The indulgence and accommodation which his ficknefs required, had taught him all the unpleafing and unfocial qualities of a valetudinary man. He expected that every thing fhould give way to his eafe or humour, as a child, whose parents will not hear her cry, has an unrefifted dominion in the nursery.

C'est que l'enfant toujours eft homme, C'est que l'homme eft toûjours enfant. When he wanted to fleep, he nodded in company; and once flumbered at his own table, while the Prince of Wales. was talking of poetry.

The reputation which his friendship gave, procured him many invitations; but he was a very troublefome inmate. He brought no fervant, and had fo many wants,

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wants, that a numerous attendance was fcarcely able to fupply them. Whereever he was, he left no room for another, because he exacted the attention and employed the activity of the whole family. His errands were fo frequent and frivolous, that the footmen in time. avoided and neglected him; and the Earl of Oxford discharged fome of the fervants for their refolute refufal of his meffages. The maids, when they had neglected their bufinefs, alleged that they had been employed by Mr. Pope. One of his conftant demands was of coffee in the night, and to the woman that waited on him in his chamber he was very burthenfome; but he was careful to recompenfe her want of fleep;

and

and Lord Oxford's fervant declared, that in a house where her bufinefs was to

anfwer his call, fhe would not ask for wages.

He had another fault, eafily incident to those who, fuffering much pain, think themselves entitled to whatever pleasures they can fnatch. He was too indulgent to his appetite; he loved meat highly seasoned and of ftrong tafte; and, at the intervals of the table, amused himself with bifcuits and dry conferves. If he fat down to a variety of dishes, he would opprefs his ftomach with repletion, and though he seemed angry when a dram was offered him, did not forbear to drink it. His friends, who knew the avenues to his heart, pampered him with P 2

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prefents of luxury, which he did not fuffer to ftand neglected. The death of great men is not always proportioned to the luftre of their lives. Hannibal, fays Juvenal, did not perish by a javelin or a fword; the flaughters of Cannæ were revenged by a ring. The death of Pope was imputed by fome of his friends to a filver faucepan, in which it was his delight to heat potted lampreys.

That he loved too well to eat, is certain; but that his fenfuality fhortened his life will not be haftily concluded, when it is remembered that a conformation fo irregular lafted fix and fifty years, notwithstanding fuch pertinacious diligence of ftudy and meditation.

In all his intercourfe with mankind, he had great delight in artifice, and endeavoured to attain all his purposes by indirect and unfufpected methods. He hardly drank tea without a stratagem. If, at the house of his friends, he wanted any accommodation, he was not willing to afk for it in plain terms, but would mention it remotely as fomething convenient; though, when it was procured, he foon made it appear for whose fake it had been recommended. Thus he teized Lord Orrery till he obtained a fereen. He practifed his arts on fuch fmall occafions, that Lady Bolingbroke used to fay, in a French phrafe, that he plaid the politician about cabbages and turnips. His unjuftifiable impreffion of the Patriot P3 King,