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"spouse, "has got the gout in her decrepit age, which "makes her hobble fo damnably." This was the man who would reform a nation finking into barbarity.

In another place Pope himself allowed that Dennis had detected one of thofe blunders which are called bulls. The first edition had this line :

What is this wit

Where wanted, fcorn'd; and envied where acquir'd?

"How," fays the critick, " can wit be fcorn'd where it "is " is not? Is not this a figure frequently employed in "Hibernian land? The person that wants this wit "may indeed be scorned, but the scorn fhews the ho"nour which the contemner has for wit." Of this remark Pope made the proper use, by correcting the paffage,

I have preferved, I think, all that is reasonable in Dennis's criticism; it remains that juftice be done to his delicacy. "For his acquaintance (fays Dennis) he "names Mr. Walsh, who had by no means the qualifi"cation which this author reckons abfolutely neceffary "to a critick, it being very certain that he was, like "this Effayer, a very indifferent poet; he loved to be "well-dreffed; and I remember a little young gentle" man whom Mr. Walfh used to take into his company, "as a double foil to his perfon and capacity.-Enquire "between Sunninghill and Oakingham for a young, fhort,

fquab gentleman, the very bow of the God of Love, "and tell me whether he be a proper author to make "perfonal reflections ?-He may extol the antients, "but he has reason to thank the gods that he was born a modern; for had he been born of Grecian parents, "and his father confequently had by law had the ab"folute difpofal of him, his life had been no longer

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❝than that of one of his poems, the life of half a day. "Let the perfon of a gentleman of his parts be ne"ver fo contemptible, his inward man is ten times "more ridiculous; it being impoffible that his out"ward form, though it be that of downright monkey, "fhould differ fo much from human shape, as his unthinking immaterial part does from human under. "ftanding." Thus began the hoftility between Pope and Dennis, which, though it was fufpended for a fhort time, never was appeafed. Pope seems, at firft, to have attacked him wantonly; but though he always profeffed to despise him, he discovers, by mentioning him very often, that he felt his force or his venom.

Of this Effay Pope declared that he did not expect the fale to be quick, because not one gentleman in fixty, even of liberal education, could understand it. The gentlemen, and the education of that time, feem to have been of a lower character than they are of this. He mentioned a thousand copies as a numerous impreffion.

Dennis was not his only cenfurer; the zealous papists thought the monks treated with too much contempt, and Erafmus too ftudioufly praised; but to these objections he had not much regard.

The Essay has been tranflated into French by Hamilton, author of the Comte de Grammont, whofe verfion was never printed, by Robotham, fecretary to the King for Hanover, and by Refnel; and commented by Dr. Warburton, who has difcovered in it fuch order and connection as was not perceived by Addison, nor, as is faid, intended by the author.

Almost every poem, confifting of precepts, is fo far arbitrary and immethodical, that many of the paragraphs may change places with no apparent inconveni

ence;

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ence; for of two or more pofitions, depending upon fome remote and general principle, there is feldom any cogent reason why one fhould precede the other. But for the order in which they stand, whatever it be, a little ingenuity may easily give a reafon. It is poffible fays Hooker, that by long circumduction, from any one truth all truth may be inferred. Of all homogeneous truths, at least of all truths refpecting the fame general end, in whatever feries they may be produced, a concatenation by intermediate ideas may be formed, fuch as, when it is once fhewn, fhall appear natural; but if this order be reverfed, another mode of connection equally fpecious may be found or made. Ariftotle is praised for naming Fortitude firft of the cardinal virtues, as that without which no other virtue can fteadily be practifed; but he might, with equal propriety, have placed Prudence and Juftice before it, fince without Prudence Fortitude is mad; without Juftice, it is mifchievous.

As the end of method is perfpicuity, that feries is fufficiently regular that avoids obfcurity; and where there is no obfcurity, it will not be difficult to discover method.

In the Spectator was published the Meffiab, which he firft fubmitted to the perufal of Steele, and corrected in compliance with his criticisms.

It is reasonable to infer, from his Letters, that the verfes on the Unfortunate Lady were written about the time when his Essay was published. The Lady's name and adventures I have fought with fruitless enquiry.

I can therefore tell no more than I have learned from Mr. Ruffhead, who writes with the confidence of one who could trust his information. She was a woman of

eminent

eminent rank and large fortune, the ward of an unkle, who, having given her a proper education, expected like other guardians that she should make at least an equal match; and fuch he proposed to her, but found it rejected in favour of a young gentleman of inferior condition.

Having discovered the correfpondence between the two lovers, and finding the young lady determined to abide by her own choice, he fuppofed that feparation might do what can rarely be done by arguments, and fent her into a foreign country, where he was obliged to converse only with thofe from whom her unkle had nothing to fear.

Her lover took care to repeat his vows; but his letters were intercepted and carried to her guardian, who directed her to be watched with ftill greater vigilance; till of this restraint fhe grew fo impatient, that she bribed a woman-fervant to procure her a fword, which the directed to her heart.

From this account, given with evident intention to raise the Lady's character, it does not appear that she had any claim to praise, nor much to compaffion. She feems to have been impatient, violent, and ungovernable. Her unkle's power could not have lafted long; the hour of liberty and choice would have come in time. But her defires were too hot for delay, and she liked felf-murder better than fufpence.

Nor is it discovered that the unkle, whoever he was, is with much juftice delivered to pofterity as a falfe Guardian; he feems to have done only that for which a guardian is appointed; he endeavoured to direct his niece till fhe fhould be able to diert herfelf. Poetry has not often been worfe employed than in dignifying the amorous fury of a raving girl.

Not long after, he wrote the Rape of the Lock, the most airy, the most ingenious, and the most delightful of all his compofitions, occafioned by a frolick of gallantry, rather too familiar, in which Lord Petre cut off a lock of Mrs. Arabella Fermor's hair. This, whether ftealth or violence, was fo much refented, that the commerce of the two families, before very friendly, was interrupted. Mr. Caryl, a gentleman who, being fecretary to King James's Queen, had followed his Mistress into France, and who being the author of Sir Solomon Single, a comedy, and fome tranflations, was entitled to the notice of a Wit, folicited Pope to endeavour a reconciliation by a ludicrous poem, which might bring both the parties to a better temper. In compliance with Caryl's request, though his name was for a long time marked only by the first and last letter, C-1, a poem of two cantos was written (1711), as is faid, in a fortnight, and fent to the offended Lady, who liked it well enough to fhew it; and, with the ufual procefs of literary transactions, the author, dreading a furreptitious edition, was forced to publish it.

The event is faid to have been fuch as was defired; the pacification and diversion of all to whom it related, except Sir George Brown, who complained with fome bitterness that, in the character of Sir Plume, he was made to talk nonfenfe. Whether all this be true, I have fome doubt; for at Paris, a few years ago, a niece of Mrs. Fermor, who prefided in an English Convent, mentioned Pope's work with very little gratitude, rather as an infult than an honour; and fhe may be fupposed to have inherited the opinion of her family.

At its first appearance it was termed by Addison merum fal. Pope, however, faw that it was capable of

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