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"The beauties of this poem," fays Dr. Johnson, " are well known; its chief fault is the grofs. nefs of its images. But even this fault, offenfive as it is, may be forgiven for the excellence of other paffages; fuch as the formation and diffolution of Moore, the account of the Traveller, the misfortune of the Florist, and the crowded thoughts and ftately numbers which dignify the concluding paragraph." The Effay on Man, is a didactic poem written on metaphysical ideas, which he did not perfectly comprehend. His intentions were evidently good, to show men that the existence of imperfection and evil is not inconfiftent with the wisdom and goodness of God. Many of the facts are true, many of the observations are just, but do not tend to establish the truth of the proposed system. The adaptation of human fenfes, paffions, and reason, to their ends, the co-operation of the principles of self-love and benevolence, in producing happiness, the uncertainty of physical good, that man's fupreme felicity confifts in moral good, that we are very weak in comparison to our Creator, are all pofitions which are undoubtedly true, but do not prove that partial evil is univerfal good; that whatever is, is right. Pope, like Addison, had considered man chiefly in active life. When he exhibits him in action, his exhibition is natural, beautiful, and juft; but when he analyfes his principles of thought, and of action, he is not always fo successful. Voltaire ridiculed Pope's favourite position in his Candide. The confequences which Candide's application of the principle to various cafes produces, are certainly fuch as Pope never intended, yet it must be acknowledged he did not sufficiently guard against his interpretation.

"This effay," fays Dr. Johnfon," is certainly not the happiest of Pope's performances. It effords an egregious inftance of the predominance of genius, the dazzling splendour of imagery, and the feductive powers of eloquence. Never were penury of knowledge, and vulgarity of fentiment fo happily disguised, or recommended by fuch a blaze of embellishments, or fuch sweetness of melody. The vigorous contraction of fome thoughts, the luxuriant amplification of others, the incidental illustrations, and sometimes the dignity, sometimes the softness of the verses, enchain phifofophy, fufpend criticism, and opprefs judgment, by overpowering pleasure."

"This is true of many paragraphs; yet if I had undertaken to exemplify Pope's felicity of compofition before a rigid critic, I should not select the Effay on Man: for it contains more lines unfuccessfully laboured, more harshness of diction, more thoughts imperfectly expreffed, more levity without elegance, and more heaviness without strength, than will easily be found in all his other works." The Characters of Men and Women, are the product of diligent speculation upon life and manners, and fhow a thorough knowledge of the human mind, engaged in action, and modified by the manners of the times.

"brecommend," fays Dr. Johnson, "a comparison of his Characters of Women, with Boileau's fatire; it will then be seen with how much more perfpicacity female nature is investigated, and female excellence felected. The Characters of Men, however, are written with more, if not with deeper thought, and exhibit many passages exquifitely beautiful. The Gem, and the Flower, will not eafily be equalled. In the women's part are fome defects; the character of Atoffa, is not fo neatly finished as that of Clodio, and fome of the female characters may be found, perhaps, more frequently among men."

Of his Epifle to Lord Bathurst, the most valuable passage is, perhaps, the eulogy on Good Sense; and of the Epifile to Lord Burlington, the end of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Of the Epifle to Arbuthnot, no part has more elegance, fpirit, or dignity, than the vindication of his own character. The meaneft paffage is the fatire upon Sporus. The allufion to his mother is exquifitely beautiful and interesting. His translations from Ovid are rendered with faithfulness and elegance. The epiftle from Sappho to Phaon breathe such paffionate and pathetic fentiments as are worthy of the exquifite fenfibility of the amorous Sappho; and the versification is in point of melody next to that of the Paftorals.

On his Epitaphs, the minute criticism of Dr. Johnson, printed in the " Vifitor," is acute, and well enforced; but his examination is too rigorous, and the general opinion is much more favourable. His Imitations of Horace, difplay a great portion of wit, as well as argument. He has the huTour, and almost the ease of Horace, with more wit, and falls little short of the severity of Juvenal. n his Letters he is feen as connected with the other contemporary wits, and suffers no difgrace in the comparison. Thofe of Arbuthnot are written with ease and a beautiful simplicity. Swift's

allo are unaffected. Several of Bolingbroke's and Atterbury's are masterly. There is fomething more Atudied and artificial in Pope's productions than the reft. His letters to ladies are full of affectation. * Pope may be faid," fays Dr. Johnson, " to write always with his reputation in his head; Swift perhaps like a man who remembered that he was writing to Pope; but Arbuthnot, like one who lets thoughts drop from his pen, as they rife into his mind."

The compofitions of Pope are perhaps a greater acceffion to English literature, than those of any other poet of our nation, except Spenfer, Shakspeare, and Milton. Of those poets who rank in the highest class after them, Dryden is generally allowed to be the first; but his claim to that dif tinction is at least rendered doubtful by the pretenfions of Pope, who learned his poetry from Dryden, and whofe character perhaps may receive fome illuftration, if he be compared with his master. To regulate the scale, by which the comparative merit of poetical pretenfions is to be estimated, is one of the most difficult undertakings of criticism. Something of this kind, however, is attempted by Dr. Johnson in his parallel between Dryden and Pope, of which it is scarcely hyperbolical to affirm, that it is every way worthy of its subject, and such as perhaps the pen of Dr. Johnson only could have written.

"Integrity of understanding, and nicety of difcernment, were not allotted in a lefs proportion to Dryden than to Pope. The rectitude of Dryden's mind was fufficiently shown by the difmiffion of his poetical prejudices, and the rejection of unnatural thoughts, and rugged numbers. But Dryden never defired to apply all the judgment that he had. He wrote, and professed to write, merely for the people; and when he pleafed others, he contented himself. Pope was not content to fatisfy; he defired to excel; and therefore always endeavoured to do his best. He did not court the candour, but dared the judgment of his reader; and expecting no indulgence from others, he fhowed none to himself. For this reason, he kept his pieces very long in his hands, while he confidered, and reconfidered them. It will feldom be found that he altered, without adding clearness, elegance and vigour. Pope had perhaps the judgment of Dryden, but Dryden certainly wanted the diligence of Pope.

"In acquired knowledge, the fuperiority must be allowed to Dryden, whofe education was more fcholaftic. His mind has a larger range, and he collects his images and illustrations from a more extensive circumference of science. Dryden knew more of man in his general nature, and Pope in his local manners. The notions of Dryden were formed by a comprehensive speculation, and those of Pope by minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, and more certainty in that of Pope.

"Poetry was not the fole praise of either, for both excelled likewife in profe; but Pope did not borrow his profe from his predeceffors. The ftyle of Dryden is capricious and varied; that of Pope is cautious and uniform. Dryden obferves the motions of his own mind; Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of compofition. Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid; Pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle. Dryden's page is a natural field, rifing into inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope's is a velvet lawn, fhaven by the scythe, and levelled by the roller.

"Of genius, that power which constitutes a poet, that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates, the fupepiority muk, with fome hesitation, be allowed to Dryden. It is not to be inferred, that of this poetical vigour Pope had only a little, because Dryden had more, for every other writer fince Milton must give place to Pope; and even of Dryden it must be faid, that if he has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. Dryden's performances were always hafty, either excited by fome external occafion, or extorted by fome domeftic neceffity; he compofed without confideration, and published without correction. What his mind could fupply at call, or gather in one excursion, was all that he fought, and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to condense bis fentiments, to multiply his images, and to accumulate all that study might produce, or chance might fupply. If the flights of Dryden therefore are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and conftant. Dryden often furpaffes expectation, and Pope never falls below it; Dryden is read with frequent aftonif ment, and Pope with perpetual delight."

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The fubject of this truly excellent parallel has been controverted by Mr. Weflon and Mifs Seward, in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1790. Both parties have fhown much critical ingenuity in maintaining the pretenfions of their favourite poet. To give any adequate idea of the controversy, would much exceed the limits of this preface. Mr. Wefton, with justice, cenfures the poetry of Pope, as too exquifitely polished, too uniformly mufical, and as glutting the ear with unvaried fweetnefs. Judging perhaps by principles, rather than perception, he seems to think fludied difcords, varied pauses, triplets, expletives, and Alexandrines, effential to rhyme, because they have been used by Dryden. But the poetry of Pope, though perhaps less imprégnated with enthusiasm, lefs enriched with claffical knowledge, lefs illumined by vivid imagination, and lefs diversified by variety of cadence, is certainly more elaborately correct, more regularly harmonious, more delicately polished, and more fyftematically dignified, than that of Dryden,

He has even ventured to affert, that Pope was not a poet, but only an elegant verfifier. When he affirms that the author of the Rape of the Lock, of the Dunciad, of Eloifa to Abelard, and of the English Iliad, was not a poet, he must mean fomething by the term different from the general acceptation.

"If Pope be not a poet," fays Dr. Johnfon, "where is poetry to be found? To circumfcribe poetry by a definition, will only fhow the narrowness of the definer, though a definition which fhall exclude Pope, will not easily be made. Let us look round upon the prefent time, and back upon the past; let us inquire to whom the voice of mankind has decreed the wreath of poetry; let their productions be examined, and their claims stated, and the pretenfions of Pope will no more be difputed. Had he given the world only his verfion, the name of poet muft have been allowed him; if the writer of the Iliad were to clafs his fucceffors, he would affign a very high place to his tranfJator, without requiring any other evidence of genius."

A parallel, upon a more extensive scale, is given by Dr. Warton, in which the poetical qualifica. tions of Pope are as candidly examined, as they are judiciously discriminated.

"Of Pope's works, the largest portion is of the didactic, moral, and fatyric kind; and consequently not of the most poetic fpecies of poetry: whence it is manifeft, that good sense and judgment were his characteristical excellencies, rather than fancy and invention; not that the author of the Rape of the Lock and Eloife can be thought to want imagination, but becaufe his imagination was not his predominant talent; because he indulged it not, and because he gave not so many proofs of this talent as of the other. This turn of mind led him to admire French models; he studied Boileau attentively, formed himself upon him, as Milton formed himself upon the Grecian and Italian fons of Fancy. He gradually became one of the most correct, even, and exa& poets that ever wrote, polifhing his pieces with a care and affiduity that no business or avocation ever interrupted; so that if he does not frequently ravish and transport his reader, yet he does not disgust him with unexpected inequalities and abfurd improprieties. Whatever poetical enthusiasm he actually poffeffed, he withheld and ftifled. The perufal of him affects not our minds with fach ftrong emotions as we feel from Homer and Milton; fo that no man of a true poetical spirit is master of himself while he reads them. Hence he is a writer fit for univerfal perufal, adapted to all ages and stations, for the old and for the young, the man of business and the scholar. He who would think " Palamon and Arcite," "The Tempest,” or “ Comus,” childish and romantic, might relifh Pope. Surely it is no narrow and niggardly encomium to say, that he is the great poet of reafon, the first of ethical authors in verfe.

Where then fhall we, with juftice, be authorised to place our admired Pope? Not affuredly in the fame rank with Spenfer, Shakspeare, and Milton; however juftly we may applaud the Elifa and Rape of the Lock; but, confidering the correctnefs, elegance, and utility of his works, the weight of fentiment, and the knowledge of man they contain, we may venture to affign him a place next to Milton, and just above Dryden. Yet, to bring our minds steadily to make this decifion, we must forget for a moment the divine " Mufic Ode" of Dryden, and may perhaps then be compelled to confess, that though Dryden be the greater genius, yet Pope is the better artist. "The preference here given to Pope above other Modern English Poets, it must be remembered, is founded on the excellencies of his works in general, and taken all together; for there are parts and paffages in other modern authors, in Young and in Thomson for inftance, equal to any of Pope; and he has written nothing in a strain fo truly fublime as the " Bard of Gray."

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WORKS OF POPE.

EXTRACT FROM DR. WARBURTON'S ADVERTISEMENT

To the Octavo Edition of MR. POPE's Works, 1751.

Ma. POPE, in his laft illness, amufed himself, a, midft the care of his higher concerns, in preparing a corrected and complete edition of his writings; and, with his ufual delicacy, was even folicitous to prevent any share of the offence they might occafion, from falling on the friend whom he had engaged to give them to the public.

In difcharge of this truft, the public has here a complete edition of his works, executed in such a manner, as, I am perfuaded, would have been to his fatisfaction.

But it may be proper to be a little more particular concerning the fuperiority of this edition above all the preceding; fo far as Mr. Pope himfelf was concerned. What the editor hath done, the reader muft collect for himself.

The first volume, and the original poems in the fecond, are here printed from a copy corrected throughout by the author himself, even to the very preface; which, with several additional notes in his own hand, he delivered to the editor a little before his death. The Juvenile Tranflations, in the other part of the second volume, it was never his intention to bring into this edition of his works, on account of the levity of fome, the freedom of others, and the little importance of any but these being the property of other men, the editor had it not in his power to follow the author's intention.

The third volume, all but the Effay on Man (which, together with the Effay on Criticism, the author, a little before his death, had corrected and published in quarto, as a fpecimen of his projected edition), was printed by him in his laft illness (but never published) in the manner it is now given. The difpofition of the Epiftle on the Characters of Men is quite altered; that on the Characters of Women, much enlarged; and the Epiftles on Riches and Tafte, corrected and improved. To thefe advantages of the third volume, must be added a great number of fine Verfes, taken from the auVOL. VIII.

thor's manufcript copies of thefe poems, communicated by him for this purpose to the editor. Thefe, when he first published the poems to which they belong, he thought proper, for various reafons, to omit. Some from the manufcript copy of the Effay on Man, which tended to discredit fate, and to recommend the moral government of God, had, by the editor's advice, been reftored to their places in the last edition of that poem. The rest, together with others of the like fort, from his ma nufcript copy of the other Ethic Epiftles, are here inferted at the bottom of the page, under the title of Variations.

The fourth volume contains the Satires, with their prologue, the epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, and epilogue, the two poems, intitled м DCC XXXVIII. The prologue and epilogue are here given with the like advantages as the Ethic Epiftles in the foregoing volume; that is to fay with the variations, or additional verfes, from the author's manufcripts. The epilogue to the fatires is likewife enriched with many and large notes, now firft printed from the author's own manufcript.

The fifth volume contains a correcter and completer edition of the Dunciad than hath been hitherto published; of which, at present, I have only this farther to add, that it was at my request he laid the plan of a fourth book. I often told him, it was a pity fo fine a poem should remain difgraced by the meannefs of its subject, the most infignificant of all dunces, bad rhymers, and malevolent cavillers; that he ought to raise and enoble it, by pointing his fatire against the most pernicious of all, minute philofophers and freethinkers. I imagined too, it was for the interest of religion, to have it known that so great a genius had a due abhorrence of these pests of virtue and fociety. He came readily into my opinion; but, at the fame time, told nie it would create him many enemies: he was not mistaken; for though the terror of hia

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pen kept them for fome time in respect, yet on his death they rose with unreftrained fury, in numerous coffee-house tales, and Grub-street libels. The plan of this admirable fatire was artfully contrived to fhew, that the follies and defects of a fashionable education naturally led to, and neceffarily ended in, freethinking; with defign to point out the only remedy adequate to fo fatal an evil. It was to advance the fame ends of virtue and religion, that the editor prevailed on him to alter every thing in his moral writings that might be fufpected of having the leaf glance towards fate, or naturalism; and to add what was proper to convince the world, that he was warmly on the fide of moral government, and a revealed will: and it would be injuftice to his memory, not to declare that he embraced these occafions with the most unfeigned pleafure.

The fixth volume confifts of Mr. Pope's Mifcellaneous Pieces, in verse and profet. Among the verse several fine poems make now their firft appearance in his works: and of the prose, all that is good, and nothing but what is exquifitely fo, will be found in this edition.

The profe is not within the plan of this edition.

The seventh, eighth, and ninth volumes, consist entirely of his Letters; the more valuable, as they are the only true models which we, or perhaps any of our neighbours have, of familiar epiftles. This collection is now made more complete by the addition of several new pieces. Yet excepting a fhort explanatory letter to Col. M. and the letters to Mr. A. and Mr. W (the latter of which are given to fhew the editor's inducements, and the engagements he was under, to intend the care of this edition), excepting these, I fay, the reft are all publifhed from the author's own printed, though not published, copies, delivered to the editor.

On the whole, the advantages of this edition, above the preceding, are these : That it is the first complete collection which has ever been made of his original writings; that all his principal poems, of early or later date, are here given to the public with his last corrections and improvements; that a great number of his verses are here first printed from the manufcript copies of his principal poems of later date; that many new notes of the author's are here added to his poems; and, lastly, that feveral pieces, both in profe and verfe, make now their first appearance before the public,

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