comes on the instant, from a luminous room, a Camera obscura; on the walls of which all the objects of the river, hills, woods, and boats, are forming a moving picture in their visible radiations; and when you have a mind to light it up, it affords you a very different scene; it is finished with shells interspersed with pieces of looking-glass in angular forms; and in the ceiling is a star of the same material, at which when a lamp (of an orbicular figure of thin alabaster) is hung in the middle, a thousand pointed rays glitter, and are reflected over the place. There are connected to this grotto by a narrower passage two porches, one towards the river, of smooth stones, full of light, and open; the other towards the garden, shadowed with trees, rough with shells, flints, and iron-ores. The bottom is paved with simple pebble, as is also the adjoining walk up the wilderness to the temple, in the natural taste, agreeing not ill with the little dripping murmur, and the aquatic idea of the whole place. It wants nothing to complete it but a good statue with an inscription, like that beautiful antique one which you know I am so fond of: Hujus Nympha loci, sacri custodia fontis, Dormio, dum blandæ sentio murmur aquæ. Parce meum, quisquis tanges cava marmora, somnum *The simplicity of this ancient inscription is indeed eminently beautiful; so also is the following imitation of it by a late writer of true taste, and lover of the ancients : †Thomas Warton. SUB Nymph of the grot, these sacred springs I keep, And drink in silence, or in silence lave! You will think I have been very poetical in this description, but it is pretty near the truth. I t SUB IMAGINE PANIS RUDI Lapide. Hic stans vertice montium supremo Cerno desuper, uberemque sylvam. Quin si fraude malâ quid hinc reportes, Hoc pœnas luito caput bacillo. Our author wrote the following lines on a grotto adorned with shell-work, at Crux-Easton, Hants, which ought to be preserved: Here shunning idleness at once and praise, This radiant pile nine rural sisters raise; The glittering emblem of each spotless dame, Clear as her soul, and shining as her frame; Beauty which Nature only can impart, And such a polish as disgraces art; But fate dispos'd them in this humble sort, And hid in deserts what would charm a court. Warton. * I shall here insert two letters to Sir Hans Sloane, on the ornáments of this grotto: Warton. SIR, To Sir HANS SLOANE. Twickenham, March 30, 1742. I AM extremely obliged to you for your intended kindness of furnishing my grotto with that surprizing natural curiosity, which These were the Misses Lisles, sisters of the well-known Dr. Lisle, who was Chaplain to the Factory at Smyrna; author of several humorous pieces in verse. He is buried in Dibdin church, near Southampton. The family-estate is now in possession of Lord Malmesbury. Bowles. wish you were here to bear testimony how little it owes to art, either the place itself, or the image I give of it. I am, &c. indeed I have ardently sought some time. But I would much rather part with every thing of this sort, which I have collected, than deprive your most copious collection of one thing that may be wanting to it. If you can spare it, I shall be doubly pleased, in having it, and in owing it to you. The further favour you offer me, of a review of your curiosities, deserves my acknowledgment. Could I hope that among the minerals and fossils which I have gathered, there was any thing you could like, it would be esteemed an obligation (if you have time as the season improves) to look upon them and command any. I shall take the first favourable opportunity to inquire when it may be least inconvenient to wait on you, which will be a true satisfaction to, Sir, Your most obliged, and most humble Servant, To Sir HANS SLOANE. A. POPE. SIR, Twickenham, May 22, 1742. I HAVE many true thanks to pay you, for the two joints of the giant's causeway, which I found yesterday at my return to Twitnam, perfectly safe and entire. They will be a great ornament to my grotto, which consists wholly of natural productions, owing nothing to the chisel or polish; and which it would be much my ambition to entice you one day to look upon. I will first wait on you at Chelsea, and embrace with great pleasure the satisfaction you can better than any man afford me, of so extensive a view of Nature, in her most curious works. I am, with all respect, Sir, Your most obliged, and most humble Servant, A. POPE. LETTER XV. TO MR. BLOUNT. Sept. 13, 1725. I SHOULD be ashamed to own the receipt of a very kind letter from you, two whole months from the date of this; if I were not more ashamed to tell a lie, or to make an excuse, which is worse than a lie; for, being built upon some probable circumstance, it makes use of a degree of truth to falsify with, and is a lie guarded.* Your letter has been in my pocket in constant wearing, till that, and the pocket, and the suit are worn out, by which means I have read it forty times, and I find * Pope was not always so particular, as I have a letter before me, to Blount's sister, with these remarkable words: "If you have seen a late advertisement, you will know that I have not told a lie, which we both abominate, but equivocated, pretty genteelly." Pope's definition of a "Lie guarded," cannot fail to recal the Clown's humorous description in "As you like it :" 66 Jaques. But for the seventh cause; how did you find the quarrel upon the seventh cause? "Clown. Upon a lie seven times removed (bear your body more seeming, Audrey), as thus, Sir: I did dislike the cut of a certain courtier's beard; he sent me word, if I said his beard was not cut well, he was in the mind it was: this is called the retort courteous. If I sent him word again, it was not well cut, he would send me word, he cut it to please himself: this is called the quip modest. If again, it was not well cut, he disabled my judgment: this is called the reply churlish. If again, it was not well cut, he would answer, I speak not true: this is called reproof valiant. If again, it was not well cut, he would say, I lied: this is called the counter-check quarrelsome; and so the lie circumstantial and lie direct." Bowles. by so doing that I have not enough considered and reflected upon many others you have obliged me with; for true friendship, as they say of good writing, will bear reviewing a thousand times, and still discover new beauties. I have had a fever, a short one, but a violent : I am now well; so it shall take up no more of this paper. I begin now to expect you in town to make the winter come more tolerable to us both. The summer is a kind of heaven, when we wander in a paradisaical scene among groves and gardens; but at this season, we are, like our poor first parents, turned out of that agreeable though solitary life, and forced to look about for more people to help to bear our labours, to get into warmer houses, and live together in cities. I hope you are long since perfectly restored, and risen from your gout, happy in the delights of a contented family, smiling at storms, laughing at greatness, merry over a Christmas-fire, and exercising all the functions of an old Patriarch in charity and hospitality. I will not tell Mrs. B*** what I think she is doing; for I conclude it is her opinion, that he only ought to know it for whom it is done; and she will allow herself to be far enough advanced above a fine lady, not to desire to shine before men. Your daughters perhaps may have some other thoughts, which even their mother must excuse them for, because she is a mother. I will not, how |