to fubfide, and the novelties of invention to grow familiar. He knew that the mind is always enamoured of its own productions, and did not truft his first fondnefs. He confulted his friends, and liftened with great willingness to criticifm; and, what was of more importance, he confulted himself, and let nothing pass against his own judgement.

He profeffed to have learned his poetry from Dryden, whom, whenever an opportunity was prefented, he praised through his whole life with unvaried liberality; and perhaps his character may receive fome illuftration, if he be compared with his mafter.

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 fhewn by the difmiffion of his poetical prejudices, and the rejection of unnatural thoughts and rugged numbers. But Dryden never defired to apply all the judgement that he had. He wrote, and profeffed to write, merely for the people; and when he pleafed others, he contented himself. He spent no time in struggles to roufe latent powers; he never attempted to make that better which was already good, nor often to mend what he must have known to be faulty. He wrote, as he tells us, with very little confideration; when occafion or neceffity called upon him, he poured out what the prefent moment happened to fupply, and, when once it had paffed the prefs, ejected it from his mind; for when he had no pecuniary intereft, he had no further folicitude.

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 judge

ment

ment of his reader, and, expecting no indulgence from others, he fhewed none to himself. He examined lines and words with minute and punctilious obferva tion, 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 fuppofed to have been written with such 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. "Almost every line," he faid, "was then

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

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

In acquired knowledge, the fuperiority must be allowed to Dryden, whofe education was more scholaftick, 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

and illuftrations from a more extenfive circumference of fcience. 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 thofe 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 predeceffor. The style of Dryden is capricious and varied; that of Pope is cautious and uniform; Dryden obeys the motions of his own mind; Pope conftrains 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 fcythe, 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 must, 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 muft give place to Pope; and even of Dryden it must be faid, that, if he has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. Dry: den's performances were always hafty, either excited by fome external occafion, cr extorted by domeftick neceffity; he compofed without confideration, and published without correction. What his mind could

fupply

fupply at call, or gather in one excurfion, was all that he fought, and all that he gave. The dilatory cau tion of Pope enabled him to condense his 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 fre quent aftonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight.

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

THE Works of Pope are now to be distinctly examined, not so 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 Paftorals, 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 paftorals are not however compofed but with clofe thought; they have reference to the times of the day, the feafons of the year, and the periods of human life. The laft, that which turns the attention upon age and death, was the author's favourite. To tell of difappointment and mifery, to thicken the dark nefs of futurity, and

perplex

perplex the labyrinth of uncertainty, has been always a delicious employment of the poets. His preference. was probably juft. I wish, however, that his fondnefs had not overlooked a line in which the Zephyrs are made to lament in filence.

To charge these pastorals with want of invention, is to require what never was intended. The imitations are fo ambitiously frequent, that the writer evidently means rather to fhew his literature than his wit. It is furely fufficient for an author of fixteen not only to be able to copy the poems of antiquity with judicious felection, but to have obtained fufficient power of language, and skill in metre, to exhibit a series of verfification, which had in English poetry no precedent, nor has fince had an imitation.

The defign of Windfor Foreft is evidently derived from Cooper's Hill, with fome attention to Waller's poem on The Park; but Pope cannot be denied to excel his masters in variety and elegance, and the art of interchanging description, narrative, and morality. The objection made by Dennis is the want of plan, of a regular fubordination of parts terminating in the principal and original defign. There is this want in moft defcriptive poems, because as the fcenes, which they muft exhibit fucceffively, are all fubfifting at the fame time, the order in which they are fhewn muft by neceffity be arbitrary, and more is not to be expected from the last part than from the firft. The attention, therefore, which cannot be detained by fufpenfe, must be excited by diverfity, fuch as his poem offers to its reader.

the

But the defire of diverfity may be too much indulged; parts of Windfor Foreft which deferve least praise

are