Bolingbroke, though especially appropriate neither to himself nor to his friend, is in Pope's happiest manner, his malignity against Lady Mary and his scorn for comfortable prelates adding sharpness to his wit.

Epistle, I, vi.-The sixth epistle of the first book is in Horace's most characteristic manner, for not only is the subject one that well suited him as a seasoned man of the world, whose philosophic studies induced indifference to the high moral end of life, but it is also especially appropriate to the cynicism of the age of Augustus. Horace and his contemporaries could weigh virtue and pleasure in the balance with utter carelessness as to which kicked the beam, as long as the individual's present happiness were assured. "Adapt your means to your end; above all preserve your equanimity," is the advice Horace gives to his willing pupils.

1

Now this is a doctrine essentially pagan and not one that Pope could treat con amore, Warburton to the contrary notwithstanding. It was hardly possible for the author of the Essay on Man, who professed to be a Christian apologist and thought his essay was a remarkable vindication of the ways of God to man, even to affect to make his own this piece of pagan philosophy. Further, Pope was not a man who could assume effectively even the appearance of indifference in either the greater or lesser concerns of life. His moral standard, it is true, was not high-probably no higher or lower than that of his century-but he thoroughly believed in preaching the virtue which he followed afar off. To remain consistent, therefore, with his preaching, he gives a serious tone to Horace's flippancy, holds up to public scorn what the Roman treats with comparative leniency, and gives to the whole Epistle the character of a reductio ad absurdum proof of the insufficiency of any but a virtuous life. Pope's text, then, is not "nil admirari," as he announces at the beginning, but the opposite. The solemnity with which he refers to death; the

1 Elwin-Courthope, Pope, 11, 317.

21. 50 f.

bitter tone of sarcasm running through his advice to try other ways to happiness than that of virtue; the coupling of such names as Lords Kinnoul and Tyrawley with the life of the stews, of Rochester and Swift with the pursuit of love and jest, and of Tindal with heterodoxy, shows plainly a moral earnestness not found in his original. It was not, then, the theme which in itself attracted Pope, but the opportunity Horace's easy treatment of the race for honors, wealth and self indulgence gave him to satirize the corresponding vices of his later day. And in just such satire he is at his best ; even though he makes it his boast that he lives among the great, and is not averse to their attention, he is none less their satirist. He never sold his soul to wealth or rank. The personal references which never fail to tell in the hands of Pope largely supplement Horace's small list.

Epistle, II, i.-The Imitation of the first epistle of the second book is generally conceded to be the best. In it Pope has allowed himself more freedom in his adaptation of his original than in the others, even to the extent of parodying Horace's serious address to Augustus, which is the framework into which the matter proper of the epistle is fitted. The subject, being a criticism of the public taste in ancient and modern literature, lent itself as easily to treatment by an English poet of the eighteenth century as by a Roman of the first; it afforded fine scope, moreover, for personal satire. In dealing with such a subject, Pope was brought into direct critical relation with his enemies the dunces as well as with the great poets. The parallels are most ingenious, and with a few exceptions are not far-fetched. The exceptions are the imitation of Horace's account of the origin of satire; the parallel of France conquered by England to Greece conquered by Rome; that of the public recitations; that of the progress of taste since the Restoration as compared with that during Greek and Roman history.

2

Il. 139-188. See Elwin-Courthope, Pope, notes loc. cit.

3 11. 362-3.

Pope's indignation towards the people is not so much for their preference for the older poets as for their neglect of the modern,' and to be thoroughly honest he should have added that he lost his patience more for the imaginary neglect of his own than for the real neglect of any other poet's work, ancient or modern. His usual attitude was not jealousy for modern reputations. No man did more than he to destroy his poetical contemporaries. His satire on the stage followed easily on the track of Horace, for he cherished bitter feelings against the theatre after the unfortunate collapse of Three Hours after Marriage, of which he was part author. But instead of singing the praises of epic poetry, as Horace did, in contrast with the degeneration of the drama, and showing how it might fitly be employed in recounting the stories of the reign of Augustus, Pope turns Horace's eulogy into a keen ironical onslaught on the English king, and declares his inability to do justice to the triumphs of his reign.

Epistle, II, ii.-As in the first epistle of the first book, Horace in the second epistle of the second book declares his resolution to devote himself to philosophy instead of to poetry. He gives here various reasons for no longer writing poetry, such as the removal of the spur of poverty, the difficulty of pleasing all, the necessity cf keeping on good terms with the 'genus irritabile vatum," and the extreme labor of producing good verse. If, he says, his bad verses could please him or he could avoid knowing they were bad, he should be content to be a scribbler; but as it is, he is resolved to cease from poetry and study philosophy.

Now this is not Pope's case; and with the exception of the opportunity it affords for autobiography, and for satire against the race of scribblers and the moneyed class, it is not one which would call out his sympathies. He had not been silent like Horace, nor had his object in writing originally been merely for pecuniary gain. He was not actuated by any ardent desire to please all-rather he took pleasure in the

11. 115 f.

opposite and he never felt called upon to keep on good terms with the "jealous, waspish, wronghead, rhyming race." The labor of producing good verse never kept him from writing, great as the burden was. Nor was he the man to profess a creed of contentment with bad poetry as long as he himself is ignorant of its badness. Philosophy, too, was always

secondary to poetry.

The subject being thus so ill-adapted to Pope's mind and art, it is not a matter of surprise that this Imitation is on the whole inferior. "The line of thought," as Prof. Courthope points out, "is very disconnected. In following Horace in detail Pope does not seem to have understood the argument of his original."

The satire and the autobiographical portions are, as is usual, the best. Other correspondences to Horace are not so happy: the case of the British soldier flatly disobeying his general's orders is impossible, and that of the imaginary member of Parliament improbable. The moralizing of the close is prosaic, lacking the vigor and terseness of the original.

JAMES W. TUPPER.

1 Elwin-Courthope, Pope, III, 388.

VIII. THE MØJEBRO RUNIC STONE

AND THE RUNIC LIGATURE FOR NG.

At Hageby, two Swedish miles from Upsala, there is preserved a runic stone originally standing at Møjebro in Hageby Socken and Hagunda Hærad.' It 'is of the hardest red quartz and feldspar, 8 Swedish feet high and 5 Swedish feet at broadest.' Cut into one side is the figure of a man mounted on a horse, with rein and saddle cloth. He has on a sort of corselet and is brandishing a sword in his right hand-not the left, as sometimes stated. The face is turned slightly away from the observer, who sees the left side and the back of the horseman. On the inside of the arm, just above the elbow, is a peculiar round protuberance. Above the figure is the inscription, running from edge to edge of the stone. All the letters but the lowest one at the right are distinct, and all are normal with the exception of the dotted cross. Stephens gives (Runic Monuments, I, p. 179, 180, and Handbook, p. 11, 12) both the old inferior cut, 'drawn about the middle of the 17th century and publisht in Göransson's Bauti in 1750,' and the superior reproduction, 'drawn by Prof. Carl Säve, of Upsala, in 1862.' My cut is after the latter, with the correction of the first letter, as explained below.

It is really a waste of paper to copy Stephens's various readings (Runic Monuments, vol. 1, p. 181, 900, XXVIII, vol. III, p. 30; Handbook, p. 11), but I may give his first and his last. Ena hæh ais læginia Frawærædæa='Enæ hewed these (-runes to-the-down-) laid [fallen, slain] Fræwæræd,' I, p. 181. Encha, Haisla, Ginia, Frawærædæa = ‘(Sir−) Ænæhæ, (Sir-) Hæislæ, (the-lady-) Ginia, (raised-this-stoneto-the-lord-) Fræwæræd,' Monuments, III, p. 30, Handbook, p. 11. Wimmer originally read: Frawaradar ana hahai slaginaR ON. Fráráðr á há (dat. sg. fem.) sleginn,' but he

=