while he repeats;
His muse alike on ev'ry subject charms,
Whether she paints the god of love, or arms:
In him pathetic Ovid sings again,
And Homer's "Iliad" shines in his "Campaign."
Whenever Garth shall raise his sprightly song,
Sense flows in easy numbers from his tongue;
Great Phoebus in his learned son we see,
Alike in physic, as in poetry.

When Pope's harmonious muse with pleasure roves,
Amidst the plains, the murm'ring streams and groves.
Attentive Echo, pleased to hear his songs,
Thro' the glad shade each warbling note prolongs;
His various numbers charm our ravish'd ears, }
His steady judgment far out-shoots his years, }
And early in the youth the god appears. }

It was in reference to these complimentary lines (which Pope saw in
manuscript) that, on December 21st, 1711, Pope wrote to Cromwell: "I
will willingly return Mr. Gay my thanks for the favour of his poem, and
in particular for his kind mention of me."[14] That letter is
interesting also as being the last exchanged between Pope and his old
friend; and it is instructive, as showing how the acquaintance between
the poets was already ripening, that Pope turned to Gay in his distress
at the defection of his earlier friend. "Our friend, Mr. Cromwell, too,
has been silent all this year. I believe he has been displeased at some
or other of my freedoms, which I very innocently take, and most with
those I think my friends," he wrote to Gay on November 13th, 1712. "But
this I know nothing of; perhaps he may have opened to you, and if I know
you right, you are of a temper to cement friendships, and not to divide
them. I really very much love Mr. Cromwell, and have a true affection
for yourself, which, if I had any interest in the world, or power with
those who have, I should not be long without manifesting to you."[15]

If Pope had lost the friendship of Henry Cromwell, he was certainly
anxious to strengthen the bond that was beginning to be forged between
himself and Gay, to whom he wrote again: "I desire you will not, either
out of modesty, or a vicious distrust of another's value for you--those
two eternal foes to merit--imagine that your letters and conversation
are not always welcome to me. There is no man more entirely fond of
good-nature or ingenuity than myself, and I have seen too much of these
qualities in Mr. Gay to be anything less than his most affectionate
friend and real servant."[16] Tha