Fair to no purpose, artful to no end,

Young without Lovers, old without a Friend;
A Fop their Paffion, but their Prize a Sot,
Alive, ridiculous; and dead, forgot!

Ah! Friend! to dazzle let the Vain defign;

245

To raise the Thought, and touch the Heart, be

a natural tendency to betray a writer into it: but the pureft authors have defpifed it, as an ornament pert and puerile, and epigrammatic. Seneca, Pliny, Tacitus, and later authors, abound in it. Quintilian has fometimes used it with much fuccefs, as when he speaks of style; magna, non nimia; fublimis, non abrupta; fevera, non triftis; læta, non luxuriofa; plena, non tumida." And fometimes Tully; as, " vicit pudorem libido, timorem audacia, rationem amentia." But these writers fall into this mode of speaking but feldom, and do not make it their conftant and general manner. Those moderns, who have not acquired a true tafte for the fimplicity of the beft ancients, have generally run into a frequent ufe of point, oppofition, and contraft. They who begin to study painting, are ftruck at first with the pieces of the most vivid colouring; they are almost afhamed to own that they do not relish and feel the modeft and referved beauties of Raphael. The exact proportion of St. Peter's at Rome occafions it not to appear fo great as it really is. It is the fame in writing; but by degrees we find that Lucan, Martial, Juvenal, Q. Curtius, and Florus, and others of that stamp, who abound in figures that contribute to the false florid, in luxuriant metaphers, in pointed conceits, in lively antithefes, unexpectedly darting forth, are contemptible for the very caufes which once excited our admiration. It is then we relifh Terence, Cæfar, and Xenophon.

VER. 249. Advice for their true Interest.

WARTON.
POPE

So when the Sun's broad beam has tir'd the fight, All mild afcends the Moon's more fober light, Serene in Virgin Modesty she shines,

And unobserv'd the glaring Orb declines.

Oh! bleft with Temper, whofe unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow chearful as to-day;
She, who can love a Sister's charms, or hear
Sighs for a Daughter with unwounded ear ;
She, who ne'er answers till a Husband cools,
Or, if the rules him, never fhows fhe rules;
Charms by accepting, by fubmitting sways,
Yet has her humour most, when the obeys;
Let Fops or Fortune fly which way they will;
Difdains all lofs of Tickets, or Codille;
Spleen, Vapours, or Small-pox, above them all,
And Mistress of herself, tho' China fall.

255

260

265

And

NOTES..

VER. 253. So when the Sun's] There are not, perhaps, in the whole compass of the English language, four lines more exqui fitely finished; not a syllable can be altered for the better; every word seems to be the only proper one that could have been used. So pure and pellucid is the ftyle,

"Ut pura nocturno renidet

Luna mari!"

WARTON.

VER. 256. And unobferv'd] Nothing can be more poetical than this imagery, or more artfully conducted. Every epithet is appropriated to heighten the figure, and embellish the verfe.

RUFFHEAD.

VER. 268. though China fall.] Addifon has touched this fubject with his ufual exquifite humour, in the Lover, No. 10. p. 291. of his Works, 4to. quoting Epictetus to comfort a lady that labours under this heavy calamity. WARTON.

And yet, believe me, good as well as ill, Woman's at best a Contradiction ftill.

Heav'n, when it strives to polish all it can

Its last best work, but forms a softer Man;
Picks from each fex, to make the Fav'rite bleft,
Your love of Pleasure, our defire of Rest:
Blends, in exception to all gen'ral rules,
Your Tafte of Follies, with our Scorn of Fools :
Referve with Franknefs, Art with Truth ally'd,
Courage with Softness, Modesty with Pride;
Fix'd Principles, with Fancy ever new;
Shakes all together, and produces-You.

Be this a Woman's Fame: with this unbleft,
Toasts live a scorn, and Queens may die a jest.
This Phoebus promis'd (I forget the year)
When those blue eyes firft open'd on the fphere;
Afcendant Phoebus watch'd that hour with care,
Averted half your Parents' fimple Pray'r;

NOTES.

270

275

280

285

And

VER. 269. The picture of an eftimable woman, with the best kind of contrarieties, created out of the Poet's imagination; who therefore feigned thofe circumftances of a husband, a daughter, and love for a fifter, to prevent her being mistaken for any of his acquaintance. And having thus made his Woman, he did, as the ancient Poets were wont, when they had made their Muse, invoke, and addrefs his poem to her. WARBURTON.

VER. 270. a Contradiction ftill.] So alfo has he fhewn Man to be in the Effay. WARTON.

VER. 280. and produces-You.] The turn of these lines is exactly the fame with thofe of Mrs. Biddy Floyd; Swift's Mifcellapies, vol. iv. p. 142.

And gave you Beauty, but deny'd the Pelf
That buys your Sex a Tyrant o'er itself.
The gen'rous God, who Wit and Gold refines,
And ripens Spirits as he ripens Mines,

Kept Drofs for Ducheffes, the world fhall know it,
To you gave Senfe, Good-humour, and a Poet.

NOTES.

"Jove mix'd up all, and his beft clay employ'd,

Then call'd the happy compofition-Floyd."

290

Mrs. Patty Blount was always fuppofed to be the lady here addreffed-" produces You."

WARTON.

VER. 291. the world shall know it,] This is an unmeaning expreffion, and a poor expletive, into which our Poet was unfortunately forced by the rhyme. WARTON.

:

Rhyme, as Warton properly remarks, has been the occafion of fome other faulty expreffions in our Author's Works, which he points out, though they scarcely need enumeration. On this occafion, he enters into the general comparative merits of Rhyme and Blank Verse but there can be furely no doubt on the subject. Rhyme is abfolutely necessary for pieces like these, of point, wit, and fatire; if not for lyric and elegiac poetry. A fatire in blank verse, would be as ridiculous as an "Eneid in hexameter and pentameter verfes." For more dignified and extenfive fubjects, there can be no doubt of the propriety of a more varied, harmonious, and lofty measure, as blank verfe for the ferious drama, and epic poetry, notwithstanding Burnet's opinion, that "The Paradife Loft was a fine poem, though the Author affected to write it in blank verfe!"

IT fhould be remembered, that when this Epiftle was first published, Pope in an advertisement declared, "UPON HIS HONOUR,' no Character was taken from real life. Walpole relates a story of his conduct in this refpect, highly to his difcredit, to which Warton alludes; but I do not think it should be admitted without the cleareft evidence, as we should read, cum grano falis, whatever comes from Walpole's party against Pope, and vice verfâ.

EPISTLE III.

ΤΟ

ALLEN LORD BATHURST.

THE following original Letter of Lord Bathurft to Pope, will fhew the great respect and kindness he had for him. It is taken from the Autographs of the Odyffey and Iliad, preferved in the British Museum, which are written chiefly on the backs of various letters:

"I will not fail to attend Mrs. Howard upon Marble Hill next Tuesday; but Lady Bathurst is not able to come at this time, which is no small mortification to her. I hope I fhall perfuade John Gay to come hither to me, for I really think such a wintry fummer as this should be paffed altogether in fociety by a chimneycorner; but I believe I should not lie, if I affured you that I would quit the finest walk on the finest day in the fineft garden, to have your company at any time. This is saying a great deal more than is commonly understood by one. I am

Your most faithful humble fervant,

BATHURST."