder my recommending him to you. He is lousy, and he is mad he sets out this week for Bedlam; but if you insist upon it, I don't doubt he will pay his respects to you. I have seen two of Dr. Middleton's unpublished works. One is about 44 pages in 4to. against Dr. Waterland, who wrote a very orthodox book2 on the Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity, and insisted that Christians ought to have no communion with such as differ from them in fundamentals. Middleton enters no farther into the doctrine itself than to shew that a mere speculative point can never be called a fundamental: and that

:

1 This was apparently the poet Christopher Smart.-[Ed.] 2 Waterland's Scripture Vindicated was published in 1731. The Miscellaneous Works of Middleton appeared in 1755.-[Ed.]

the earlier fathers, on whose concurrent tradition Waterland would build, are so far, when they speak of the three persons from agreeing with the present notion of our church, that they declare for the inferiority of the Son, and seem to have no clear and distinct idea of the Holy Ghost at all. The rest is employed in exposing the folly and cruelty of stiffness and zealotism in religion, and in shewing that the primitive ages of the church, in which tradition had its rise, were (even by the confession of the best scholars and most orthodox writers) the ara of nonsense and absurdity. It is finished and very well wrote; but has been mostly incorporated into his other works, particularly the enquiry; and for this reason, I suppose, he has writ upon it, "This wholly laid aside." The second is in Latin, on miracles; to shew, that of the two methods of defending Christianity, one from its intrinsic evidence, the holiness and purity of its doctrines, the other from its external, the miracles said to be wrought confirm it; the first has been little attended to by reason of its difficulty; the second much insisted upon, because it appeared an easier task; but that, in reality, it can prove nothing at all. "Nobilis illa quidem defensio (the first) quam si obtinere potuissent, rem simul omnem expediisse, causamque penitus vicisse viderentur. At causae hujus defendendæ labor cum tantâ argumentandi cavillandique molestiâ conjunctus, ad alteram, quam dixi, defensionis viam, ut commodiorem longè et faciliorem, plerosque adegitego verò istius

modi defensione religionem nostram non modo non confirmari, sed dubiam potiùs suspectamque reddi existimo." He then proceeds to consider miracles in general, and afterwards those of the Pagans compared with those of Christ. I only tell you the plan, for I have not read it out (though it is short); but you will not doubt to what conclusion it tends. There is another thing, I know not what, I am to see. As to the Treatise on Prayer, they say it is burnt indeed. -Adieu! I am ever yours, T. GRAY.

LXXXIII.-TO HORACE WALPOLE.

YOUR pen was too rapid to mind the common form of a direction, and so, by omitting the words near Windsor, your letter has been diverting itself at another Stoke, near Ailesbury, and came not to my hands till to-day.

The true original chairs were all sold, when the Huntingdons broke; there are nothing now but Halsey chairs, not adapted to the squareness of gothic dowager's rump. And by the way I do not see how the uneasiness and uncomfortableness of a coronation-chair can be any objection with you: every chair that is easy is modern, and unknown to our ancestors. As I remember there were certain low chairs, that looked like ebony, at Esher, and were old and pretty. Why should not Mr. Bentley improve upon them?-I do not wonder at Dodsley. You have talked to him of six Odes, for so you are pleased to call everything I write, though it be but a receipt to make apple