who
had sought his acquaintance from admiration of the benevolence and
goodness of heart which pervaded his letters, offered to bear the cost
of the impression. The public by their backwardness afforded Pope the
opportunity he professed to desire of dropping the work, but the
patronage of an individual was sufficient encouragement. He at once
replied that he would "not serve his private fame entirely at another's
expense," but that he would "accept the assistance in any moderate
degree," which meant that he would allow Allen to defray the outlay
which was in excess of the amount subscribed.[104] Time wore on, the
letters were three-quarters printed, and the subscribers were few.[105]
In his first receipts the poet had stated that if he did not proceed
with the book the money should be returned on demand after
midsummer.[106] The unwilling public pleaded the uncertainty as a reason
for not putting down their names. He admitted that the doubt they
expressed was a pretence, and informed Allen that to deprive them of the
pretext he had substituted receipts in which he promised to deliver the
volume by Lady Day.[107] His object, he said, was to save Allen's purse.
The reluctance had ceased to be with the poet. He began by consenting to
print a book he would rather not have printed, that he might oblige the
world, and ended by compelling the world to subscribe to a book they
would rather not have purchased, that they might oblige Pope.

The subscription was a guinea for a quarto volume, and the donation of
Allen, which Pope acknowledged in his will, was probably paid in part on
this occasion. The copyright was purchased by Dodsley,[108] and from
these united sources of emolument the book produced, as Johnson had
heard, "sufficient profit."[109] It appeared on May 18, 1737, in folio
and quarto, and a little later in octavo, that the various sizes might
range with previous editions of the poet's works. In the preface he
enters into a history of the fate which had attended his letters, and of
the circumstances which compelled him to publish them, but with a
studious avoidance of every question which had been raised by the
collection of 1735. He says it is notorious what means have been taken
to procure his correspondence, and disposes of the single instance which
required explanation by enumerating among the methods "the transacting
with people who dealt without names in the dark." He says that several
letters have been ascribed