alternately rhyming. But when in his Preface (Gondibert, 16) he defends himself for not using couplets, we see that the couplet has already revealed itself as the instrument of poetical expression which was required by the age. Dryden achieved the final victory of the couplet. But Dryden did not attain the art of giving variety to the couplet by the variation of the pause, and sought to attain this object by the ruder expedients of triple rhymes, interpolating verses of six, or even seven accents, and admitting three syllables to one accent. In Dryden, not only is the sense often carried beyond the second line, but the second line of one couplet and the first of the next are united in a single sentence, so that the two, though not rhyming, must be read as a couplet. A tendency to the stricter practice of the French to terminate the sense with the couplet increased from the Restoration. It is strictly observed by Pope in the present poem. But though he carefully avoids the couplet enjambè, he is not wholly free from lesser blemishes of carelessness or laziness. He abounds in imperfect rhymes, the First Epistle alone having seventeen such. He allows the accent to rest too often on a weak syllable, and occasionally even at the end of a line, e. g.

'The strong connections, nice dependencies.'

With exquisite taste as to how much the language could bear, he stopped short of the rigorism of the French heroic verse of six accents, which invariably exacts the cæsura in the middle.

On the whole, the rhythm of the heroic couplet as settled by Pope, must ever remain the classical model of English versification. In the latter half of the eighteenth century, when the reaction against the poetry of good sense set in, it was not thought enough to depart from the style of Pope, unless his metre was rejected also. The return to nature, in the poetical as in the political revolution, was attempted by throwing off law. The aspiration to reach a 'higher melody' by means of lawless rhythms, has led us back to the barbarous versification of the seventeenth century, and much is written as poetry which can only deserve to be so called because it is not prose.

The best preservative from such licentious taste that can be recommended to the young writer, is the diligent study of Pope. All study, to be useful, must be in a spirit of deference. Criticism is only an aid to appreciation. They mistake the nature of criticism,' says Dryden (State of Innocence, Pref.), 'who think its business is to find fault.' On the other hand, study must not be in a spirit of servility. With reverence should we approach the shade of Milton; but criticism would lose half its usefulness and all its dignity, if we yielded an unqualified assent to the doctrine that its canons are nothing more than the practice of our great poets reduced to rule.' (Guest, English Rhythms, 2. 242.) There are flaws in Pope's workmanship. But though it is easy to repeat the criticisms of others, it is only the carefully-trained perception that can judge these flaws justly. The young student should dwell patiently upon the text of the author, and not take up with borrowed criticism. Yet, in addition to independent study, reference to the best critical treatises is indispensable, provided always that he test the critic's dicta by his own independent judgment. The following is a list of the books that may be

consulted:

1. Works of Alexander Pope. Edited by W. Roscoe. Second

Edition. 1846.

2. Poetical Works. Edited by Robert Carruthers.

Second Edition. 1858.

3 vols.

3. Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope. By Joseph Warton. 2 vols. 8vo. Fifth Edition. 1806.

4. Alexander Pope. By Thomas De Quincey. In De Quincey's Collected Works.

5. Life of Dryden. By Sir Walter Scott. Scott's Miscellaneous Prose Works.

6. The Poetry of Pope.

1858.

1848.

By Prof. Conington. Oxford Essays.

7. English Poetry from Dryden to Cowper. Article V. in Quarterly Review, July, 1862.

The Essay on Man was translated immediately into French verse by the Abbé du Resnel; into French prose by M. de

Silhouette, 1736. There are besides these, two modern French versions, one by Delille, and another by de Fontanes, Paris, 1821. A version in Latin hexameters was published at Wittenburg in 1743, and another by J. Costa, Patav. 1775. Kretsch translated the Essay into German. There is one Portuguese, and more than one Italian version. A polyglot edition, containing six versions, was published at Amsterdam, 1762, and another of five versions by Bodoni, at Parma, 1801.

The Essay also called forth numerous imitations. Of these may be mentioned :

Albrecht von Haller. Ueber den Ursprung des Uebels. 1734. Wieland. Die Natur der Dinge.

Voltaire.

1750.

John George Schlosser (1799) told Goethe that 'he had written a poem in the same metre as the Essay on Man to refute its principles' (Dichtung und Wahrheit, p. 242), but I do not know if it was ever published.

The text followed in the present edition is that of Warburton's first collected edition, 1751, errors of press excepted.

LINCOLN COLLEGE,

August, 1869.

M. P.

AN ESSAY ON MAN:

ΤΟ

H. ST. JOHN, L. BOLINGBROKE.

THE DESIGN.

HAVING proposed to write some pieces on human life and manners, such as (to use my lord Bacon's expression) came home to men's business and bosoms, I thought it more satisfactory to begin with considering Man in the abstract, his nature and his state; since, to prove any moral duty, to enforce any moral precept, or to examine the perfection or imperfection of any creature whatsoever, it is necessary first to know what condition and relation it is placed in, and what is the proper end and purpose of its being.

The science of human nature is, like all other sciences, reduced to a few clear points: there are not many certain truths in this world. It is therefore in the anatomy of the mind as in that of the body; more good will accrue to mankind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible parts, than by studying too much such finer nerves and vessels, the conformations and uses of which will for ever escape our observation. The disputes are all upon these last, and I will venture to say, they have less sharpened the wits than the hearts of men against each other, and have diminished the practice, more than advanced the theory of morality. If I could flatter myself that this Essay has any merit, it is in steering betwixt the extremes of doctrines seemingly opposite, in passing over terms utterly unintelligible, and in