s: duties, or obliging themselves to be true to love."


s: This consideration cannot but abate in some measure the reader's


s: pleasing has in different men produced actions of heroism, and


s: from April to December, in 1650, are preserved in "Miscellanea


s: This expression, from a secretary of the present time, would be


s: considered as merely ludicrous, or at most as an ostentatious


s: consulted on this great occasion the Virgilian lots, and to have


s: given some credit to the answer of his oracle.


s: Some years afterwards, "business," says Sprat, "passed of course


s: dismissed without the security of a thousand pounds given by Dr.


s: him, and indeed it does not seem to have lessened his reputation.


s: into a prison, will be willing enough to retire to some place of


s: quiet and of safety.  Yet let neither our reverence for a genius,


s: activity was virtue, his retreat was cowardice.


s: power (which was much taken notice of by the royal party), he


s: This is no favourable representation; yet even in this not much


s: obedience.  He may engage to do nothing, but not to do ill.


s: trusted without security, for the bond of his bail was never


s: returned into France, where he resumed his former station, and


s: "He continued," says his biographer, "under these bonds till the


s: A doctor of physic, however, he was made at Oxford in December,


s: There is no reason for supposing that he ever attempted practice:


s: display the qualities of herbs, in elegiac verse; the third and


s: At the same time were produced, from the same university, the two


s: purity or elegance, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own


s: says Wood, "by certain persons, enemies to the Muses."


s: What firmness they expected, or what weakness Cowley discovered,


s: cannot be known.  He that misses his end will never be as much


s: pleased as he that attains it, even when he can impute no part of


s: For the rejection of this play it is difficult now to find the


s: reason:  it certainly has, in a very great degree, the power of


s: fixing attention and exciting merriment.  From the charge of


s: That he might shorten this tedious suspense, he published his


s: Savoy-missing Cowley came into the court,


s: That Apollo gave heed to all he could say:


s: Nor would he have had, 'tis thought, a rebuke,


s: Writ verses unjustly in praise of Sam Tuke,


s: His vehement desire of retirement now came again upon him.  "Not


s: "He was now," says the courtly Sprat, "weary of the vexations and


s: that moved him to follow the violent inclination of his own mind,


s: called upon him, and represented to him the true delights of


s: solitary studies, of temperate pleasures, and a moderate revenue


s: below the malice and flatteries of fortune."


s: unable to move or turn myself in my bed.  This is my personal


s: hanging.  Another misfortune has been, and stranger than all the


s: monstri simile.  I do hope to recover my late hurt so far within


s: five or six days (though it be uncertain yet whether I shall ever


s: He did not long enjoy the pleasure or suffer the uneasiness of


s: He was buried with great pomp near Chaucer and Spenser; and King


s: Charles pronounced, "That Mr. Cowley had not left behind him a


s: irritated, was obliged to pass over many transactions in general


s: Cowley, like other poets who have written with narrow views, and,


s: different forms.  About the beginning of the seventeenth century


s: appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical


s: poets; of whom, in a criticism on the works of Cowley, it is not


s: The metaphysical poets were men of learning, and to show their


s: If the father of criticism had rightly denominated poetry [Greek


s: text], AN IMITATIVE ART, these writers will, without great wrong,


s: Those, however, who deny them to be poets, allow them to be wits.


s: If wit be well described by Pope, as being "that which has been


s: often thought, but was never before so well expressed," they


s: diction.  But Pope's account of wit is undoubtedly erroneous; he


s: But wit, abstracted from its effects upon the hearer, may be more


s: improvement dearly bought, and though he sometimes admires, is


s: affections.  As they were wholly employed on something unexpected


s: impassive and at leisure; as epicurean deities, making remarks on


s: novelty, could have little hope of greatness; for great things


s: could be born a metaphysical poet, nor assume the dignity of a


s: writer, by descriptions copied from descriptions, by imitations


s: borrowed from imitations, by traditional imagery, and hereditary


s: similes, by readiness of rhyme, and volubility of syllables.


s: Cowley adopted it, and excelled his predecessors, having as much


s: As the authors of this race were perhaps more desirous of being


s: admired than understood, they sometimes drew their conceits from


s: The sacred tree 'midst the fair orchard grew;


s: That right Porphyrian tree which did true logic show.


s: The very shads they cast did other lights outshine.


s: On Anacreon continuing a lover in his old age:


s: If 'twere not injured by extrinsic blows:


s: Your youth and beauty are this balm in you.


s: And virtue and such ingredients, have made


s: Keeps off, or cures what can be done or said.


s: This twilight of two years, not past nor next,


s: Who, meteor-like, of stuff and form perplext,


s: If I should call me anything, should miss.


s: Debtor to th' old, nor creditor to th' new.


s: That cannot say, my thanks I have forget,


s: Nor trust I this with hopes; and yet scarce true


s: This bravery is, since these times show'd me you--DONNE.


s: All the world's riches; and in good men, this


s: Virtue, our form's form, and our soul's soul, is


s: Of thoughts so far-fetched, as to be not only unexpected, but


s: They, who above do various circles find,


s: Say, like a ring, th' equator Heaven does bind


s: (Which then more Heaven than 'tis will be)


s: Then the sun pass through't twice a year,


s: The sun, which is esteem'd the god of wit.--COWLEY.


s: Five years ago (says story) I loved you,


s: For which you call me most inconstant now;


s: No flesh is now the same 'twas then in me,


s: And that my mind is changed yourself may see.


s: The same thoughts to retain still, and intents


s: Must of all things most strangely inconstant prove,


s: If from one subject they t' another move;


s: My members then the father members were,


s: From whence these take their birth, which now are here


s: If then this body love what th' other did,


s: 'Twere incest, which by nature is forbid.


s: The soil's all barren sand, or rocky stone.--COWLEY.


s: To overflowings of the heart below.--COWLEY.


s: The lover supposes his lady acquainted with the ancient laws of


s: Her sacrifice is found without an heart.


s: Shall sigh out that too, with my breath.


s: Th' ungovern'd parts no correspondence knew;


s: An artless war from thwarting motions grew;


s: Till they to number and fixed rules were brought.


s: Earth made the base; the treble flame arose.--COWLEY.


s: And quickly make that which was nothing, all.


s: A globe, yea world, by that impression grow,


s: Till thy tears mixed with mine do overflow


s: This world, by waters sent from thee my heaven dissolved so.


s: On reading the following lines, the reader may perhaps cry out


s: Hers lies a she sun, and a he moon here,


s: They unto one another nothing owe.--DONNE.


s: Who but Donne would have thought that a good man is a telescope?


s: Though God be our true glass through which we see


s: All, since the being of all things is He,


s: Yet are the trunks, which do to us derive


s: Things in proportion fit, by perspective


s: Deeds of good men; for by their living here,


s: Virtues, indeed remote, seem to be near.


s: Who would imagine it possible that in a very few lines so many


s: Since 'tis my doom, love's undershrieve,


s: The sober Julian were th' account of man,


s: Whilst you live by the fleet Gregorian.--CLEVELAND.


s: Of enormous and disgusting hyperboles, these may be examples:


s: As shall themselves make winds to get to you.--COWLEY.


s: So lust of old the deluge punished.--COWLEY.


s: All arm'd in brass, the richest dress of war,


s: (A dismal glorious sight!) he shone afar.


s: The sun himself started with sudden fright,


s: To see his beams return so dismal bright.--COWLEY.


s: His bloody eyes he hurls round, his sharp paws


s: Tear up the ground; then runs he wild about,


s: Beasts creep into their dens, and tremble there;


s: Trees, though no wind is stirring, shake with fear;


s: Silence and horror fill the place around;


s: Echo itself dares scarce repeat the sound.--COWLEY.


s: Their fictions were often violent and unnatural.


s: To the false light that treacherous fishers show,


s: And all with as much ease might taken be,


s: Though every night the sun himself set there.--COWLEY.


s: The poetical effect of a lover's name upon glass:


s: Both contribute my firmness to this glass:


s: As hard as that which graved it was.--DONNE.


s: And trusts the faithless April of thy May.--COWLEY.


s: But when a genial heat warms thee within,


s: A new-born wood of various lines there grows;


s: And all the flourishing letters stand in rows.--COWLEY.


s: The wound, which you yourself have made;


s: For I too weak of purgings grow.--COWLEY.


s: Mahol th' inferior world's fantastic face


s: Through all the turns of matter's maze did trace;


s: Great Nature's well-set clock in pieces took;


s: On all the springs and smallest wheels did look


s: Made up the whole again of every part.--COWLEY.


s: Yet why should hallow'd vestal's sacred shrine


s: Deserve more honour than a flaming mine?


s: These pregnant wombs of heat would fitter be,


s: Had he our pits, the Persian would admire


s: No sun, but warm's devotion at our fire:


s: He'd leave the trotting whipster, and prefer


s: Our profound Vulcan 'bove that waggoner.


s: For wants he heat, or light? or would have store


s: Of both? 'tis here:  and what can suns give more?


s: Nay, what's the sun but, in a different name,


s: The sun's heaven's coalery, and coals our sun.


s: E'er rigg'd a soul for Heaven's discovery,


s: With whom more venturers might boldly dare


s: Venture their stakes with him in joy to share.--DONNE.


s: Their thoughts and expressions were sometimes grossly absurd, and


s: Down on cold earth; and for a while was dead,


s: And my freed soul to a strange somewhere fled.


s: When back to its cage again I saw it fly;


s: Where it condemned and destined is to burn!


s: Death should a thing so pleasant seem to thee,


s: That thou should'st come to live it o'er again in me?--COWLEY.


s: Woe to her stubborn heart, if once mine come


s: Then shall Love keep the ashes and torn parts,


s: From hers th' allay, from mine the metal take.--COWLEY


s: The prince's favour is diffused o'er all,


s: From which all fortunes names, and natures fall:


s: Then from those wombs of stars, the Bride's bright eyes,


s: And sows the court with stars, and doth prevent


s: In light and power, the all-ey'd firmament:


s: First her eye kindles other ladies' eyes,


s: And all is warmth, and light, and good desire.--DONNE.


s: That a mistress beloved is fairer in idea than in reality is by


s: Than woman can be placed by Nature's hand;


s: To change thee as thou'rt there, for very thee.


s: In none but us are such mix'd engines found,


s: As hands of double office; for the ground


s: We till with them; and them to heaven we raise


s: Who prayerless labours, or, without this, prays,


s: In my youth's morning, now late must be done;


s: Which stray or sleep all day, and having lost


s: Light and strength, dark and tired, must then ride post.


s: All that man has to do is to live and die; the sum of humanity is


s: Think in how poor a prison thou didst lie


s: Think, when 'twas grown to most, 'twas a poor inn,


s: A province pack'd up in two yards of skin,


s: And that usurp'd, or threaten'd with a rage


s: Of sicknesses or their true mother, age.


s: But think that death hath now enfranchised thee;


s: Thou hast thy expansion now, and liberty;


s: Think, that a rusty piece discharged is flown


s: And freely flies:  this to thy soul allow,


s: Think thy shell broke, think thy soul hatch'd but now.


s: They were sometimes indelicate and disgusting.  Cowley thus


s: Thou subtle thief, from whom nought safe can be!


s: Add one more likeness, which I'm sure you can,


s: Thus he represents the meditations of a lover:


s: Though in thy thoughts scarce any tracts have been


s: Hither with crystal vials, lovers, come,


s: And take my tears, which are love's wine,


s: For all are false, that taste not just like mine.--DONNE.


s: As that which from chas'd musk-cat's pores doth trill,


s: Such are the sweet drops of my mistress' breast.


s: And on her neck her skin such lustre sets,


s: They seem no sweat drops, but pearl coronets:


s: Rank, sweaty froth thy mistress' brow defiles.--DONNE.


s: But all pains eminently lie in thee.--COWLEY.


s: They were not always strictly curious, whether the opinions from


s: which they drew their illustrations were true; it was enough that


s: continued by tradition, because they supply commodious allusions.


s: It gave a piteous groan, and so it broke:


s: Like poison put into a Venice-glass.--COWLEY.


s: In forming descriptions, they looked out not for images, but for


s: conceits.  Night has been a common subject, which poets have


s: contended to adorn.  Dryden's Night is well known; Donne's is as


s: Thou seest me here at midnight, now all rest:


s: Time's dead low-water; when all minds divest


s: To-morrow's business; when the labourers have


s: Such rest in bed, that their last church-yard grave,


s: Subject to change, will scarce be a type of this;


s: Now when the client, whose last hearing is


s: To-morrow, sleeps; when the condemned man,


s: Who, when he opes his eyes, must shut them the


s: Again by death, although sad watch he keep;


s: It must be, however, confessed of these writers, that if they are


s: And both the horns of fate's dilemma wound;


s: If things then from their end we happy call


s: 'Tis Hope is the most hopeless thing of all.


s: Who, whilst thou shouldst but taste, devour'st it quite!


s: Thou bring'st us an estate, yet leav'st us poor


s: For joy, like wine kept close, does better taste


s: If it take air before its spirits waste.


s: Our two souls, therefore, which are one,


s: delight, by their desire of exciting admiration.


s: himself has persuaded many readers to join with him in his


s: preference of the two favourite odes, which he estimates in his


s: raptures at the value of a kingdom.  I will, however, venture to


s: Of all the passages in which poets have exemplified their own


s: Yet 'tis not to adorn and gild each part,


s: Rather than all things wit, let none be there.


s: Men doubt, because they stand so thick i' th' sky,


s: If those be stars which paint the galaxy.


s: It may be remarked, that in this elegy, and in most of his


s: distinguish, and how to commend, the qualities of his companion;


s: The verses to Davenant, which are vigorously begun, and happily


s: sufficiently observed:  the few decisions and remarks, which his


s: The lines from Jersey are a very curious and pleasing specimen of


s: His two metrical disquisitions FOR and AGAINST Reason are no mean


s: English verses which he is known to have written, seems to have


s: copied, though with the inferiority of an imitator.


s: The Holy Book like the eighth sphere doth shine


s: So numberless the stars, that to our eye


s: Yet Reason must assist too; for, in seas


s: Our course by stars above we cannot know


s: therefore closed his Miscellanies with the verses upon Crashaw,


s: To the Miscellanies succeed the Anacreontics, or paraphrastical


s: gaiety, in which even the morality is voluptuous, and which teach


s: readers, and perhaps, if they would honestly declare their own


s: perceptions, to far the greater part of those whom courtesy and


s: ignorance are content to style the learned.


s: present habitudes of thought.  Real mirth must always be natural,


s: Levity of thought naturally produces familiarity of language, and


s: introduced, is practised, not by those who talk to be understood,


s: The Anacreontics, therefore, of Cowley, give now all the pleasure


s: The principal artifice by which "The Mistress" is filled with


s: found it full-blown in modern Italy.  Thus Sannazaro:


s: Aspice quam variis distringar Lesbia curis!


s: Uror, et heu! nostro manat ab igne liquor:


s: Sum Nilus, sumque AEtna simul; restringite flammas


s: O lacrimae, aut lacrimas ebibe flamma meas.


s: One of the severe theologians of that time censured him as having


s: kindness and cruelty, her disdain and inconstancy, produce no


s: trifling, always admire as ingenious, and always condemn as


s: The Pindaric Odes are now to be considered; a species of


s: composition, which Cowley thinks Pancirolus might have counted in


s: show precisely what Pindar spoke, but his manner of speaking.  He


s: reader of less skill seem thrown together by chance, are


s: The spirit of Pindar is indeed not everywhere equally preserved.


s: In the Nemaean Ode, the reader must, in mere justice to Pindar,


s: observe, whatever is said of the original new moon, her tender


s: forehead and her horns, is superadded by his paraphrast, who has


s: And feast more upon thee, than thou on it


s: In the following odes, where Cowley chooses his own subjects, he


s: Begin the song, and strike the living lyre:


s: Lo how the years to come, a numerous and well-fitted quire,


s: And to my song with smooth and equal measure dance;


s: While the dance lasts, how long soe'er it be,


s: - 'Tis an unruly and hard-mouth'd horse -


s: But flings writer and reader too that sits not sure.


s: The fault of Cowley, and perhaps of all the writers of the


s: metaphysical race, is that of pursuing his thoughts to their last


s: particulars is turned more upon the original than the secondary


s: Of this we have a very eminent example in the ode entitled the


s: "Muse," who goes to "take the air" in an intellectual chariot, to


s: Let the POSTILLION Nature mount, and let


s: And let the airy FOOTMEN, running all beside,


s: Figures, conceits, raptures, and sentences,


s: And innocent loves, and pleasant truths, and useful lies,


s: Mount, glorious queen, thy travelling throne,


s: And life, alas! allows but one ill winter's day.


s: In the same ode, celebrating the power of the Muse, he gives her


s: prescience, or, in poetical language, the foresight of events


s: Thou into the close nests of Time dost peep,


s: Through the firm shell and the thick white float spy


s: The same thought is more generally, and therefore more poetically


s: revive "the noblest and highest writing in verse," makes this


s: Vain, fruitless love I mean; for, gentle year,


s: As by thy cruel predecessors has been shown:


s: For, though I have too much cause to doubt it,


s: I fain would try, for once, if life can live without it.


s: The reader of this will be inclined to cry out with Prior -


s: syllables to twelve.  The verses of Pindar have, as he observes,


s: If the Pindaric style be, what Cowley thinks it, "the highest and


s: preferred for its near affinity to prose."


s: This lax and lawless versification so much concealed the


s: The Pindaric Odes have so long enjoyed the highest degree of


s: poetical reputation, that I am not willing to dismiss them with


s: fancy.  The thoughts are often new, and often striking; but the


s: appearance of a fabric august in the plan, but mean in the


s: poems have been left unfinished by Virgil, Statius, Spenser, and


s: Whatever is said of Cowley, is meant of his other works.  Of the


s: "Davideis" no mention is made; it never appears in books, nor


s: emerges in conversation.  By the "Spectator" it has been once


s: quoted; by Rymer it has once been praised; and by Dryden, in "Mac


s: vain; all addition to that which is already sufficient for the


s: purposes of religion seems not only useless, but in some degree


s: Once general of a gilded host of sprites,


s: Like Hesper leading forth the spangled nights;


s: But down like lightning, which him struck, he came


s: And roar'd at his first plunge into the flame.


s: declarations of her zeal utters these lines:


s: Do thou but threat, loud storms shall make reply,


s: Whilst raging seas swell to so bold an height,


s: As shall the fire's proud element affright,


s: Th' old drudging sun, from his long-beaten way,


s: Shall at thy voice start, and misguide the day.


s: The jocund orbs shall break their measured pace,


s: And stubborn poles change their allotted place.


s: Heaven's gilded troops shall flutter here and there,


s: Leaving their boasting songs tuned to a sphere.


s: Every reader feels himself weary with this useless talk of an


s: It is not only when the events are confessedly miraculous, that


s: uncommunicable; so that it is difficult even for imagination to


s: place us in the state of them whose story is related, and by


s: consequence their joys and griefs are not easily adopted, nor can


s: To the subject thus originally indisposed to the reception of


s: poetical embellishments, the writer brought little that could


s: reconcile impatience, or attract curiosity.  Nothing can be more


s: Saxum antiquum, ingens, campo quod forte jacebat


s: Limes agro positus, litem ut discerneret arvis.


s: Cowley says of the stone with which Cain slew his brother,


s: I saw him fling the stone, as if he meant


s: Of the sword taken from Goliath, he says,


s: To cut off his great head that came with it.


s: Other poets describe Death by some of its common appearances.


s: Cowley says, with a learned allusion to sepulchral lamps real or


s: 'Twixt his right ribs deep pierced the furious blade,


s: And open'd wide those secret vessels where


s: Life's light goes out, when first they let in air.


s: But he has allusions vulgar as well as learned in a visionary


s: Joas at first does bright and glorious show,


s: In life's fresh morn his fame does early crow.


s: Heartless, unarm'd, disorderly, and loud,


s: The king was placed alone, and o'er his head


s: A well-wrought heaven of silk and gold was spread.


s: Whatever he writes is always polluted with some conceit:


s: Where the sun's fruitful beams give metals birth,


s: Where he the growth of fatal gold does see,


s: Gold, which alone more influence has than he.


s: In one passage he starts a sudden question to the confusion of


s: Ye learned heads, whom ivy garlands grace,


s: Why does that twining plant the oak embrace;


s: The oak for courtship most of all unfit,


s: And rough as are the winds that fight with it?


s: Nay, gentle guests, he cries, since now you're in,


s: As glimmering stars just at th' approach of day,


s: Cashier'd by troops, at last all drop away.


s: The dress of Gabriel deserves attention:


s: He took for skin a cloud most soft and bright,


s: That e'er the mid-day sun pierced through with light;


s: Upon his cheeks a lively blush he spread,


s: Wash'd from the morning beauties' deepest red:


s: An harmless flatt'ring meteor shone for hair,


s: And fell adown his shoulders with loose care;


s: He cuts out a silk mantle from the skies,


s: Where the most sprightly azure pleased the eyes;


s: This he with starry vapours sprinkles all,


s: Took in their prime ere they grow ripe and fall;


s: The choicest piece cut out, a scarf is made.


s: told, and been dismissed to improve the idea in our different


s: proportions of conception; but Cowley could not let us go till he


s: I' th' library a few choice authors stood,


s: Yet 'twas well stored, for that small store was good;


s: Writing, man's spiritual physic, was not then


s: Learning (young virgin) but few suitors knew;


s: And with the spurious brood loads now the press;


s: As the "Davideis" affords only four books, though intended to


s: consist of twelve, there is no opportunity for such criticism as


s: Epic poems commonly supply.  The plan of the whole work is very


s: disposing his matter; and perhaps the perception of this growing


s: "Davideis" can be missed, it is for the learning that had been


s: diffused over it, and the notes in which it had been explained.


s: Had not his characters been depraved like every other part by


s: His way once chose, he forward threat outright.


s: Rymer has declared the "Davideis" superior to the "Jerusalem" of


s: Tasso, "which," says he, "the poet, with all his care, has not


s: compared; for the resemblance of Cowley's work to Tasso's is only


s: commonly to operate upon the mind by suggestion; Tasso represents


s: Of particular passages that can be properly compared, I remember


s: Ministri humili, e'l moto, e ch'il misura.


s: never delighted; and find much to admire, but little to approve.


s: Still, however, it is the work of Cowley, of a mind capacious by


s: In the general review of Cowley's poetry it will be found that he


s: pathetic, and rarely sublime; but always either ingenious or


s: His character of writing was indeed not his own; he unhappily


s: He was in his own time considered as of unrivalled excellence.


s: Clarendon represents him as having taken a flight beyond all that


s: such resemblance to the noble epigram of Grotius on the death of


s: Although I think thou never found wilt be,


s: So, though the chymic his great secret miss


s: Yet things well worth his toil he gains:


s: With good unsought experiments by the way.--COWLEY.


s: Some that have deeper digg'd Love's mine than I,


s: Say, where his centric happiness doth lie:


s: But should I love, get, tell, till I were old,


s: So lovers dream a rich and long delight,


s: But get a winter-seeming summer's night.


s: Jonson and Donne, as Dr. Hurd remarks, were then in the highest


s: It is related by Clarendon, that Cowley always acknowledged his


s: offended; and which would not be borne in the present age, when


s: devotion, perhaps not more fervent, is more delicate.


s: Having produced one passage taken by Cowley from Donne, I will


s: His spear, the trunk was of a lofty tree,


s: Which Nature meant some tall ship's mast should be.


s: His spear, to equal which the tallest pine


s: that only, which custom has given them.  Language is the dress of


s: The diction, being the vehicle of the thoughts, first presents


s: Of all this, Cowley appears to have been without knowledge, or


s: without care.  He makes no selection of words, nor seeks any


s: It seems to follow from the necessity of the subject, rather than


s: fortuitous:  he sinks willingly down to his general carelessness,


s: His contractions are often rugged and harsh:


s: One flings a mountain, and its rivers too


s: His rhymes are very often made by pronouns, or particles, or the


s: like unimportant words, which disappoint the ear, and destroy the


s: His combination of different measures is sometimes dissonant and


s: The words "do" and "did," which so much degrade in present


s: estimation the line that admits them, were in the time of Cowley


s: Where honour or where conscience DOES not bind


s: Who by resolves and vows engaged DOES stand


s: DOES like an unthrift mortgage his estate,


s: All that he DOES receive DOES always owe.


s: And still as Time comes in, it goes away,


s: Which his hour's work as well as hours DOES tell:


s: Unhappy till the last, the kind releasing knell.


s: Round the whole earth his dreaded name shall sound,


s: Yet amidst his negligence he sometimes attempted an improved and


s: Nor can the glory contain itself in th' endless space.


s: "I am sorry that it is necessary to admonish the most part of


s: divers other places of this poem, that else will pass as very


s: incongruous and unsociable ideas.  What there is peculiar in the


s: sound of the line expressing "loose care," I cannot discover; nor


s: He, who defers this work from day to day,


s: Till the whole stream that stopp'd him shall be gone,


s: The author of the "Davideis" is commended by Dryden for having


s: intended to complete them; that this opinion is erroneous, may be


s: unfinished; and because all that can be done by a broken verse, a


s: After so much criticism on his poems, the essays which accompany


s: them must not be forgotten.  What is said by Sprat of his


s: conversation, that no man could draw from it any suspicion of his


s: pages are embellished with all the ornaments which books could


s: supply; that he was the first who imparted to English numbers the


s: poems of Rochester, and was asked whether he would allow the


s: convention, and offence against morality.


s: Matthew Prior is one of those that have burst out from an obscure


s: others say that he was the son of a joiner of London:  he was


s: The same year he published "The City Mouse and Country Mouse," to


s: Montague.  There is a story of great pain suffered, and of tears


s: suppose him vexed, it would be hard to deny him sense enough to


s: nobles, to which Europe has perhaps scarcely seen anything equal,


s: The conduct of Prior, in this splendid initiation into public


s: The death of Queen Mary (in 1695) produced a subject for all the


s: writers--perhaps no funeral was ever so poetically attended.


s: presented to the king, by whom it was not likely to be ever read.


s: distinction.  As he was one day surveying the apartments at


s: Versailles, being shown the "Victories of Louis," painted by Le


s: Brun, and asked whether the King of England's palace had any such


s: The pictures of Le Brun are not only in themselves sufficiently


s: This year (1700) produced one of his longest and most splendid


s: compositions, the "Carmen Seculare," in which he exhausts all his


s: Among the advantages to arise from the future years of William's


s: reign, he mentions a Society for Useful Arts, and among them:-


s: "Some that with care true eloquence shall teach,


s: And to just idioms fix our doubtful speech;


s: That from our writers distant realms may know


s: And schools profess our tongue through every land


s: That has invoked his aid, or blessed his hand."


s: Tickell, in his "Prospect of Peace," has the same hope of a new


s: "In happy chains our daring language bound,


s: Shall sport no more in arbitrary sound."


s: Whether the similitude of those passages, which exhibit the same


s: persuaded the king to the Partition Treaty, a treaty in which he


s: himself had been ministerially employed.


s: leisure to make or to polish verses.  When the Battle of Blenheim


s: epistle to Boileau.  He published, soon afterwards, a volume of


s: poems, with the encomiastic character of his deceased patron, the


s: The Battle of Ramillies soon afterwards (in 1706) excited him to


s: another effort of poetry.  On this occasion he had fewer or less


s: formidable rivals, and it would be not easy to name any other


s: composition produced by that event which is now remembered.


s: when France was disgraced and overpowered in every quarter of the


s: calamities, and the name of an Englishman was reverenced through


s: money, the unreasonable conduct of the allies, the avarice of


s: generals, the tyranny of minions, and the general danger of


s: The negotiation was begun at Prior's house, where the queen's


s: ambassador, though no public character.  By some mistake of the


s: queen's orders the court of France had been disgusted, and


s: Bolingbroke says in his letter, "Dear Mat,--Hide the nakedness of


s: Soon after, the Duke of Shrewsbury went on a formal embassy to


s: confidence by Louis, who sent him with a letter to the queen,


s: Paris, Bolingbroke wrote to Prior thus:- "Monsieur de Torcy has a


s: On the 1st of August, 1714, ensued the downfall of the Tories and


s: before a committee of the Privy Council, of which Mr. Walpole was


s: there is printed an account not unentertaining, behaved with the


s: boisterousness of men elated by recent authority.  They are


s: represented as asking questions sometimes vague, sometimes


s: insidious, and writing answers different from those which they


s: come before a legal judicature, he should have contradicted or


s: present when the preliminary articles were talked of or signed at


s: their solemn promise that nothing which I should say should hurt


s: myself, I had no reason to trust them, for they violated that


s: promise about five hours after.  However, I owned I was there


s: tedious by writing his "Alma."  He was, however, soon after


s: discharged.  He had now his liberty, but he had nothing else.


s: Whatever the profit of his employments might have been, he had


s: always spent it; and at the age of fifty-three was, with all his


s: The price of the volume was two guineas; the whole collection was


s: purchase of Down Hall, which Prior was to enjoy during life, and


s: Harley after his decease.  He had now, what wits and philosophers


s: tranquillity.  But it seems that busy men seldom live long in a


s: state of quiet.  It is not unlikely that his health declined, he


s: complains of deafness; "for," says he, "I took little care of my


s: ears while I was not sure if my head was my own."


s: Of any occurrences of his remaining life I have found no account.


s: He died at Wimpole, a seat of the Earl of Oxford, on the 18th of


s: Qui anno 1697 Pacem RYSWICKI confecerunt,


s: Qui apud Gallos annie proximis Legationem obierunt


s: Qui anno 1700 ordinandis Commercii negotiis,


s: Quique anno 1711 dirigendis Portorii rebus,


s: Diuque ut boni jam omnes sperant duratura),


s: Hos omnes, quibus cumulates est, Titulos


s: Cui enim nascenti faciles arriserant Mesae.


s: Hunc Puerum Schola hic Regia perpolivit;


s: Cantabrigia optimis Scientiis instruxit;


s: Sed solebat saepe rerum civilium gravitatem


s: Tum in Fabellis concinne lepideque texendis


s: Facile ii perspexere, quibus usus est Amici;


s: Interea nihil quaesitum, nihil vi expressum


s: Et quasi jugi e foote affatim exuberare,


s: therefore, must now be destitute of his private character and


s: familiar practices.  He lived at a time when the rage of party


s: designs, but by peculiar affection, to the Earl of Oxford and his


s: He was, however, in Pope's opinion, fit only to make verses, and


s: experience of his own knowledge and dexterity, at last sent to


s: Prior fell to railing at the performer with all the terms of


s: In a gay French company, where every one sang a little song or


s: Chloe probably was sometimes ideal:  but the woman with whom he


s: Dazzled and spent, sunk down, and sought repair.'"


s: Poor Prior; why was he so STRAINED, and in such WANT OF REPAIR,


s: His tales have obtained general approbation, being written with


s: introduced by a preface, neither necessary nor pleasing, neither


s: grave nor merry.  "Paulo Purganti," which has likewise a preface,


s: affectation not disagreeable, with modern images.  "The Young


s: exercises of a skilful versifier, resolved at all adventures to


s: write something about Chloe, and trying to be amorous by dint of


s: BATHING.  Then Cupid is MISTAKEN; then Cupid is DISARMED; then he


s: tries to act the lover without the help of gods or goddesses, his


s: compare it with the original.  The epistle to Boileau is not so


s: happy.  The "Poems to the King," are now perused only by young


s: censure it by caprice without danger of detection; for who can be


s: His poem on the Battle of Ramillies is necessarily tedious by the


s: length, cold and lifeless like this, may be easily written on any


s: In his epilogues to Phaedra and to Lucius he is very happily


s: "Solomon" is the work to which he entrusted the protection of his


s: veneration.  His affection was natural; it had undoubtedly been


s: perceived in it many excellences, and did not discover that it


s: Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults; negligence or errors


s: faults are censured and forgotten, but the power of tediousness


s: propagates itself.  He that is weary the first hour is more weary


s: tendency, pass more and more slowly through every successive


s: ourselves; and the act of composition fills and delights the mind


s: subsided.  And even if he should control his desire of immediate


s: consults his friends he will probably find men who have more


s: kindness than judgment, or more fear to offend than desire to


s: instruct.  The tediousness of this poem proceeds not from the


s: original production, with how much justice this epigram may tell,


s: "Quidam sacrificus furem comitatus euntem


s: Ne sis moestus, ait; summi conviva Tonantis


s: Jam cum coelitibus (si modo credis) eris.


s: Ille gemens, si vera mihi solatia praebes,


s: Hospes apud superos sis meus oro, refert.


s: Sacrificus contra; mihi non convivia fas est


s: English poets; and he was one of the first that resolutely


s: idleness; he has no careless lines, or entangled sentiments; his


s: disproportion of his rhymes, which have not always sufficient


s: consonance, and from the admission of broken lines into his


s: "Solomon;" but perhaps he thought, like Cowley, that hemistichs


s: ought to be admitted into heroic poetry.


s: He had apparently such rectitude of judgment as secured him from


s: come till they were called, and were then put by constraint into


s: striking.  He has altered the stanza of Spenser as a house is


s: "She flying fast from Heaven's fated face,


s: And from the world that her discovered wide,


s: From living eyes her open shame to hide,


s: And lurked in rocks and caves long unespied.


s: But that fair crew of knights, and Una fair,


s: To rest themselves, and weary powers repair,


s: Where store they found of all that dainty was and rare?"


s: "To the close rock the frightened raven flies,


s: The shaggy wolf unseen and trembling lies,


s: When the hoarse roar proclaims the lion near.


s: Ill-starred did we our forts and lines forsake,


s: Our conquest we by stratagem should make;


s: Our triumph had been founded in our flight.


s: 'Tis ours by craft and by surprise to gain;


s: 'Tis theirs to meet in arms, and battle in the plain."


s: regularity of measures; for, when he commenced poet, he had not


s: lightness, and facility.  What is smooth is not soft.  His verses


s: uncle's, "The vessel long retains the scent which it first


s: occasions and nobler subjects, when habit was overpowered by the


s: necessity of reflection, he wanted not wisdom as a statesman, or


s: William Congreve descended from a family in Staffordshire of so


s: great antiquity, that it claims a place among the few that extend


s: novel called "Incognita; or, Love and Duty Reconciled;" it is


s: composed with great elaborateness of dialogue, and incessant


s: manager allowed its author the privilege of the house.


s: Few plays have ever been so beneficial to the writer, for it


s: hundred pounds a year.  Congreve's conversation must surely have


s: been at least equally pleasing with his writings.


s: presupposes a familiar knowledge of many characters, and exact


s: nothing flows necessarily from the occasion, or is dictated by


s: nature.  The characters, both of men and women, are either


s: coward; and Fondlewife, a jealous Puritan; and the catastrophe


s: arises from a mistake, not very probably produced, by marrying a


s: Next year he gave another specimen of his abilities in The Double


s: against their will.  But though taste is obstinate, it is very


s: In another year (1695) his prolific pen produced Love for Love, a


s: common.  Dryden calculated nativities; both Cromwell and King


s: tragedian, where he exhibited two years afterwards (1687) The


s: Mourning Bride, a tragedy, so written as to show him sufficiently


s: But whatever objections may be made either to his comic or tragic


s: some time to shine in eminence, have passed their probation of


s: whole system of doctrine into disrepute, and from the Restoration


s: published "A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the


s: little notice, when they were accumulated and exposed together,


s: excited horror.  The wise and the pious caught the alarm, and the


s: licentiousness to be openly taught at the public charge.


s: very young man, elated with success, and impatient of censure,


s: assumed an air of confidence and security.  His chief art of


s: controversy is to retort upon his adversary his own words:  he is


s: acknowledged, with universal conviction, that the perusal of his


s: obligations by which life ought to be regulated.


s: The stage found other advocates, and the dispute was protracted


s: Of the powers by which this important victory was achieved, a


s: Sir Samps.  "Sampson's a very good name; for your Sampsons were


s: From this time his life ceased to be public; he lived for himself


s: Having owed his fortune to Halifax, he continued, always of his


s: reverenced.  His security therefore was never violated; and when,


s: "Non obtusa adeo gestamus pectora Poeni,


s: Nec tam aversus equos Tyria sol jungit ab urbe."


s: He that was thus honoured by the adverse party might naturally


s: suppose without trust or care, but which, with his post in the


s: mentioned him with respect, and among other testimonies to his


s: merit, Steele made him the patron of his "Miscellany," and Pope


s: inscribed to him his translations of the "Iliad."  But he treated


s: fashion than of wit; and, when he received a visit from Voltaire,


s: In his retirement he may be supposed to have applied himself to


s: house in Surrey Street in the Strand, January 29, 1728-9.  Having


s: superfluous and useless, might have given great assistance to the


s: imprudence of his relation, reduced to difficulties and distress.


s: Congreve has merit of the highest kind; he is an original writer,


s: inspected them many years have passed, but what remains upon my


s: memory is, that his characters are commonly fictitious and


s: artificial, with very little of nature, and not much of life.  He


s: consist in gay remarks and unexpected answers; but that which he


s: It was a fancied noise; for all is hushed.


s: It was thy fear, or else some transient wind


s: Whistling through hollows of this vaulted isle:


s: No, all is hushed and still as death.--'Tis dreadful!


s: How reverend is the face of this tall pile,


s: Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads,


s: To bear aloft its arched and ponderous roof,


s: By its own weight made steadfast and immovable,


s: Looking tranquillity!  It strikes an awe


s: And terror on my aching sight; the tombs


s: And monumental caves of death look cold,


s: And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart.


s: Give use thy hand, and let me hear thy voice;


s: Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear


s: Thy voice--my own affrights me with its echoes.


s: "The rocks are cleft, and new-descending rills


s: Furrow the brows of all the impending hills.


s: The water-gods to floods their rivulets turn,


s: And each, with streaming eyes, supplies his wanting urn.


s: The fauns forsake the woods, the nymphs the grove,


s: And round the plain in sad distractions rove:


s: In prickly brakes their tender limbs they tear,


s: And leave on thorns their locks of golden hair.


s: With their sharp nails, themselves the satyrs wound,


s: And tug their shaggy beards, and bite with grief the ground.


s: And to the piercing winds her bosses bare.


s: And see yon fading myrtle, where appears


s: The Queen of Love, all bathed in flowing tears;


s: See how she wrings her hands, and beats her breast,


s: And tears her useless girdle from her waist:


s: Hear the sad murmurs of her sighing doves!


s: For grief they sigh, forgetful of their loves."


s: And many years after he gave no proof that time had improved his


s: wisdom or his wit, for, on the death of the Marquis of Blandford,


s: "And now the winds, which had so long been still,


s: Began the swelling air with sighs to fill;


s: The water-nymphs, who motionless remained


s: Like images of ice, while she complained,


s: Now loosed their streams; as when descending rains


s: Roll the steep torrents headlong o'er the plains.


s: The prone creation who so long had gazed


s: Charmed with her cries, and at her griefs amazed,


s: Began to roar and howl with horrid yell,


s: Nothing but groans and sighs were heard around,


s: And echo multiplied each mournful sound."


s: "The hovering winds on downy wings shall wait around,


s: And catch, and waft to foreign lands, the flying sound."


s: It cannot but be proper to show what they shall have to catch and


s: "'Twas now, when flowery lawns the prospect made,


s: And flowing brooks beneath a forest shade,


s: Stood feeding by; while two fierce bulls prepared


s: Their armed heads for light, by fate of war to prove


s: The victor worthy of the fair one's love;


s: Unthought presage of what met next my view;


s: And now, for woods, and fields, and springing flowers,


s: Behold a town arise, bulwarked with walls and lofty towers;


s: Two rival armies all the plain o'erspread,


s: Each in battalia ranged, and shining arms arrayed


s: With eagle eyes beholding both from far,


s: Namur, the price and mistress of the war."


s: The "Birth of the Muse" is a miserable fiction.  One good line it


s: "This said, no more remained.  The ethereal host


s: Again impatient crowd the crystal coast.


s: The father now, within his spacious hands,


s: Encompassed all the mingled mass of seas and lands;


s: And, having heaved aloft the ponderous sphere,


s: He launched the world to float in ambient air."


s: sprightliness are wanting; his "Hymn to Venus," from Homer, is


s: His "Art of Pleasing" is founded on a vulgar, but perhaps


s: impracticable principle, and the staleness of the sense is not


s: concealed by any novelty of illustration or elegance of diction.


s: Sir Richard Blackmore is one of those men whose writings have


s: mentioned by enemies than by friends.  He was the son of Robert


s: Blackmore, of Corsham in Wiltshire, styled by Wood Gentleman, and


s: educated in a country school, he was at thirteen sent to


s: which he seems to have passed with very little attention to the


s: business of the place; for, in his poems, the ancient names of


s: nations or places, which he often introduces, are pronounced by


s: chance.  He afterwards travelled.  At Padua he was made doctor of


s: In some part of his life, it is not known when, his indigence


s: perspicacity of malice, animated by wit, has ever fixed upon his


s: When he first engaged in the study of physic, he inquired, as he


s: sought for better, he commenced physician, and obtained high


s: adversaries had recourse in the penury of scandal.


s: Blackmore, therefore, was made a poet not by necessity but


s: I believe it is peculiar to him that his first public work was an


s: published (in 1695) "Prince Arthur," in ten books, written, as he


s: uncertain hours as his profession afforded, and for the greatest


s: reception, at a time when literary curiosity was yet confined to


s: particular classes of the nation.  Such success naturally raised


s: animosity; and Dennis attacked it by a formal criticism, more


s: tedious and disgusting than the work which he condemns.  To this


s: critical abilities."  He seems to have been more delighted with


s: Arthur," in two years more (1697) he sent into the world "King


s: Arthur" in twelve.  The provocation was now doubled, and the


s: knighthood, with the present of a gold chaise and medal.  The


s: What Blackmore could contribute to the Succession, or what he


s: malignity, lived long enough to ridicule in a Prologue.


s: The wits easily confederated against him, as Dryden, whose favour


s: besides, given them reason for resentment, as, in his preface to


s: The same year he published a "Satire on Wit," a proclamation of


s: defiance which united the poets almost all against him, and which


s: Here is again discovered the inhabitant of Cheapside, whose head


s: cannot keep his poetry unmingled with trade.  To hinder that


s: intellectual bankruptcy which he affects to fear he will erect a


s: "Bank for Wit."  In this poem he justly censured Dryden's


s: present occasion.  Jacob says "it is corrected and revised from


s: another impression," but the labour of revision was thrown away.


s: collection.  Whoever judges of this by any other of Blackmore's


s: performances will do it injury.  The praise given it by Addison


s: (Spectator, 339) is too well known to be transcribed; but some


s: notice is due to the testimony of Dennis, who calls it a


s: solidity and strength of its reasoning."


s: Why an author surpasses himself it is natural to inquire.  I have


s: could, either improvement or correction; so that," said Philips,


s: "there are perhaps nowhere in the book thirty lines together that


s: The relation of Philips, I suppose, was true; but when all


s: reasonable, all credible allowance is made for this friendly


s: distribution of its parts, the choice of topics, the train of


s: argument, and, what is yet more, the general predominance of


s: philosophical judgment and poetical spirit.  Correction seldom


s: effects more than the suppression of faults:  a happy line, or a


s: single elegance, may perhaps be added; but of a large work, the


s: make verses was his transcendent pleasure, and, as he was not


s: stopped, he considered the polite world as destitute of


s: described, had retired to a house in the country to enjoy


s: philosophical leisure, and resolved to instruct the public by


s: hero of the club is one Mr. Johnson, such a constellation of


s: "The first I shall name is Mr. Johnson, a gentleman that owes to


s: distinguishing, just, and delicate; his judgment clear, and his


s: reason strong, accompanied with an imagination full of spirit, of


s: unbiassed by the authority of those who have lazily followed each


s: felicity in finding out trifles.  He is no less industrious to


s: beauties than exposing the blemishes of a laudable writing.  Like


s: The rest of the lay monks seem to be but feeble mortals an


s: comparison with the gigantic Johnson, who yet, with all his


s: abilities and the help of the fraternity, could drive the


s: publication but to forty papers, which were afterwards collected


s: Some years afterwards (1716 and 1717) he published two volumes of


s: Blackmore's prose is not the prose of a poet, for it is languid,


s: "As to its efficient cause, WIT owes its production to an


s: extraordinary and peculiar temperament in the constitution of the


s: exalted ferments, and an affluence of animal spirits, refined and


s: operations of the mind, by which means the imagination can with


s: great facility range the wide field of Nature, contemplate an


s: infinite variety of objects, and, by observing the similitude and


s: purpose.  Hence beautiful allusions, surprising metaphors, and


s: different qualities, relations, and habitudes, it can at pleasure


s: religion of their country, no doubt but the author would have


s: their turn to show particular respect and friendship to this


s: insolent derider of the worship of his country, till at last the


s: from the excessive esteem and love that men in power, during the


s: In another place he speaks with becoming abhorrence of a GODLESS


s: coiner of the accusation, but never denied it, and was afterwards


s: One of his essays is upon the spleen, which is treated by him so


s: much to his own satisfaction, that he has published the same


s: than could be expected from the common tenor of his prose:-


s: "--As the several combinations of splenetic madness and folly


s: produce an infinite variety of irregular under-standing, so the


s: amicable accommodation and alliance between several virtues and


s: degree of piety with ill-nature and ungoverned passions.  Nor are


s: unjust, impious lovers of their country, and flagitious heroes,


s: good-natured sharpers, immoral men of honour, and libertines who


s: will sooner die than change their religion; and though it is true


s: Having succeeded so well in his book on Creation, by which he


s: established the great principle of all religion, he thought his


s: undertaking imperfect, unless he likewise enforced the truth of


s: used in Churches," which being recommended by the archbishops and


s: He was not yet deterred from heroic poetry.  There was another


s: Contempt is a kind of gangrene, which, if it seizes one part of a


s: despised as a poet, was in time neglected as a physician; his


s: practice, which was once invidiously great, forsook him in the


s: latter part of his life, but being by nature, or by principle,


s: something in them of vexation and discontent, discovered by a


s: perpetual attempt to degrade physic from its sublimity, and to


s: represent it as attainable without much previous or concomitant


s: supercilious derision of transmitted knowledge.  Of this indecent


s: "As for this book of aphorisms, it is like my Lord Bacon's of the


s: entertained every day with more valuable sentiments at the table


s: conversation of ingenious and learned men."


s: I am unwilling, however, to leave him in total disgrace, and will


s: learning, that signifies nothing for the service of mankind; and


s: useful practiser than a heavy notional scholar, encumbered with a


s: behind him "The Accomplished Preacher; or, an Essay upon Divine


s: Eloquence," which was printed after his death by Mr. White of


s: Nayland, in Essex, the minister who attended his death-bed, and


s: Blackmore, by the unremitted enmity of the wits, whom he provoked


s: treatment than he deserved.  His name was so long used to point


s: when his boldness of reprehension naturally turned upon him many


s: eyes desirous to espy faults which many tongues would have made


s: never discovered to have disturbed his quiet, or to have lessened


s: endeavouring to depreciate and degrade him, he either despised or


s: principles, and he left minute researches to those whom he


s: accuracy of thought, nor elegance of diction.  It has either been


s: In his descriptions both of life and nature, the poet and the


s: philosopher happily co-operate; truth is recommended by elegance,


s: "But that which Arthur with most pleasure heard


s: Were noble strains, by Mopas sung the bard,


s: And through the secret maze of Nature ran.


s: He the Great Spirit sung, that all things filled,


s: That the tumultuous waves of Chaos stilled;


s: Whose nod disposed the jarring seeds to peace,


s: And made the wars of hostile Atoms cease.


s: Streams of his unexhausted spring of power,


s: And, cherished with his influence, endure.


s: He spread the pure cerulean fields on high,


s: And arched the chambers of the vaulted sky,


s: Which he, to suit their glory with their height,


s: Adorned with globes, that reel, as drunk with light.


s: His hand directed all the tuneful spheres,


s: He turned their orbs, and polished all the stars.


s: He filled the Sun's vast lamp with golden light:


s: And bid the silver Moon adorn the night.


s: He spread the airy Ocean without shores,


s: Where birds are wafted with their feathered oars.


s: Then sung the bard how the light vapours rise


s: From the warm earth, and cloud the smiling skies;


s: He sung how some, chilled in their airy flight,


s: Fall scattered down in pearly dew by night;


s: How some, raised higher, sit in secret steams


s: On the reflected points of bounding beams,


s: Till, chilled with cold, they shade th' ethereal plain,


s: Then on the thirsty earth descend in rain;


s: How some, whose parts a slight contexture show,


s: Sink hovering through the air in fleecy snow;


s: How part is spun in silken threads, and clings


s: Entangled in the grass is gluey strings;


s: How others stamp to stones, with rushing sound


s: Fall from their crystal quarries to the ground;


s: How some are laid in trains, that kindled fly,


s: In harmless fires by night, about the sky;


s: How some in winds blow with impetuous force,


s: And carry ruin where they bend their course,


s: While some conspire to form a gentle breeze,


s: To fan the air, and play among the trees;


s: How some, enraged, grow turbulent and loud,


s: That cracks, as if the axis of the world


s: Was broke, and Heaven's bright towers were downwards hurled.


s: He sung how earth's wide ball, at Jove's command,


s: And how the soul of plants, in prison held,


s: And bound with sluggish fetters, lies concealed,


s: Till with the spring's warm beams, almost released


s: From the dull weight, with which it lay opprest,


s: Its vigour spreads, and makes the teeming earth


s: Heave up, and labour with the sprouting birth:


s: The active spirit freedom seeks in vain,


s: It only works and twists a stronger chain;


s: Urging its prison's sides to break a way,


s: It makes that wider, where 'tis forced to stay:


s: Till, having formed its living house, it rears


s: Its head, and in a tender plant appears.


s: Hence springs the oak, the beauty of the grove,


s: Whose stately trunk fierce storms can scarcely move.


s: Hence grows the cedar, hence the swelling vine


s: Does round the elm its purple clusters twine.


s: Hence painted flowers the smiling gardens bless,


s: Both with their fragrant scent and gaudy dress.


s: Hence the white lily in full beauty grows,


s: Hence the blue violet and blushing rose.


s: He sung how sunbeams brood upon the earth,


s: And in the glebe hatch such a numerous birth;


s: Which way the genial warmth in Summer storms


s: How rain, transformed by this prolific power,


s: Falls from the clouds an animated shower.


s: He sung the embryo's growth within the womb,


s: And how the parts their various shapes assume.


s: With what rare art the wondrous structure's wrought,


s: From one crude mass to such perfection brought;


s: That no part useless, none misplaced we see,


s: None are forgot, and more would monstrous be."


s: Alexander Pope was born in London, May 22, 1688, of parents whose


s: never discovered till Mr. Tyers told, on the authority of Mrs.


s: Being not sent early to school, he was taught to read by an aunt;


s: From the care of Taverner, under whom his proficiency was


s: considerable, he was removed to a school at Twyford, near


s: "Metamorphoses."  If he kept the same proportion in his other


s: About the time of the Revolution his father, who was undoubtedly


s: "Tully's Offices," it is now vain to inquire.  Of a youth so


s: successfully employed, and so conspicuously improved, a minute


s: Pope, finding little advantage from external help, resolved


s: thenceforward to direct himself, and at twelve formed a plan of


s: study, which he completed with little other incitement than the


s: subjects and obliging him to correct his performances by many


s: revisals, after which the old gentleman, when he was satisfied,


s: take him to the coffee-house which Dryden frequented, and pleased


s: forward boys have attained, and which is not equal to Cowley's


s: performance at the same age.  His time was now wholly spent in


s: published.  He must have been at this time, if he had no help, a


s: considerable proficient in the Latin tongue.


s: numbers surpassed his original; but this is a small part of his


s: praise; he discovers such acquaintance both with human life and


s: Next year he was desirous of opening to himself new sources of


s: does not appear to have ever made much use in his subsequent


s: genius that ever was."  Self-confidence is the first requisite to


s: judgment, afterwards destroyed.  "Alcander," the epic poem, was


s: burnt by the persuasion of Atterbury.  The tragedy was founded on


s: himself that their interviews ended in friendship and


s: correspondence.  Pope was, through his whole life, ambitious of


s: From the age of sixteen the life of Pope, as an author, may be


s: humour.  Pope was proud of his notice.  Wycherley wrote verses in


s: revision, and when Pope, perhaps proud of such confidence, was


s: correction.  Their correspondence afforded the public its first


s: Walsh, a name yet preserved among the minor poets, was one of his


s: wanting health for violent and money for expensive pleasures, and


s: authors presented with undistinguishing voracity, and with an


s: appetite for knowledge too eager to be nice.  In a mind like his,


s: with those of Pope.  The same year was written the "Essay on


s: knowledge both of ancient and modern learning, as are not often


s: attained by the maturest age and longest experience.  It was


s: humanity, and magnanimity.  How the attack was clandestine is not


s: Its success he admits to be secured by the false opinions then


s: prevalent; the author he concludes to be "young and raw."


s: "First, because he discovers a sufficiency beyond his little


s: ability, and hath rashly undertaken a task infinitely above his


s: force.  Secondly, while this little author struts and affects the


s: pedantic slave to authority and opinion.  Thirdly, he hath, like


s: "There are whom Heaven has blessed with store of wit,


s: For wit and judgment ever are at strife--"


s: Where wanted scorned; and envied where acquired?"


s: I have preserved, I think, all that is reasonable in Dennis's


s: criticism; it remains that justice be done to his delicacy.  "For


s: modern; for had he been born of Grecian parents, and his father


s: monkey, should differ so much from human shape as his unthinking,


s: hostility between Pope and Dennis, which, though it was suspended


s: him, he discovers, by mentioning him very often, that he felt his


s: Dennis was not his only censurer; the zealous Papists thought the


s: praised; but to these objections he had not much regard.


s: Robotham, secretary to the king for Hanover, and by Resnel; and


s: intermediate ideas may be formed, such as, when it is once shown,


s: In the Spectator was published the "Messiah," which he first


s: when his "Essay" was published.  The lady's name and adventures I


s: her, but found it rejected in favour of a young gentleman of


s: inferior condition.  Having discovered the correspondence between


s: nothing to fear.  Her lover took care to repeat his vows; but his


s: dignifying the amorous fiery of a raving girl.


s: dreading a surreptitious edition, was forced to publish it.


s: have some doubt; for at Paris, a few years ago, a niece of Mrs.


s: Fermor, who presided in an English convent, mentioned Pope's work


s: This has been too hastily considered as an instance of Addison's


s: there had been no examples, he might very reasonably and kindly


s: He, indeed, could never afterwards produce anything of such


s: unexampled excellence.  Those performances, which strike with


s: published some remarks upon it with very little force and with no


s: About this time he published the "Temple of Fame," which, as he


s: tells Steele in their correspondence, he had written two years


s: before--that is, when he was only twenty-two years old, an early


s: time of life for so much learning and so much observation as that


s: remarks, of which the most reasonable is that some of the lines


s: represent motion as exhibited by sculpture.


s: Of the Epistle from "Eloisa to Abelard," I do not know the date.


s: religious hope and resignation gives an elevation and dignity to


s: addition begins we are not told.  The lines relating to the peace


s: politician, he could not live a day; and, as a poet, he must have


s: prologue; and, when Dennis published his remarks, undertook, not


s: There is reason to believe that Addison gave no encouragement to


s: this disingenuous hostility, for, says Pope, in a letter to him,


s: This year was printed in the Guardian the ironical comparison


s: between the pastorals of Philips and Pope, a composition of


s: artifice, criticism, and literature, to which nothing equal will


s: easily be found.  The superiority of Pope is so ingeniously


s: design, and, as it seems, had malice enough to conceal his


s: It appears that about this time Pope had a strong inclination to


s: books.  He therefore resolved to try how far the favour of the


s: public extended by soliciting a subscription to a version of the


s: Dryden's "Virgil," and it had been tried again with great success


s: subscribers, in six volumes in quarto, for six guineas, a sum


s: according to the value of money at that time by no means


s: genius should be wasted upon a work not original, but proposed no


s: great eagerness; but the highest bidder was Bernard Lintot, who


s: Of the quartos it was, I believe, stipulated that none should be


s: printed but for the author, that the subscription might not be


s: price, for half a guinea each volume, books so little inferior to


s: subjoined to the text in the same page, and are therefore more


s: easily consulted.  Of this edition two thousand five hundred were


s: finding himself at first embarrassed with difficulties which


s: more acquainted with Homer's images and expressions, and practice


s: represents himself as despatching regularly fifty verses a day,


s: encourage him defame him.  He that wants money would rather be


s: thought angry than poor; and he that wishes to save his money


s: conceals his avarice by his malice.  Addison had hinted his


s: suspicion that Pope was too much a Tory; and some of the Tories


s: To those who censured his politics were added enemies more


s: dangerous, who called in question his knowledge of Greek, and his


s: public opposition, but in one of his letters escapes from them as


s: twenty-five, with an irregular education and a course of life of


s: which much seems to have passed in conversation, it is not very


s: likely that he overflowed with Greek.  But when he felt himself


s: deficient he sought assistance, and what man of learning would


s: refuse to help him?  Minute inquiries into the force of words are


s: accidental notions and crowding the mind with images which time


s: Hobbes, and Ogilby.  With Chapman, whose work, though now totally


s: Something might be gathered from Dacier, but no man loves to be


s: The history of the notes has never been traced.  Broome, an his


s: discovered to have been Jortin, a man since well known to the


s: learned world, who complained that Pope, having accepted and


s: Broome then offered his service a second time, which was probably


s: supposed to require more time than the text.  According to this


s: calculation, the progress of Pope may seem to have been slow; but


s: Indolence, interruption, business, and pleasure, all take their


s: thousand causes that can, and ten thousand that cannot, be


s: recounted.  Perhaps no extensive and multifarious performance was


s: By the success of his subscription Pope was relieved from those


s: disqualification for public employment, but never proposed a


s: occasional supplies.  Craggs was not long in power, and was never


s: With the product of this subscription, which he had too much


s: discretion to squander, he secured his future life from want, by


s: considerable annuities.  The estate of the Duke of Buckingham was


s: It cannot be unwelcome to literary curiosity, that I deduce thus


s: minutely the history of the English "Iliad."  It is certainly the


s: desirable to know how it was performed, and by what gradations it


s: Bolingbroke as a curiosity, descended from him to Mallet, and is


s: now, by the solicitation of the late Dr. Maty, reposited in the


s: From the first copy I have procured a few transcripts, and shall


s: exhibit first the printed lines; then, in a small print, those of


s: The beginning of the first book stands thus:-


s: The wrath of Peleus' son, the direful spring


s: Of all the Grecian woes, O Goddess, sing,


s: That wrath which hurled to Pluto's gloomy reign


s: The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain.


s: The stern Pelides' rage, O Goddess, sing,


s: Of all the woes of Greece too fatal spring,


s: That screwed with warriors dead the Phrygian plain,


s: filled the shady hell with chiefs untimely


s: Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore,


s: Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore,


s: Since great Achilles and Atrides strove;


s: Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove.


s: Whose limbs, unburied on the hostile shore,


s: Devouring dogs and greedy vultures tore,


s: Since first Atrides and Achilles strove;


s: Sprung the fierce strife from what offended Power?


s: And heaped the camp with mountains of the dead;


s: The King of Men his reverend priest defied,


s: And for the King's offence the people died.


s: Enflamed their rage in that ill-omened hour;


s: Phoebus himself the dire debate procured,


s: To avenge the wrongs his injured priest endured;


s: For this the god a dire infection spread,


s: And heaped the camp with millions of the dead:


s: For Chryses sought with costly gifts to gain


s: His captive daughter from the Victor's chain;


s: By these he begs, and, lowly bending down,


s: Extends the sceptre and the laurel crown.


s: For Chryses sought by presents to regain


s: Apollo's awful ensigns graced his hands.


s: By these he begs, and, lowly bending down


s: The golden sceptre and the laurel crown,


s: For these as ensigns of his god he bare,


s: The god who sends his golden shaft afar;


s: Suppliant before the brother kings began.


s: He sued to all, but chief implored for grace,


s: The brother kings of Atreus' royal race;


s: Ye kings and warriors, may your vows be crowned,


s: And Troy's proud walls lie level with the ground;


s: May Jove restore you, when your toils are o'er,


s: Safe to the pleasures of your native shore.


s: To all he sued, but chief implored for grace


s: The brother kings of Atreus' royal race.


s: Ye sons of Atreus, may your vows be crowned,


s: Your labours, by the gods be all your labours crowned;


s: So may the gods your arms with conquest bless,


s: And crown your labours with desired success;


s: May Jove restore you when your toils are o'er


s: But, oh! relieve a wretched parent's pain,


s: And dread avenging Phoebus, son of Jove.


s: But, oh! relieve a hapless parent's pain,


s: And give my daughter to these arms again;


s: Receive my gifts, if mercy fails, yet let my present move,


s: And fear the god who deals his darts around,


s: The Greeks, in shouts, their joint assent declare,


s: The priest to reverence, and release the fair:


s: Repulsed the sacred sire, and thus replied.


s: He said, the Greeks their joint assent declare,


s: The father said, the generous Greeks relent,


s: To accept the ransom, and restore the fair:


s: Revere the priest, and speak their joint assent;


s: Not so the tyrant; he, with kingly pride,


s: Repulsed the sacred sire, and thus replied


s: Of these lines, and of the whole first book, I am told that there


s: slight differences do not require to be elaborately displayed.


s: Now pleasing sleep had sealed each mortal eye:


s: Stretched in the tents the Grecian leaders lie;


s: The Immortals slumbered on their thrones above,


s: To honour Thetis' son he bends his care,


s: And plunge the Greeks in all the woes of war.


s: Then bids an empty phantom rise to sight,


s: And thus commands the vision of the night:


s: Fly hence, delusive dream, and, light as air,


s: Bid him in arms draw forth the embattled train,


s: March all his legions to the dusty plain.


s: Now tell the King 'tis given him to destroy


s: For now no more the gods with fate contend;


s: At Juno's suit the heavenly factions end.


s: Destruction hovers o'er yon devoted wall,


s: And nodding Ilion waits the impending fall.


s: Say, virgins, seated round the throne divine,


s: Since earth's wide regions, heaven's unmeasured height,


s: And hell's abyss, hide nothing from your sight


s: (We, wretched mortals! lost in doubts below,


s: But guess by rumour, and but boast we know),


s: Oh! say what heroes, fired by thirst of fame,


s: Or urged by wrongs, to Troy's destruction came!


s: To count them all demands a thousand tongues,


s: That round Olympus' heavenly summit shine,


s: Who see through heaven and earth, and hell profound,


s: And all things know, and all things can resound!


s: Relate what armies sought the Trojan land,


s: What nations followed, and what chiefs command;


s: (For doubtful fame distracts mankind below,


s: And nothing can we tell, and nothing know)


s: Without your aid, to count the unnumbered train,


s: A thousand mouths, a thousand tongues, were vain.


s: Fills with her force, and warms with all her fires:


s: Above the Greeks his deathless fame to raise,


s: And crown her hero with distinguished praise,


s: High on his helm celestial lightnings play,


s: The unwearied blaze incessant streams supplies,


s: Like the red star that fires the autumnal skies.


s: Fills with her rage, and warms with all her fires;


s: O'er all the Greeks decrees his fame to raise,


s: Above the Greeks her warrior's fame to raise,


s: And crown her hero with immortal praise:


s: Bright from his beamy crest the lightnings play,


s: From his broad buckler flashed the living ray;


s: The goddess with her breath the flame supplies,


s: Bright as the star whose fires in autumn rise;


s: Her breath divine thick streaming flames supplies,


s: Bright as the star that fires the autumnal skies:


s: When fresh he rears his radiant orb to sight,


s: And bathed in ocean shoots a keener light,


s: Such glories Pallas on the chief bestowed,


s: Such from his arms the fierce effulgence flowed;


s: Onward she drives him, furious to engage,


s: Where the fight burns, and where the thickest rage.


s: And gilds old ocean with a blaze of light,


s: Bright as the star that fires the autumnal skies,


s: Fresh from the deep, and gilds the seas and skies:


s: Such glories Pallas on her chief bestowed,


s: Such sparkling rays from his bright armour flowed,


s: Onward she drives him headlong to engage,


s: Where the war bleeds, and where the fiercest rage.


s: The sons of Dares first the combat sought,


s: A wealthy priest, but rich without a fault;


s: In Vulcan's fane the father's days were led,


s: The sons to toils of glorious battle bred;


s: There lived a Trojan--Dares was his name,


s: The priest of Vulcan, rich, yet void of blame;


s: A wealthy priest, but rich without a fault.


s: As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,


s: O'er heaven's clear azure spreads her sacred light,


s: When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,


s: And not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene;


s: Around her throne the vivid planets roll,


s: And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole:


s: O'er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,


s: And tip with silver every mountain's head:


s: Then shine the vales--the rocks in prospect rise,


s: A flood of glory bursts from all the skies;


s: The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight,


s: Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.


s: So many flames before proud Ilion blaze,


s: And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays;


s: The long reflections of the distant fires


s: Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires.


s: A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild,


s: And shoot a shady lustre o'er the field;


s: Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend,


s: Whose umbered arms by fits thick flashes send;


s: Loud neigh the coursers o'er their heaps of corn,


s: And ardent warriors wait the rising morn.


s: As when in stillness of the silent night,


s: As when the moon in all her lustre bright,


s: As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,


s: O'er Heaven's clear azure sheds her silver light;


s: As still in air the trembling lustre stood,


s: And o'er its golden border shoots a flood;


s: When no loose gale disturbs the deep serene,


s: And no dim cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene;


s: Around her silver throne the planets glow,


s: And stars unnumbered trembling beams bestow;


s: Around her throne the vivid planets roll,


s: And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole:


s: Clear gleams of light o'er the dark trees are seen,


s: O'er the dark trees a yellower green they shed,


s: And tip with silver all the mountain heads


s: And tip with silver every mountain's head.


s: The vales appear, the rocks in prospect rise,


s: Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,


s: All nature stands revealed before our eyes;


s: A flood of glory bursts from all the skies.


s: The conscious shepherd, joyful at the sight,


s: Eyes the blue vault, and numbers every light.


s: The conscious swains rejoicing at the sight,


s: Eye the blue vault, and bless the vivid light.


s: And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays,


s: Wide o'er the fields to Troy extend the gleams,


s: And tip the distant spires with fainter beams;


s: The long reflections of the distant fires


s: Gild the high walls, and tremble on the spires;


s: Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires;


s: A thousand fires at distant stations bright,


s: Gild the dark prospect, and dispel the night.


s: Of these specimens every man who has cultivated poetry, or who


s: delights to trace the mind from the rudeness of its first


s: conceptions to the elegance of its last, will naturally desire a


s: The "Iliad" was published volume by volume, as the translation


s: heartily at my embarrassment:  said I had not been long enough


s: acquainted with Lord Halifax to know his way yet; that I need not


s: It is seldom that the great or the wise suspect that they are


s: country, which is really all the difference I set between an easy


s: country, there will appear a better reason; for I must of


s: consequence be very much (as I sincerely am) yours, &c."


s: These voluntary offers, and this faint acceptance, ended without


s: till he saw at what rate his praise was valued; he would be


s: "troublesome out of gratitude, not expectation."  Halifax thought


s: knew what he should receive.  Their commerce had its beginning in


s: kindness between friends, the beginning is often scarcely


s: discernible to themselves, and the process is continued by petty


s: provocations, and incivilities sometimes peevishly returned, and


s: officiously or insidiously quicken his attention to offences,


s: heighten his disgust, and stimulate his resentment.  Of such


s: Jervas the painter once pleased himself (August 20,1714) with


s: him.  When I came to the antechamber to wait, before prayers, Dr.


s: master of requests.  Then he instructed a young nobleman that the


s: translation of 'Homer' into English verse, for which HE MUST HAVE


s: print till _I_ HAVE a thousand guineas for him."


s: About this time it is likely that Steele, who was, with all his


s: political fury, good-natured and officious, procured an interview


s: opposed; and Addison affected a contemptuous unconcern, and in a


s: not, by too much arrogance, alienate the public.


s: To this Pope is said to have replied with great keenness and


s: The first volume of "Homer" was (1715) in time published; and a


s: rival version of the first "Iliad," for rivals the time of their


s: sufficiently resentful to Craggs, their common friend.


s: When Addison's opinion was asked, he declared the versions to be


s: both good, but Tickell's the best that had ever been written; and


s: Pope intended, at another time, a rigorous criticism of Tickell's


s: which he had abused both me and my relations very grossly.  Lord


s: Warwick himself told me one day that it was in vain for me to


s: following manner.  I then adjoined the first sketch of what has


s: since been called my satire on Addison.  Mr Addison used me very


s: The verses on Addison, when they were sent to Atterbury, were


s: subscription enabled to live more by choice, having persuaded his


s: afterwards procured so much celebration, and removed thither with


s: A grotto is not often the wish or pleasure of all Englishmen, who


s: amusements seem frivolous and childish.  Whether it be that men,


s: While the volumes of his "Homer" were annually published, he


s: elegance, which was afterwards reprinted, with some passages


s: gotten by himself, he had traded very successfully in times when


s: In this disastrous year (1720) of national infatuation, when more


s: hundred and seventeen pounds twelve shillings, he seems never to


s: have reflected afterwards without vexation; for Theobald a man of


s: character.  From this time Pope became an enemy to editors,


s: attention upon his works, which, though often mentioned, had been


s: "Odyssey," as he had said of the "Iliad," he says that he had


s: In 1723, while he was engaged in this new version, he appeared


s: before the Lords at the memorable trial of Bishop Atterbury, with


s: Broome, who was not over liberally rewarded.  The public was


s: carefully kept ignorant of the several shares; and an account was


s: On the English "Odyssey" a criticism was published by Spence, at


s: that time Prelector of Poetry at Oxford, a man whose learning was


s: criticism, however, was commonly just; what he thought he thought


s: great familiarity, attended him in his last hours, and compiled


s: inserted the "Memoirs of a Parish Clerk," in ridicule of Burnet's


s: were often committed for papers of uncertain and accidental value


s: essays were in danger where gold and diamonds are safe.  A cat


s: defend themselves.  At the head of the "Dunces" he placed poor


s: interposing in the quarrel, got a place in a subsequent edition,


s: complained that for a time he was in danger of starving, as the


s: booksellers had no longer any confidence in his capacity.  The


s: prevalence of this poem was gradual and slow:  the plan, if not


s: wholly new, was little understood by common readers.  Many of the


s: The history of the "Dunciad" is very minutely related by Pope


s: "When Dr. Swift and Mr. Pope thought it proper, for reasons


s: specified in the preface to their 'Miscellanies,' to publish such


s: peculiar right over their names as was necessary to this design.


s: whole impression was taken and dispersed by several noblemen and


s: "Many ludicrous circumstances attended it.  The 'Dunces' (for by


s: this name they were called) held weekly clubs, to consult of


s: hostilities against the author.  One wrote a letter to a great


s: minister, assuring him Mr. Pope was the greatest enemy the


s: distinguished, to the great honour also of the gentlemen of the


s: indulges the common vanity of common men, and triumphs in those


s: distinctions which he affected to despise.  He is proud that his


s: believe, that which, by telling in the text the names, and in the


s: intelligible and diverting.  The critics had now declared their


s: approbation of the plan, and the common reader began to like it


s: without fear.  Those who were strangers to petty literature, and


s: effects of those shafts of malice which they had hitherto


s: resentment in the newspapers by epigrams or invectives.  Ducket,


s: indeed, being mentioned as loving Burnet with "pious passion,"


s: pretended that his moral character was injured, and for some time


s: represented as diving for the prize, expostulated with Pope in a


s: manner so much superior to all mean solicitation, that Pope was


s: reduced to sneak and shuffle, sometimes to deny, and sometimes to


s: After this general war upon dulness, he seems to have indulged


s: himself a while in tranquillity, but his subsequent productions


s: supposed, and by the Earl of Burlington, to whom the poem is


s: addressed, was privately said, to mean the Duke of Chandos, a man


s: ingratitude and treachery of Pope, who was said to have been


s: indebted to the patronage of Chandos for a present of a thousand


s: pounds, and who gained the opportunity of insulting him by the


s: character so amiable brought upon him, he tried all means of


s: between them, it had been less easily excused.


s: almost persuade him, to write no more, which is a compliment this


s: ridiculous, for the world can easily go on without him, and in a


s: The following year deprived him of Gay, a man whom he had known


s: early, and whom he seemed to love with more tenderness than any


s: One of the passages of Pope's life, which seems to deserve some


s: bookseller, of no good fame, were by him printed and sold.  This


s: volume containing some letters from noblemen, Pope incited a


s: prosecution against him in the House of Lords for breach of


s: purchase to his own advantage.  That Curll gave a true account of


s: which no price had ever been demanded, as he made known his


s: suppressed; but, as they had been already exposed, it was


s: impracticable now to retract them.  From the perusal of those


s: letters, Mr. Allen first conceived the desire of knowing him; and


s: property by a genuine edition, he offered to pay the cost.  This,


s: sufficient profit.  In the preface he tells that his letters were


s: prepare the public for such an incident; and, to strengthen this


s: Curll.  When they were thus published and avowed, as they had


s: literary, were little known, or little regarded, they awaked no


s: popular kindness or resentment.  The book never became much the


s: subject of conversation.  Some read it as a contemporary history,


s: praise or public censure.  It had, however, in some degree, the


s: recommendation of novelty.  Our language had few letters, except


s: Pope is seen in this collection as connected with the other


s: contemporary wits, and certainly suffers no disgrace in the


s: comparison; but it must be remembered that he had the power of


s: writes afterwards with complete ease.  Pope may be said to write


s: whom he had personally offended, and to those whose opinion the


s: world considered as decisive, and whom he suspected of envy or


s: "Expatiate freely o'er this scene of man,


s: "A mighty maze, BUT NOT WITHOUT A PLAN;"


s: The other alteration was of these lines:-


s: "And spike of pride, AND IN THY REASON'S SPITE,


s: One truths is clear, whatever is, is right:


s: but having afterwards discovered, or been shown, that the "truth"


s: "And spite of pride IN ERRING REASON'S SPITE."


s: The second and third epistles were published, and Pope was, I


s: have ridiculed Pope, among those who enjoyed his confidence, as


s: concealed, and for a time flourished in the sunshine of universal


s: French prose, and afterwards by Resnel into verse.  Both


s: reprinted Resnel's version, with particular remarks upon every


s: metaphysical systems of theology, and all schemes of virtue and


s: fervid and vehement, supplied by incessant and unlimited inquiry,


s: scholar, the reasoner, and the wit.  But his knowledge was too


s: opposition disposed him to treat his adversaries with such


s: sentences are unmeasured.  He had in the early part of his life


s: The arrogance of Warburton excited against him every artifice of


s: differently at different times of poetical merit may be easily


s: allowed.  Such opinions are often admitted, and dismissed without


s: changing his mind about questions of greater importance?


s: "Sir,--I have just received from Mr. R. two more of your letters.


s: By this fond and eager acceptance of an exculpatory comment Pope


s: intentionally attacked religion; and Bolingbroke, if he meant to


s: parted with mutual aversion.  From this time Pope lived in the


s: closest intimacy with his commentator, and amply rewarded his


s: Pope lived at this time AMONG THE GREAT, with that reception and


s: respect to which his works entitled him, and which he had not


s: Richmond, Queen Caroline had declared her intention to visit him.


s: never been offered had never been refused.


s: Bathurst," in which Bathurst is introduced as speaking.  He


s: invariable tendency, and operates upon the whole system of life,


s: either openly, cut more secretly by the intervention of some


s: predominating humour, but by the first book which they read, some


s: country, for society politically regulated is a state


s: contradistinguished from a state of nature, and any attention to


s: predestination or over-ruling principle which cannot be resisted.


s: resistless authority of his ruling passion.


s: after, in an epistle supposed to have been addressed to Martha


s: Blount, but which the last edition has taken from her, the


s: "Characters of Women."  This poem, which was laboured with great


s: diligence and in the author's opinion with great success, was


s: neglected at its first publication, as the commentator supposes,


s: because the public was informed by an advertisement that it


s: subject was vice too high to be yet exposed.  The time, however,


s: originally said of Ennius, and accommodating his satires on


s: public.  Pope seems to have known their imbecility and therefore


s: The "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot," which seems to be derived in its


s: should have been missed by Arbuthnot, a man estimable for his


s: learning, amiable for his life, and venerable for his piety.


s: Arbuthnot was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his


s: profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient


s: literature, and able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright


s: ardour of religious zeal.  In this poem Pope seems to reckon with


s: lines upon Addison, of which the last couplet has been twice


s: "Who would not smile if such a man there be?


s: Who would not laugh if Addison were he?"


s: "Who would not grieve if such a man there be?


s: "Who but must laugh if such a man there he?


s: He was at this time at open war with Lord Hervey, who had


s: distinguished himself as a steady adherent to the ministry, and


s: invective against Pope, whom he calls, "Hard as thy heart, and as


s: others; which Fox in a reply to Lyttelton, took an opportunity of


s: About this time Paul Whitehead, a small poet, was summoned before


s: escaped, but Dodsley's shop and family made his appearance


s: prevailing over the corruption of the time.  He was not likely to


s: should be more safe if he were less busy.


s: polite letters.  If the whole may be estimated by this specimen,


s: which seems to be the production of Arbuthnot, with a few touches


s: cures diseases that were never felt.  For this reason this joint


s: The design cannot boast of much originality; for, besides its


s: general resemblance to "Don Quixote," there will be found in it


s: particular imitations of the "History of Mr. Ouffle."


s: contented, though the rest had been suppressed.


s: consulted the modern writers of Latin poetry, a class of authors


s: whom Boileau endeavoured to bring into contempt, and who are too


s: generally neglected.  Pope, however, was not ashamed of their


s: volumes, but injuriously omitted his predecessor's preface.  To


s: these books, which had nothing but the mere text, no regard was


s: "If ever I write any more Epistles in verse, one of them shall be


s: Reason and Science.  2. A view of the useful and therefore


s: these, exemplified by Pictures, Characters, and Examples."


s: This work in its full extent--being now afflicted with an asthma,


s: other worthless scribblers, he had mentioned Cibber, who, in his


s: "Apology," complains of the great Poet's unkindness as more


s: injurious, "because," says he, "I never have offended him."


s: It might have been expected that Pope should have been in some


s: degree mollified by this submissive gentleness, but no such


s: consequence appeared.  Though he condescended to commend Cibber


s: once, he mentioned him afterwards contemptuously in one of his


s: resolution from that time never to bear another blow without


s: returning it, and to tire out his adversary by perseverance if he


s: The incessant and unappeasable malignity of Pope he imputes to a


s: theatrical transactions, he said, that he once thought to have


s: declare, that as often as he played that part he would repeat the


s: understanding, that, from a contention like his with Cibber, the


s: "Dunciad;" but he had the fate of Cassandra.  I gave no credit to


s: Cibber, according to his engagement, repaid the "Dunciad" with


s: painter on a visit, when one of Cibber's pamphlets came into the


s: anguish:  and young Richardson said to his father, when they


s: longer strained his faculties with any original composition, nor


s: proposed any other employment for his remaining life than the


s: revisal and correction of his former works, in which he received


s: advice and assistance from Warburton, whom he appears to have


s: Ruffhead, by which it appears that Pope was thoughtless enough to


s: practice of physic, forced himself up into sudden reputation.


s: While he was yet capable of amusement and conversation, as he was


s: liking his errand, crossed his legs and sat still; but Lord


s: Marchmont, who was younger and less captious, waited on the lady,


s: approach the chamber of sickness as female weakness, or human


s: frailty; perhaps he was conscious to himself of peevishness and


s: suffered his heart to be alienated from her, he could have found


s: think.  Bolingbroke sometimes wept over him in this state of


s: helpless decay; and being told by Spence, that Pope, at the


s: seemed to have survived his understanding, answered, "It has so."


s: Twickenham, near his father and mother, where a monument has been


s: He left the care of his papers to his executors; first to Lord


s: Bolingbroke, and, if he should not be living, to the Earl of


s: solicit preference as the publisher, and was told that the parcel


s: printed than were allowed; but, soon after his death, the printer


s: danger from the example.  Bolingbroke, however, was not yet


s: employed Mallet, another friend of Pope, to tell the tale to the


s: shown to a number more than sufficient to preserve the author's


s: indecent arrogance that she parted from Mrs. Allen in a state of


s: irreconcilable dislike, and the door was for ever barred against


s: her.  This exclusion she resented with so much bitterness as to


s: refuse any legacy from Pope unless he left the world with a


s: disavowal of obligation to Allen.  Having been long under her


s: lover, persuaded that she had suffered improper treatment, he


s: complied with her demand, and polluted his will with female


s: resentment.  Allen accepted the legacy, which he gave to the


s: The person of Pope is well known not to have been formed by the


s: behind and before.  He is said to have been beautiful in his


s: infancy, but he was of a constitution originally feeble and weak;


s: coffee, which he very frequently required.


s: Most of what can be told concerning his petty peculiarities was


s: communicated by a female domestic of the Earl of Oxford, who knew


s: The reputation which his friendship gave procured him many


s: invitations, but he was a very troublesome inmate.  He brought no


s: call, she would not ask for wages.  He had another fault, easily


s: incident to those who, suffering much pain, think themselves


s: luxury, which he did not suffer to stand neglected.  The death of


s: pertinacious diligence of study and meditation.  In all his


s: intercourse with mankind he had great delight in artifice, and


s: small occasions, that Lady Bolingbroke used to say, in a French


s: attributed to no particular motive, must have proceeded from his


s: Bolingbroke.  In familiar or convivial conversation, it does not


s: apophthegm only stands upon record.  When an objection, raised


s: against his inscription for Shakespeare, was defended by the


s: He was fretful and easily displeased, and allowed himself to be


s: capriciously resentful.  He would sometimes leave Lord Oxford


s: Of his domestic character, frugality was a part eminently


s: remarkable.  Having determined not to be dependent, he determined


s: petty artifices of parsimony, such as the practice of writing his


s: scantiness of entertainment, as, when he had two guests in his


s: house, he would set at supper a single pint upon the table; and


s: having himself taken two small glasses, would retire, and say,


s: "Gentlemen.  I leave you to your wine."  Yet he tells his friends


s: amounted only to about eight hundred pounds a year, of which,


s: very honourably obtained, his imagination seems to have been too


s: possessions, seems to be that of enumerating the men of high rank


s: poets have ever aspired.  Pope never set genius to sale; he never


s: consequence.  To his latter works, however, he took care to annex


s: perpetual and unclouded effulgence of general benevolence, and


s: particular fondness.  There is nothing but liberality, gratitude,


s: transaction which offers strange temptations to fallacy and


s: sophistication than epistolary intercourse.  In the eagerness of


s: reader, and takes his chance of approbation among the different


s: show more severity than knowledge.  The writer commonly believes


s: certainly not sincere, for his high value of himself was


s: sufficiently observed; and of what could he be proud but of his


s: dreadful winter of Forty, she was called from her bed by him four


s: perpetual vexation; but he wished to despise his critics, and


s: sometimes pleased, with the natural emotions of common men.  His


s: lives among them.  It is evident that his own importance swells


s: might live, very few were so much fools as ever to inquire.  Some


s: expresses it, I think, most frequently in his correspondence with


s: amidst ignorance and barbarity, unable to find among their


s: contemporaries either virtue or intelligence, and persecuted by


s: carelessness; he was irritable and resentful; his malignity to


s: contemptible I never heard any adequate reason.  He was sometimes


s: ungrateful mention of Allen in his will was the effect of his


s: adherence to one whom he had known much longer, and whom he


s: almost to enforce belief, that in the papers entrusted to his


s: executors was found a defamatory Life of Swift, which he had


s: prepared as an instrument of vengeance, to be used if any


s: The religion in which he lived and died was that of the Church of


s: applications of sentences taken from the Scriptures, a mode of


s: levities he has been betrayed, it does not appear that his


s: A man of such exalted superiority and so little moderation would


s: books.  When he entered into the living world it seems to have


s: happened to him, as to many others, that he was less attentive to