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We

and the doctrine of the Effay, difrobed of its ornaments, is left to the powers of its naked excellence, what fhall we difcover? That we are, in comparison with our Creator, very weak and ignorant; that we do not uphold the chain of existence, and that we could not make one another with more skill than we are made. We may learn yet more; that the arts of human life were copied from the instinctive operations of other animals; that if the world be made for man, it may be faid that man was made for geefe. To these profound principles of natural knowledge are added fome moral inftructions equally new; that felf-intereft, well understood, will produce focial concord; that men are mutual gainers by mutual benefits; that evil is fometimes balanced by good; that human advantages are unstable and fallacious, of uncertain duration, and doubtful effects; that our true honour is, not to have a great part, but to act it well; that virtue only is our own; that happiness is always in our power,

and

Surely a man of no very comprehenfive fearch may venture to fay that he has heard all this before; but it was never till now re

commended

commended by fuch a blaze of embellishment, or such sweetness of melody. The vigorous contraction of some thoughts, the luxuriant amplification of others, the incidental illuftrations, and sometimes the dignity, fometimes the softness of the verses, enchain philofophy, fufpend criticism, and opprefs judgement by overpowering pleasure.

This is true of many paragraphs; yet if I had undertaken to exemplify Pope's felicity of compofition before a rigid critick, I fhould not select the Effay on Man; for it contains more lines unfuccefsfully laboured, more harshness of diction, more thoughts imperfectly expreffed, more levity without elegance, and more heavinefs without strength, than will eafily be found in all his other works.

The Characters of Men and Women are the product of diligent fpeculation upon human life; much labour has been bestowed upon them, and Pope very feldom laboured in vain. That his excellence may be properly eftimated, I recommend a comparison of his Characters of Women with Boileau's Satire; it will then be seen with how much more per

fpicacity

fpicacity female nature is inveftigated, and female excellence felected; and he furely is no mean writer to whom Boileau fhall be found inferior. The Characters of Men, however, are written with more, if not with deeper, thought, and exhibit many paffages exquifitely beautiful. The Gem and the Flower will not eafily be equalled. In the women's part are fome defects; the character of Attossa is not fo neatly finished as that of Clodio; and fome of the female characters may be found perhaps more frequently among men; what is faid of Philomede was true of Prior.

1

In the Epiftles to Lord Bathurst and Lord Burlington, Dr. Warburton has endeavoured to find a train of thought which was never in the writer's head, and, to fupport his hypothefis, has printed that first which was published laft. In one, the most valuable paffage is perhaps the Elogy on Good Senfe, and the other the End of the Duke of Buckingham.

The Epistle to Arbuthnot, now arbitrarily called the Prologue to the Satires, is a performance confifting, as it feems, of many fragments wrought into one defign, which by

this union of fcattered beauties contains more striking paragraphs than could probably have been brought together into an occafional work. As there is no ftronger motive to exertion than felf-defence, no part has more elegance, fpirit, or dignity, than the poet's vindication of his own character. The meaneft paffage is the fatire upon Spórus.

'R.

Of the two poems which derived their names from the year, and which are called the Epilogue to the Satires, it was very justly remarked by Savage, that the fecond was in the whole more ftrongly conceived, and more equally supported, but that it had no fingle paffages equal to the contention in the first for the dignity of Vice, and the celebration of the triumph of Corruption.

The Imitations of Horace feem to have been written as relaxations of his genius. This employment became his favourite by its facility; the plan was ready to his hand, and nothing was required but to accommodate as he could the fentiments of an old author to recent facts or familiar images; but what is eafy is feldom excellent; fuch imitations can

not

not give pleasure to common readers; the man of learning may be sometimes surprised and delighted by an unexpected parallel; but the comparison requires knowledge of the original, which will likewise often detect strained applications. Between Roman images and English manners there will be an irreconcileable diffimilitude, and the work will be generally uncouth and party-coloured; neither original nor tranflated, neither ancient nor modern.

Pope had, in proportions very nicely adjusted to each other, all the qualities that constitute genius. He had Invention, by which new trains of events are formed, and new fcenes of imagery difplayed, as in the Rape of the Lock; or extrinfick and adventitious embellishments and illustrations are connected with a known fubject, as in the Essay on Criticifm. He had Imagination, which strongly impreffes on the writer's mind, and enables him to convey to the reader, the various forms of nature, incidents of life, and energies of paffion, as in his Eloifa, Windfør Foreft, and the Ethick Epiftles. He had Judgement, which felects from life or nature what the prefent purpose

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