New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-09-05

| woman and INTERPRETERS. ! retired through tnc
| same ceremonies az before. and coult NOT hcIp
| thinking that had been some time il Mahoret =
paradise, much was ] charmed WIN what hi.'i
seen. know not how the relation OF u appears 10
Won. ! wish il may give you part OF my pipitsnIe'
for would have my dear sister share III all the
diversions of. Yours, etc.
Lady Mary kept her vvacty and her somewhat
masculine disposition to an advanced age She was
sixty-seven years old when she wrote thus 10 Der
daughter the Countess of Butte:
Daughter daughter don't call names; Won are
| always abusing my pleasures which is what no
| mortal will bear Trash, lumber, sad stun. are
| the titles you give to my favorlte amusement, III
call white stan a stick OF wood a goa .f Key
gilded brass. and the ensgns or INDUSTRIOUS ORDERS
| coored strings. this may he phlosophlcalIy true.
but would he very i'll received. We have all our
| aythings; happy are they that can he con
tented with those they can obtain those hours are
spent in the wisest manner, that can easiest shaue
the ills of lifo and are the least productive Oh III
| consequences | think my time better employed III
| reading the adventures of imaginary people. imam
the Duchess of Marlborough, who passed the iattei
years of her life in padding with her will. and
| contrivlng schemes of plaguing some and extract
| ing praise from Others. to no purpose eternany
disappointed and eternaly frottmg. The active
| scenes over at my age. indulge win al tne
| art | cam my taste for reading. If would conhne
it TO valuable books they are almost rs rare as val
uahe men. must be content with what | can
! iind As ! approach n second childhood. l en-
| deavor to enter into the pleasures of 1t.
We pass briefly over many pages upon which it
would be pleasant to linger few of Lord Chester.
| fields letters to his son show that Gncal and
worldly philosopher not indccl at his worst. but in
an aspect sufficiently repulslye-the only really
| polished and accomplished writer who ever made
| gentility vulgar and elegance contemptiblc Three
letters from John Wesley expose the hard side of an
| apostle brief note from Lord Chatham to his
wife. the hour of the repeal OF the Stamp Act. Is
n strange mixture OF rhetorical triumph and natural
affection. Dr. Johnsou's noble letter to the Earl of
! - Il : anil tal.l
correspondence with Mr.. Piozz. Boswell dances
grotesque caper of delight, at finding himself travel
ling in the company Of his idol and hastens to I'M
part to David Garrick a of his honor and hap
plness: " Dear, sir, here | am, and Mr.. Samuel
johnson actually with i" Z" Think what en-
thusia tic happiness shall have to see Sr. Samuel
johnson walking among the romantic rocks aud
WOODS OF my ancestors at Auchlnleck.' Goldsmith,
in his pOyorfv resigns petty legacy to his poorer
relations. Gray chats with his friends in strain
which for all its aud lightness IS polished
that Of his verse Samuel Richardson addresses
Aaron lI in the most comca.ly apologize criti-
clsm that ever prosperous bookseller passed upon
poor poet: "As to your particular title TO this
great work, have your pardon to beg IL refer to
your consideration whether epic truly epic, as the
piece is you would choose to call 1t epic in the title
page; since hundreds who will See the title, will
not, at the time have seen your admirable dein-
ton of tie word Excuse sir, this freedom also and
excuse these excuses" We almost the
immortal little kind. honest man with the round
paunch." and "a holo of virtue round bis night
cap as he appears to Us In the pages of " The
Virguans"
But il Is time to pass to another of the great
names IN the roll of ctterwrters. Close upon the
death of Pope, while Lady Mary soacing second
childhood with novels, Horace Wapole followed
4, IN atadI IN Sir Horaca Mann He
is the model for all chronclers Of gossip the hsto
riaus of society Who spend their lives in dressing
falsehood and folly in the disguise of polite letters
and propagating scandal with the aid of epigrams.
No cOrresp Jndence of the period is more generally
entertaining, and no tatter Is less embarrassed by
the truth Macaulay passed Judgment upon the
man in sime apt that Wapole himself might
have been glad to be the author of it, His wri ngs
" rank as high among the delicacIes of intellectual
epicuIes the Strasburg pies among the dishes
described in the Alnanach des Commands. But as
the pate-def oie-Sras Its excellence TO tho dis
eases of the wretched animal which furnishes it
and would be good for nothing if it were not made
Of livers preternaturay swollen, so none hut an
unhealthy and disorgauized mud could have pro-
duced such literary luxuries rs the works of Wal
pole" Nothing seriously occupied his mind-in
literature art in politics. in fashionable society
unless it was little. :" While he was fetching and
carrying the gossip of KensingtOn Palace and Carl
ton House, he fancied that he was engaged in poll
ties, and when lie recorded that gossip he fancied
that he writing history" If we turn back q
century, from Wapole to Waller, for example, to
Clarendon. shall be impressed not by the
vast improvement in piquancy, grace. and huency
of epstolary style than by the decay of conscience
Even from Pope to WalpoIe there is an enormous
fall for where the poet of Twickenhim was art- |
fcla and insincere the accomplished trfer of
Strawberry Hill was petty to the point of baseness
Yet Wapole INA zned that he great enough to
look down upon Pope. He wrote to Sir Horace
Mann:
Your friend Mr. Doddington, it seems. is reduced
rs to he rcapslng into virtue In my last told you
curious anecdotes OF another part of the band,
OF Pope and BOlngir0kc. Inc friends OF TIE |
former have published twenty pamphlets against |
the latter ! say against the latter. for, there is !
no defending Pope. they reduced 10 satirZe |
Bolingbrokc. One OF them tells him how little he |
would he known himself from his own writings, If |
he were not rnmortalIzed III lorts: amt still more
Justly. that if he destroys Popes moral character !
what will become of his own, nhIch has been To- |
treved and sanctited 10y the clbalmng art of his |
friend However there are still discoveries
made every day of Popes dirty selishness Not |
content with the great profits which lie proposed |
To make of the work III question, he could not bear
that the interest OF his money should he lost till
BOlinghrokcs death: and therefore told him that |
it would cost verV near much to have the press !
set for half "A dozen copies as il would for a COM
pctc edition. and by this means made Lord Boiling |
broke pay very nearly the whole expense of the |
fifteen hundred. Another story have been told |
on this OCCASION was of a gentleman who, making |
visit Ia Bishop Attcrhury. in France, thon -ht to !
make his cOur; by commenting Pope. The Bishop |
replied not the gentleman doubled the dose at /
last the Bishop shook his head, and said: " Mems
curva III corpore cury0w The world will now |
think Justly of these men: that Pope the |
greatest poet, but not the most disntcTested man |
in the worll aud that Bonebroke had not all |
tho virtues and not all those talents hch the
other proclaimed; and that h. did not even de
hfaf,
merit and for the mere loan Of which he dissorn-
blcd attachment to Pope to whom in his heart he |
peridious and as false he has been to the |
rest OF the world.