and words with minute and punctilious ob servation, and retouched every part with indefatigable diligence, till he had left nothing to be forgiven.

For this reafon he kept his pieces very long in his hands, while he confidered and reconfidered them. The only poems which can be supposed to have been written with fuch regard to the times as might haften their publication, were the two fatires of Thirty-eight; of which Dodfley told me, that they were brought to him by the author, that they might be fairly copied. Every line," faid he," was then written twice over; I

gave him a clean transcript, which he fent "fome time afterwards to me for the press, "with every line written twice over a fecond

"time."

true.

His declaration, that his care for his works ceafed at their publication, was not strictly His parental attention never abandoned them; what he found amifs in the first edition, he filently corrected in those that followed. He appears to have revised the Iliad, and freed it from fome of its imperfections;

and

and the Essay on Criticism received many improvements after its first appearance. It will feldom be found that he altered without adding clearness, elegance, or vigour. Pope had perhaps the judgement of Dryden; but Dryden certainly wanted the diligence of Pope.

In acquired knowledge, the fuperiority must be allowed to Dryden, whose education was more fcholaftick, and who before he became an author had been allowed more time for study, with better means of information. His mind has a larger range, and he collects his images and illuftrations from a more extenfive 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 comprehenfive fpeculation, 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 likewise in profe; but Pope did not borrow his profe from his predeces

for.

for. The style of Dryden is capricious and varied, that of Pope is cautious and uniform; Dryden obeys the motions of his own mind, Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of compofition. Dryden is fometimes vehement and rapid; Pope is always fmooth, uniform, and gentle. Dryden's page is a natural field, rifing into inequalities, and diverfified 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 conftitutes a poet; that quality without which judgement is cold and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates; the fuperiority muft, with fome hefitation, 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 domeftick

domestick neceffity; he compofed without confideration, and published without correction. What his mind could fupply at call, or gather in one excurfion, was all that he fought, and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to condense his fentiments, to multiply his images,, and to accumulate all that study might produce, or chance might supply. 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 iş more regular and conftant. Dryden often furpaffes expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent aftonishment, and Pope with perpetual de-, light.

This parallel will, I hope, when it is well confidered, be found juft; and if the reader should fufpect me, as I fufpect myself, of fome partial fondness for the memory of Dryden, let him not too haftily condemn me; for meditation and enquiry may, perhaps, fhew him the reasonableness of my determination.

THE

THE Works of Pope are now to be diftinctly examined, not fo much with attention to flight faults or petty beauties, as to the general character and effect of each performance.

It seems natural for a young poet to initiate himself by Pastorals, which, not profeffing to imitate real life, require no experience, and, exhibiting only the fimple operation of unmingled paffions, admit no fubtle reafoning or deep enquiry. Pope's Pastorals are not however compofed but with close thought; they have reference to the times of the day, the seasons of the year, and the periods of human life. The last, that which turns the attention upon age and death, was the author's favourite. To tell of difappointment and mifery, to thicken the darknefs of futurity, and perplex the labyrinth of uncertainty, has been always a delicious employment of the poets. His preference was probably