zzle myself about looking those places over and over when I got
home. 'All you need do,' says he, 'is to leave them just as they are;
call on lord Halifax two or three months hence, thank him for his kind
observations on those passages, and then read them to him as altered. I
have known him much longer than you have, and will be answerable for the
event.' I followed his advice; waited on lord Halifax some time after;
said, I hoped he would find his objections to those passages removed;
read them to him exactly as they were at first; and his lordship was
extremely pleased with them, and cried out, 'Aye, now they are perfectly
right: nothing can be better[123].'"

It is seldom that the great or the wise suspect that they are despised
or cheated. Halifax, thinking this a lucky opportunity of securing
immortality, made some advances of favour and some overtures of
advantage to Pope, which he seems to have received with sullen coldness.
All our knowledge of this transaction is derived from a single letter,
Dec. 1,1714, in which Pope says, "I am obliged to you, both for the
favours you have done me, and those you intend me. I distrust neither
your will nor your memory, when it is to do good; and if I ever become
troublesome or solicitous, it must not be out of expectation, but out
of gratitude. Your lordship may cause me to live agreeably in the town,
or contentedly in the country, which is really all the difference I set
between an easy fortune and a small one. It is, indeed, a high strain of
generosity in you to think of making me easy all my life, only because I
have been so happy as to divert you some few hours; but, if I may have
leave to add, it is because you think me no enemy to my native country,
there will appear a better reason; for I must of consequence be very
much, as I sincerely am, yours, &c."

These voluntary offers, and this faint acceptance, ended without effect.
The patron was not accustomed to such frigid gratitude: and the poet fed
his own pride with the dignity of independence. They probably were
suspicious of each other. Pope would not dedicate till he saw at what
rate his praise was valued; he would be "troublesome out of gratitude,
not expectation." Halifax thought himself entitled to confidence; and
would give nothing, unless he knew what he should receive. Their
commerce had its beginning in hope of praise on one side, and of money
on the other, and ended because Pope was less eager of money than